Joe Latti

I've been hanging on to this newspaper clipping for a couple year. It's titled "Get your swirl on, Philly style." It's a review of Joe's Italian Ice and Ice Cream in Garden Grove.

All I could imagine was having a Joe Latti like the one's we've had in Oxford, PA. There's nothing like it anywhere except Pennsylvania, . . . and Garden Grove I guess. If you grew up on Italian water ice, like I did, then shaved ice, snow cones, and icee's are not even close to what you crave.

Supposedly the soft serve at Joe's is also Philly style. Which means real cream with all that good butterfat - it's so creamy and dense.

Anyway, we finally took the trek to Joe's. It was so exciting - like a field trip! (My life is rather boring). I got a blood orange Joe Latti. Son #1 did too. Son #2 got a mango Joe Latti. There were so many flavors it was hard to choose. Bada Bing Cherry, Passion Fruit, Bananadana, Grape, Grapefruit, Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Black Raspberry and on and on. It was so worth the trip! I brought home a quart of blood orange Italian Ice so hubby could have some too. We polished it off in less than a week. And by the way, it traveled well too. We live an hour from Joe's so I did pack an insulated bag with an ice pack in it but I think the Italian Ice would have make it home just fine without it.

I realized that Joe's is not all that far from where son #1 plays his club volleyball tournaments. We spend many hours on weekends at ASC watching his games, and I think Joe's is only about 10 minutes from there. I'm really craving a softserve dipped in butterscotch. Guess I'll be gettin' my swirl on more often now.

Joe's Italian Ice and Ice Cream
12302 Harbor Blvd., Garden Grove
www.joesice.com

Black and Whites

All week I have been craving a Black and White from the Torrance Bakery. No one makes them like the Torrance Bakery. I know this is a New Yorker's cookie and I have no idea if the Torrance Bakery is making them authentic, but they are the best.

They are like 5 inches in diameter - huge. And I love the way the buttery sugar cookie is coated with white frosting all over the top and then dipped in chocolate on one half. The white frosting gets all hard and slightly crunchy and the chocolate is just perfectly smooth and snappy.

I like to eat the chocolate side first because I love the taste and texture of the chocolate over the white. Maybe they should consider dipping the whole cookie in chocolate!

Another great cookie from the Torrance Bakery is the Chocolate Chewy. It's so chocolately and chewy. Ha. What do ya know, they named it appropriately. The LA Times ran the recipe for them several years ago and now I beg the Times, please, get me the recipe for their Black and Whites!

Cake Wrecks

Check out this blog when you have some time to kill: www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com

The "Literal LOLs" are pretty good.

Potato Chips

Have you ever tried those Ridge Cut Salt and Pepper potato chips from Trader Joes? You gotta. They rock.

I grew up on Charles Chips. Remember the tin can? And they would get delivered right to your front door. My mom sold them for a while so we had chips around all the time. As kids whenever we'd go somewhere in the family/business van we'd sit on cans of Charlie Chips.

But even before that, Dad was a huge chip fan. I wonder if it's an East Coast thing? Kinda like Ice Cream, but that's another blog. Dessert would be potato chips and beer. To this day when I visit them I love sitting up late chatting with dad and having chips and beer.

Another one of my newer favorites is the Spicy Thai chips from Kettle. Pretty spicy tho.

I would like to see some Dill Chips. Charlie Chips made them and they were awesome. Tasted like a dill pickle. C'mon, Trader Joe, make 'em!

Christmas Food

As usual Christmas at my parents' house was a constant feast. We ate and drank and ate and drank for a week. Mom always starts prepping for Christmas a few months in advance with plans and menus and games. She must start cooking and freezing food about 3 weeks in advance b/c there's so much and it's all so easy to prepare when we are all together. And on top of the roast beef, shrimp, fish, pork roast, tamales, omlettes, sausages, meatballs, homemade pasta there are tons of pizzelles, cookies and chocolate! And with 25 to 30 relatives around for a week it's no small task to feed them all every day.

I always get put in charge of the cookies. Not only do I love making them but I am the only one that drives (vs. flys) to Mom and Dad's and therefore can take a giant crate full of cookies. I started Thanksgiving weekend baking a few batches a week and freezing them. It's amazing how many cookies 30 people eat in a week - LOTS and LOTS!

One day we gave Mom a break and went over to The Monastery. It's a bar and grill where you order burgers, and you go outside and grill them yourself. We also played sand volleyball, pool, and pingpong while we were there. Great place.
The best was some competition Bro put Mom up to. One day he challenged her to a pasta making competiton. Doesn't he know that he can't compete with Mom's homemade pasta! Anyway, Mom was slaving half the day kneeding the dough and cranking the pasta machine. She did get some help from some of the kids. She must have made 5 pounds of fettuccine! All day we waited for Bro to start making his pasta. It never happened. Was it a set up to get Mom to make homemade pasta?!