Food Adventures: Jam and Ice Cream

We bought Peaches in Brandy Jam at Smoky Mountain Farms Jelly House when we were in Tennessee earlier this month. The hubby thought it would be good on vanilla ice cream.

We decided to try his idea.

I scooped vanilla ice cream into bowls. 

Then I warmed up the jam in the microwave for a few seconds

Add topped the ice cream with the jam.

It tasted amazing. The jam reminded me of the canned peaches my Nana would make but no one seems to have a recipe for.

This definitely was a good idea. I don't know if I'd like the jam on anything else but it is amazing on ice cream. 

I wonder what other jams and jellies would be good on vanilla ice cream. I'm sure raspberry would taste delicious over chocolate ice cream. I may have to try that in the future. 

26 in 2026: Try a new food -- Passion Fruit

 We were planning on a having a champagne tea party. Instead of typical tea party foods, we were thinking of doing a fruit and yogurt bar. I picked up some passion fruit when it was on sale because it was new and different. Well for various reason the tea party didn't happen but I still had passion fruit in my fridge. 

Passion fruit is a tropical fruit. It you mainly eat the seeds and pulp. You know it is ripe when it starts to wrinkle. It can be stored in the fridge up to a month. 

To cut passion fruit, you can either cut it in half or cut off the top. Either way you want to scoop out the pulp and seeds. You discard the rinds. 

I was told you can eat the seeds plain or mix the seeds and pulp in yogurt or a smoothie. I am not one for seeds so I opted to mix it in some vanilla yogurt.

The pulp and seeds kind of remembered me of tapioca pudding. It was kind of thick and gooey. I kind of tasted like a Kiwano Melon. It was more tart than sweet and very acidity. Mixing it with the yogurt helped and then you really didn't need to chew the seeds either. It was actually an ideal way to eat it. 

I am not 100% sold on the idea of passion fruit.  I probably won't buy it for my own indulgance but I would probably do it for a champagne tea party or something. 

I am glad I tried passion fruit and who knows what my next fruit adventure will be. 

25 in 2025 -- Try a New Food -- Santa Claus Melon

 We were discussing what we were going to bring to our July Tea Party Get together. I said I'd bring some melon as I saw that Piggly Wiggly had melons on sale and not just honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon. Different varieties of melon like Santa Claus or Hami Melon. I even did my research (okay looked each one on Google) and determined I wanted to try Hami, Canary, and Santa Claus Melon.

Before going to Piggly Wiggly, we went to Festival who has a great produce section. I saw that they had melons for 99 cents a pound including Santa Claus and Canary but no Hami melons. They had this cute little melon called a Lemon Melon. All of the melons came in various sizes and I liked they had some small ones. I was intrigued by it so I got the Lemon Melon. I was going to get the Santa Claus and Canary melon too but the hubby said Piggly Wiggly was going to be cheaper. 

We went to Piggly Wiggly and they had 4 melons.. one of each variety and they were larger than Festival melons of the same variety. I didn't even know what melon was what and there was no Hami melon. So back to Festival we went where I picked up a Santa Claus and Canary Melon.

All three melons were similar to a honeydew or cantaloupe. 

Santa Claus Melon is also called Christmas melon because it can last until Christmas due to long shelf life. It has a harder texture like honeydew and is definitely similar in color to honeydew. It definitely has more of a honeydew flavor. 

Canary Melon is has a more pear like texture but is more green in color than the Santa Claus Melon. It is definitely softer than the Santa Claus melon. This has a great taste like cantaloupe but hints of pineapple and/or banana. 

Lemon Melon is a hybrid melon from Japan that has skin like a cantaloupe but flesh more like honeydew. It is on the harder side when comparing the textures of the melons. Like it's name says, there is a hint of citrus with the honeydew flavor.

My preference is order: Canary, Lemon, Santa Claus. Erin preferred the Santa Claus melon and Janis really had no preference. I thought the Santa Claus tasted too much like Honeydew. I really like the unique flavor and texture of the Canary Melon. The Lemon one was surprisingly good in its own way.

I would get all three again but if I had to only choose one it definitely would be the canary melon. I am still waiting to try a Hami Melon. Maybe my next food adventure. 

If there is a melon sale going on, definitely move out of your comfort zone and try a new melon. You never know what you might end up loving (or hating). 

7375. Try a Pasty

 The Upper Peninsula of Michigan (aka the UP) has the reginal food called a Pasty which is a Cornish pasty filled with meat and potatoes that the miners would bring to the mines with them. Think the original hot pocket or a British Calzone. I've always wanted to try one. I wasn't sure if the hubby if the hubby ever had a desire to try one. As much as I wanted to try one, I wasn't about to suggest it on any of our trips to the UP. 

When we saw frozen Pasty at Festival we figured what the heck. Let's try them. We opted to have chicken over beef. 

