Ice cream and additions

This goes out to the few  lost souls who do not yet understand the power of Trader Joe's Coffee Bean Blast Ice Cream.  Honestly, I have loved, loved, loved coffee ice cream for about 40 years. Tasted dozens, had my faves.  But nothing compares to TJ's. It is smooth as butter, has more coffee flavor than any other ice cream I have had and even has tiny, visible coffee grains but has no grainy feeling.  It is the best.

HOWEVER, and this is crucial:  once you try it, and love it, and then run into your local Trader Joe's to replenish your stash, make sure you are getting the coffee.  Not the chocolate.  They look exactly the same, same color, same size.  Just different words. I ran in yesterday to get coffee ice cream, multi-grain corn chips (yum!), TJ house brand bourbon (a staple in my hidden closet) and their delicious pork buns (in the freezer case, you will thank me.)  Four things.  Hard to fuck up.  Came home, everything in its right place.  Went to get that delicious coffee ice cream last night and Zut Alors!  That coffee ice cream was chocolate!  I was so disappointed in myself but I had to try it and it was friggin good!  Not comparable with the coffee but for chocolate, it was fine.

My dinner tonight was Trader Joe's weird fried pea snacks. Odd. But whatever.  And I was planning on having some of that chocolate ice cream, this time with a little home-made caramel sauce.  And I found a really, really easy caramely sauce that you can make in less than 10 minutes with what you have in the house.  Here it is:

half cup packed brown sugar
quarter cup cream or half and half
2 or 3 ounces butter
salt
put those in a small saucepan and cook over medium low heat, let it boil a bit, stirring, for about 5 -7 minutes.  add a bit of vanilla, like a half teaspoon, cook another minute.  Let it cool. That's it.  Add more salt if you want that salty-butterscotch flavor (which I do) and spoon it over that chocolate ice cream or vanilla, or over biscuits or over chicken or over hot dogs, or anything you are bored with but must eat.  It keeps in the fridge for a while but, honestly, if you make it and don't eat it in three or four days, you are a loser.  Double it and then keep it in the fridge for a week.  You are less of a loser then but you still have to devour it in a week.  Trust me.  Or not.  

OK, my chocolate ice cream is calling me. It knows it is not the coffee ice cream I prefer, so it is offering to sacrifice itself, with the salty caramel sauce, so that I can go back to TJ's and get the Coffee Bean Blast ice cream.  And perhaps.... put caramel sauce on that!   Yum

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