Posted tagged ‘coconut ice cream’

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“I happen to love coconut, particularly for that sweet and crunchy texture it adds to any dish.”

May 22, 2017

The rain is back. It starts and stops. The tops of the trees are blowing. Going outside is uninviting. The house was a bit cool when I woke up. A little blast of heat was it needed. I needed coffee.

The morning has gone quickly. I read the papers, but Monday is a scant news day. Sunday papers use all the news to fill the extra pages.

Last night around 11:30, I took Gracie out. Every house was dark. There are no streetlights so I couldn’t even see the brown house on the corner. The dogs usually bark from inside that house, but this time they were quiet. Gracie was quick.

I had coconut ice cream with hot fudge sauce, whipped cream and jimmies for dessert last night. The ice cream was filled with coconut pieces and was scrumptious. The first palm tree I ever saw was in Ghana. Coconuts hung from its leafy top. They were still green. I stood under the tree a while looking up, amazed I was actually seeing a palm tree. It had jumped from the pages of my geography book to real life.

I haven’t any ambition for the day. My plants need watering, and the cat litter needs changing. I figure that’s about all I’ll do. I also figure that’s enough.

Knee socks were popular when I was in high school. I had several pairs in all different colors. I wore them even after the elastic around the tops had broken. They became really thick ankle socks.

My TV watching has been a bit strange of late. I watched all the episodes of The Keepers about pedophilic priests and a nun who was murdered and how the two cases may have intersected. I also binged watch all of Anne with an E, that would be Anne of Green Gables. It was quite a change.

I’m going to get cozy and read. I think it a perfect day to do both.

Categories: Musings
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“Your families are extremely proud of you. You can’t imagine the sense of relief they are experiencing. This would be a most opportune time to ask for money. “

May 11, 2015

The sun is gone and clouds have taken over. Maybe rain they said in the paper. I’d be fine with that. It hasn’t rained in a long while.

My neighbor and I get together every Monday. She is Brazilian and wants to learn to speak English better so we just chat. First, though, I had to explain that you don’t need a computer to chat. Face to face works even better. She said that was good to know. Today was a strange word day. We talked about jimmies and sprinkles and frappes and milk shakes and rotaries and roundabouts. We also talked about singular verbs sometimes needing an S as she is prone to leave it off. Good to know she told me. Nicee, my neighbor, and I share a love for coconut ice cream. Her favorite in Brazil is corn ice cream. I was dubious but she swore it tasted the best of all. Her son is graduating from high school this year, and she showed me his new suit and wanted to know where the bottom of the pant leg should be: above the shoe, at the top of the shoe or covering the shoe. I told her I’d check on-line.

I graduated from high school in the days when girls wore dresses and boys wore suits and ties under their gowns. The girls wore white gowns while the boys wore green, our school colors. We sat on one side while the boys sat on the other. Our graduation was outside in front of the school. Some of us were on chairs while those in the back sat on a small bleacher. The Class of 1965 sign was hung above the top-tier of the bleacher on the front of the school. It fell during the ceremony and a few guys were knocked off the bleacher and one guy was knocked out for a bit after he hit the ground. The news traveled fast among us whispered one to another. It was the highlight of the ceremony. I remember the speaker was from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and he was quite boring. We chatted a bit while he spoke and were careful not to be too loud. Scholarships were given out, and I remember reading my dad’s lips after getting mine and he was asking me how much. After what seemed hours came the awarding of our diplomas. My parents gave me a party, and I remember my mother made chicken and eggplant parmesan. My gift was a typewriter to take to college. I was thrilled. I still have it stored in the cellar. I last used it during my teaching years before the computer made it a relic.

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“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.”

August 16, 2014

The sun is in and out of the clouds. The day goes from strikingly sunny and beautiful to cloudy and dark. The weather in the paper said partly sunny. I guess I didn’t think about the other part.

On Saturday, the day before I left for the Peace Corps, my mother asked me what I’d like for our last family dinner together for a long while. I answered right away: roast beef, mashed potatoes, peas and gravy, all my favorites, and that’s what we had. It is still one of my favorite meals. Mashed potatoes are the height of comfort food for me. My mother’s mashed potatoes were always fluffy and lump less. She used a hand masher, one of those metal ones with a flat grill bottom. I sometimes watched her. She wielded that masher as if it were a weapon in the hands of a master swordsman. She’d add butter and milk and keep mashing. I even remember the bowl she always used to serve the potatoes. It was a wide, not tall, bowl. She’d add the potatoes and put a few pats on butter on top. It was a thing of beauty.

