Hello, hello, hello. The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck (one of my favorite things, ever) opened a brick-and-mortar shop in what already seems like years ago (although it was not) and I was finally, finally able to check it out a few weeks back and say hey to my buddies Doug and Bryan. Two cool cats, for sure.

I went with Miss Kelly Purkey, THE partner in crime for these things and there are even more fabulous pictures on the post she put in her blog.

Here she is playing texty with her new unicorn friend:

Unicorns are kind of a thing at The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, naturally:

Look at how pretty this one is! (And look at the slacking employees in the back… Doug!!!)

And if you don’t have the BGICT menu memorized by heart already, the ice cream at the above would be the Salty Pimp: vanilla ice cream, dulce de leche, sea salt, and chocolate dip. It’s kind of amazing. I don’t go here enough.

I made a cake this weekend! Specifically, this kind. Specifically for this guy:

It was his birthday this last Thursday. And he needed a cake.

I am proud of myself for baking a cake from scratch and not from a box. It wasn’t as good as when my friend Laura made it, but it was still pretty good. The birthday boy liked it, which was most important. And cake for lunch can never be bad anyway.

This past week was terrible, hence the no posts. This weekend was fantastic. Friday night – worked late and then went to the UWS for dinner with my cousin, her boyfriend, and her dad (my uncle). Family time always a good time.

Saturday – gym time and grocery store time and then I baked an awesome cake! After the cake came out (btw the batter was amazing), I went back to my cousin’s for her housewarming party. Talked to lots of people, ate lots of cheese.

And then today – walked the Brooklyn Bridge, hung out at Brooklyn Bridge Park and then walked the Brooklyn Heights Promenade (lots of Brooklyn!) followed by actually eating some cake and then later on drinks and dinner at The Clover Club.

Have I mentioned lately that I love Brooklyn? And chocolate cake. And other things, too.

Here’s to a better week!

So um, yeah. Ice cream is probably one of my favorite things in the world, which is a problem. But it’s so good. While I was in Austin, we went by this cute place called Amy’s Ice Cream about four times and I decided after Perla’s, this is what we were having for dessert. So we walked the two blocks and across the street and waited in line to get our deliciousness.

Amy’s is like Coldstone in that you order your flavor of ice cream and then you order the toppings you like and they mash it all together. But it is better than Coldstone. I had sweet cream ice cream with hot fudge and Trix. Yes, Trix. I actually didn’t mean to order Trix, but I accidentally did and let me just tell you… for the better! I thought Trix with ice cream would be weird but I think it was the best combination of my life. LIFE! So the next time I have this opportunity (I think they have Trix at The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck), I know exactly what I will be getting. Because it was so good.

And that is the last of my Austin: City Limits Tour. Waaaahhh. I’ll be back in Texas, I know it. :)

Well, hello chocolate layer cake from The Chocolate Room. Also called “The Biggest Piece of Chocolate Cake in My Life.” Sorry (or not sorry) to say I could not eat the entire thing. Miss Jordan introduced me to The Chocolate Room a while back. There are two locations in Brooklyn, one is quite close to me. The one we went to was in Park Slope. Apparently there was a time Jordan went so often she knew every server who worked there. No one was surprised. The dessert menu is pretty good, they have specials every night so there are a thousand options if you like chocolate. If you don’t like chocolate, who are you?

And this is called “Jordan Loves When I Take Pictures of Her.” Actually, she does. I like going places with her because she doesn’t mind playing model for me. And because she’s a good time. Tonight we’re going old-fashioned bowling for our friend Shar’s birthday.

The cake Jordan has here is a flourless chocolate cake with raspberry something or other. For the life of me I cannot figure out why I don’t like raspberry with my chocolate cake. I like chocolate cake and I like raspberry but I do not like them together. But the flourless cake itself was delicious. So take note, head to The Chocolate Room, and tell me what you get.

This is necessary. Sundaes at Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain on Henry Street in Brooklyn, the most prettiest street in all of Brooklyn. Walking down it inspires me to be better at life. Ice cream on the other hand does not. But it is still nice, too.