The directions had us bake them in the oven. 

They didn't wow me but they weren't terrible either. The crust was very bland. The chicken and vegetables were delicious. If the crust wasn't so bland they would be even better. But I get it they are Cornish/British which tend to be on the bland side. 

We would probably get them again. It is a good winter dinner option. Quick and easy and tastes pretty good. 

I do want to try a fresh one from a restaurant in the UP. 

5233. Have stuffed chicken wings from Mai’s Deli

 For over a year, we have been waiting to try stuffed chicken wings from Mai's Deli in Appleton. It makes it hard with the hubby's schedule but finally we had a Saturday night free and I said we were going to do it.

Mai Deli's is a Southeast Asian cafe near downtown. They serve stuffed chicken wings, pho, and Pad Thai among other favorites. They are open Monday-Saturday 10-8. They do have dine in and carryout. 

We weren't sure what we wanted so we opted to go there and order. Most people do carry out but do have a few tables for dine in. 

We knew wanted stuffed chicken wings but not sure what else. There were plenty of things on the menu the hubby won't even think about trying. I think if I was with Stacy I might have been a bit more adventurous. We stuck with stuffed chicken wings, chicken egg rolls, and crab rangoons. 

The wait for our food was about 10-15 minutes which wasn't bad for a Saturday night. We just sat and people watched. Now that we know what we like, we probably will just call and order next time.

The stuffed chicken wings were fabulous. It is egg roll filling in a jumbo chicken wing. We definitely will be getting them again.

I'm not a huge egg roll fan. These were good but I think the pork would be even better. The crab rangoons were delicious.

If you have not tried Mai's Deli yet, you definitely need to. We can't wait to go back. I told Stacy I found where we taking her for cookie baking next year. 

5242. Have ice cream at Frio Mexican Treats in Appleton

 Everyone kept posting about this ice cream place in Appleton called Frio. It looked really good. I didn't mention it the hubby since it was Mexican ice cream and wasn't sure he'd like it. Then he saw something in the paper about it being one of the best ice cream places in the area and wanted to try it. This is usually how things work, I find something I want to try or go to, then I wait for him to discover it, and then we ended checking it out.

Frio Mexican Treats is located on Wisconsin Ave in Appleton. They are open Wednesday-Sunday. They is also have a location in Neenah which is open Thursday-Monday.

We opted to go before we had dinner. When you are an adult you can eat dessert first. I was having a hard deciding what I wanted. There was ice cream and churro sundaes to pick from along with Mexican corn and a few other items. They had a variety of sundaes to choose from or you could build your own.  As tempting (and delicious) was the Ube Brownie, I opted for Yo Quiero Cookie Sundae. which was Oreo ice cream with Chips Ahoy cookies. I just wasn't ready to build my own.

I ordered a baby and it was more than enough. I have not had a churro sundae since Costa Rica and missed them. This really hit the spot. The churros were filled with custard. It was sweet and gooey and delicious. 

The hubby had Shiocton Blast and he loved it too. I am glad he's stepping out of his comfort zone.

It was bit pricy but no pricier than going to Dairy Queen for Blizzards. The choices of ice cream makes it well worth it. We definitely will be back.. this time after dinner.

You definitely need to check out Frio if you have not yet. Delicious and they even have coffee. 

Note: It looks like they may temporary close from January to Mid-February. We went in early November. 

3651. Have pizza in New Mexico

 We are pizza snobs and are on a quest to find the good pizza whenever we travel. I decided to try to have pizza in all 50 states among other things. Since we were actually staying in New Mexico, I decided we should have pizza for dinner. The hubby agreed. It doesn't take much convincing when it comes to pizza but he was hesitant about finding good pizza in New Mexico. I figured since we were staying in Las Cruces, a college town, we might have some luck. With the help of Trip Advisor, I narrowed the pizza choices down to 4 and by process of eliminating, I settled on Luna Rossa Winery and Pizzeria.

Luna Rossa was only 2 minutes from our hotel and open until 9 on Saturdays. It served pizza along with out pasta dishes. The pictures of the pizza looked appetizing. It is located on the southwest side of Las Cruces off of I-10. 

We started off with an appetizer. The hubby got cultured. Since these were true Italian appetizers, there wasn't any garlic bread or breadsticks. We went with the bruschetta. I don't like tomatoes and figured I would just brush off the tomatoes. There was no need to brush off the tomatoes. Even with the tomatoes, the bruschetta was fabulous. The hubby even agreed. The bread was perfectly done and the mozzarella was fresh which helped mask the tomatoes which we diced nice and small.  

Then our pizza came. It only came in one size -- 12 inches. We went with the Salsiccia Piccante or spicy sausage pizza. The sausage was not that spicy. It was absolutely amazing pizza like straight from Italy pizza. The crust was thin and chewy. It was near perfection even for these pizza snobs. 