My favorite ice cream changes. When I was a kid, we didn’t have all the choices and exotic flavors we have now. Back then my favorite was a dish of plain old chocolate made exquisite by adding Hersey’s syrup. When I was in high school, it was mint chocolate chip in a sugar cone with jimmies all over the ice cream. I used to buy it at Brigham’s. Mocha chip was my favorite for a while, and I still sometimes buy it, but lately I have been into coconut topped with dark chocolate sea salt caramel sauce. It tastes as superb as it sounds.

I like vegetables, quite a change from when I was growing up. Back then I ate potatoes, peas, corn and French green beans, all of which came from cans. I also ate carrots but they were disguised and hidden in the mashed potatoes. In Ghana I couldn’t get many vegetables. I ate garden eggs which are small egg plants, okra, tomatoes, yam, onions and one year I had green peppers grown from seeds I got from home. I really missed vegetables which I wouldn’t ever have imagined when I was a kid. My favorites are still peas, but corn on the cob and summer tomatoes are on my list of favorites. Just no beans ever!

Traveling gave me the chance to try new foods, and I tried all sorts. I didn’t even know the names of some of them. The food didn’t have to look good as I had grown out of the stage of judging foods by its appearances. I think maybe it was Ghana which taught me that.

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“Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.”

May 4, 2014

Dare I risk saying it aloud and perhaps ruining the spell? Well, I am a risk taker so here it is: spring is finally here. Yesterday was a delight. I opened windows to the fresh smelling air and was on the deck in the sun for a while replenishing my vitamin D. It was in the 60’s again. Today is no less a delight with the bright sun making a return engagement though the morning is a bit cooler than yesterday’s.

My lawn was mowed in the late afternoon, and the sweet smell of that fresh mown grass filled the air. The grass, a deep spring green, is still lush from all the rain. It is perfect for bare feet even after being mowed.

I still have a Sunday mentality left over from my childhood. Saturday is for chores and errands. Sunday is for church if you’re so inclined, family time and a quieter day than the rest. Today is perfect for a ride after dinner and a stop for ice cream on the way home.

My town used to have a Dairy Queen. We’d ride our bikes down and get small vanilla cones with chocolate dips. My father was indignant when we called it ice cream. He always corrected us and said ice milk. It comes as a powder to which milk gets added in the mixing machine. My father worked for Hood Ice Cream, real ice cream, not ice milk, so the difference was important to him. I didn’t care. It was still ice cream to me though the ice milk did melt faster than real ice cream. The cones from DQ were never my favorites. They were tasteless. Sugar cones from ice cream shops were the best though sometimes the ice cream would leak from the bottom cone tip. It was a race to make sure the top of the ice cream didn’t melt or the bottom didn’t leak all over my shirt. I had ice cream crazes. Mint chocolate chip with jimmies (as we call them) was one as was mocha chip. I ordered one or the other for the longest time. Lately coconut has assumed the top position as favorite. Add some caramel sauce with sea salt and it is a dish fit for the gods.

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“Baking is like washing–the results are equally temporary.”

February 15, 2014

Batten down the hatches! A storm is a comin’, and the Cape is going to get walloped, all the weathermen agree. They just can’t agree on how much snow. The estimates range from 8″ to a foot or more. It is supposed to start this afternoon which gives me time for storm prep. I filled the feeders earlier then made a shopping list. After I finish here, Gracie and I will head to the dump on a most non-traditional day then on to the grocery store. I need bread, one of those must get before the storm comes items, but such of the rest of the list is good for the soul, not so much the body. Chocolate is on the list as is coconut ice cream. If I can’t be in the tropics, I can taste the tropics and imagine palm trees and soft breezes.

The morning was sunny and warm. Since then, the sky has become that funny whitish grey color I always associate with a storm. It’s a still day. The dead leaves on the branches just hang without even a flutter. Even the birds have disappeared, probably somewhere sheltered jockeying for space. Snow, even yet to fall snow, makes the day quiet.

