Ice Cream

Goldenberg's Peanut Chews are the favorite candy of Jeffrey Ziga, co-owner of locally produced, small-batch Little Baby's Ice Cream. And the favorite candy of his mother and her mother as well. So it was only a matter of time until he came up with an ice cream flavor with the local favorite mixed in: Vanilla Molasses with Goldenberg's Peanut Chews. It's a lovely combo in an old-fashioned kind of way, the molasses subtle, not overly sweet, echoing the old-school candy, which becomes crunchy when frozen.

ANTONIA LOFASO'S got your back. The "Top Chef" alumna, along with putting in long restaurant hours, is also a single mom. She knows all about struggling to get a healthful meal on the table for her daughter, Xea, despite that French Culinary Institute degree, her years of experience and the skill under pressure she exhibited in two seasons of the Bravo TV cooking-competition show. Lofaso shares that understanding and her strategies in The Busy Mom's Cookbook: 100 Quick, Delicious, Home-cooked Meals (Avery, $28)

Pop Blak & Blu (Warner Bros. ***1/2) Gary Clark Jr., the 28-year-old guitarist from Austin, Texas, has been killing it with regularity out on the road for the last couple of years, from the South by Southwest festival in his hometown to Made In America in Philadelphia to the White House, where he shared the stage with Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, and President Obama. Though the former teen prodigy has released independent albums before, Blak & Blu is both his major label debut and chance to properly introduce the range of his talents to the non-festival-going public.

Hello there Amanda and Mike were matched in May 2009 by the eHarmony dating website. They e-mailed for a few weeks, had one phone call, and then met at West Chester's Iron Hill Brewery. "I really liked him, and we had a great time at dinner," Amanda said. She had just one worry: Mike was about to leave for a two-week European vacation. "Timing is everything," Amanda said. "I figured he was going to go on vacation, and then I would never hear from him again. " Mike liked Amanda, too. But after touring Germany, Hungry, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Austria, that date at the Brewery seemed like a long time ago. It felt like that opportunity had passed, and Mike likely would have restarted his romance-finding efforts with the latest batch of eHarmony matches had he not got an e-mail from Amanda.

Q: Charles, you're a man of the world. Why do you think Philly gets such a bad rap compared to New York and D.C.? Or do I just have the typical Philly inferiority complex? - Jealous in Conshohocken A: Philly is a great city. I can live anywhere and I choose to live here at least half the year. New York and D.C. are international cities. Then there's Vegas and L.A., Chicago and all the rest. Each city has its unique qualities. That doesn't necessarily make one better than the other.

The big, white ice-cream truck rumbled to a stop outside Solis-Cohen Elementary School, and the man inside leaned out, smiling broadly. "Come on over," Joseph Bahm shouted to parents and students who had gathered to see what was going on. "We have some free Popsicles for you!" The kids moved closer. "School is opening, and school is cool," Bahm said, reaching for an ice-cream sandwich and a bright-orange flier with back-to-school information. "We open up next Friday! First day of school is Sept.

CONCORD, N.H. - For the aspiring cooks and crafters who frequent Pinterest.com, "pinning" something is one thing. "Nailing" it is another. By letting users create "virtual pinboards," Pinterest has become a popular way to keep track of home decor ideas, recipes, and craft projects spread across the Internet. But those who go beyond collecting pretty pictures and actually attempt to re-create the crafts often discover it's harder than it looks. Such failures are featured to humorous effect on at least two sites, including Pintester.com and CraftFail.com.

NEW YORK - Putting the cart before the store was the right recipe for ice cream maker Buck Buchanan. Back in 2001, Buchanan was a stay-at-home father using his training as a chef to give cooking lessons to supplement his wife's income. Boredom set in and he decided to start a gourmet ice cream cart. Later, he added a truck - and drove to concerts and sporting events to sell his treats. In March, he opened his first Lumpy's Ice Cream shop in downtown Wake Forest, N.C. "My thought was to build a clientele, build a customer base, so when I actually opened the store, people would flock to it," Buchanan said.

BRIGANTINE, N.J. - People who sit on the beaches of Ventnor, Wildwood, and Atlantic City - where the ice cream man will put his box down and hand over a banana Fudge Bomb without your even moving, except to find the money - might be shocked to learn that in Brigantine, people lack this fundamental Jersey Shore right. And that, for the most part, they do not care. But that, possibly as early as next week, when the City Council is scheduled to vote on a seven-page ice cream ordinance 15 years in the making, they could at last be granted the right of beach ice-cream sales.