Why I equate the Good Humor truck with sex (it’s not what you think)

Remember how the cardboard packaging got soggier and soggier as you ate it? Yet you persevered.

Summers during my formative years in suburban NY were spent looking forward to the daily visit to the Good Humor truck. Often, the thought of a Strawberry Shortcake, Jet-Star or Push-up Pop was the only thing that kept me going through the mandatory fun of day-camp activities.

While you might associate the Good Humor man with the mustachioed, portly chap below, ours was anything but.

Via Gothamist.com

A high schooler who was a cross between Spiccoli and Matthew McConaughey drove the truck, often pulling up shirtless with a Daisy Dukes-clad fox in the passenger seat. These female sidekicks varied from week to week. Blissfully naive at the time, I wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for the other kids pointing this fact out.

Yes, the Good Humor man was a man-whore, way before the term was even coined. Which made us 8-year-olds even more awestruck. Not only did the guy have his pick of ice cream bars, but women too.

Chocolate-covered bacon 2.0

Party in your mouth? A cross-section of the chicharron chocolate bar with pork rinds.

Does hearing the words “chocolate-covered bacon” make you yawn? Then maybe it’s time to try the chicharron chocolate bar made with pork rinds from Xocolatl de David, if you can get a hold of one. These are hard to come by because they were made in limited quantities. (Food Network magazine describes the flavor as Nestle Crunch with a bacony twist.) But the Xocolatl de David online store did have a Raleigh Bar with bacon caramel on top of pecan chocolate nougat that you can order.

Via yumsugar.com

What does this humble ice cream sandwich have to do with the Duggars?

Earlier this week as I was walking past the 7-11, I got a random craving for an ice cream sandwich. So simple, yet so good. The 7-11 house brand was about a buck and just as delicious as I remembered–if not better, which rarely happens when I build expectations up.

It brought to mind an episode of “18 Kids and Counting” with the Duggar family of Arkansas (well, I think they had 18 kids back when I saw this episode). One of the kids was laying ice cream sandwiches side by side in a pan, then smothering that layer with various sauces and toppings, finished with another layer of sandwiches.

Via zestycook.com

Personally, I think the ice cream sandwich is perfect as is and the Duggar recipe is a bastardization of it (if I may use a word that includes “bastard.” I’m not sure whether the Duggars would object.). Anyway, if you’d like to try this recipe for your large brood or a party, here it is from Duggarfamily.com:

LAYERED ICE CREAM CAKE

Makes a 9”x 13” Pan
24 Ice cream sandwiches
8 oz. Cool Whip™
1 Hershey’s™ chocolate syrup bottle
1 Smuckers™ caramel syrup bottle
2 king size Butterfinger™ candy bars chopped up
1st layer -12 ice cream sandwiches
2nd – half of whipped cream
3rd – half of Butterfinger™ bars, Squeeze 1/2 of caramel &
chocolate over that.
4th – rest of ice cream sandwiches
5th – Cool Whip™
6th – rest of Butterfinger™, caramel & chocolate

Root beer float. Minus the root.

Root beer and ice cream go like PB&J. But beer and ice cream? I’m skeptical. Guinness *might* work in this combination since it’s naturally creamy. Definitely not Coors and ice cream, though.

On a DC scorcher like today, you can pick one up at Againn at 11th & New York Avenue.

Easy weekend brunch: pancake in a pan

Also known as David Eyre’s pancake. I got this from Metrocurean (click on the photo to see the post), figuring it wouldn’t suck. And it didn’t. It was like a puffy, eggy crepe–or a popover, depending on how you look at it.

The recipe calls for only 5 ingredients for the pancake, and it’s ridiculously easy. The only thing is, although the recipe suggests this serves 2-4, in my house it serves 1. So with a baking time of at least 15 minutes, you may need a few skillets going at the same time.

Don’t overmix the batter, because it’ll affect the airy texture you want to achieve. (The mixture went into the pan as pictured, with little lumps in it.) Also, don’t panic if the pancake doesn’t puff up at first. When it I checked it after 5 minutes of baking, it was flat like a crepe, so I’d assumed I’d messed it up. Another 5 minutes passed, and it was nice and puffy.

My accompaniments: blueberry-lemon jam, lemon juice (use judiciously or your pancake will be soggy), and pear butter. The blueberry-lemon jam was excavated from the far reaches of my fridge. I’m one of those people who believes things made with that much sugar never go bad. This pear butter’s from Cowgirl Creamery, but you can find something similar at farmers’ markets, the food-reject aisle at Marshall’s, etc.

