Category

ice cream

  • Peach Ice Cream

    Peach Ice Cream

    Romeo asked, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” The same can be said of ice cream flavors. If we didn’t call Cookies & Cream “Cookies & Cream,” would it still taste like Cookies & Cream? Ice cream is an arena where names seem to matter. We…

  • Double Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

    Double Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

    Here’s some free life advice: if you ever see two vanilla beans on sale for $8, buy them. That’s literally what happened to me last week at Cookbook in Echo Park. They’re selling vanilla beans in little packets of two for eight bucks. Here’s the thing: if you’ve never worked with a vanilla bean before,…

  • French Pizza and Mint Chip Ice Cream

    French Pizza and Mint Chip Ice Cream

    I’m not normally quid pro quo when it comes to food, but when you make something as delicious as David Lebovitz’s mint chip ice cream, someone’s gotta give you something pretty good for dinner before you offer them a whole container. Good thing I’m friends with Harry and Cris. Cris is from Bordeaux (that’s in…

  • My New Favorite Summer Dessert: Shaved Ice and Ice Cream and Fruit at Mr. Boba

    My New Favorite Summer Dessert: Shaved Ice and Ice Cream and Fruit at Mr. Boba

    When people enthuse about something they ate, it’s always a good idea to pay attention. For example, two weeks ago I was at Park’s BBQ in Koreatown with our friends Jim and Jess, and also our friends Jimmy and Raef, and as we were fighting over grilled pieces of rib-eye and skirt steak, Jim mentioned…

  • Chocolate Malteds

    Chocolate Malteds

    Most people who buy malt powder do so to make malteds, not homemade everything bagels. But days after making those bagels, I found myself with a perfectly good carton of malt powder and, having made a chickpea stew for dinner, I figured: “Hey, we deserve some chocolate malteds.” Here’s the thing about chocolate malteds: you…

  • Pineapple Upside-Down Cake with Toasted Coconut Ice Cream

    Pineapple Upside-Down Cake with Toasted Coconut Ice Cream

    If you’ve ever seen “Fiddler On The Roof,” you probably know the term “yenta.” A yenta, in Yiddish, is a busybody, a meddler; in “Fiddler,” though, she’s a specific person, a matchmaker. My whole life, I’ve always been something of a yenta. I love to get involved with people’s life decisions, telling people where to…

  • A Thin Mint Milkshake Recipe

    A Thin Mint Milkshake Recipe

    When I heard that Doug and Bryan of The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck and The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop were making a Thin Mint Milkshake, a part of me thought: “Whoah, I wonder how they make that?” I also thought: “I wish I lived in New York still so I could taste that.”…

  • Mississippi Mud Pie (From The Sky)

    Mississippi Mud Pie (From The Sky)

    It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No it’s me, The Amateur Gourmet, blogging to you live from Delta flight 2243, en route to Atlanta, Georgia. Yes, this is an absolute first for me, my first blog post written from a plane. And I choose, as my subject matter, a dessert that I made back in…

  • Butterscotch Pecan Ice Cream

    Butterscotch Pecan Ice Cream

    Good people, I have returned to the land of the living. As I stated in today’s newsletter (my first since August (subscribe here)), half of my cookbook was due this past Friday and I turned it in with a great sense of accomplishment and relief. Now I have some time to breath while my editor…

  • Skyline Chili & Graeter’s Ice Cream

    Skyline Chili & Graeter’s Ice Cream

    For as long as I’ve known my friend Lisa (and I’ve known her for over 10 years (see the Lisa A.G. archive)) she’s been singing the praises of her hometown, Cincinnati, Ohio. There were many times where she tried to convince me to visit her and her family there, and there were many excuses why…