Deliciousness

A co-worker brought into work, courtesy of a new Cuisinart ice cream maker, a sample of her new magical machine. A delicious, delicious, delicious sample.

Salted. Butter. Caramel. Chip. Ice. Cream.

So many beautiful words, all together. A custard ice cream, with dark chocolate chips and even more importantly, salty sweet flakes of crunchy caramel.

I personally believe that butter is one of the great achievements of human civilization. I would go to a Church of Butterscotch. Here Foodgoat and I part ways, as he is something of a butter atheist. In any case, the Salted Butter Caramel Chip Ice Cream was the highlight of the workday, and could easily be the highlight of a day when I didn't have to pay an unreasonable amount of attention to formatting.

A Meeting of Minds

What you see now is goodness being made.

It's the new crepe stand, Crepes De Luxe, in the West Side Market, right next to and owned by the coffee stand, and a new source of happiness for us.

When we wandered up for the first time, he took a look at us and said, "One of you is some kind of goat." Who are we to deny it?

Nor could we pass up, as he pointed out, the crepe known as the Goat - goat cheese, basil, and tomatoes in what I think is a buckwheat crepe.

Or try the Joy - with dark Belgian chocolate and coconut.

I can't decide if I'm a savory crepe or a sweet crepe person. Foodgoat seems to lean towards the sweet, with the chocolate and berries and all that, but I think I may be the savory type. All that cheese. And often, ham.

(Point of interest: the T-shaped tool used to smooth out the crepe into thing smoothness is called a rozell - which is, phonetically speaking, Ladygoat's name.)

His crepes are indeed tasty - light, amazingly thin, soft and tasty. He also puts them in handy paper cones, an idea he picked up in Montreal. The crepes are vying with bratwursts as the West Side Market brunch of choice.

When Life Is Bad, Ice Cream Is Good

Okay, all things considered, life's not all bad at all, but it hasn't been good enough to feel bloggerful. Work's been crazy, the weather became lovely and warm only to turn frakkin' cold, someone stole $3 from my brother's car, my sister got caught in the crossfire of berserk elementary teachers on strike, and I went to the Filene's Basement infamous bridal gown sale, where being engulfed by crazy women pawing and clutching madly at sequins and satin frocks left me nauseous and unsettled.

Fortunately, we've discovered Mitchell's Ice Cream, a Cleveland company, at our local grocery store, and we're making our way through all the flavors. My personal faves are the pie flavors -- Key Lime Pie and Banana Cream Pie, which include chunks of pie crust. It's like pie a la mode, all in one convenient container.