Banana Split Smoothie

I never understood why the guys who operated the drugstore soda fountains in the 1950’s were called “soda jerks.” Although I don’t recall meeting one personally, they always look like boy-next-door types in the movies.

Now, doesn’t he look like a nice boy talking to Annette seemingly all interested and polite? He’s probably thinking, “scram kid…nobody puts baby on a stool.”

Anyway, answers.yahoo.com says that “the name soda jerk came from the jerking action the server would use on the soda fountain handle when adding the soda water.” Apparently this was a very coveted job back then…they had to wear bow ties.

Do you think we could get teenage boys to do that now?

Can you imagine the facebook commentary?

Besides ice cream sodas, drug store soda fountains used to serve all kinds of other treats, like Banana Splits. I remember sitting at the counter at the Five & Ten Cents Store on Girard Avenue in Philadelphia with my best friend Maureen eating a burger, drinking a fountain coke and sharing a banana split. They still have a Five & Ten Cents Store in OCNJ and oldest daughter calls it the Five x Ten Store because we spent $50 one summer on toilet paper, laundry detergent and Motrin.

That was funny.

So, I thought it would be fun to make a smoothie using a drug store soda fountain classic, a banana split, as inspiration!


Banana Split Smoothie
1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
1 banana
1 cup non-fat vanilla frozen yogurt
A few big squirts of Hershey’s syrup
2 cups ice
Whipped cream
Maraschino Cherries

Blend strawberries, banana, frozen yogurt, Hershey’s syrup and ice until smooth and creamy. Top with whipped cream and a cherry, pop in two straws, grab your sweetie (or drink it all by yourself out of both straws) and enjoy!


Soda Jerk photo from google images.

Thyme and Lime Lemonade

Every now and again we discover stuff that just makes our life easier. While at Foodie’s one evening, I asked for a juicer and she whips out this tool that – I am embarrassed to say – I had never seen before. My ignorance of this apparatus posed the obvious question…”how does this work?” This is what it looked like:


Yes, I write a blog about food.

So she proceeds to tell me to cut the lime in half and place it sliced side down in the juicey thing and compress the handle....the fruit turns into a pulpy rally cap. Well…that little contraption gave me the most juice that I have ever obtained by hand juicing AND (bonus) I did not have to strain it (it separates the pulp and seeds from the juice). AND I did not get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in the process.

I have to have one.

There are several different types of manual citrus juicers. The one with which we are most familiar is the cone-in-the-center-of-a-well gizmo that we all had in our kitchen drawers growing up. Similar idea to the juicer describer above, but the pulp and seeds need to be strained and it’s not as effortless. Then there’s the handy-dandy “citrus reamer” which is good when only a small amount of juice is needed.

For today’s summer drink recipe, I need the juice of 6 lemons and 3 limes, so I will be using my new Michael Graves 2-IN-1 Citrus Juicer from Target that looks just like the one above only it's orange. The recipe is from the July 2011 edition of Real Simple, my mom’s favorite magazine that I borrowed from her and promised to return....some day.


Thyme and Lime Lemonade
½ cup of sugar
½ cup of water
1 cup of fresh lemon juice (about 6 medium lemons)
¼ cup of fresh lime juice (2-3 limes)
3 cups of water
10 fresh thyme sprigs

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and ½ cup of water. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved; let cool. In a pitcher combine the syrup with the lemon juice and 3 cups of water. In a separate smaller pitcher, mash the thyme with the lime juice and add to the lemonade mixture and give it a stir. Refrigerate for at least one hour to let the flavors incorporate. Serve over ice with a sprig of thyme.


So refreshing!

To make this a spirited drink, add a shot of vodka or gin to each serving.

Twisted Black Cow

The Black Cow – Root Beer and Vanilla Ice Cream – reminds me of the kitschy car-hop/drive-up restaurants popular in the 50’s and 60’s. As a kid, I LOVED going to WEBER’S Famous Root Beer on Route 38 in Pennsauken, New Jersey. We would anticipate opening day just as eagerly as we anticipated the last day of school or the start of the Phillies season (they weren’t a winning team back then). Going to WEBER’S was a total treat….we would arrive in my father’s fancy 67 starlight blue Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with a black vinyl top and despite the “don’t spill anything” admonitions, for the time it took to drink the creamiest root beer ever, we were in carbonated heaven.

Until one of the kids knocked the tray off the window and my dad would start cursing. He did not have many vices…that was one of them.

So this past Sunday, sister, older daughter and I planned an outing to WEBER’S to have lunch, drink a Black Cow and take photos…for this post. The Cutlass is long gone (too bad, it was nice car), but my sister’s Chevy Something served as an eager substitute. We did see a vintage T-Bird while we were there…gorgeous and in mint condition!

I asked sister and older daughter if people thought I was a famous reporter as I was snapping photos…they said they probably thought I was a tourist. I should have brought my notebook and interviewed the waitress…that would have added credibility.

Anyway, the Black Cow is a classic drink that is hard to improve upon, but I decided to give it a little twist…

Twisted Black Cow

2 scoops of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt
2 teaspoons of chocolate syrup
1 heavy splash of cherry syrup, such as Torani (the TWIST)
1 can/bottle of Root Beer – I like Stewarts, Weber’s or A&W

Fill a mug with the ice cream or frozen yogurt, add the chocolate syrup and the cherry syrup, fill the glass with root beer.

And there you have it, a Twisted (cherry) Black (root beer) Cow (ice cream) . YUM. When it blends together…totally delicious.

Black Cow is also the name of a Steely Dan song….pretty sure that the Black Cow they sing about sported more than ice cream and root beer. Listen to it here.