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”:

• SJ Mercury News: “Penny Ice Creamery owners take in the State of the Union speech, in person.”

Persimmons are a California seasonal fruit and I always like to include them in salads when they are available.

We had this Sunset Magazine salad on Thanksgiving and the dressing was great!

Continue for recipe ->

Preparation

1. In a medium bowl, whisk lime juice, oil, honey, salt, and cayenne until blended.

2. In another medium bowl, gently mix lettuces with 1 to 2 tbsp. dressing. Add remaining ingredients to first bowl with dressing and mix gently to coat.

3. Divide lettuce among 4 salad plates. Spoon fruit mixture on top.

$4.99/lb. Pre-Cooked Dungeness Crab from Coscto

$5 something a lb. at Whole Foods

4 crabs = 6 people

NOTE: The process of getting the meat out of the shells while sitting at the dinner table makes you think you are eating much, much more! This is part of the fun.

Steps to Deliciousness:

1. Steam the pre-cooked crabs.

*We did not boil them because they were already cooked and this may cause them to lose some of their flavor.  We steamed 2 at a time because they were so large.

2. Melt 2 sticks of butter, 6-8 cloves of minced garlic, and 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes in a saucepan.

3. Clean & rinse the crabs in the sink under cool water after these removal steps:

• How to remove the apron.
• How to remove the carapace.
• How to remove the gills.
• How to remove the mandible.

4. How to break in half.

5. Place the crab halves in a glass baking dish and pour the melted butter mixture over top.

6. Heat the oven to 350F and heat the crab until warm.

7. Serve with side of melted butter, lemons, crab/lobster crackers, picks, and lots of napkins!

For a meal: Serve with sourdough bread, rice blend, and salad.