The Marriage Of Chocolate Ice Cream And Lemon Sorbet

Givré is sorbet served in a fruit shell – as in this example of lemon sorbet served in half a lemon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dessert is very important to me, to my husband, and our children. I honestly can’t relate to people who, after a meal, say “I don’t really like anything sweet.” What? How is that even possible? It’s not something that my brain can comprehend. I always need something sweet after dinner, always. It doesn’t have to be huge (although that’s preferable) but it does have to be sweet. Or sweet and tart, that works too. Different but delicious.

I can only compare it to my husband’s sense of direction and my lack of a sense of direction. My husband will go to a place once, it could be last week or 15 years ago and he will remember how to get there again. I can go to the same place, 25 times and get lost each time. Unfortunately, it’s not even  that I get lost the same way, that would be easy. Once I find my way after arguing with my GPS which, in fact, I SHOULD listen to, I stop people, police officers, frantically yelling out of my window for directions.

Mostly I end up calling my husband on the phone while I park my car in someone’s driveway. It has happened way too many times. When my children were little and I was lost I made it into a game (why scare them?) and I would say to the unknown house “Hi, got milk and cookies?” My kids thought it was hilarious at the time, they would giggle and laugh and repeat the question over and over again.

little scoops of chocolate ice cream 600X700 (Photo credit: wintersoul1)

On the other hand, I can recognize someone I went to elementary school, bump into them 35 years later in a different state and not only will I recognize them I will remember their name and specifics about them. My husband doesn’t recognize or remember anybody, not their face, not their name, he draws a complete blank but he sure can get you to wherever you want to go even if he has never been there, the thing I dread most.

Once I am safely back home, my husband and I will have dinner and of course, first have a “Pre-D” and then the real dessert. Luckily we do share our love for dessert equally. He was once only a dark chocolate fan and I was a milk chocolate fan but through our 24 years we have blended together. Our latest favorite dessert combination is chocolate ice cream, and lemon sorbet, sharing space together in our clear glass ice cream bowls. They complement each other, the sour and the sweet, a perfect mixture. They balance each other the same way my husband and I do. Sometimes, if you are very lucky, it just works out that way.

That Scar of Mine: When We Were Young (Kew Gardens’ Kids)

Kew Gardens’ Kids

Chocolate Egg Cream

In my childhood I grew up with three best friends, Claudine, Roger and Glen. We were together every single day while our moms sat on an old red brick and concrete wall, called ” the moyishen” German for little wall.  Our moms sat next to each other, each and every day, laughing, talking and dreaming together. There was comfort in our everyday ritual: Frankie and the Good Humor ice cream truck, our daily trek to Gussie’s old, dark candy store. Our only decision back then was whether to order a chocolate egg cream, vanilla water, or an ice cream soda; an ice cream sandwich, an eclair, or ice pops. We skateboarded down the hill, we played handball, we jumped rope, and we went rollerskating together. One particular afternoon, while we was on roller skates, I fell down hard on the pavement seriously cutting up both knees, bleeding heavily. I remember the pain of the antiseptic and rough tissues that Glen’s mother, Lotti, carried with her. She was always the most prepared of the moms. I remember the stiffness of both knees once large bandages were attached, layers and layers of white bandages. I still have those scars on my knees but I don’t mind them. They remind me of a happy childhood, an innocent childhood, where we always had someone to play with and our moms were just a hop, skip and jump away.