David Eyre’s Pancake

Recipe via Metrocurean.com, adapted from Craig Claiborne’s original
Serves 1-4, or 1 depending on how delicate your appetite is.

Ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
nutmeg to taste
2 tbsp. butter
toppings like lemon juice, syrup, jams, or whatever else you can find in the fridge

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix eggs with milk. Add sifted flour and nutmeg. Stir together, careful not to overmix. Put the butter in a 10- or 12-inch cast iron skillet (or other oven-safe pan) and put pan into the heated oven. When the butter is sizzling hot, pour the batter into the pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges are golden brown and nicely puffed.

What’s in Chef Spike’s fridge? You might not wanna know.

Chef Spike is the former Top Chef guy who owns Good Stuff Eatery–the place with a damn fine burger, a bottle of Sriracha on every table, and a milkshake that causes serotonin surges (the toasted marshmallow).

That’s why I was expecting to find better sweets in his fridge and freezer. Jolly Rancher popsicles? Andes chocolates? Skinny Cow ice cream? Hershey’s chocolate syrup? That’s how he (and his fiance) get their sugar on?

Click on the photo to see the full post at BrightestYoungThings.

Photo by Aineki Traverso via BrightestYoungThings

In a perfect world, Duff would make your wedding cake

But not everyone wants to spend a small fortune on their wedding cake. One affordable option is getting it from an Asian bakery. A friend of mine got a cake that fed 150 guests for about $300. Try the cake first, though. It tends to be lighter than your typical cake and frosted with whipped cream rather than buttercream or fondant.

Via eat.tanspace.com

For under $100, there’s always the Krispy Kreme cake, which will not only feed guests, but entertain them, too.

Via doodaddy.net

Same goes for the Hostess cake, which Pie V Cake would find more appealing if it were made of TastyKakes.

Salon.com asks, “Will ‘Snow Ice’ be the next Pinkberry?”

Um, the answer is no.

Snow ice (or shaved ice) is a Taiwanese dessert: sweetened shaved ice topped with fruit, taro root (a potato-like vegetable with a creamy texture), chewy Bobas, and whatever else you can pile on. In fact, we have had difficulty identifying all the bits and bobs in our bowl of snow ice in the past. Pie V Cake’s guess is that if snow ice ever blows up, it will eventually go the way of Boba tea: trendy for a time, then relegated mainly to Asian eateries.

Here’s why:

• It’s not like ice cream. Part of froyo’s success is that it’s a healthier alternative to a national favorite, ice cream. Snow ice is very…icy. Even with condensed milk in it, it still evokes a snow cone, which is something people typically don’t crave after puberty.
• Hold the beans. Snow ice toppings usually include beans. Not exactly a topping we associate with desserts in the U.S.
• We have four seasons. Snow ice is popular in Asian countries because it helps people combat the heat (Taiwan has a subtropical climate). Very few regions of the U.S. get hot enough outside of summer to have a perpetual need for a dessert like this. While froyo sales slow down in the winter, snow ice sales probably fall off a cliff.
• Lack of portability. Snow ice is typically a huge mound of stuff. You can’t walk and eat it at the same time–although that would be a pretty awesome sight.

Photo via Serious Eats.

Butch Bakery’s cupcakes will put hair on your chest

The company founder wanted to make manly cupcakes for manly men. But that’s like creating a manly doily. You can’t change something that’s inherently girlish, even when you butch up your product with flavors infused with beer and bacon. (Most of his customers are indeed female.) As my coworker pointed out, your guy isn’t going to swing by the cupcakery to pick up a six-pack on the way to the poker game.

Ranting aside, with flavors like rum-soaked lime cake with mint white-chocolate ganache (the “Mojito”), I’m glad they found this “gap” in the market. The chocolate discs are a nice touch, too, although the army print on a cupcake seems kinda like a Brody Jenner-Avril Lavigne hookup, as in, huh?

Currently they only deliver to Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, with plans to offer nationwide delivery eventually.

Cupcakes that are quintessentially DC

Hello Cupcake is holding a cupcake decorating contest (click on the photos to vote). Here are my two favorites.

For some reason (maybe because I’ve watched too many episodes of “Ace of Cakes”), I have a thing for cakes that look like other foods. The mini half-smoke and bowl of chili are adorable.

“Larry Craig,” “bathroom stall,” and “wide stance” aren’t things you’d normally associate with cupcakes, which is what makes this so brilliant.