ice cream | The Plaid Pladd Blog

Posts Tagged ‘ice cream’

Birthday Week Part 5: ICE CREAM CHALLENGE

June 5th, 2015 by pladd

I saw this on the Travel Channel once and I was PUMPED to experience it in person. At Rick Moonen’s RM Seafood in Mandalay Bay they give you sixteen little tastes of different ice cream flavors, and you have to guess what they are. It’s way hard, y’all. Some of them are normal ice cream flavors, but a lot of them definitely are not. Plus, it’s really hard to identify taste when you don’t have other clues like texture, especially when it’s not something you’re used to encountering in ice cream. Has anyone ever gotten all of them? I doubt it.

Ready!

They give you one freebie

Here’s a close-up for reference

Starting at the top right: This one was vanilla bean. That’s the one they gave us.

Moving one left: This one bothered Steven. “I KNOW THIS FROM MY CHILDHOOD” he whined. He forced us to come back to it multiple times.
Our final answer: Rambutan
Real answer: Passion fruit. Steven overthinks everything.

Moving one left: This one was DEFINITELY some kind of nut, we were sure. But it had a lighter taste than most nut ice creams so we couldn’t decide what kind. I eventually let Steven fill in his crazy theory.
Our final answer: Gincko Nut
Real answer: Butternut squash. After knowing the answer and tasting it again, I was like “Oh yeah, that is totes butternut squash.” But it was hard to identify that flavor from the void.

Far left corner: “Nutella!” I said immediately. It had that distinctive chocolate hazelnut taste.
Our final answer: Chocolate Hazelnut
Real answer: Nutella

Moving one down: This one was chocolate but with a definite kick at the end.
Our answer: Dark chocolate and cayenne
Real answer:Togarashi Chocolate. Apparently this is a specific kind of Japanese pepper.

Moving one right: Cinnamon!!!! Clearly cinnamon!! For once there was consensus
Our answer: Cinnamon
Real answer: Cinnamon

Moving one right: We both agreed this one was butter pecan. It was especially buttery.
Our answer: Butter pecan.
Real answer: Coconut. This may seem like a weird confusion on our part, but I can see how both these flavors bring nutty and creamy elements that could be confused when you’re going in blind.

Moving one right: This one had little squishy things in it, which was the first clue.
Our answer: Rum raisin
Real answer: Rum raisin

Moving one down: Clearly raspberry! It punches you in the face with raspberry!
Our answer: Raspberry
Real answer: Raspberry Mint. You have to look for the subtle flavor underneath the pungent raspberry flavor, apparently.

Moving one left: This was way weird in both taste and consistency. I didn’t really like it, and had a hard time identifying it.
Our answer: Cheese
Real answer: Benedictine. This is some kind of herbal liqueur which I’ve never tasted.

Moving one left: This one was really strawberry to me. Steven insisted it was strawberry cheesecake, which I didn’t get from it at all, but I let him write what he wanted.
Our answer: Strawberry cheesecake
Real answer: Strawberry tarragon. Turns out Steven was right about there being some other taste in there, he was just wrong about what it was.

Moving one left: Mango! This one reminded me of my favorite Locopops flavor.
Our answer: Mango
Real answer: Mango Thai Chili. I should have remembered those popsickles are mango chili flavored. But the Thai part would have probably eluded us anyway.

Moving one down: This one pretty much tasted like nothing. Like plain ice cream, if that were a thing.
Our answer: Sweet cream
Real answer: Taro root. I’m surprised I didn’t get this one, because I’ve definitely had taro root tea and smoothies before. Those were always pretty strong with the taro root taste, and this was much lighter and more refreshing.

Moving one right: “Some kind of flower” I said immediately. But we argued about which. It wasn’t rose. It wasn’t lilac. Thus exhausting the only two flower ice creams I’ve ever tasted.
Our answer: Honeysuckle
Real answer: Lavender

Moving one right: Coffee!!!
Our answer: Coffee
Real answer: Coffee! Finally an easy one

Close right corner: This one was definitely chocolate. The richest chocolate ever.
Our answer: Belgian chocolate
Real answer: Chocolate

Even though we got a lot of them wrong, it was really fun to play! I would definitely do this again! Especially since the flavors change all the time. It’s interesting to see how much texture and visuals play into what things taste like when you don’t have those cues to rely on.

