This Organic Ice Cream Comes With A Side Of Hidden Veggies

Jessica Levison likes to juggle several balls at once. In 2008, not only was she a lawyer for Legal Aid Service fighting slumlords for low-income tenants in Florida, but she also decided to open up her own ice cream shop simultaneously—two completely different professional tracks she balanced for several years.

"Being an attorney and fighting on behalf of my clients was my favorite job," Levison tells me. Then they moved her to the children’s unit. "What I saw was heartbreaking. I was two months pregnant and I hadn’t told anyone. My new boss hated my guts and I wasn’t getting paid very much. Then our funding got cut and I got canned." So, Levison decided to focus all of her energy on her ice cream shop.

"I opened up my scoop shop because I just love ice cream," she tells me. She funded the store herself, pulled the permits, and managed the fit out all on her own. "I was continuously innovating with flavor profiles. The chefs at local hotels would ask me to make them unique sorbets with seasonal ingredients readily available—like carrot mango sorbet."

Since Levison was already making ice cream for her scoop shop in Surfside, Florida her wheels began to turn on how she could create a better-for-you option for the masses. "I wondered if I could I make an indulgent ice cream that contained organic veggies, but tasted identical to peoples’ favorite scoop of ice cream? What if I could introduce veggies where they least expected it—dessert?"

Two kids later and after lots of tinkering, taste testing, and experimentation Levison launched Peekaboo, the first and only organic ice cream with hidden veggies in 2018.

"As any parent knows, meal times are short, chaotic and messy," says Levison. "My goal is always a balanced meal but that isn’t always a reality. The reality is that sometimes getting my kids fed and happy is more than enough and we’ll leave the greens for tomorrow. Peekaboo offers people an indulgent treat that has hidden benefits—something people desperately need as many of us seek comfort in food in the stressful times we are all living with."

To be clear, Levison makes no claims that her product is a replacement for vegetables.

Levison attended Penn State's Ice Cream Short Course, the oldest, best known, and largest educational program dealing with the science and technology of ice cream. "It’s where Ben and Jerry studied," she tells me. Once Levison had her concept nailed down she self-financed her endeavor in the beginning and then opened it up to friends and family. "I am now mid-Seed round."

Currently, Peekaboo offers five flavors, with more on the way—including soon to be released vegan options.

When I ask her how she paired up the veggies with the flavors she tells me, "I knew I wanted to pair nutrient-dense and mild flavored or sweet veggies with very approachable ice cream flavors that would appeal to kids’ palates. There were some fails, to be sure, like vanilla with hidden turnip and unicorn with purple eggplant." Levison thought once her kids found out that vegetables were in their ice cream that they would refuse to eat it. "Instead, they just ask for seconds ‘because it has veggies!’," she excitedly tells me.

With baking being so precise in nature, I was curious how hard it was to come up with delicious flavor profiles where the vegetables are unidentifiable in the overall taste. She assures me it was no easy feat to create a product without altering the flavor or texture.

"When I started I would slowly continue to increase the quantity of veggies until my kids noticed the difference. That’s when I knew to scale it back a pinch. I also selected veggies that would complement each ice cream flavor. For example, the carrots add a unique balance of sweet and fruity undertones, which enhance the overall flavor; the beets add color and natural sweetness in addition to being a good source of vitamin C," she explains. Levison also had to factor in the water content of each vegetable she added to ensure the final product was creamy and indulgent in the end.

I have a prolific sweet tooth, but I only indulge in ice cream when it’s hot out. I was very impressed with Peekaboo and the fact that a serving, which is a 4-ounce scoop has anywhere between 13 leaves of spinach to a quarter of a zucchini in them (or other vegetables). That means I can indulge with a little less guilt.

Best Practices In Shopping Luxury Online

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things in our lives, not the least of which is the way we shop. Many of us haven’t set foot in any establishment for the past several weeks, ordering such essentials as groceries online and having drinks with our friends via Zoom or some equivalent. And as the country gradually opens for business—whatever your thoughts on this—we will undoubtedly remain wary of what we used to call “life” and all the face-to-face interactions it entails.

I, like others, sense that things will be irrevocably changed by the time we reach the juncture of a new normal, though I don’t know precisely what this means for the retail scene. Our self-constructed cocoons, inherently lonely as they are, feel safe, and security will be high on our minds for the foreseeable future. Besides, there aren’t many shopping needs that can’t be met right from our own permanently indented couches. Right?

