Sandwiched

Sure, I enjoy an ice cream sandwich. Who doesn't?

But I think the frozen dessert could stand some improvement. For some time, our thinking on this dessert has been too...vanilla. I'm sure you can guess where my next column is heading: straight to Forksperimentation Land.

Excluding light options like Skinny Cow, my humble North Carolina supermarket only has traditional sandwiches and a strawberry cheesecake option that looks terrible (full disclosure: I'm not a cheesecake person).

Elsewhere, though, things seem to be looking up. Apparently, Blue Bunny makes a few other flavors like Neapolitan, Strawberry and Mississippi Mud. Fat Boy has some tempting ideas like mint chocolate chip and some odd choices like egg nog sandwiches. And then there's Edy's ice cream sandwich ice cream. Of course, leave it to Google to take things up a notch.

Picking up where Google and It's It left off, I'll suggest some ice cream sandwich alternatives in the coming weeks. Since I'm heading to San Francisco right after this next newspaper column, I'll have to see if my handiwork matches up to It's It's chocolate coated oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwich.

Hey, It's It's staff: it's on.

Peter Piper Picked Peppers

I've been away from the computer and the blog for a bit, enjoying the summer. Hope you've been doing the same.

In the interim, I've been making the most of the season's produce. We all love farmer's markets. But how about live music plus a farmer's market?

That's what's on offer at "Saturdays in Saxapahaw," a concert series set on a hill right near the quaint Haw River. The Spoonstress and I went with friends this past weekend and had a good ole time. I enjoyed the company, the music and a cold beer on a hot night (I considered talking my way onto the kids' Slip 'n Slide).

The Saxapahaw farmer's market is a small one, but it's fun. Last time there I tried an interesting yellow or lemon cucumber, which looks pretty much like a bumpy lemon.

This time I got some yellow cherry tomatoes and a great orange pepper for the night's picnic. It was so crisp, juicy and reasonable ($1!) that I snagged another for the week. The farmer said the one that I selected was his "prize pepper," but he somehow managed to let it go.

Farmer's markets work for so many reasons (food miles, buying local, freshness, etc.), but here's something underrated--food with character. Sure, some people don't want a pepper that looks like a tooth (see my prized pepper), but you can get plain old ones the rest of the year at the supermarket. For now, may as well enjoy the summer and its bounty.

Too Many Tomatoes??

No, that's impossible. There's no such thing as too many local tomatoes.

Let's call 2007 the Summer of German Johnsons. OK, maybe it's more like my summer of German Johnsons. I've sworn allegiance to this heirloom tomato after one free sample at the Raleigh (N.C.) farmer's market. Maybe that's because it's a North Carolina variety.

If I ever get around to growing tomatoes--and I hope to next year--I'll definitely grow German Johnsons. There's such a dizzying array of options (Abe Lincolns, etc.) it's comforting to know I can stick with the GJs.

Anyway, with local tomatoes left and right (I drove by one house selling them in their driveway--unfortunately, they were gone the next time I drove by), it's been a fun couple weeks of eating.

I'm not sure about you, but I find myself preparing foods just as an excuse to eat the local tomatoes. I'm also putting them in weird things like burritos, which isn't really that odd if you think about it. What about tomatoes in your cereal?

I almost did it. Man, I'm so close to being wild and crazy. In my defense, I contemplated it but didn't want to spoil any gorgeous slices of tomato by getting lousy Grape Nuts on them. Can you blame me???

Watermelon Five Ways

When life gives you lemons, I'm told you're supposed to make lemonade. But what about when life (via the farmer's market) delivers a boatload of watermelon?

Well, I started with watermelonade. After a minute in the blender the watermelon and crushed ice (via hammer) made for a refreshing summer drink. It's no lemonade, but what is?

Given that watermelon is 92 percent water, it's a natural as a drink. My one concern, the seeds, were easy to avoid because they settled at the bottom.

Taking things into smoothie territory, I added some banana and yogurt. I'd recommend the former, but not the latter. Maybe add a little orange juice for extra flavor, but you don't want to overpower the watermelon.

