bushey

Made my first batch (ever) of homemade ice cream last night, in my new Panasonic ice cream maker. I used Mark Bittman's recipe from "How to Cook Everything", opting for half-and-half and a little bit of 1% milk, bittersweet chocolate, and 6 egg yolks. The total volume of liquid was 3 cups, which is the largest capacity the ice cream maker will hold. Started the whole process too later to see my results last night. I just put the ice cream maker in the freezer, turned it on, and checked it this morning before work. As I packed the ice cream into containers we all tasted a bit......man, is it good. Not terribly creamy, but delicious chocolate taste. After I put it away in the freezer to harden, my oldest daughter said "I don't have a good feeling about that ice cream." That's herspeak for "If anyone else wants some of this they'd better have it soon, before I eat it all."

We had dinner at Max's Oyster Bar in West Hartford and it was fantastic, as usual. Started with some kumamoto oysters that were so delicious and creamy, then the evening's special: grilled striped bass, with fingerling potatoes and fava bean succotash. Excellent, indeed, as was my husband's pan seared halibut. A bit pricey, but worth it, just another example how you really can't go wrong with any of the Max Group restaurants. (Max's Downtown, near the Civic Center, is also good if you're in the mood for steak. We've heard good things about Trumbull Kitchen, but haven't tried it yet. here's a link the the website: Max Bricco serves delicious wood-grilled food and pizzas, and you shouldn't have too much of a wait at that hour.

Does anyone remember the carts selling Bob and Larry's ices in NYC during the summer? This would have been in the late 70's and early 80's. They had the greatest flavors, and inspired me to experiment with my own watermelo, cantalope and honeydew ices. I never quite got the texture right, but the flavor was always quite good.

I'm definitely going to try this trick with fruits like berry and melon, but I don't think there's any way around using simple syrup for lemon granita............by the way, I sampled some Sicilian-style gelato in Florence last month and it was scrumptious.

I just scored two ice cream makers on eBay (don't ask, I really don't know what I was thinking): the Panasonice battery-powered small one, and a gently used Rival electric 4-quart model. Total for both, shipped and all, was just under $40. Guess I'd better start looking for ice cream and sorbet recipes.............................

Elie, I'd love a recipe for the mint ice cream. We're mint chocolate chip ice cream fans in my household and I just scored 2 ice cream makers on eBay...............

Thanls! The toffee in the Starbucks' bars is in pretty big chunks, so I will stick with the bars, crumbled into largish pieces. Also, I'll probably use a white chocolate baking bar so I can break it into big pieces as well. My daughter is planning to do some fund raising for a trip to do some volunteer work in Tanzania. I bet these bars would be big sellers, at $. 75 - $1.00 each.

I forced myself not to buy a bag of these yesterday, as I cannot eat just one. I LOVE them, especially when eaten with a strong cup of tea.

Thanks, CB, that looks like a great blondie recipe. The Starbucks' version doesn't have almonds in it, just almond flavor, so I could substitute 2 tsp almond extract for some of the vanilla and add some chunks of toffee bars. Their version also has nougat in it, but I could live without that.

dscott, have you tried Jake's for breakfast? Not as chi-chi as Sylvester's, but the food is really good, especially to huevos rancheros. We've gone to Table 9 and were very disappointed -- mediocre food and service. Del Raye has a great bistro menu Sun-Thurs. I think it's $29 for four courses and the food is just fantastic.

Herrell's is still there, and, yes, Starbucks is a big presence on Main St. now. There's also a Coldstone Creamery. And a Tibetan restaurant. And an Argentinean restaurant. We were just in Amherst over the weekend for a casual dinner at Amherst Chinese. While there are new places in town, they all have the look/feel of student restaurants, if you know what I mean.

I've developed a "thing" for the chewy, blondie style Toffee Almond Bars from Starbucks and would love to make them at home. Did a google search but couldn't find the right recipe -- kept finding ones for crunchy toffee bars, not the nice chewy ones. Does anyone have a reasonable facsimile to share?

Just the other day I picked up a pound of Kate's Homemade Butter at Whole Foods, for $4.59. Really delicious.