Above is a mocha madness sundae, or something. Coffee ice cream, chocolate sauce, perhaps a brownie on the bottom? Definitely out of control. Behind it is an “any day” chocolate sundae.

But this, my dears, is the winner. The Sundae of Broken Dreams. Yes, indeed. If you have a dream and it breaks, go to Brooklyn Farmacy and get this. Also if your dream is still intact. Vanilla ice cream, warm caramel sauce, broken pretzels and whipped cream. So simple yet so divine. Di-vine. This is what you order here! Make no mistake.

Also, Brooklyn Farmacy is the cutest. Makes me love Brooklyn.

A very nice woman seated next to us saw us taking photos and offered to take one of the three of us. Myself, my homegirl Jordan, and her friend Kelly in town for the week. The three of us are going to our first ever Brooklyn Cyclones game on Friday and I am PUMPED. But back to Brooklyn Farmacy’s cuteness. Do you see this?

So cute. Next time I want to snag a barstool so I can watch all the action. Also, Brooklyn Farmacy sells a lot of adorable things. Mostly foodstuffs, but on my way out my eyes unfortunately landed on this:

Look. at. the. anteater. Sigh… All I know is I am going to be in trouble the day I have kids. I’m going to buy them lots of creatures that are secretly actually just for me. I don’t know what my problem is. I mean I have like five stuffed animals on my bed right now as it is. AND I AM TWENTY SIX YEARS OLD. No matter. I love ‘em. So this anteater. If he’s still there the next time I’m at the Brooklyn Farmacy, he might be going home with me. Maybe.

And that, my dears, is the Brooklyn Farmacy.

It’s my momma again! One day when she was here we were walking around the village and we saw a man walking down the street with some gelato with a little cherub logo on the cup and it looked very nice. Ended up walking by the shop itself but we were on our way elsewhere. Luckily we had room for Amorino the next day.

Amorino has lots of gelato flavors and they let you combine as many flavors as you want in any size cone that you want. So that’s nice! And as you can see, they make the gelato look like a flower. It’s pretty cool. My mom had chocolate, stracciatella, and something fruity.

And here they are together. Mine is pistachio in the center, followed by dark chocolate and, of course, stracciatella. How could I not? Also, there was some fabulous people watching here.

So. If I didn’t mention that we were rear-ended when Kayti and I drove to Chicago a few weekends ago – we were. And if I didn’t mention my sister Emily very graciously let us take her car instead – she did. Her one condition: bring back Molly’s cupcakes.

So before we left for our drive back to Michigan – Molly’s is where we stopped. Kayti got some for her mom too. Molly’s has lots of different kinds of cupcakes and I almost didn’t know what to do. I decided to buy six random flavors: The Ron Bennington (chocolate cake, peanut butter filling, chocolate ganache, crushed butterscotch topping), Boston Cream (classic vanilla cake, delicate pastry cream filling, chocolate ganache), Cookie Monster (vanilla chocolate chip cake, raw cookie dough center, buttercream, mini chocolate chip cookie), birthday cake (duh) and something really chocolatey. I got them for my mom, my sis, and my Michelli to do a taste test for me and their winner was birthday cake.

But back to the store – it was cute. Look at this small child sitting on a swing:

I feel like it’s illegal (or just potentially creepy) to take pictures of other people’s kids which is why unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the kid’s adorable face that – I’m sure you can imagine – was covered in frosting.

This is a strawberry shortcake cupcake that Nora bought, which they only have in the summer:

And this is the definition of friendship:

Gotta love Molly’s Cupcakes.

I realize two things as I begin this post. 1) I have a post two days back called Prime Meats. These places are not the same. 2) Quality Meats is a steak restaurant and I am leading with a picture of ice cream. That’s how it should be.

Let me introduce you to the world of Quality Meats. It’s in midtown, 58th street to be exact, and the moment I stepped out of the subway I felt like I was in bizarro world. When was the last time I was in midtown? Not a clue.

