Fried Ice Cream Friday

I had never had fried ice cream until New Year's Eve. You would think I would have tried it a the Minnesota State Fair where everything is deep fried, but I didn't see it when I went. Luckily, I have a new source. My brother-in-law is the king of deep frying! ☺ Since almost no one in my family is really that into New Year's, we've kind of started this tradition of "Deep Fried New Year's" -- yep, we go out with a bang, before starting afresh in the New Year.

This year, the hit of the party was fried ice cream. Deep fried ice cream takes commitment. You can't just decide you want deep fried ice cream. It takes preparation. Though I wasn't there for the prep, there's a lot of scooping, coating, and freezing to be done.

My brother-in-law used Rick Browne's The Frequent Fryers Cookbook, which apparently hasn't been purchased by the public that frequently because it is unfortunately out of print.

Anyway, I urge you to try fried ice cream at the store. Order it next time it is offered at a restaurant or find a recipe online (perhaps this one by Emeril?) if you can't procure a copy of The Frequent Fryers Cookbook. I can't quite explain the goodness of fried ice cream, but it's truly worth trying.

Deep fried photo courtesy of Larry Schlegel © 2011.

Scoopalicious catches CakeSpy on her "Tour de Sweet"

Me and Bethany at CakeSpy's book signing in Boston

What a fun night to finally get to meet Jessie O of CakeSpy after all these blogging years on her Tour de Sweet! Wow, It feels like eons ago that we started our little ice cream blog and at the same time we found a friend and blogger online who not only is an amazing artist but a baker and blogger too. And on top of all that goodness she has recently published her own awesome book, CakeSpy Presents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life. And that was what led us to finally get to meet. We were super excited that her Tour de Sweet made its way to Boston and stopped at Sweet (how appropriate!) so we immediately saved the date and got our books ready to be signed. So fun to finally meet and so fun to see all her hard work come together in this fabulous book. Congrats Jessie!


And if you missed our interview post with CakeSpy you can  check it out here.

CakeSpy's awesome book comes with 4 weeks of giveaways

So excited one of our favorite bloggers has an awesome new book that just arrived...CakeSpy Presents Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life. We are so proud of you CakeSpy! It looks amazing. Stay tuned for our very own write up on Scoopalicious about this yummy book!


And she is in the Halloween spirit and wants to share the joys of sweets with all of you. So this month CakeSpy is raffling off one book a week for four weeks. All you have to do is answer her one simple question....Candy Corn or Mellowcreme Pumpkins on her blog or her Facebook page.


I know what my answer is...Mellowcreme pumpkins all the way! Mellowcreme topping on pumpkin ice cream sounds even better!

The Ice Cream Theory

A while back, and I do mean a while back, I got an email from a woman named Steff Deschenes asking me if I would like to review her book The Ice Cream Theory. Ice cream? Book? Two of my most favorite things in the world? A no brainer. "Sure," I said, and days later, a bright yellow book with a dripping ice cream cone arrived in the mail.

I was already in the middle of a few books, but that's often the case, so I was excited to add this to my reading list. Then life got in the way. Work. Art shows to enter, open studios to arrange. The book kept getting pushed to the bottom of the pile. No, not the pile of books, but the pile of "stuff," the mess of my life that is there daily (no, I would not consider myself a tidy person in any sense of the word), but gets exponentially worse when I am overwhelmed with work.

Then came a perfect excuse to put it on the front burner. A wedding in Vegas. And it became the first thing I packed in my carry-on, with a promise of this book being read by the end of the vacation.

So, here we are. Day two of vacation. Las Vegas and it's countless ice cream parlors waiting to be tested and one-armed bandits waiting to be pulled. But this bed is too comfy, and you, my dear readers, haven't heard from us in a while.

So here is my promise: Six days remain of this vacation, and with the conclusion of those eight days, there will be a book read cover to cover, and a review will be written.

But, for now I must motivate out of this comfy bed, because afterall, this is Sin City, a city not quite defined by those who sit in bed with a book.