My house is clean, and I have no laundry to do. I can spend my day reading or watching movies or baking. That’s right. I said baking. I am a good cook and I am not being boastful, only truthful. I used to have dinner parties all the time and serve elaborate meals. Choosing a theme was first. Mostly we visited other countries, and my table decorating matched our destinations. I even made papier mâché buildings which I painted true to color. My onion domed Russian churches were the stuff of legends. The piñatas were colorful and covered in layers of tissue paper. For every meal I made a flow chart and followed it religiously. It began with the recipes I’d chosen and the ingredients listed aisle by aisle in the supermarket. Then came the two-day preparation. I started most of the dishes and stopped at a step which I would continue the day of the dinner. The last list on the flow chart was what cooked at which temperature for how long. Today, though, I will not be as ambitious. I’m thinking plain old cupcakes without fanfare.

Spring training begins today for pitchers and catchers. There will be a summer. I have hope. 

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“Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos.”

August 20, 2013

This should be a sloth day except I actually made my bed, went out for breakfast, watered outside plants and filled the bird feeders. I wanted to do none of these. It is just that sort of a day, the third in a row of just that sort of a day. The difference is that today I did stuff despite my reluctance and for that I take some pride.

It will be a warm day today, a New England warm day. I added that last part because everything is relative. I’m thinking air-conditioner but not yet as the sun is still on the other side of the house. If I get uncomfortable, on goes the air.

Usually I never watch daytime TV. I read, go on-line, browse catalogues or sit on the deck. Today, being one of those days, I turned on the TV and am watching one of my favorite off the wall movies, Shaun of the Dead. I think it a perfect fit for my mood.

My father used to bring ice cream home all the time. He worked for Hood. Once he brought home a pint of ice cream, and my sister wanted to know if it was for dolls, it being so small and all. My father became the manager of Hood in Hyannis which is why we moved down here. Later the building was sold and it became a restaurant. When my mother came to visit once, she and I went there to eat. It seemed strange. The office configuration was still there but the walls were gone, and it was now a bar. My father would have liked that.

My father was a fan of vanilla with Hershey’s syrup and whipped cream. He always sat in the same place in the living room: at the end of the couch beside the table. I can still see him carrying his bowl of ice cream then settling to watch TV. My dog Shauna sometimes got her own bowl of ice cream and always got to lick his. Gracie gets mine. She isn’t partial to any flavor. She likes them all. As for me, I’m on a coconut kick.

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“I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. Tuna fish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock.”

June 4, 2012

Third day in a row of rain and that damp cold. It is only 52° right now, and there is a wind which makes it feel colder. Last night was a snuggle under the blanket night as I had my bedroom window open. Fern and Gracie were huddled beside me for the warmth.

Dinner was a smashing success. The curry was perfect. It had enough heat to make it interesting, and the taste of the fruit and the curry together was like a rainbow of colors bursting in your mouth. The coconut ice cream and the chocolate sea salt caramel was a perfect ending to the meal. The sauce was extraordinary and the salt gave it the most amazingly wonderful flavor. The talking stopped when the dessert eating began. I prepared the appetizers and the chicken and spices then John and Michelle came and John took over with the chopping and the sauce making. I loved it. I got to sit and enjoy my company. Michelle and I sat in the dining room so we could keep John company while he minced and chopped. After dinner, my guests cleaned up. That was wonderful and I was profusely thankful. I am always exhausted after cooking for hours and then having to clean up, usually by myself. All that’s left is to put away the dishes!

It was so wonderful having Michelle and John here. She got to put faces to names and see the house. Michelle is a Coffee reader so she knew my friends and had a picture in her head of what my house must look like based on what she has been reading. Michelle took lots of pictures. My friends easily took to Michelle and John. It boggles my mind that Michelle and I first met in 1969, and when we see each other, our friendship never skips a beat. I love John and I love his patience with Michelle and me when we reminisce. Their visit was all too short but they’re off for the rest of their vacation, three more weeks on the road. They’ll make Bangor today.

I’m going to take it easy today and finish reading the Sunday papers I didn’t get to read between watching the flotilla and making the dinner preparations.

I’m back! My electricity went off, and I wondered if a giant rat had eaten all my wires, but I used my cell and called my friend down the street. He had none either. I could rest easily!

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