I scream for ice cream (and by scream I mean hoot and holler)

As you can tell from my previous blog posts - I love ice cream. All of it - the fro-yo stuff, soft serve, normal, anything cold and sweet!  So many places now days focus on all the healthy fro-yo stuff, which is great and dandy (much more great and dandy with do it yourself toppings!). Moreli’s www.morellisicecream.com/ ice cream is the real deal - old school ice cream and it is awesome.

Here are pics from there new location in edgewood:

This place is super well ranked in the US for awesome ice cream and fun unique flavors and they just opened a new location closer to my house (ut-oh!).

Here are a few flavors I have tried:
1) fig marscapone
2) honey rosemary
3) salted carmel (hollllly smokes that was good)
4) mint chocolate chip
5) coconut jalapeno
6) krispier kremier
7) almond coconut joy

Now, don’t go getting all excited and getting your hopes up for 1 particular flavor - they rotate and run out of a lot of the favorites.  This past week I tried coconut jalapeno and Elliot tried the mint chocolate chip. 

Thanks El for being the finger model to help show the sizes of the ice cream.

Make sure you sample the flavor first - the coconut jalapeno was delicious - although not for the faint of heart. I was literally hooting and hollerin in the store and clapping to control the heat in my mouth (and I am not joking). Oddly enough I finished the whole cup though.  You should know if you eat there, to get a super small size-  this ice cream is super filling and heavy.  I got a kid’s cup, and Elliot got a small.

More life lessons from The Bachelorette, episode 6

(Sorry if you hate these postings – it is just too easy, and I need a way to vent my feelings while I watch this show!)

Sometimes gut feelings are wrong

Bad boys are often bad

Yes, people sell things in street markets

It is weird if you have to ask the girl “was that our first kiss?” – you should know

Use the word “manlihood” with caution – it can be awkward

A lot of people in Hong Kong speak English

If you are in a dragon boat race you can yell “push” or you can sing “row row row your boat”

Elevator kissing is awkward

If you are going to say something cheesy – it is ok to own it, and frame it as being cheesy

People don’t like to play second fiddle

My new fav summer salad

I recently made a dinner salad to die for. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com (my go to source for all cooking needs) by ccloves2bake http://allrecipes.com/recipe/refreshing-summertime-salad/detail.aspx and it was AWESOME.

You mix:

baby greens

diced mango
watermelon
chopped fresh mint (which I grow in my garden - yippppeeee!)
feta cheese
red onion
white balsamic vinegar
olive oil
1 tablespoon frozen mango juice concentrate, thawed (I could not find this so just used mango juice)

Check out my cool mango cutter

 Then you take the halves, and kinda dice (so don't through the whole way) horizontally and vertically, then use a nice and cut off these little chunks with a knife.

Here are the supplies for the dressing

And voila - it is made- very easy, quick and delicious

Summary: domestic success

Oven....nightmare

So this won't be exactly the most interesting blog, but I wanted to share a recent experience.  The other week I hosted friends over for dinner, and I kept opening the oven to see if the food was ready and each time I opened the oven in front of my guests I would cringe....oh man, my oven is nasty - it is amazing anyone would eat something coming out of this oven.  Crap was all stuck to the side the bottom like black sludge.



 Something must be done, so I decided to experiment....this was mistake number 1. At first I figured I should just do the self cleaning mode on the oven, but then I remembered it was like 95 degrees and having my oven at 900 degrees for several hours was 1) not environmentally friendly and an energy drain and 2) my house would be hot as hades.

So, I found a website that has recipes to make your very own household cleaning products: http://www.ecocycle.org/hazwaste/recipes.cfm

For oven cleaner they give two recipes:

Mix together: ¼ c. baking soda
2 tbsp. salt
Hot water, as needed to make a paste.
Let paste sit for 5 minutes. Caution: Keep off wires/heating elements.
OR
2 tbsp. liquid soap (castile, peppermint)
2 tsp. borax
1 qt. warm water
Spray on oven and wait 20 minutes, then clean. For tough stains, scrub with very fine steel wool and baking soda

Well since I don't know what borax is, I decided to do option one and mix together baking soda, salt, and water.  Good news- I had all of those supplies - WINNING!

