Thursday, March 31, 2011

Savory Sourdough, Sweet Sourdough

Sourdough with everything topping
Sourdough withe sugar topping
My go-to sourdough bread recipe will yield two loaves, so last time, I gave them each a different topping.

One had the savory, everything bagel topping (poppy and sesame seeds, dried onion, garlic, and salt), and one had the sweet, demerara sugar topping (a coarse, brownish sugar).

Guess which one turned out best?

I would have guessed the savory one was going to be better, but it was sweet one that was the winner here.  The everything sourdough bread was good, but the demerara sugar really balanced out the tangy flavor of the sourdough in a nice way.  I don't think I've ever seen sourdough bread with a sweet topping, but it was quite delicious. 

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Mitchell's Belgian Dark Chocolate: Ice Cream Worth Stocking Up On

One of the reasons I wanted to start blogging again is because Foodgoat found what is quite possibly the best ice cream ever.

The catch is that it may only available for a limited time.

Mitchell's Ice Cream, which now has four locations in the Cleveland area, has been our favorite ice cream place for a couple of years now.  Their ice cream is creamy and delicious, their milkshakes and malts are incredible, and the Beachwood location has toy train that they turn on when kiddies walk in (that's no small attraction when you have a two year old). 

Mitchell's has always had two or three special, limited time flavors on the menu, which have sometimes been good and sometimes just a little too ... out there (I'm talking about you, roasted garlic ice cream: interesting to have a spoonful of, but no way could I have gotten through an entire scoop).

But now, Mitchell's has this big long list special flavors, outside of their usual tasty menu.  Some of the flavors I don't need to try again - the caramel sea salt, for example.  On paper it sounded like something I'd love love love, but the result was a bit too salty and a bit too caramel - it's a flavor for gelato, for an extra small scoop that you pair directly with a scoop of something very fruity.

On the other hand, they have some really good and interesting flavors that are well worth another try - the Irish Whiskey and Butter Toffee is delicious (and more whiskey-ish than I anticipated!) and the Guinness and Dark Chocolate was wonderful.

But the best one of all is the Belgian Dark Chocolate.  Their regular chocolate ice cream is already really good - this one, though, is incredible.  Smooth, rich, and dark, complex without being too complicated, the Belgian Dark Chocolate just might be the best ice cream we've ever had.

It's so good that Foodgoat had to ask how long it would be on the menu, and when he was advised that he'd "better stock up now," he took that to mean that what they had on hand was what they had, and so now we have three boxes of it hoarded carefully in our freezer.  And we're contemplating buying more.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Tardis Cookie Jar: So Fun, So Not Fun


And ... we're back!  I bet you didn't even notice we were gone .... wait, what?  It's been almost a year since our last post?  The Doctor promised that he could get us back in time to post the next day!


That Tardis can be a little problematic.

The Tardis can be problematic as a cookie jar too. How fun is it having the Tardis sitting on the counter, full of cookies?  So much fun. 

True, it isn't actually bigger on the inside than on the outside, so it doesn't actually hold more cookies.  But the real problem is the Tardis souns it makes when opened.  On the one hand, the sound of the Doctor leaving the brakes on, well, that's just cool.  Not as cool as bowties, but cool.

On the other hand, the fact that the Tardis effectively also  ANNOUNCES TO THE WHOLE HOUSE that Ladygoat is eating cookies AGAIN, well, that's not so cool.  It pretty much shouts out, "Hey, look who has no self control!"