Yay!

Previously: Fancy Food!
Next: Goodbye Vegas

Tagged: BIRTHDAY, ice cream, las vegas

Posted in Let Me Tell You About My Life |

Cookbooks: Extra Credit

July 24th, 2013 by pladd

Last weekend I knew I wanted to knock the book of ice cream recipes that came with our ice cream maker off my cookbook list. Every time I use the ice cream maker we have, I’m shocked by how easy it is.

This thing was not pricey, but is completely amazing. I recommend it 100%

I decided to make the cream cheese ice cream… but it was almost TOO easy, you know? With this thing, you mix the ingredients together in a bowl or whatever, then chill them for a few hours. Then take the bowl of the ice cream maker out of the freezer (where it lives), hook it up, pour the stuff in, and let it go for like 20 minutes. Then you have soft serve! You can then freeze for longer if you don’t like soft serve for some freakish reason. Or if, like me, you decide to make red velvet ice cream sandwiches!

Ice cream goes in a cake pan to firm up so that I can cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter

After making up the cookie dough and chilling it in the fridge overnight, I rolled it out and cut out cookies with the biscuit cutter:

I thought this step would be the hardest, but it was way easy compared to rolling out pie crust (which I am, of course, a pro at)

Then you chill those guys on the baking sheets for awhile and stick them in the oven. They don’t take long.

Cookies!! Wait till they get to room temperature before putting them in the freezer too

After everything has been frozen to satisfaction, it’s assembly time!! Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of this because I had to work fast so the ice cream didn’t melt. Using the same biscuit cutter, you just press out rounds of the ice cream sheet and smoosh them between two cookies. Then Steven was in charge of wrapping them in plastic wrap.

Now they are just waiting in our freezer!! Happy summer!

The cookbook project is now at 69% completion because I (well, Steven) got through The Ultimate Book of Cocktails the same day! He’s way better at mixology than me.

Planter’s Punch: Steven version

According to the book, “This long, refreshing, old colonial drink originates from the sugar plantations that are dotted throughout the West Indian islands.”

1 measure/1.5 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 measure/1.5 tbsp orange juice
2 measures/3 tbsp dark rum (we always use KRAKEN, because that name. And it’s delicious)
0.5 measure/2 tsp grenadine (Steven uses the juice from a can of maraschino cherries. Because we’re classy)
dash of bitters
soda water of lemonade, chilled

Steven is more of a gin fan (to me, it tastes like Fresca that hates you) so for himself he made this:

Horse’s Neck!

Apparently: “The name derives from the shape of the lemon rind that hangs in the glass.”

1 lemon
2 measures/3 tbsp gin
dry ginger ale

Cut the entire rind from a lemon, spiral-fashion. Dangle it from the rim of a tall glass so that it hangs down inside. (I think Steven skipped this step because it was too annoying even though it is the whole point lol)
Add cracked ice and the gin, and then top up with ginger ale. You can also add a dash of bitters if the mood takes you (see? this book is awesome).

“Let me take a picture of your process”

Tagged: baking, cocktails, cookbooks, dessert, ice cream

Posted in 2013 Magnificent Seven |

Vermont: Ben and Jerry’s Factory!

June 7th, 2011 by pladd

A few weeks ago Rachel was complaining that she didn’t have anything to do until grad school and wanted to take a road trip. I suggested Asheville, and then we went to Vermont. Ben and Jerry’s Factory, you guys!

So totally worth driving for 14 hours!

My favorite part definitely ended up being the Flavor Graveyard where you can mourn departed flavors:

I think we could be hired as professional mourners, or at least professional ice cream mourners.

The tour was really fun (and funny), and we got free samples of Americone Dream at the end! Jeff, the tour guide, said that employees receive THREE free pints of ice cream every day they work. I asked him what he does with fifteen pints a week, and he said he usually trades it for things. Apparently people are totally willing to return to the barter system for ice cream! The tastiest economy. We were so psyched about Ben and Jerry’s that we decided to get tattoos!

Don’t worry, I have plenty more left over for an awesome, ice cream themed tramp stamp. I also have more pictures of our adventures to share later!

Next Vermont Adventure: When Nature Attacks!

Tagged: ben and jerry's, ice cream, rachel, tattoo, vermont

Posted in Road Trip |