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I C E C R E A M S A N D W I C H E S : When my girlfriend Margot told me I should try this recipe, I saw the ingredients and thought, I don’t think so. I probably never would have made them if the recipe had come from someone else. But this is a smart girl, a wonderful cook, and a BFF. So I did it. They turned out SO good I call them . . .

F I R E W O R K S !!!

Because, in the best possible way, they explode your taste buds and shock your understanding of what cooking can be. Everyone loves them. Joe loves them! These are the ones you eat leaning against the kitchen counter, barefooted, in front of the fan. These are the ones you serve at a summer dinner party. You might even serve them as appetizers if you’re of the “dessert first” ilk. I love to surprise people with them. ♥

These are them, they look OK, don’t you think? That’s because they haven’t exploded yet. I know you’re a little suspicious, what is that pink stuff?

Here we go: the cooky part is important, they need to be the thin, wafer-type. I’ve found them in all kinds of flavors, these (in the photo) have tiny chocolate chips in them. It doesn’t really matter, but they shouldn’t be all chocolate; look for vanilla, coconut, or ginger. They come stacked on their sides in a long box. Buy two boxes, because some of these cookies are bound to be broken. I love the flower-shaped ones for summer. ♣

Next. Pineapple-Coconut ice cream. If you can find it, Haagan Dazs makes a delicious one. If not, then either Pineapple, OR coconut. If not, then vanilla. A pint if you are timid, a half gallon if you think this might turn out OK.

Next: freshly ground black pepper, large grind. Stay with me. I PROMISE these are so good!

And last, here’s the biggie, the one that will furrow your brow, you will need a jar of pickled ginger; the kind they give you with sushi, make sure that’s what you are getting, mine actually says “sushi ginger” on the jar.

On a flat plate, lay out the number of cookies you want, pretty side of the cooky down. Use a wide flat knife or spatula and cut through ice cream to form basic patties about the size of the cooky, maybe an inch thick. Carefully put the patty on the fragile cooky, flatten carefully, thumbs work well here, and spread a bit to the edges. Grind pepper over the ice cream (Yes, I’m sorry, but this is how it’s done). Cover ice cream with good-sized piles of chopped pickled ginger (courage girlfriends); then put a small dot of ice cream on the top of the ginger pile, and stick on another cooky, flower-side up. You can eat one now, and keep the others in the freezer (after they’re frozen, you can wrap them individually in waxed paper to keep them). I don’t know how long they keep because the longest we’ve managed to keep them in the freezer without eating them was six hours. Up to six hours, I can vouch that they’re great. We’re going to bond over this, I just know it….it’s the ice cream sandwich version of a Skip-and-Go-Naked! Deceptively fabulous. BUT, in case you can’t see your way to pepper and pickled ginger with your ice cream, I have an alternative. I come bearing gifts . . .

These delicious Ice Cream Sandwiches are good for a crowd, because lots of them together inspire ooohs and aaahs. The colors are so perky! The cooky is the same thin Nabisco famous chocolate wafer cooky you make that old-fashioned (and delicious) ice box cake out of …. for the insides, choose every color of ice cream (and sherbet). Fill them as described above. You can roll some of the edges in nuts, shredded or toasted coconut, tiny candies, or chopped up Reese’s Pieces. Be as creative as you like. When frozen, the cooky softens and becomes cake like. Lovely for children. Lovely for you. ♥

Freeze some green grapes, have them with a glass of cold wine and an ice cream sandwich for dinner tonight . . . and remember . . .

L o v e L o v e L o v e L o v e L o v e L o v e L o v e

The adorable Miss Pettitoes says GOOD MORNING Girls (and Jake)! ♥

It’s hot isn’t it, hot hot hot. Going to be 97 degrees in Boston today. The daytime is useless to me now. Or, actually, I’m useless to it. I can’t seem to move until the sun goes down.

After dinner last night we walked out our screen door into the dark, and, because I have become voyeur/photographer extraordinaire, (no neighborhood is safe from me ever again), I get to bring you along!

Under the old trees that arch over our narrow little streets is a bit like being under water, splotchy moonlight comes through, all soupy and green in the soft air and humidity. I thought, with the “heat dome” as the weatherman is calling whatever this heat thing is, you might enjoy a cooling walk in the dark. Grab a little sweater and let’s go!

Because I wanted to give you the true feeling of the night, I didn’t use a flash on my camera . . . and in order to do that, one must be very steady, and apparently, obviously, one is not. Just wanted you to know all the out-of-focus isn’t YOU. (Want music while you look at this? Click here, leave it on, while you come back to this page. . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM2Xa4RUBCk and tell me if you ever get sick of this song because I just will never get sick of it! I’ll probably sing it all day now!)

Off we go . . . Joe’s asking if I have my camera! Yes, honey; click, I do, darling.

Ahhhh, a breath of fresh air, a breeze came from the harbor, only a block away. Now we realize we’re whispering . . . it’s so dark and quiet, we think we might be invisible. No one can see us, only hear the muffled crunching sound of feet on pavement as we head down the street. Could be a squirrel, couldn’t it?

As soon as I was old enough, the heart magnet of New England, started drawing me toward the island….My inner self knew I just couldn’t live life without being near houses that looked like this . . . ♥

Our neighborhood offers probably the same thing any neighborhood does on hot summer nights, exactly the same kind of thing I got when I was a girl walking ’round and ’round our block in the Valley, under the stars, trying to figure out life with my best friend. ♥ And up in the sky, the same old moon looks down on us . . .

Nothing’s really changed, it’s still the best kind of quiet; the sounds of domesticity that make the world seem right; the clinking of the dishes being cleared up, bits of music drifting from windows, people in rocking chairs outside with yellow porch lights and a halo of moths. You can’t see it, but we could look up into windows and see old wallpaper; into screen doors, and down halls lined with family photos. All of this works especially well when you’re invisible. Saw a kitty on a window sill catching the harbor breeze.

There were lightening bugs along this fence I was hoping to capture for you, but they’d blink and I’d snap, missing them by a mile . . . all the way down the street they seemed to follow us, under the hydrangeas, in the ivy, in the darkest places, little blinks of fairy light flitted along with us. ♥

Our walks always take us down to the harbor, where the boat comes in….to hear the water lap on shore (pretend you hear it, it’s instant cooling!). See all those little boats tied up there? They belong to sailboat people who’ve come into town off their boats that are tied in the harbor to have dinner. They could trail a hand in the water as the boat motors to shore. I think they do. I would. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect life? At least for one night?

And a half block up is the most wonderful ice cream store, Mad Martha’s, famous on the island; we each got a cone (I’m having a pistachio yen this summer, Joe goes for coffee chocolate chip; we are both sugar-cone aficionados :-)) and we brought a whole different kind home, because my next post is going to be a recipe for the most amazing, almost criminal, ICE CREAM SANDWICHES. And that’s it, we’re almost home now, but not quite . . . first we were serenaded . . .

We pass the church across the street from our house, just in time for choir practice…out the doors, the music comes, just for us . . . And He walks with me and He talks with me and he tells me I am His own . . . up to the sky it went, musical notes that looked just like stars.

And then, up the back driveway . . . and home to the Heart Magnet . . .my own personal ground zero. And that’s it, a night in the ‘hood. Come back for some ice cream later girls…until then, stay coooool . . . xoxo me ♥

Kiss Boring Goodbye ♥

Night Moves ♥