We were dinning at Paragon, San Jose and examining the dessert menu when both of us eyed the "chip-wich" described as:

"Vanilla ice cream sandwiched between chocolate chip cookies served with chocolate sauce."

Immediately, we both knew that was what we would be getting. How could we get anything else?  Years ago, when we lived in Buffalo, NY we would go to a pizza place that had a dessert called the "Ice Screamer".  Great name - even better dessert. The 'Screamer consisted of two chocolate and peanut chip cookies with ice cream in the middle and hot fudge over them.  It was simply amazing.  The cookies were about 5" in diameter, 1/2" in thick and warm.  The ice cream was either chocolate or vanilla depending on our mood and the fudge thick, rich, and loaded with calories.  We've gone back in recent years but they just aren't the same anymore...

Here in front of our eyes was a San Jose take on our old-time favorite.  We had a plan and we plunged in.  But something unexpected happened when the dessert arrived.  It was absolutely nothing like what we expected!

The "chip-wich" is actually a play on the old-fashioned ice cream sandwich.  The dessert consists of two individual sandwiches cut-out from a sheet of chocolate chip cookie crust with a middle layer of ice cream.  They were really cute and looked just like ice cream sandwiches but made with chocolate chip cookies instead of the traditional dark chocolate crust.  The chocolate sauce was in a little dipping bowl.  They were not what we expected, they were not what we planned but we really enjoyed them. 

We may not have a new tradition but we have learned to crave the unexpected...

1.  You reach for the recipe in the recent issue of "Cooking Light" only to find it's actually in "Gourmet".  Result: Dinner will be at least an hour late.

2.  You glance at the recipe in the morning to confirm you have all the ingredients.  But when you start cooking you realize you don't actually have everything:  Result:  Dinner will be about half an hour late so you can go to the store. 

3.  You glance at the recipe in the morning to confirm you have all the ingredients.  But when you start cooking in the evening Step 2 says "Marinate 8 hours".  Result:  Going out for dinner.

4.  You glance at the recipe in the morning to confirm you have all the ingredients - check.  But when you start cooking you are unpleasantly surprised to learn one of the ingredients is no longer, or perhaps never was, edible.  Result: While you could go to the store, your discovery has removed your desire for that particular item for quite a while.  Looks like dinner out.

5.  You are cooking a quick and easy pasta dish and get everything all prepped and set to cook only to realize you forgot to put the pasta water on.  Result:  Dinner will be late by about 15 minutes.

6.  Step 8 of 9 is to blend the sauce ingredients together but when transferring the ingredients from Step 7 into the blender they end up on the floor instead of in the blender.  Result:  Going out for dinner.

7. Halfway through cooking your Thanksgiving turkey the oven dies .  Result: Beg neighbors to use their oven and dinner will only be late by an hour or two.

8. You turn the oven on to preheat before prepping all of the ingredients and assembling the casserole only to find out you didn't actually turn the oven on.  Result: Dinner will be 20 minutes late. 

9.  You've worked all day and head home to make a nice easy casserole that can bake for 1/2 hour while you relax.  But just as you pull into the driveway the electricity in the whole neighborhood goes out because of a rolling blackout (benefit of living in California a couple of years ago).  Result:  Looks like something grilled.

10.  Husband turns on the grill to warm-up while you prepare the meat and vegetables.  Husband goes out to cook the food only to return grumbling about an empty propane tank.  Husband then goes to get propane only to return 20 minutes later complaining that the store is closed.  Result: Dinner out, about an hour later.

Hopefully I won’t be adding too many more to the list anytime soon!

Last week, Pam and I went to our first Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.  As Pam wrote in her blog, there were more than 1000 specialty food companies showcasing their products.  I was both overwhelmed and awed at the variety of products and the sheer number of similar products as well…and this show highlighted a small percentage of the specialty food producers around the world.

I noticed some trends in foods that I thought were interesting.  First, the flavor of the year seems to be blood orange.  Dream Foods International had a delicious Organic Italian Volcano Blood Orange Juice.  Torani, the maker of those syrups you love for your Italian sodas, debuted their blood orange syrup at the show.  I had the opportunity to taste a delicious blood orange smoothie made with the new syrup—I wish I had more! 

Blood orange olive oils pointed to the flavor trend of the year as well as a second trend—flavored olive oils.  Stella Cadente, a local producer of extra virgin olive oil, had a lovely Blood Orange Olive Oil made by pressing both organic late-harvest mission olives and blood oranges together.  This oil had a spicy citrus notes and a lovely flavor.  They also had Basil, Meyer lemon and Persian Lime oils.  O Olive Oil also had a blood orange olive oil, along with other citrus flavors including Jalapeno Lime.  In addition to their citrus oil, Santa Barbara Olive Oil Co. had more savory oils including Chile, Rosemary, Rosemary-Sage, Roasted Garlic and Basil and Italian oil.  It may not be a coincidence that all three purveyors of the infused olive oils I tasted are based in California.

