Ice Cream

Mary A. Castillo SHE IS: feeding the need for ice cream Not as easy as it looks On any given Friday morning, Monica Condon is busy making ice cream and brownies at Cold Stone Creamery. The ice cream machine groans while the freezers, holding batches of ice cream, hum contentedly. The sweet, gooey smell of brownie is enough to weaken the most disciplined of dieters. So how has the 20-year-old Condon stayed in shape surrounded by fresh waffle cones, 43 different mix-in ingredients and nine different ice cream flavors?

Spring View has cream of the crop Students at Spring View Middle School can thank their 12-year-old classmate Ashley Rapose for the ice cream party that they'll be having on Friday morning. Ashley was a winner in the "I Dream of Ice Cream" contest hosted by the Web site KidsCom.com. The contest, designed to help children get acquainted with each other and to help them make new friends, looked for the student who could come up with the best party name and reason for deserving it. Ashley's theme, Cream "O" Licious Ice Cream, and her assertion that her school deserved the party to recognize all of the hard work that teacher Jessica Clayton does, won ice cream for everyone.

-- Angelique Flores, Kenneth Ma and Torus Tammer The former teachers and students of Fountain Valley Elementary School didn't have much luck with the time capsule they left behind when the school closed 10 years ago. The capsule was found to be waterlogged when it was opened. However, compared to the recent experience of a Westminster school that could not find the time capsule it buried 30 years ago, the Fountain Valley did pretty well. "At least we knew where it was," said Fountain Valley Councilman Larry Crandall, who organized the opening.

A dedicated fisher has a secret spot where the fish always bite. A dedicated fish lover is the same -- knowing where fresh fish are broiled to perfection. This is the Catch of the Day, tucked in a single store front of a strip mall near Goldenwest Street and Edinger Avenue in Huntington Beach. In 13 years, owner-chef John Metz and his faithful assistant Isack Ramos have kept the menu stocked with in-season fish like this summer's halibut-on-a-skewer, ($10.

On Balboa Island, $1.75 can buy a portable, personal air-conditioning unit. Otherwise known as the famous frozen banana, these icy treats can provide a few moments of cheap relief from the climbing temperatures that have hit Newport-Mesa in recent days. Any time the weather heats up, these frozen fruits dipped into chocolate and a topping of choice are big sellers, said Helen Connolly, owner of the Sugar N Spice. "During the summer, you dream of bananas, because you're making them everyday," Connolly said.

The line at the Tony Roma's table extended out 10 feet, hands down the longest at Thursday night's second annual Taste of Burbank. And those hands would have been streaked with the barbecue sauce from the chicken legs and ribs being served by restaurant employees. Arleta resident Mike Shanto was among those who lined up for a sampling of Roma's fare. "I love the food and I love the city and the music," Shanto said. San Fernando Boulevard between Orange Grove Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard was closed down for the event.

DINING OUT It would be hard to find a better place to celebrate Cinco de Mayo than Don Ramon's on Goldenwest Street. When it opened about eight years ago, the free-standing building was decorated by artist Clayton Parker with expansive murals, trailing vines and flowers. It's a catacomb of separate dining areas, a cantina and a glass-protected patio. Owned by Sally and Ray Gutierrez, Don's Ramon's Kitchen has two excellent cooks Jesus Navarrete and his nephew Israel.

Angelique Flores Instead of sitting in front of the television this summer, Juan Cabrera, 6, learned how to make strawberry shortcake, used a solar oven for the first time and put together his own garden of carrots and beans. The Santa Ana boy did all this at a day camp organized and run by Huntington Beach teen Kimi Porter. "We've learned to make ice cream and bake. I've never done that before," Juan said with an ear-to-ear grin. Porter is going for the gold in Scouting.

o7 Baci f7 (Italian for kiss) may be your romantic choice for Valentine's Day. The eye-catching restaurant on Beach Boulevard between between Garfield Avenue and Ellis Street, Huntington Beach, was designed and painted by Franco Masci, an artist brought from Italy by owner/chef Angelo Juliano to re-create the streets of an Italian village. Inside, the illusion continues as you pass through arches to intimate dining areas -- ours hado7 Langolo degli innamoratief7 -- "lover's corner" scrolled on the wall.

