weekend fun

We had a great time this weekend with old friends in favorite places.

The gang's all here

The kid loves a buffet and I love hot and sour soup

She officially taste-tested all the desserts, but only finished her ice cream

The koi pond is always a great stop on the way out

coconut frozen yogurt

Tonight's offering from the ice cream maker was coconut frozen yogurt. I winged it a bit with the recipe, using coconut milk and not as much sugar as suggested and also shredded coconut. But I really think that using a base of Greek yogurt or, in the case of ice cream, heavy cream, and then mixing it with something delicious and then freezing it—how can it not taste good?

I was able to take a before photo,

And a during photo, 


But as soon as I sprinkled some coconut on top for effect—somehow an after photo wasn't possible.

sprinkles

One of the advantages, or disadvantages, depending on how you look at it, of living in Florida is the plethora of ice cream parlors, where you can duck in to enjoy an escape-from-the-heat treat.

I am a sugar cone girl, and I like my treats pure, so no sprinkles or tiny gummies (like my daughter likes) or anything else to top off my dessert. I'm also not fond of the mixed-up flavors, like rocky road or cookies and cream. I'm drawn towards a really good vanilla, green tea, or a good fruit flavor, if they have one. Yesterday I considered pistachio (it was too green and sweet) or coconut, in which you could taste the flakes, and that was just right. There was a good-looking strawberry and the flavor of the day, blackberry, also looked tempting, so I'm sure we'll be back.



The best ice cream cone I have ever had, bar none, was two huge scoops of a fresh blueberry ice cream, from a tiny little place called T Cone, in Ship Bottom, on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. A quick internet check proves the place is still in existence and of course already has a facebook page! The ice cream was a medium purple color, and laden with berries and absolutely delicious. Before I discovered their blueberry ice cream I always ordered strawberry, which was also chock-full of fresh strawberry chunks.

My dad liked to take "rides" after dinner when we were growing up in South Jersey. We'd all pile into the car, sometimes gratefully, sometimes begrudgingly, depending on what television show we were being pulled away from, and he would take off in some direction he had planned on his own. Sometimes we would end up at the beach, gathering shells at twilight after all the tourists had gone back to their bungalows. Sometimes we'd just drive around for about an hour and go home. But sometimes there would be a treat—Dunkin' Donuts or ice cream at the end of the ride. And T Cone was one of our favorite summer ride destinations.

I'm probably still in search of that elusive blueberry ice cream cone. I don't think I've seen blueberry ice cream since those days. Maybe someday . . .