Magical Popsicles

I know Septemnber isn't really the ideal time to be writing about frozen treats but here in P-Town it's actually just become summer. Enter Zoku. The instant (7-9 minutes) electricity free popsicle maker. Don't ask me how it works, it's magic. And you need one. Couple things though, the directions tell you to not fill above the fill line and to not put water into it (ie: make ice popsicles). Those are important directions to actually follow. For real. Not that I know from spending 30 minutes trying to get ice out of the popsicle maker or anything...

I scream, you scream, we all scream...

It's no secret I am addicted to frozen treats. I love ice cream and popsicles more than any other dessert. More than a lot of foods too...These are some new books about sweet cold things. Some are simply new to me, some are new to the wonderful world of cookbooks.

Jeni's Splendid is an ice cream shop located in Ohio. It is by far the most incredible ice cream ever with the most creative flavors. You can have it shipped to you or if you're lucky you may find a store in your area that carries it. I'm in group number two which makes it easier to eat way too much of this stuff. The only bad thing about this ice cream is that it's something like $14 a pint. Enter the Jeni's Splendid cookbook!






The Perfect Pops book has things like prosecco pops with rose petals and bourbon peach pops and cherry pops with branches for sticks.






I want to eat 8,000 of these chai ice pops with cinnamon stick handles. And pretty much everything else in this book.





Paletas are Mexican ice pops. That thing down there in the jelly jar? Beer shaved ice with chile.

Ice Pops!

Craig and I made six different kinds of popsicles last night. And that wasn't even all the ideas we had but then it was like 11pm and we were kind of tired and we'd used up most of the ice pop mold space so we stopped at six. The flavors we made were berry vanilla, Arnold Palmer, chocolate banana, peach mango, watermelon with blueberries, and watermelon grapefruit. Tell me you don't want to eat all of those.


Supplies. Except not even all of them. Because when I do something I do it big.


First layer of the Arnold Palmer pops...you can ignore the nine pints of ice cream in my freezer.


Our watermelon blueberry pops were made of pureed watermelon with some simple syrup. Once they froze a bit we pushed blueberries into them so the berries would stay suspended.


Javier was confused why we were in the kitchen if it wasn't to continually bring him fresh ice water.


Craig was confused by my juicer. Yeah, I don't know why either.


Second layer of the Arnold Palmer pops and some blueberries added to the watermelon popsicles.


I realize that looks like sawdust but it's actually a brick of chocolate I shaved with a Microplane. Added to bananas and milk.


Mango peach pops! We added honey as a sweetener. We also ended up adding some blood orange juice once blending sans liquid was obviously a mistake.


Our berry mix was so good. We used a bunch of frozen berries, vanilla yogurt, pomegranate cranberry juice, and some honey. Incredible.


We made two of each pop so we could each try them and decide what we liked best.


I made my boss' daughters some flower popsicles with fantastic "sticks" (actually straws) with the leftover mixes.


Aaaand...scene.

A Mixed Bag

So, it's been awhile.

First I feel like I should announce the long overdue winner of the feather earrings. Miss Tova wins with her idea for "Halloween Candy Ice Cream." Which is the brilliant concoction of ice cream with every kind of candy thrown in it and sounds horribly wonderful. Congrats Lady. And since I bought a pair for myself we can be twins.

I also want to skip over the depressing stuff because I'm exhausted from it but I need to thank all you wonderful people who sent me flowers and donated to Hopeline. I told Kevin's sister and parents about that amazing demonstration of kindness to a stranger and they were so touched. His parents said they're determined to have something good come from this and his sister said she hoped that even one person could get the help he couldn't. It sounds cliche but I do feel like if one person can avoid the pain of having someone they love commit suicide then something worthwhile has been done. And to come home to such gorgeous and uplifting flowers, both because of just...them, but also because of the thought behind the gesture...it was nice. Really nice after a terribly hard day. So thank you.


In more fun news, I finally caved and bought the Chanel wayfarers. Partly because it's sort of tradition for me to get one awesome new pair of sunglasses every summer and partly because they're actually really effective. They have that really ugly purple-y reflective stuff on them but it's on the inside so you don't look like you're stuck in the early 90s. And the lenses are crazy dark so I can totally justify this purchase as skin cancer prevention.


I also have decided I really want a dog. I was super on a West Highland Terrier kick. Those look like this...

Which is to say, the cutest thing in the entire world.

But then, Tova stepped in and threw me this curveball...



Puppy number one is my favorite thing ever but only available from a breeder, and most of them are far away which means if I couldn't find one nearby he would have to be shipped, and all the rescue people for West Highland Terriers are a little intense. I could probably more easily adopt an infant child. And then puppy number two is adorable and an orphan but lives in CA and I wouldn't be able to meet him before he's a member of my weird little family.

Regardless though, whoever I end up with already has a collar and leash. And is going to rock purple polka dots no matter what.

Tonight I'm having a popsicle making party with Craig. I'm so super excited and can't wait to update here. I'm wanting to make Arnold Palmer pops and coffee pops and watermelon ones too. We'll see how it turns out.

And then in the most wonderful news, I got an email from Miss Lana last night insisting on immediate delivery of info regarding my birthday celebration in July. Which leads me to believe she miiiiight be planning to show up for the cabin adventure. Which makes me beyond happy.