We like Becco. Good food and service, nice ambience, and a great selection of Italian wines for $25/bottle.

re: Talk of the Town -- do they still have that fantastic, mustard-based hot sauce? We keep trying to find a replica here in the States, but continually strike out. Sorry that Nat's Palm Grove Grill wasn't open the day you went. His johnny cakes are wonderful. Did you snorkel at all while you were there? We've had some surprisingly good sightings. Speaking of which, one of the fun things to do at Gwen's (in addition to relaxing in a hammock while you wait for lunch) is to snorkel. They even have some equipment available. Oh, and congrats on your marriage!

They often are. But don't let them them know that.

I had a strong craving for a lobster roll the other day, and since it's been so hot and muggy here in western Mass lately, decided it would make a nice summer dinner. Stopped by our local Stop & Shop and had them steam two lobsters (total of 3.4 lbs). Since Hellman's Mayo was on sale, I picked up a jar of the real stuff -- we usually use light, perish the thought. Butter and sugar corn was on sale, so I bought some of that, along with long potato rolls and a bag of my husband's favorite chips, State Line. Back at home, my daughter helped me shell the lobster meat, which I cut up and mixed with some of the mayo. We buttered the rolls and toasted them on a griddle. The lobster rolls were simply delicious, emphasis on simply. No filler, no fancy seasonings. Perfect summer meal.

Decided to serve the lobster ravioli with brown butter, sprinkled with chives. They were delicious, and the presentation was very pretty -- I would have taken photos, but my family would have thought that was over the top........... .

All of these suggestions sound wonderful! Will let you know what I end up making.

Thanks for responding so quickly! I realize I was somewhat ambiguous is using the term "light" -- what I mean is something not too heavy or rich. These suggestions are a great place to start.

We picked up some Lobster Ravioli yesterday, from Murray's Cheeses, and I'd like to serve them tomorrow night for my sweetie's birthday. Does anyone have a nice, light cream sauce recipe that would complement the ravioli? Or a suggestion for another type of sauce -- maybe a beurre blanc with fresh tomato dice?

Ditto for mint flavors -- anything remotely green gets my thumbs down. Yesterday we happened to be in NYC and stopped by Cones for some gelato and sorbet. It was really, really good (I had the pear and ginger sorbets) but in my mind I kept thinking "This is nowhere near as good as in Italy"...............

I had printed out the free scoop coupons from the Carabe website and navigated us right to the shop on our way to the Accademia for our afternoon reservation. My friends were wuite happy that I'm so thorough in my research and handy with maps. We spent the next week biking along the Tuscan Coast and had gelato almost every day. The best place, outside of Florence, was Paradise Gelateria in Castiglione della Pescaia. I thought it was the best of the trip.

I had gelato twice in Florence recently, at Vivoli and Carabe. Both were great, and I discovered my new favorite flavor: fiordilatte. It's equivalent to sweet cream, and is simply delicious. I also had a fantastic sandwich from a bakery/pasticceria on via Pisana, across from Una Hotel Vittoria. It was bresaola, arugula, brie and tomato on an incredible wholemeal roll, for 2 euro. I was sorry that I hadn't tried two or three other varieties, as they all looked great. That part of San Frediano has a real neighborhood feel, and the place was crowded at noon with people buying sandwiches and snacks. The macaroons looked wonderful.

I agree that the store has no obligation whatsoever to replace a wine, or compensate us, for a wine we just didn't care for. However, there's a lot to be said for good customer service............ When I called the store and spoke to the manager about the wine, I let him know that I wasn't sure what was wrong with the wine, but it just didn't seem right to me. It wasn't corked, although it did have a strong moldy smell to me that didn't blow off. I wanted to use the experience of bringing the wine back as a way to learn more about wine, etc. but some of the things they said just didn't hold. For instance, he remarked that the d'Yquem has a fairly low alcohol content -- when I checked the label it was 14% -- not low by my standards. Another wine manager said he smelled the honey and white flowers, yet none of the tasting notes we've found for this vintage mention those descriptors. It was a good learning experience, and I harbor no bitterness, but I'm still convinced that bottle was flawed. It was so unpleasant that I didn't even want to give it some air time and re-taste.