Since Luna Rossa is also a winery, I had to have a glass of wine with my pizza. It was really only a tasting room as the actual winery is about an hour west of Las Cruces. The wine menu featured a variety of reds and whites both sweet and dry. I went with a Moscato. It was really sweet but also good. In hindsight I probably should have gone with the Zinfandel or even the Gewurztraminer something more semi-sweet. 

The one thing that sold me on Luna Rossa for pizza was they also had gelato. I told the hubby we are having gelato with our pizza. My poor, uncultured husband had no clue what I was talking about until we got to the restaurant and he saw all the flavors of gelato. We both had gelato for dessert. He had French Vanilla and I went with Chocolate Brownie. There were several good options to choose from including Stracciatella which I had in Door County and enjoyed. Of course you can never go wrong with any flavor of gelato. It was the cherry on top to a great meal.

Yes, it was a very pricy dinner for us but it was well worth the $55 price tag. I highly recommend stopping at Luna Rossa if you are ever in Las Cruces. Maybe one day I will check out the actual winery in Deming. 

24 in 2024 -- Try at Least One New Food -- Melon Tasting

 Erin knows that I am usually game to try weird fruits. Before our Galentine's Brunch she sends a text saying "I have picked up some strange melon's for Amy's strange fruit goal." One was a Kiwano Melon from Africa and the other was a Pepino Melon from Ecuador. Both are more of a cucumber melon from what I learned on Google. She found both of them at Pick n Save. 

When we got to to her house, she had both melons cut for us to try. 

The Kiwano Melon was bright green and full of seeds. It definitely looked like a neon green cucumber. Erin said it was a pain to cut that she made her husband do it due to the prickly skin. She kept getting poked. 

Verdict; This was actually very good. Google said it could taste like banana and passion fruit or cucumber lime. The first bite I took did taste like banana but the rest was more cucumber melon. It reminded me of a lime Jell-O shot. If you don't like Jell-O because of the texture, you probably won't like this fruit. The fruit slime, as we called it because it reminded us of Ghostbuster slime or Nickelodeon slime, was even good as a yogurt topping.

The Pepino Melon reminded me of a honeydew melon especially in texture. This one you could eat the skin on. 

Verdict: It lacked flavor. It was boring. Given the choice, I would take the Kiwano melon. It just did not wow me. The others felt the same way.

Both fruits were definitely an adventure. I would actually buy the Kiwano melon in the future, especially if I was having a gathering and wanted to serve something different. It would also be good on a St. Patrick's Day board based on the color. 

I am not sure what the next fruit Erin will discover for me to try is but I'm sure it will be interesting. Maybe I should tell her Prickly Pear. 

5368. Have a brat from Miesfeld's Triangle Market

 In case you didn't know, I am all about bucket lists and to do lists. I saw there was a new 100 Things to Do in Wisconsin book out last year. I was going to buy it but decided to check it out from the library instead. One of the things in the book was "Eat a Sheboygan Brat at Miesfield's." Andrea was like don't bother. They are disgusting. I still wanted to make up my own mind.

I asked the hubby if he wanted me to pick up Sheboygan Hard Rolls since I was literally driving by Miesfield's on my way to Andrea's for Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. He said no but to get some beef sticks. He wanted to try them. I figured I was there I should pick up some brats for lunch. Worst case scenario they were as disgusting as Andrea said they were and I'd have to find something else for lunch or mix them with noodles.

According to their website, they have 25 types of brats. I only saw 2 but I was in a hurry and didn't really look. I'm sure they did. I got the Grand Champion Brats. They were $4.49/lb I think. They looked really good.

They came wrapped in plastic and then butcher paper.

I tossed them in the air fryer for 8 minutes. The hubby likes his brats boiled. Ugh.. gross. I preferred grilling them. The air fryer is a close second.. I can get a good grill taste without grilling them. 

I didn't eat them right away and stuck them in the fridge for 2 days. Meal prep at it's finest.

I reheated one of the brats in the microwave for about 45 seconds. Usually I don't have a bun with my brat at lunch unless we have brat buns. I just cut it up and dip in ketchup (or mix with noodles). 

Verdict -- I ate almost the entire brat without noticing. It really didn't have a strong flavor which the hubby will like. I did get some flavor towards the end. I think they are just fine. It almost reminds of a brat I would find at a baseball game. I also will be curious if it tastes any different eating it fresh from the air fryer or not.

I would definitely get them again... along with the bacon and beef sticks. 

I would have to agree with Danielle Gay, the author of 101 Things to Do In Wisconsin, you should definitely try a Miesfield brat unless of course you grew up on true Sheboygan brats then maybe not. I will continue to try various brats throughout the state as each meat market has it's unique flavor of a simple brat.