So make the paste:

So put the paste all over the dirty oven:

And the paste starts turning black when you rub it in and I guess you wipe it up (the directions were not ubber detailed)

Let's just say this is nasty, and soon feels like you are covered in crap. No matter how much you clean and wipe up, there is still more

And after that, I wiped down the wire racks and was literally sweating my (fill in the blank) off.  At least I don't need to exercise today!!!  After all that hard work, my oven looked better- but not that great - I still could not really see through the glass viewing window.

So I buckled, and decided to do the auto cleaning oven - and 3 hours later I had a sparkling oven - although my house was super hot!

So moral of the story - clean up spills as soon as they happen, every few months use some elbow grease and clean by hand.  BUT, if you oven is super dirty (aka - has never been cleaned), then just go ahead and lose some environmental karma points and do the self clean feature.

Summary: Domestic fail



Geek Alert: Mapping America

So about 6 or 7 months ago I stumbled across this website and fell in love...yes, I am a big geek.
http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer?view=raceethnicity&lat=38.9164&lng=-77.014&l=12

It lets you type in your area code and see really intersting things about each census track (data is from 2005-2009).

You can see race, income, housing, education, etc ---- it is fascinating to see how people have clustered and how closely disparities and geography are linked.  I would be interested to map on health issues based on various demographics.

Here are a few stat's that startle me:
- The census track right above me (lullwater, druid hills area) has 78% of elementary kids in private school even though they are zoned for an amazing school that is well ranked (morningside and springdale park!)

Below is a map of the distribution of racial/ethnic groups in Atlanta:

  

Did you find any interesting or suprising stat's in your zip code?

Quick deal update: Concentrics - Summer Swag

http://www.concentricshospitality.com/SUMMERSWAG2011.pdf

Real quick update: Concentrics is doing their summer swag again, where you print off a coupon and get 50% off your meal.  A lot of great restaurants!  I for one am a big fan of Murphy's in Virginia Highlands - best desserts ever (they participated in the ice cream festival).  The also have The Bonzo which is a great mix of cheesecake, brownie, and mousse

Thanks to AJC for supplying the picture - also they have a recipe for the Bonzo: http://www.ajc.com/eveningedge/content/living/food/from04/bonzocake121604.html

Pic from Murphy's website

Ice cream social

Due to several factors i) Atlanta's extreme heat, ii) Supporting events that strive to make the world a better place, and iii) being a glutton I decided to join some friends and participate in Slow Food's ice cream social (for additional details visit http://slowfoodatlanta.org/)

Holy Moly it was awesome. Just imagine tons of vendors giving you mini scoops of fabulous fun creative flavors!

Some people come prepared....

Some people come excited...

Local citizens and some restuarants make these creative flavors, here are just a couple

Miller Union's sweet corn and blueberry was literally to die for - very very creamy and smooth....heaven!

 This is when we were still going strong:

This is when we start slowing down and/or going crazy:

My Ethan Allen Style

So someday (probably next summer sometime) I want to get some new living room furniture.  I really like some parts of the furntiure I have now (I have a great painting I got at a consignment shop for around 15 - bucks), and I have this fabulous rug that was Elliot's grandmas.

However, the sofa is actually ripping apart ---- so time for me to start saving and figuring out that I like. I stumbled upon this Ethan Allen "What's your signature style" quiz and got "vintage" - here are the types of looks they say I would like (little do they know I would only be willing to pay about a 1/3 per item!)

 

I took the quiz again and again until I got the answer (by the suggested rooms) I liked more: Which is explorer

 

 

 

What is your style? http://ethanallen.com/style_quiz