What’s up, everybody? Reader here, and as we head into the weekend, we’re getting back into hotter temperatures, and with that, comes a desire to beat the heat with a tasty treat.
What could be better than ice cream? (Well, I guess maybe not for those who are lactose-intolerant, but I know there are dairy-free alternatives, so there is something for everyone to enjoy!)
The other night, I shared my love of ice cream as a favourite late night snack, as well as my two absolute fave flavours:
Yes indeed. Strawberry and Cookies & Cream are my go-tos, though I do love pralines and cream, as well.
I’ve loved strawberry ice cream since I was a kid. And I’m not talking the lousy strawberry ripple that you see in most supermarket freezers nowadays, which is basically vanilla with a bit of strawberry syrup mixed in. No sir. I’m talking the classic pink strawberry, especially when it used to have actual bits of real strawberries mixed in. Heavenly! Even when we’d get buckets of Neapolitan ice cream, I’d try and get as much of the strawberry as I could, and as little of the chocolate as possible. Never was a big fan of chocolate ice cream!
As I got older, I discovered Oreo cookies and cream ice cream, and I was hooked. Funnily enough, when it comes to actual Oreo cookies, I really don’t like them. I prefer Fudgee-O’s. I’d never buy Oreos to just eat the cookies. But I think when they’re mixed in with ice cream, some special alchemy goes to work, softens the cookies up, and makes them delicious!
In fact, at DQ, I often order an Oreo Blizzard, and pay a bit extra to get strawberries mixed in. It’s the best of both worlds!
For me, I usually enjoy my ice cream in a bowl, or in a cone, as do most people.
But it’s all about the variations, and how you eat it or add to it.
For me, a nice bowl of vanilla ice cream with sliced up fruit is fantastic. Or topping it with that chocolate syrup that used to harden into a shell. That was always yummy.
Maybe you’re eating a cone, and when you get to that last little bit, that’s melted and run down into the bottom of the cone, you bite off the end to get at the melty goodness!
My brothers had their own ways of enjoying their ice cream.
My brother Ward would have a big bowl of vanilla ice cream, and load it with chocolate chips. Not my cup of tea, but to each their own.
And my youngest brother, Barrett, would let his ice cream melt in the bowl, and turn it into ice cream soup! Here’s how he described it:
To each their own!
My Mom, meanwhile is a huge maple walnut fan. My Dad? He just likes ice cream in general! Haha!
I should mention that even though I’ve never been a huge fan of chocolate ice cream, there was one exception.
Several years ago, my former morning show compadre Will and I decided to celebrate National Milkshake Day. You know, on of those arbitrary “National (fill in the blank) Days,” that are always trending online. So during the show, we made the best chocolate milkshakes ever. We started with chocolate fudge brownie ice cream, with real brownie chunks in it. The, we added chocolate syrup. And instead of adding plain ol’ milk to our shakes, we used a carton of chocolate milk. We fired up the blender, and within minutes, we were in Milkshake Nirvana!
If there’s one kind I don’t ever need to eat again? It’s Tiger Tiger. One time when I was a kid, I was staying at my cousin Derek’s place in Saskatoon, on a Saturday afternoon, and we were kicking back watching WWF Superstars, and eating Tiger Tiger out of one of those great big brown cardboard barrels. Now, the orange part was good. Orange-flavoured anything? Always tasty. But the tiger stripe part? Not so much. Black licorice flavour anything is repellent!
But that’s the exception to the rule. I didn’t let the ice cream experience for me. Far from it!
The days are getting hotter, so bring on the ice cream!
Maybe I can find a part-time job and be like this guy!
