Mike and Ruth Berman of Beer Bon Voyage find the combinations of beer and chocolate well worth exploring. (Photo by Susan Mann)

I’ve probably said it a hundred times to folks with skeptical (and sometimes grossed out) looks on their faces: "Beer and chocolate? Sure, they go together really well."

While I still believe it to be true, my eyes and palate were opened a bit wider recently when I took part in a "research" project with Ruth and Mike Berman of Beer Bon Voyage.

The Delray Beach chiropractors have developed a second career of sorts, a travel company based on the search for and enjoyment of the world’s greatest beers. Ruth became a certified travel guide back in 2005. Read the full story

Courtesy of Nestle.

When my friend’s birthday arrived, I simply couldn’t face turning on the oven (especially since mine takes 30 minutes to reach 350 degrees) so I found a tasty recipe for frozen lemonade cupcakes that uses store-bought pound cake and three other simple ingredients to whip up a tart topping.

Of course I broke the cardinal rule – don’t make anything for company that you haven’t tried out on your family first – but this recipe looked pretty risk-free. It was easy, too: It took me longer to cut the pound cake into the right size rounds than it did to make the topping. (Be sure you use a big bowl!)

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Boynton Beach's Go Yo! tops our poll for favorite frozen yogurt spot. (Bruce R. Bennett / Palm Beach Post)

More: Find a frozen yogurt place near you

Self-serve frozen-yogurt places are popping up faster than anyone can count, but clearly they’ve made an impression, as voters came out in droves to pick their favorite.

According to Taking Your Pulse voters, Go Yo! of Boynton Beach is the favorite frozen yogurt spot in the area, taking 31.8 percent of the vote.

There was a tight bunch for second place: Freshberry of Wellington just edged out Fro-Yotopia of Palm Beach Gardens, 12.8 percent to 12.4 percent, while Swirls, also of Gardens, was right behind them at 12 percent.

Jupiter’s Red Mango rounded out the top five at 9.6 percent.
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Rolling, with the p-i-e, got my rag top down....I got nothing. Sorry. Never mind.

I’m a huge fan of the Travel Channel’s “Man Vs Food Nation,” hosted by food enthusiast Adan Richman, because it’s an edible tour of the country’s eating challenges, and because I’m fascinated by how food challenge-loving Richman’s heart hasn’t exploded yet. The most recent episode mainly involved a conch fritter eating contest in the Keys, featuring a tiny University of Miami student (Richman’s wisely letting the Nation do his challenges now), but took a detour to Blue Heaven, one of my favorite Key West spots, to sample its sky high key lime pie.

And guess who was there with Richman to sample said key lime scrumptiousness? One Rob Van Winkle, also known as Wellington resident Vanilla Ice. I’m not sure why he was in Key West, or why he’s an expert on key lime pie, but he told Richman he’d been coming to the area since he was a kid. And Richman, always a clever sort, was right there with the “Ice Ice Baby” references. It was a funny bit, and Van Winkle seems to know his pie. It certainly made my hungry, and reminded me of that girls weekend we all took there once, when a chicken running through the Blue Heaven courtyard chasing another chicken hit my friend Stephanie in the head.

But that’s a story for another time.

As summer swelters on, our chill-out needs take on a particular urgency. (Must have frozen mango slushy now!) And lucky for us, there’s no shortage of spots to grab a frozen dessert.

Fro-yo places, both self-serve and full-serve, are popping up like Seattle-type coffee shops. And there’s a nice range of icy options out there, from the vanilla-safe (with standard toppings) to the exotic (salt rim, lime and Mexican sour sauce, anyone?)

Here are FIVE PLACES to go for frozen dessert:

Regional manager Roberto Abreu at Pops, Costa Rica's Creamery on Singer Island. (Libby Volgyes / Staff Photographer)

(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Relatively speaking, the self-serve frozen yogurt place (some even deign to call it fro-yo) is a trend only getting bigger within Palm Beach County.