But keep your eyes peeled for a review of Deschenes book, which she describes as her "theory on how personality traits are similar to ice cream flavors, which explains why we get along with some people/enjoy some flavors; and can't stand other people/certain flavors)." (I think my husband is my cookies 'n' cream...)

To read more about it, you can visit The Ice Cream Theory website or buy the book at Amazon.

On the Rebound: The Ultimate Ice Cream Book

I have one book in my collection of hundreds of books (ice cream and otherwise) that needs to be rebound: The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More by Bruce Weinstein. This book is my bible, my go to book...Seriously. I mean, the binding is cracked and the pages are falling out. I'm not saying they did a poor binding job -- I just think it has been overused! I need to take it to Kinko's to have them put a spiral binding in it!

If you go to Amazon and do a search on ice cream it is currently number three on the list. I'd say it should be number one, but I have to put it at number two since you can't use it without an ice cream maker!

Anyway, I was just thinking as I used it the other day about what a great investment it was and if there was ever a book more loved...So I thought I would give it a little shout out!

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

A Month of Sundaes

I think it is due time I write a post about A Month of Sundaes by Michael Turback so that I can give it to Tina to read when I see her tomorrow

It wasn't so much that it had an exciting ending that I wanted to finish it, but more because I wanted to check it off my list. I thought the history was interesting, but it wasn't particularly a book that I just couldn't put down. The other reason I may not have been so into it is as a general rule of thumb, I am an ice cream girl more so than a sundae girl. I mean, a good sundae will never be turned down, but for me, it's all about the base -- the cold, creamy, sweet resting place for all the toppings.

There are a couple of places in the book that really stood out to me that I want to visit:

1. Putman Pantry in Danvers, MA. Why? It's nearby, and I can't believe our dear friend Spaghetti never told us about it! Guess T and I will have to meet him up there for sundaes someday soon. For those of you that doen't know Spaghetti, it's still worth the trip, as Turback descibes the "fourteen foot, stainless steel sundae bar as an anti salad bar." I'm so there.
2. Serendipity 3. But then again, that's been on my list for a long time. Ashu, next time I visit you, we are SO there. If it's still there, can we sit at Andy Warhol's table? By the way, I happened to come across this article I missed when I wrote about the World's Most Expensive Sundae at Serendipity 3 back in July. With it are pictures and all!
   
3. Shark and Rose, in San Jose, CA. Do you know the way to San Jose? I don't but I am sure to figure it out next time I am in California, so I can see what all the fuss is about their Soup Spoon Sundae. Is this little sundae enough, or does it leave one begging for more?
   

My biggest problem with the book was the design. And I am not just saying this as a designer. The book was designed in pink and black, which I think is very appropriate for a book on ice cream. However, the typefaces chosen were awful. I understand where the designers were coming from, wanting typefaces that were fluffy and ice cream-like, but they were so fluffy they were practically illegible. The body text was a swirly serif that should not be used for so much writing. It makes ones eyes tired because it really has to study each word rather than read in a flowing manner. The little pink box notes were even worse: they were written in a cursive script. This is not suitable for reading a paragraph of type. The worst were the capital "S"s -- they kind of looked like "T"s or "J"s.

Ok, so here's the embarrassing part. I never remember what I read, so writing this little review here has been a little hard since I finished the book on October 20th. So here i am looking back to see what parts of the book stood out to me, and alas, I come across the Inside-Out Sundae. Where can I find it, I ask? Oh, Minnesota. I was in Minnesota last week. But Minnesota is a big state so I probably wasn't anywhere nearby. Oh, it's served at the Green Mill. Oh, the Green Mill that we ate at last week?! Yep, if I could remember what I read, I sure would be better off -- I could have been reviewing the Inside-Out Sundae in person!

Hmmm...Green Mill's (super slow) site doesn't seem to mention it. Does it still exist? Looks like it exists in Bemidji, Minnesota location. So maybe I didn't miss it after all...

All things considered, people define what makes a sundae very differently. Does it have to have nuts? Syrup? A cherry? One thing is for certain, a sundae has ice cream, and here at Scoopalicious, that's all we think that counts!