Buying things that typically require interaction can be trickier. Like experiencing the buttery tactility of a new leather purse. Or testing the weight and balance of a coveted writing instrument, understood only by true pen aficionados.

Not so, says Chris Sullivan, president of Fahrney’s pen shop in Washington, D. C. Having perfected the art of online commerce many years ago, he says a high-touch, taste-driven object, like a pen, may indeed be successfully purchased sight unseen. In fact, very little of his company’s modus operandi has changed during the past several weeks, even though the brick-and-mortar downtown store has temporarily closed its doors due to the novel coronavirus. Website, phone and catalog sales are booming, he shares, and the majority of Fahrney’s sales—as usual—are via its uber-friendly web store and its equally amicable catalog.

“Our parents started Fahrney’s catalog in 1975,” says Sullivan of the pre-internet venture. “It was a time of infancy for the catalog industry itself, yet alone a writing instrument catalog. All the pen brands, distributors and sales reps said it would never work! ‘Why would the customer buy from a catalog sight unseen without trying the pen first?’”

Is This The Best Way To Preserve Your Travel Memories (And Sanity)?

"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." Though the philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote these words in 1654, they still ring true over three centuries later. As Covid-19 has resulted in a mass lockdown throughout the country (and indeed the world), the stir-crazed side effects of said isolation is a pandemic all its own.

But, before I reveal the solution to restoring your sanity amidst the ongoing distancing of the self, a confession: Before quarantining this past March, I was—to put it lightly—the opposite of locked down. As a travel writer, I ventured to 41 countries in the past 23 months under the guise of professional advancement and personal fulfillment—never staying in one place long enough to unpack my bags and catching the next flight like it would be my last.

Though no one on the planet could have predicted the virus's ferocious spread back in 2018, it's safe to say I'd spent the past two years traveling as if a plague was coming. One that would confine you to your trustiest, most reliable form of shelter—for celebrities, a Beverly Hills mansion, for others, perhaps a one-bedroom apartment. For me: My childhood bedroom. (Travel writers aren't known for maintaining stately personal residences.) And, though my years of traversing the globe seemed to fly by in minutes, the past two months in lockdown seem to have lasted two lifetimes and more.

I'd argue that it's not only the absence of variety that has caused the widespread blues while sheltering-in-place but also the lack of freedom of movement. It's losing the mere possibility of venturing beyond our mundane day-to-day lives that's caused such a tremendous dearth of inspiration and excitement. You don't need to be a professional globetrotter to mourn the sense of opportunity that travel inspires, the idea that you can jet off to France—not today, not tomorrow, and, now, maybe not until the end of December. (2021 will be our year.)

You Have To Make This Cocktail: Double Smoked Old Fashioned

Who needs a drink?

We’ve got nothing but time on our hands.

With this truth, unfortunately, many crappy cocktail recipes have surfaced, as ill-advised marketers pump out over-syrupy recipes just to get content on the Web to take advantage of an audience eager to drink at home. Promoting is not a bad thing, per se, but trying to get people to drink poor cocktails at home, well, that’s punishable by melting-too-quickly ice in your next drink.

However, there’s hope a good drink can still be had, created and perfected by a genuinely brilliant bartender.

Meet Charles Joly, bartender and owner of Crafthouse Cocktails, which are the ready-to-drink cocktails we all wish would replace White Claw. Joly is the only American to win World Class Bartender of the Year.

While you cannot sit across from Joly at the moment and watch his amazing technique, you can have one of his bottled cocktails at home. And for Forbes readers, he’s created an amazing Old Fashioned recipe that you must try.

Plus, in a recent YouTube interview, Joly gave me multiple tips to making cocktails at home, which many are trying to do as they’re isolated. And none couldn’t more pertinent than his advice for keeping an eye on your fruits. “If you see a fruit is close to turning [bad], make a syrup out of it,” he says, of course, with intent to use on a drink later or maybe even pancakes. Less waste is key for surviving these days...     

Vestidos de noiva

Joly’s recipe for an Old Fashioned is just what we all need to get through these isolated times.