The third trend was in chocolate.  I noticed a lot of the chocolate producers are debuting bars that have bits of cacao nibs in them.  Scharffen Berger had a milk chocolate with nibs that was mild and sweet with the surprising flavor and texture of the nibs exploding with each bite.  What I didn’t know, and found out later, is that Hershey acquired both Scharffen Berger and Joseph Schmidt Confections in 2005 to expand their presence in the premium chocolate segment.  Both Scharffen Berger and Joseph Schmidt are local companies with a very strong local following, and while I loved the independent spirit that founded these companies, the acquisitions have not had an impact on the quality of their respective products.  Dagoba Organic Chocolate had a Nibs bar with dark chocolate and cacao nibs that was rich and addictive.  Their approach to their business—what they call Full Circle Sustainability—takes a socially responsible approach to their product, from quality to community.  Their approach definitely shows in their final product.  They also had other premium chocolate bars, including one they called Seeds—a dark chocolate infused with hemp, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  What I liked about this bar was the inclusion of salted roasted seeds.  The salt in the seeds brought out and heightened the pure deep chocolate flavor and added lovely texture to the bar.

This was just a small sampling of what I tasted.  Sauces, cheeses, chocolates, cookies, ice creams, oh my!  I also found a new product to delight my grandchildren—cookie coloring kits from Color-a-Cookie.  They are iced sugar cookies that have favorite licensed characters printed on them—coloring book style—and packaged with food-coloring markers.  The kids can play with their food and eat it too!  However, at the end of the day, my favorite tasting of all was at the Premium Port Wines booth—the makers of Graham’s and Dow’s ports.  They offered tastings of six different ports paired with chocolate and cheeses that were the highlight of my tasting experience.  The Dow’s 20, a tawny port aged 20 years, was like nectar.  What a way to end the show!

1. Make an alternative cooking plan: How will you cook while your kitchen is under construction?  Will you relocate your appliances and sink?  Will you rely on a crock-pot, toaster oven, and microwave (you'll still need some type of sink preferably larger than a bathroom sink)? What about a fridge? Will you hire a personal chef or perhaps you will you eat out all of the time? The last two are both very costly options, you'll still have to deal with breakfast and lunch, and they may not be the most healthy options.

2. Cook meals before the kitchen goes away:  If you'll have any way to keep your freezer running during construction then make a stash of meals.  But don't use them all at the beginning - pace yourself! You'll appreciate a home cooked meal, albeit previously frozen, at the 75% mark a lot more than at the 5% completion mark.

3. Make friends:  Friends, neighbors, and families are great places to borrow a kitchen from!  Use their generosity to make large dishes that will last many nights like lasagna or other large casseroles. 

4. Keep an eye on the progress: Not everything about a kitchen remodel focuses on food.  You also need to monitor what is happening during the remodel.  Walk through the kitchen and try to visualize what the result will be.  The more frequently you do this, the more likely you will be able to “catch” any oversights or other potential problems before it is too late.

5. Make a list of easy meals:  In the months, or in some cases years, before construction starts create and maintain a list of dishes you've made that are easy.  This should be things with limited pots, limited ingredients, and limited clean-up.  You'll be surprised how many such dishes exist but if you try to think of them on the fly you'll be hard pressed to come up with any!

6. Make a list of things you'll need:  Sounds simple - keep out the pots, bowls, utensils, dishes, and staples you will need.  But when it comes time to figure out what to keep the process can be difficult.  To help yourself make a list of the items you will need before you need to pack.  The trick is to keep the essentials but not the frivolous.  You don't want too much stuff out but you also don't want to be going into your packed boxes to find something.  While you're at it you'll also want to find a place to store the stuff.  We used an old dresser.  The drawers were a little heavy, especially the ones with the pots, but they worked.

7. Practice using new items before purchase:  Buying new things for the kitchen is difficult.  Reading reviews and talking to people who've used the things is helpful but everyone is unique.  I recommend trying things out.  For appliances, such as a dishwasher, take some of your dishes to the store to see how they fit.  For some stoves and ovens, you can test them out in test kitchens.  Play with the fridges in the store and pretend you are putting your stuff in them.  For countertops, take a sample home - granite and marble places will happily knock off a small sample.  Once home try using it - get it dirty, open a can of vegetables on it, try to stain it (pour wine and lemon juice on it), get it wet to see how it dries, etc.  You'll be amazed at what you'll learn and what you won't want after you've tried it.

8. Have a refuge:  Find a place either in your house, your yard, a friend’s house or even a library, bookstore or mall where you can relax and take refuge.  Trust me some day you will just want to get away!

9. Make a list of cheap, but tasty restaurants:  Even if your remodel is short, some days (potentially many days) you just won't want to, or perhaps even be able to, eat in the house.  Either you'll need to just get away, you won't have time to deal with the temporary kitchen, or you'll just be sick of the limited range of meals you can prepare.  For these times, I highly recommend you start now in your quest to find a list of restaurants to eat at.  They should be cheap - remember your money is going towards the remodel. They should be tasty. And if possible try and find ones where you can eat something at least moderately healthy.  Otherwise, you'll be joining the Remodel 20 club; yes its just like the freshman 20 but since you're no longer in college the weight will be much harder to take off!

10. Have Patience: Most importantly have patience. Nothing whatsoever related to remodeling happens quickly no matter what you do!

I wish anyone embarking on a kitchen remodel an easy and quick process but most importantly a great result!