Sunday, July 21, 2013

Frozen Treats: d'Lites

I don't know why it has taken me so long to write about this place because we have been here many, many times since it opened. The owners are super nice and the ice cream is always DELIGHTFUL

My mom likes it because it is actually pretty light and we can get a perfectly sized kid's cone for about $2.50.

I love how the flavors change every day! Every week they fill in a chalk board with the flavors that will be there each day. If you miss your favorite they put the extras in the freezer and you can purchase a small container of it for later. 

My favorite way to eat soft serve ice cream is swirled together. Today I got chocolate lava cake swirled with frosting.

 Clifford ordered s'mores swirled with wedding cake.
I keep hoping we'll make it on a day where I can get something PINK and white swirled together, like the picture on the sign. I guess we'll just have to keep going back!

GET SOME: d'Lites, 4404 West William Cannon Drive, Austin

Monday, July 15, 2013

Soft Pretzels

Last week my brother and I took a cooking class at our local grocery store. First we made humus from scratch, then we made fluffy, soft pretzels. Ever since the class we've been begging our mom to cook either or both of those. Today turned out to be the perfect baking day thanks to the rain!

Our first batch was sprinkled with salt and seeds. My mom and I made classic pretzel shapes. Clifford tied a lovely knot and also made a clamshell (not pictured).
Our second batch was covered in cinnamon sugar. I wish you could smell our house through this blog! Two were in pretzel shapes, one was an R for Retta ... but I ate most of it before my mom had a chance to snap a picture.

We officially used this 5 star pretzel recipe from foodnetwork.com ... it's worth every star ... yummy!

Prep Time: 30 min
Inactive Prep Time: 1 hr 0 min (use this time to work on your line dancing, if you want)
Cook Time: 25 min
Level: Intermediate
Serves: 8 pretzels
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt (we used regular, chunky sea salt) or Cinnamon Sugar or BOTH

Directions
Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 10-12 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Frozen Treats: Amy's Ice Cream

It's very rare for my mom to take us to get ice cream. It's more expensive than frozen yogurt and snow cones, and usually pretty heavy, leaving us with belly aches by the time we're done. That said, Amy's Ice Cream is an Austin classic that sells yummy ice creams, and about once a year my mom will cave in and buy us each a cone.

 We visited the location on Westgate close to the movie theater and Central Market and the ice cream scooper guy was funny and full of tricks.

 We sampled the ice flavors first, thinking we might go with something non-dairy, but we weren't fans of either one. This place is know for ice cream, not ices.

Clifford ended up choosing a kid-sized scoop of half rice krispy treat, half butter brick and I went for a scoop of straight butter brick. The ice cream was delicious and just the perfect amount to fill our tummies. I can't wait to go back for more!
The flavors are all drawn on the chalk board and change frequently and seasonally. It's good to go back as often as possible so you can try the new flavors. (Mom, are you reading this?)
I don't know if this is sanitary, but it sure is funny. He serves our ice creams off the top of his head.

Also, we found out this guy used to swim on our team when he was a kid. Go Devil Rays!


Get some Amy's: They have 12 locations around Austin so there is probably one near you! Visit their web site: amysicecreams.com

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Frozen Treats: Good Times

Two years in a row now the Good Times truck has shown up at my neighborhood Fourth of July party and both years my mom has let me and my brother wait in line for treats. This is awesome because she NEVER lets us get anything from the ice cream truck normally. This truck has a couple of relatively healthy options (those are not what we chose) like some made without dyes or some made with juices. This is a fun business because you can call the owner and schedule her to show up at your party to sell treats! And she doesn't annoy my mom by driving down the street at bedtime with ice cream truck music blaring.

Clifford chose a ginormous red popsicle for $2.50
I picked chocolate mint ice cream under a perfect chocolate shell for $2.00
If you're lucky she'll be at your next party! Contact her here: http://www.goodtimesaustin.com/

Friday, June 21, 2013

Frozen Treats: Yo-Way

When I went to Yo-Way today I sampled what are now my two favorite sorbet flavors: sour apple and strawberry lemonade. They were so yummy AND really pretty swirled together. At Yo-Way the bobas are called poppers and they have two flavors of them: strawberry and yellow, which I think is pineapple. The mochis here are all white. When we walked in they had a jar of the cutest ice cream cone marshmallows and I couldn't resist trying at least one. They were so yummy I would go back for just a plain bowl of those marshmallows if my mom would let me!
GET SOME: Yo-Way, 4301 W William Cannon Dr #160 Austin, TX 78749

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Frozen Treats: TCBY in South Austin

I'm not actually a huge frozen yogurt fan, but I LOVE sorbet. And I LOVE toppings. And the TCBY in my neighborhood has my two favorite toppings: bobas and mochis. I have no idea what either of them actually are, I just know they are yummy and they taste great on sorbet. And lucky for me this store usually has two great sorbets to choose from. This week it's mango and red grapefruit and those two flavors mix really well together. For 50 cents you can also get a fresh baked waffle cone to dip in your frozen treat. Super yummy!



GET SOME: TCBY, 5701 Slaughter Lane, Austin, TX 78749

Monday, June 17, 2013

Frozen Treats: Lick

Last week some friends from Houston came to visit and told us that eating at Lick was on their agenda. And then they ate at Lick and couldn't stop raving about it. They liked all the interesting flavors. They had read all the reviews. And they said it was yummy.

So today we put that on our agenda. At 4:30 that place was crowded so we weren't comfortable asking for too many samples, but we did taste Blackberry, Lime and Basil and Lemon Lavender. We didn't chose either one of those. I ordered Caramel Salt Lick (DELICIOUS!!), my brother got Fresh Mint and Chocolate Chunk (Super yummy!) and my mom got Honeyed Peaches with Rosemary. Hers was pretty good, but I wouldn't choose it for myself.

On the menu a small cone runs about $3.50, but you get two scoops of ice cream so that seems like a good deal. Of course my mom only let us each get one scoop, but it was right before dinner so we forgave her. I'm pretty sure she'll be taking us back soon. This place is awesome!

The flavors are listed on this ladder when you walk in.


GET SOME: Lick Ice Cream, 2032 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78704

Monday, March 11, 2013

Episode 40: Edible Glass (sort of)

This morning Clifford and I picked out what we though would be an easy recipe from our new book "Science Wizardry for Kids." The recipe didn't even really turn out but the show was pretty good. And the candy was tasty, but it was more like edible plastic wrap. The recipe in the book does not give details. It instructs you to stir the sugar in the pan over a low heat. And then it says "it could take a while." We took turns stirring one minute a time for more than one hour. Eventually we added some water to try to speed up the process but that didn't really help. In fact, that might be why it was rubbery instead of glass-like. We will try a similar recipe for suckers in the future with a candy thermometer ... just as soon as we talk my mom into it.