Next, I tried cut-up watermelon in my morning Grapenuts. I'm not sure what happened, but my stomach felt like I'd consumed Pop Rocks and Pepsi. As in this video--notice the Pop Rocks flavor!--the combination didn't kill me. But it sure didn't feel good.

Afternoon snack meant cut watermelon with banana slices. It sounds plain, but it doesn't really need anything else. I imagine grapes would work well here, too.

Finally, I tried watermelon in my salad, piggy-backing on Crook's Corner chef Bill Smith's idea (as seen on the cover of Southern Living's July issue). I didn't make his tomato-and-watermelon salad. Instead, I added watermelon to a salad with tomato, lettuce, cucumbers, red onion and Gorgonzola. The watermelon meshed with all parties, playing the role I usually reserve for a Granny Smith.

These ideas provided a nice change of pace. But after eating melon morning, noon and night, I'd say its best use is a familiar one: a big slice right after dinner, preferably eaten outside in the summer heat and washed down with a tall glass of lemonade.

Spork Notes: Ellio's Pizza

From time to time, I write about a favorite food in a feature I call Spork Notes. Today's topic: Ellio's Pizza.

While some folks' freezer pizza of choice is round, I hew to the rectangular. Within that genre, French bread pizza has regal aspirations. Ellio's aspires to no such heights. Its beauty lies in its simple, solid taste.

An Ellio's box contains three sheets of pizza, each one perforated into three "slices." Apparently some people will only cook one or two slices, but I've always made three. That's probably because when I wanted a "pizza snack," I went with that traditional Italian treat--Bagel Bites.

Besides, snapping off slices before baking takes some doing, seeing as they're frozen. I've stopped that practice because it shakes loose a bit of the cheese, of which there isn't much to spare. That's part of the charm in this age of inch-thick mozzarella.

Ellio's Pizza was the second "dinner" I could make for myself, after hot dogs. Interestingly, both involved the toaster oven. Maybe that's why I'm fiercely loyal to a toaster oven, and can't stand the pop-up kind.

While Ellio's remains pretty low-brow, I've always seen it as customizable. What began with garlic powder and parmesan now looks a bit more deluxe.

Sadly, McCain foods doesn't sell this prince of the pizza aisle here in North Carolina. Perhaps that enhances the allure. It certainly explains why two Ellio's boxes filled my cooler on the return leg of a recent trip to Delaware. (If you work for McCain and are reading this...let's talk).

Since then, Ellio's has ousted Mrs. T's Pierogies, as my standard solo supper. As you can see from the photo, which I've named "Dinner for One," you could do a lot worse.

Melon-choly

I visited the Raleigh Farmer's Market this week. The visit, coupled with the beads of sweat perched on my forehead, reminded me that it's full-on summer. Tomatoes, cantaloupe and watermelon were all abundantly in season. The zucchini, or squash, as it was called, looked invitingly green.

While the cantaloupes and their beckoning free samples were attractive, I asked around to see if anyone had honeydew, my favorite melon. Nope.

But if you're looking for honeydew, one vendor told me, you should try the sprite melon across the way. After being reassured that the soda industry wasn't in cahoots with North Carolina farmers, I examined what looked like a small honeydew.

The grower, a young man, was giving it toothpick tastes. He described it as a cross between a pear and a honeydew. Maybe the worst parts of each. In hindsight, it's not surprising that I didn't enjoy its flavor, since I don't love a pear.

Back at the ranch, I learned a bit more about the sprite melon. While I was under the impression the sprite melon was a result of some cross-breeding, it's actually an Oriental crisp flesh melon, said Nick Augostini, a marketing specialist at the N.C. Dept. of Agriculture's Specialty Crops program.

Around 2000, the N.C. Specialty Crops Program realized there was a market for this melon and that it would thrive in North Carolina's climate. Today, sprite melons are grown here and shipped across the country, sometimes marketed as Paradise Melons (I think).

Anyway, the outing made me realize there's a whole world of melons, waiting to be discovered. And while I'm getting around to that exploration, I'm enjoying a good ol' watermelon from the farmer's market.