But now let me take you back to Quality Meats. Quality Meats with Jen McGuire, who was in town JUST to have dinner with me! (I kid, I kid… she came to town to go to Eataly with KP AND THEN go to dinner with me.)

These are the crispy potatoes. I don’t know why I don’t ever ask the servers questions about the menu and assume I always know what it’s talking about because if I knew the crispy potatoes were going to be this crispy, I wouldn’t have ordered them. If you’re a fan of potato chips, then you would like them. My like of potato chips occurs only when I am surrounded with family, a giant bowl of french onion dip, and playing cards. So anyway.

This was the view from my seat. Chloe got some giant steak with the most giant bone and she took half of it home with her. The server asked if she wanted the bone. Like, really? People take that? Also is the gnocchi and cheese (yum) and sweet corn creme brulee (seriously). You should probably try it if you like either corn or creme brulee and would like to imagine them both together.

I went for the ribs:

The good thing was that I ate three or four and had the rest the following night for dinner. The bad news is I tried a bite of KP‘s filet and daaaaaaang that was good.

We all know the most important picture from this post, however, was the first one. I have seen this certain picture of Quality Meats coffee and ice cream donuts like once a week over the past year. I forget what site it’s on – whether it’s OpenTable or some other restauranty website I frequent – but I have seen a picture of that ice cream and donut one too many times and it has been deeply ingrained into my brain. The ice cream is coffee flavored, natch, with donut pieces on it and then the mini donut there on top. I liked it lots. Next time adding chocolate syrup.

Man, I am so sick of wearing cardigans! They’re like my favorite thing in the world but I would like to wear dresses without them now and I would like that to be soon, please (Spring – are you listening?)

And now we come to the portion of my post where I tell you other random happenings in my life because I started doing that and now I can’t stop. The most important thing to note is that I booked my first ticket to Texas to visit my padre and see the Detroit Lions play the Dallas Cowboys. I know the NFL is only half-functioning right now, but I’m hoping they get their act together soon enough. If not, I will still be going to Texas but I will not be watching football. I think I’ll still survive.

Bye!

This is the view when I leave my apartment building in the morning after it snows. I kind of love it. But sometimes, I have to leave it behind. So tomorrow is my birthday and I am on my way to Jamaica with my homegirls from Michigan State. Yay! I am so excited. I’m sure I’ll have a thousand pictures and hopefully I’ll be trying all kinds of food.

Speaking of. This week I went to Cookshop with my friend Melissa. We both started with salads which were deeeelicious and then she had the pan-seared scallops and I had sweet potato agnolotti. But I didn’t take any pictures until we got to this:

The Cookshop Candy Bars. Made of devil’s food cake, hazelnut-chocolate crunch, praline ganache, frozen peanut nougat and a chocolate shell. Oh, and there’s sea salt on top and everyone knows there is no better combination of chocolate and seasalt. So there’s that.

Um, happy birthday to me! My goal of this weekend away is to come back with some freckles. See ya. :)

Ladies and gents, this is Deepen Shah. He’s actually kind of famous, but that’s the only intro you’re getting for now. We went to Chikalicious Dessert Bar this week, which was awesome as it was another place that’s been on my short list for awhile. Walked by it all the time when I lived in the East Village but somehow never found a reason to go there. Until Deep was like, “Do you want ICE CREAM?”

Um… HI the answer is YES. So Chikalicious we went. I’m a little confused about Chikalicious actually… are there two locations? Dessert Club and Chikalicious Dessert Bar? There are two different websites that have very different branding. ANYWAY, we were at the Dessert Club. We thought we needed two desserts (and by we I mean me) so the one Deep has at the top is a sundae with toasted pistachio, chocolate pearls and kataifi – which I can’t even explain. Yumzville.

But what we really came for was the molten lava chocolate cake:

Because how could we not? And there’s a picture of Deep going to town already.

So Chikalicious is pretty good. Also, please tell me you noticed the couple in the background of the picture of Deep. They were making out half the time and it was awesome. And that is my “Happy Friday” gift to you.