Court & Meg’s Ice Cream Tour

Remember how I mentioned the fact that I was going to be having some yummy treats this afternoon? Well, I sure did have some yummy treats…

For a few weeks now, my friend Meg and I have been talking about doing our own little “ice cream tour” around the area. Yes…there is somebody else out there just as obsessed over ice cream as I am.

She actually came up with 15 different places for us to try out, and today we narrowed it down to a select few for what we will call “Round 1 of Court & Meg’s Ice Cream Tour.”

Stop #1: Emack & Boilo’s

Now I know that Emack & Boilo’s has locations scattered up and down the east coast, but it’s still a pretty awesome little spot.

Basically…it’s a Sweet Tooth’s Paradise.

The two of us took a few minutes to finally order our respective, kiddie sized ice creams, both of which were absolutely delicious.

Btw, I think today was the first time I’ve ever ordered a kiddie sized ice cream. Ever.

Meg ordered the Stoney’s Dream, which is vanilla ice cream with brownie chunks, chocolate chip cookie pieces (actual baked cookies, not the dough), and a fudge swirl.

I ordered the “Chunk O’Funk,” which is caramel ice cream with Oreo cookie pieces and chocolate covered pretzels. Ummm, can you say AMAZING?!?

After a successful trip to stop #1, we were on our way to Stop #2.

Stop #2: Crisan

Crisan, which is located on Lark St. in Albany, is known for their incredibly unique desserts, as well as their homemade gelato. I thought I had remembered that when Crisan first opened, they were offering a scoop of gelato for a $1.00, but apparently inflation has caused it to increase to $2.00. Oh well.

When I checked out the gelato menu on their website, I had high hopes for what we may encounter; however, today’s selections really weren’t knocking my socks off. As interesting as Lemon Basil and Lavender Peach sound, they don’t really appeal to my taste buds when I’m thinking of a cool, creamy treat.

So instead, I ordered a scoop of the Lemon Sorbet, which actually tasted like a mix between a melting lemon Italian Ice and frosty lemonade…but with a really bitter finish. Think: biting into a lemon wedge coated in a tiny bit of sugar (ahem, lemon drops, anyone?)

It was tasty, but certainly nothing like my “Chunk O’Funk!”

Meg went with the Strawberry Banana gelato, which she said was pretty good, but like me, wasn’t super impressed.

Hey…ya can’t win ‘em all. Which we found out was especially true when we attempted to hit up Stop #3, only to discover that it no longer existed.

Total bummer. But either way, it was still a great way to kick off our “tour” and it was great to spend some time with Meg.

*****

Dinner

Thankfully, my treats this afternoon were smaller than I had originally anticipated, so I was more than ready for the dinner that was awaiting me at home this evening.

Last night, I put out a call for slow cooker recipes on Twitter, and there were many of you that sent along some amazing sounding recipes. But I’m going to be honest; I ended up using none of them and just wound up throwing in a few items that I already had on hand to make a fun little dish, which we’ll call…

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Rather than making sandwiches or tacos out of the chicken (since we had neither rolls nor taco shells) I served the chicken over some brown rice and topped it with a couple pinches of shredded cheese, an ear of corn (which I cut off the cob, obviously) and a couple broken tortilla chips.

For how incredibly easy this dish was, I will say that it was pretty darn awesome! I’m thinking maybe next time I’ll get a little wild and crazy and maybe throw some extra spices or veggies in there too.

*****

Cupcake Wars…from Albany!

Just in case you’re as big of a nerd-o over cupcakes like I am, make sure to tune into tonight’s episode of Cupcake Wars (8pm EST).

Remember those cupcakes that my friend Rachel brought over a few weeks ago…?

Well they came from a local bakery here in Albany called Coccadotts, which is actually going to be featured on tonight’s episode. Pretty exciting, right?

If you need to find me between 8-9pm tonight, now you know where to find me.

Questions for the Evening:

Any favorite slow cooker recipes to share out there?

Has there ever been any local-to-you restaurants that have been featured on tv?

Tagged as: Coccadotts Cake Shop, crisan albany, cupcake wars, emack & bolio's, ice cream tour, mexican pulled chicken recipe