Squid Eats: Palmer Lane Maple

Creemee is Vermont's term for soft serve ice cream.  Our state's twist (pun intended) on the concept is higher butterfat content and, of course, the most famous flavor is maple.  Palmer Lane Maple in Jericho is our local shop.

The Palmers started out as a retail store, with a wide assortment of products from the family's own maple operation: maple candy, maple sugar and, of course, loads of maple syrup, all grades.  Business really took off, though, when they started selling creemees during the warmer months.  They've won Seven Days's Daysie award for Best Creemee in Chittenden County the past four years in a row.  

Squid Eats: Herrell's

via Herrell's

Herrell's is a Northampton, Massachusetts (NoHo) food landmark.  Tell anyone you've visited the town and they're sure to ask if you've been to Herrell's.  We went for the first time in August, then returned a couple weekends ago.

Confession time.  I'm an ice cream snob.  My offspring says so and I'm inclined to agree.  Ice cream is my favorite food in the world and I am convinced that I live in the greatest part of the world for eating it.  Sure, you know all about Ben & Jerry's, the local independent gone global, now comfortably in Unilever's portfolio.  But great Vermont ice cream extends far beyond B&J.  First, there's creemies, soft-serve ice cream to the rest of you.  It's both ubiquitous and delicious around here in the summer time.  There's plenty of great hard ice cream, too: Lake Champlain Chocolate, Wilcox, Island Homemade, Kingdom Creamery, Sisters of Anarchy.  It's all yummy.  

So, if I'm going to stand in a long, winding, confusing line for a cone, as we did at Herrell's in August, it had better be pretty darn good.  I honestly can't remember what flavor I got in the summer - the shop has 40 at any given time with 400+ in rotation.  It was fine.  Not great.  Fine.  Not worth standing in line.

As a result, I've been less inclined to go in subsequent visits to NoHo.  It's possible I even rolled my eyes when our progeny suggested it, prompting the ice cream snob accusation.  Nonetheless, we agreed to go during our most recent visit if the line wasn't too long.

I got rum raisin this time.  It was pretty darn good.  Rum raisin was my go-to Baskin-Robbins order back in the day.  I don't get it too often any more.  To be fair, one doesn't see it so much.  Herrell's was nice - truly rummy and creamier than what I remember from B-R in my childhood.  Is it as good as Vermont's best?  Probably not.  But definitely worth a stop if the line's not too long.

This ice cream snob will be back.

Squid Eats: Aztec "Hot" Chocolate Ice Cream

As I write this, summer is still on.  By the time this posts, the Equinox will have passed.  Actually, it is still feeling pretty summery in northwest Vermont, during daytime hours, anyway.  It was warm and muggy today though, mercifully, less buggy than a month ago.  Evenings are noticeably cooler.

So there's plenty enough summer left for ice cream.  This week's recipe was Aztec "Hot" Chocolate Ice Cream from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.  The Hot comes from chile powder.  I used smoky ancho.  I also chose semisweet chocolate over bittersweet in an effort to cut into the richness of this effort.

The ice cream turned out well, definitely spicy.  You feel the burn in the back of your throat.  I don't know if I'd make it again but it was a worthy experiment.