Chris Ross did not plan to open a soda shop. But plans have a way of changing. Newport Soda opened in late May near Newport Pier. When he made a deal to lease the 22nd Street space, Ross intended to open a shop selling kebab sandwiches, which are similar to gyros. He acquired a taste for the grub during a yearlong trip to Australia. Soon after the leasing agreement was made in November, Ross, one of Newport Soda's two co-owners, realized health regulations would require him to fill the small store with so much equipment that there would be hardly any space between the front counter and the door.

Judging by the long line and then the smiling faces of first tasters at N'iceCream, who enjoyed a free scoop when the new shop opened at the OC Mart Mix on March 23, this Venice-born ice creamery will make Costa Mesa even sweeter. By way of Denmark, co-founders Laura Nielsen and Christian Toxboe set up their first organic gelato and sorbet store in Venice four years ago, and now boast three more Los Angeles-area locations. They pride themselves on making small batches of gelato and sorbet daily (nothing is ever more than 12 hours old)

Neapolitan ice cream, chocolate syrup, nuts, whipped cream, marshmallows and cherries are all necessary for an ice cream sundae, but at Circle View Elementary School the ingredients weren't for eating. Sitting in a small blow-up pool in a yellow plastic poncho, blue shower cap and matching goggles and snorkel, Principal Kathleen Jaquin stood still as students drizzled, sprinkled and plopped the ingredients all over her. Students had a chance to turn their principal into a human sundae as a reward for the top fundraising students in each grade.

The line at the Tony Roma's table extended out 10 feet, hands down the longest at Thursday night's second annual Taste of Burbank. And those hands would have been streaked with the barbecue sauce from the chicken legs and ribs being served by restaurant employees. Arleta resident Mike Shanto was among those who lined up for a sampling of Roma's fare. "I love the food and I love the city and the music," Shanto said. San Fernando Boulevard between Orange Grove Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard was closed down for the event.

Erin Michelle Toole, a 2000 Newport Harbor High School graduate, recently graduated from USC with a bachelor's degree in health promotion and disease prevention, with an emphasis in pre-medicine and bioethics. Toole graduated magna cum laude and was accepted into UC Irvine's medical program. Rosio Salcedo, a Santa Ana resident, has been named administrative assistant at the Peterson Group, a sales and marketing solutions provider in Newport Beach.

On Balboa Island, $1.75 can buy a portable, personal air-conditioning unit. Otherwise known as the famous frozen banana, these icy treats can provide a few moments of cheap relief from the climbing temperatures that have hit Newport-Mesa in recent days. Any time the weather heats up, these frozen fruits dipped into chocolate and a topping of choice are big sellers, said Helen Connolly, owner of the Sugar N Spice. "During the summer, you dream of bananas, because you're making them everyday," Connolly said.

Chris Ross did not plan to open a soda shop. But plans have a way of changing. Newport Soda opened in late May near Newport Pier. When he made a deal to lease the 22nd Street space, Ross intended to open a shop selling kebab sandwiches, which are similar to gyros. He acquired a taste for the grub during a yearlong trip to Australia. Soon after the leasing agreement was made in November, Ross, one of Newport Soda's two co-owners, realized health regulations would require him to fill the small store with so much equipment that there would be hardly any space between the front counter and the door.

o7A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road. f7-- HENRY WARD BEECHER I enjoy the above quote, and it reminded me of something humorous that happened last weekend. My husband, Jon, and I flew to Bozeman, Mont., on Friday to check on a business project there and also to see some friends of ours. We have two different sets of friends living there who used to live in Southern California, and we enjoyed getting to see them.

"It's not a crust; it's a canvas." In 1986, the day before the first Z Pizza was to open, the charming and very chatty Sid Fanaroff said that he and his then partner Suzie Megroz still hadn't figured out how to make dough in quantity. She had told him that she knew how to make pizza, but it was really pastry dough for a French onion tart -- which looks like a little pizza. When the giant dough mixer and oven were finally in place, Sid experimented with the recipe that came with the mixer.

Lauren Vane Children who grow up in Huntington Beach are lucky enough to live in a seaside community with access to miles of coastline. Yet for some, the opportunity to view marine life up close is still a rarity. On Thursday morning, students from Golden View Elementary embarked on a field trip to Dana Point's Ocean Institute and dove into a sea of knowledge. Second-graders were led into the institute's lab, where they took in a hands-on lesson from a team of institute employees and volunteers.