So we’re interested in what your favorite is among these relatively new places around our area.

Vote for your favorite, or if you don’t see it, click on other and fill in a write-in vote. We’ll add it if there’s more than five.

Find out Monday what the winner is.

It might be the waffle bowl -- Kilwin's narrowly won our Taking Your Pulse poll for top ice cream spot. (Palm Beach Post file)

In possibly one of our closest races to date, Kilwin’s took our Taking Your Pulse poll for favorite local ice cream.

Kilwin’s, which has several local locations, narrowly beat Cold Stone Creamery and Sloan’s for the top position. Kilwin’s finished with 18.2 percent of the vote, while Cold Stone had 15.1 and Sloan’s 13.5.

Rounding out the top five were the Ice Cream and Yogurt Club at 6.77 percent and Palm Beach Gardens’ Gelato Grotto and Palm Beach Ice Cream tied in fifth at 4.17 percent.

Among write-ins, Wellington’s Kobosko’s Kreamery had enough write-ins to move into our poll, and just narrowly missed out finishing in fifth. There were a couple of others who weren’t particular where they got their ice cream, as long as they could get their hands on Blue Bell.

Click here for the full results.

Nothing beats ice cream this time of year. (Gary Coronado / Post file photo)

Now that the summer’s here, there’s no better time to discuss ice cream.

Some love those really involved flavors, like apple pie with real pie crust or maybe a scoop of something with popcorn in it (I swear I’ve seen this!). Others love a good, light gelato. And then there’s good ol’ vanilla and chocolate.

We want to know where your favorite ice cream place is in our area. Just vote in our Taking Your Pulse poll below.

A note: If you’re looking to vote for your favorite FROZEN YOGURT place, don’t – we’re going to do a completely separate TYP poll on frozen yogurt in the very near future. There are so many now, it didn’t seem fair to put them up against the ice cream joints.

And if you don’t see your favorite ice cream place — and we DON’T mean frozen yogurt! (see above) — you can write it in below. If we get enough demand we’re going to add your place to our list.
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The brownie sundae from Carlos'n Charlies. (Libby Volgyes/The Palm Beach Post)

The dish: Awesome Brownie, $9.99

The restaurant: Carlos’n Charlie’s at CityPlace.

The Awesome Brownie is an enormous, shareable brownie sundae loaded with vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate, whipped cream, nuts and a cherry on top rounds.

I’m pretty critical when it comes to brownies, and this one passes the delicious test with flying colors. It’s a gooey, chewy, satisfying end to your meal (or replace your meal), though we’d caution you to share it — like, with three of your friends.

The chocolate used is 90 percent cacao, which helps in balancing out the sweetness.

The Mexican eatery, popular in many vacation hot spots all over Mexico and the Caribbean, is new to CityPlace.
“We have a family restaurant with a very fun bar,” says general manager Omar Guevara.

The info: Carlos’n Charlie’s, at 700 South Rosemary Ave., is on the second level of CityPlace, next to City Cellar.
Restaurant Listing: Directions, restaurant hours, more

Mother-daughter chocolatier duo Cristina Vives (left) and Diana Pace hold a plate full of their Shocolaate pieces in Palm Beach Gardens. (Libby Volgyes/The Palm Beach Post)

Diana Pace and Cristina Vives, mother and daughter chocolatiers, agree on a lot of things in life, but don’t get them started on the fine points of packaging.

Diana, the mom, wants to focus her energies on making the packaging for their hand-crafted chocolates over-the-top amazing while 22-year-old Cristina worries that it’s a waste of time. She’d rather concentrate on the blend of passion fruit liqueur, lavender seeds and honey ganache in the Provence truffle or the chocolate, ginger, honey and chili pepper notes in the Star of India.

But in the big things — the working together, the vision, the love that goes into each chocolate, the commitment to their little company and endless devotion to each other — the Palm Beach Gardens mother and daughter are completely in sync. Read the full story