Classic Reading For our Quarantined Times

Much of the nation, if not the world, is sheltering in place—many of us alone at home and feeling uneasy about our times. To keep from obsessing about my financial portfolio (or what's left of it) and chickpea and pasta larder, I scanned my bookshelves in search of something to feed my mind, if not my soul. I usually have down time for reading only when I travel, and then I like reading in context. But what are the options when your wanderlust is hobbled during a pandemic lockdown?

Turns out there are plenty. When I asked friends for their reading recommendations, I ended up with a long and intriguing list — too many tomes, in fact, to include here. After a pleasurable day of researching reviewers notes, I divided the list, which I'll present in two parts. The first installment for your reading pleasure: classic literature and historic chronicles.

Oh, and as a wine journalist, I can't not think about what I'd like to drink, so each book comes with a wine pairing, if for no other reason than to be reminded of how wine gets us through the best of times and the worst of times (Sorry, Dickens!)

                                                   Formal Dresses

Looking Back And Ahead: Sustainable Fashion In 2019

Sustainability has been a hot topic in the world of fashion this year.

From new certifications to strategic partnerships between brands and beyond, 2019 has been a year in which retailers stepped up their green efforts—despite reports that showed consumers don't always want to pay for the extra costs associated with sustainably-made products.

Be that as it may, fashion industry insiders like Pierre Kim, the Head of Apparel at Away, believe that 2019 was a watershed year in that the fashion industry made real strides to redefine the entire ecosystem of fashion.

He believes the linchpin of these efforts was the signing of the G7 Fashion Pact and the UN's Sustainable Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action. Both agreements, which were signed by more than 150 fashion brands this year including the likes of Kering, Gap, Nike, Adidas, H&M, and Chanel, focused on reducing the industry's contribution to climate change.

“This was the first time major industry players set a level of ambition consistent with the UN Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius via net-zero greenhouse gas emission goals, the use of renewable energy sources, and more,” Kim said.

                                                                      Wedding Dresses

How Fashion Saved This High School Math Teacher's Life

When I wore a Diarrablu dress to celebrate Thanksgiving, everyone the beautiful wrap design, dramatic sleeves, and bold print made quite a splash.

When I told my friends and family the pattern was generated by a math equation and designed by a Senegalese woman who lost her memory and nearly died on her path to becoming a designer, they wanted to know the whole story, naturally.

I'm guessing you're intrigued now, too, so voila: Diarra Bousso's evolution from math nerd to Wall Street bond trader to creative math teacher and fashion designer—and how she nearly lost her life along the way.

And no, she doesn't plan on choosing between the math and fashion any time soon.

"I almost feel like it's too good to be true, that I can do both things," Bousso told me. "Not just for me—the fashion brand is uplifting entire communities and artisans and providing jobs. And my work in education and research is getting kids to care and learn and be successful."

Her arrival at this poised position didn't come easy. The fulcrum of Bousso's story is a life-threatening accident in 2012 when she was 23 that left her paralyzed and with no memory. The event was precipitated by a bout of severe depression, and in Senegalese culture at the time, Bousso says mental health was considered embarrassing and not discussed openly. Hence, she kept much of her story private.

But with nearly eight years of recovery and perspective behind her, plus her current success as both a high-school math teacher and a designer (she's currently a designer-in-residence at Fashion Incubator San Francisco)—she's ready to share.

   
"It took being a teacher to realize the importance of mental health and the need to share it openly and ask for help when needed," Bousso said. "In my case, I fell into depression while working on Wall Street because I had chosen the wrong path and was miserable and felt no purpose. I didn't know what depression was, in my culture we never talked about such a thing."

Bousso is private about the specifics of the accident itself, although she's certain her depression caused it. Her art, fashion, and, surprisingly, Tumblr, all played a role in her journey to recovery.

As a teen, Bousso was a bright student who wanted to be rich. She also wanted to be a cool, respected artist and fashion maven, inspired by her stylish mother who designed most of her own wardrobe using fabrics collected from travels around the world. But no one in Bousso's family believed art was a viable career path. It was a fun hobby, and she was a gifted painter inspired by Picasso and cubism. But art wouldn't make her the earner she impatiently dreamt of becoming.

At 16, she declared to her parents that she was bored with school in Senegal and wanted a challenge. She informed them she'd be moving to Norway as one of just three students accepted by United World Colleges (she'd applied without her parents' knowledge) to study in the Nordic country. They said she was too young—she could go abroad for college in France after graduating high school, the natural progression for a smart Senegalese student.