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The Picnic Basket: Santa Cruz

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

If you think all there is to Santa Cruz is the beach boardwalk, you’re wrong, branch out.  Actually the boardwalk is not a first choice for a spot to spend the day down in Santa Cruz.  Of course, unless you have folks visiting from out of town who have kids. It is always fun to take the kids on the Big Dipper roller coaster or to walk out on the wharf and hear the barking animals below. Having just made that statement, let me contradict myself by telling you to check our three favorite Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk foods post!  AND, check out The Picnic Basket, a new place to grab lunch down at the Boardwalk for keepin’ it classy. It caught my eye this summer when we took our niece to get a homemade corn dog and to get jerked around for awhile on the rickety coaster.  The Picnic Basket doesn’t look like it belongs down by wharf area because it is quite tasteful looking in a retro beach kind of way, but not diner style-retro over the top.  It is owned by Penny Ice Creamery which is a great sign.  So one afternoon we finally got to stop in and get a great local El Salchichero hot dog with Farmhouse Kulture Kraut and a Santa Cruz Mountain Brew (check out their facebook page for $1 off coupon until 11/1/11 https://www.facebook.com/thepicnicbasketsc) or a Verve coffee.  They have a rotating selection from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, Santa Cruz Aleworks, Uncommon Brewers, Boulder Creek Brewing Company, Corallitos Brewing Company, Seabright Brewery, and Sante Adairius Rustic Ales (yes, all in Santa Cruz County!).   They let us have a taste of the local wine they serve and of course as we were quickly sipping, a train went by outside, nice touch.  You can still get Penny’s Ice Cream with a choice of about 9 flavors in the case. I love all of the local foods and drinks you can get at the Picnic Basket, seriously check out their tasty menu online and their fun coupon deals from FB.  PB is a healthy and tasty alternative, see their salad choices too. We are glad to have them around!

Kids, tell your parents you will let them go to The Picnic Basket if they take you to the Boardwalk.  It just might work!

The Picnic Basket tag-line says it all: Local • Artisan Food • Drinks • Coffee • Ice Cream

125 Beach Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Mon – Sun: 7:00 am - 12:00 am

Posted in Eating Out, Santa Cruz | No Comments »
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The Penny Ice Creamery in Santa Cruz … in the News!

Monday, January 31st, 2011

After frequenting great, creative ice cream shops across the country such as Jeni’s in Columbus, OH, Sweet Action in Denver, and Humphrey Slocombe in SF we are so glad to have The Penny Ice Creamery in Santa Cruz and we look forward to evolving with them.

The Penny Ice Creamery is a great addition to the very limited Santa Cruz-specific ice cream scene.  Yes, we have Dairy Queen, Cold Stone Creamery, and numerous frozen yogurt shops (I feel embarrassed for even mentioning those at all in the same article) in SC but there is really only one other ice cream shop that is worth writing home about (there is another in downtown SC that I haven’t tried yet).  This of course is the fifty-year old landmark ice cream shop near the boardwalk known as Marianne’s (Macapuno: Creamy baby coconut ice cream is a great flavor).  The Penny is a nice contrast to the famous standard Marianne’s and is completely an artisan shop, home-made and seasonal from scratch.  They currently use about 2,000 organic eggs a week and organic milk in contrast to most ice cream base which is actually almost always purchased from an outside source (there may only be one other ice creamery in CA that makes their own base as well – Sweet rose in Brentwood – don’t quote me on that).  Their flavors are more and more intriguing to me each time I stop in the shop (5 Spice with Fried Peanuts, Banana Toffee, Kiwi Sorbet).  Flavors often incorporate other great local goods such as coffee from Verve and Santa Cruz Mountain Stout.  Online and on facebook you can check out their daily menu of flavors (a flavor is around no longer than six days but usually lasts 4 days) which means they can offer creative and new concoctions all the time and then once you find one you love … let’s hope they bring it back.  They even make their own cones!  I am looking forward to some creative sundaes in the future (such as the seasonal classic Spice Tower from Graeter’s Ice Cream).

The chef and co-owner, Kendra, has been a pastry chef for ten years and worked as a Pastry Chef at Manresa in Los Gatos and Bar Tartine in SF before opening Penny Ice Creamery last year.

In addition, The Penny owners were recently in the news for being personally invited to the White House for making a video entitled “How Recovery Act boosted small biz, an ice cream case study”:

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ReadyMade Magazine: Banana Split Ice Cream Cake Recipe

Monday, June 7th, 2010

For this dessert, start at least two days before you want to server it!  AND, don’t take it to a friend’s home who has a freezer powered by solar.  You need a normal to powerful freezer to freeze the dessert properly or should I say thoroughly.   So basically, I wouldn’t recommend ice cream cake, where you make the ice cream yourself for the dessert,  without a few days to prep it to make sure it’s a “solid” dessert for the party.

This is a whammy of a labor-intensive dessert because you will be making the ice cream, with your ice cream maker, and create the cake part too. However, the flavors in this dessert are worth the work because it is a unique flavor combo!  Thanks ReadyMade magazine for your creative Spice Cream Recipes!

Tips for making Ice Cream & Ice Cream Cake:

  • Freeze your ice cream maker bowl at least 24 hours beforehand, if not sooner. I’ve made this mistake too many times.
  • Test your ice cream maker with a simple ice cream first.  The reason for this is that there is room for error with how well your ice cream maker operates and how frozen your ice cream bowl must be to work well.  Always store the ice cream bowl in a cool area and freeze it as it is standing right side up.
  • Start the dessert even a few days (2-3 days) ahead of time and freeze the ice cream overnight and the cake for a decent amount of time as well once you have loaded it with the ice cream.

Brown Sugar & Spiced Banana Ice Cream Recipe

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Posted in Desserts, Home Cookin' | 2 Comments »
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Out of Town: Denver, CO

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

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Posted in Eating Out, Out of Town | 3 Comments »
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Humphry Slocombe San Francisco: Whiskey & Cornflakes Ice Cream!

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Michelle, a SF foodie friend, and I were talking about this and decided that the first food maker that we can remember who mixed spices and various combinations of flavors was Vosges Haut Chocolat.   Vosges does make ice cream as well with their creative concoctions.  We are now lucky enough to live in the Bay Area where folks are constantly coming up with creative food combinations.  Michelle said she could remember lobster ice cream and corn on the cob ice cream from summers spent on the east coast.  My favorite ice cream has always been Graeters, a Cincinnati, OH original.  But now there are creative ice cream shops in every major city such as Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream (Chocolate w/ Cornflakes, Queen City Cayenne, Thai Chili) in Columbus, OH and Humphry Slocombe in SF.

Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream is sold at their shop and at a gourmet food market in SF by the scoop ($2.50 a scoop) or pint ($8).

Humphry Slocombe Creative Flavors

I tried the Morning Secret that consists of Jim Beam, flour, corn flakes, vanilla, and butter.  Boy was it buttery and the Beam was subtle!  It actually reminded me of a fancier version of a superman ice cream!  Michelle tried the Pepper-Mint Chip that was a combination of fresh chopped mint with Cubeb Pepper, and Valhrona Chocolate Chips.  She said that the Pepper-Mint Chip was surprisingly a great combination that she expected to fail, but it just didn’t!

Shop:
2790 Harrison St
San Francisco, CA 94110

Posted in Eating Out, San Francisco, Store Bought | 4 Comments »
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