Monday, June 14, 2021

I Is For Ice Cream

About a hundred years ago when I was in elementary school, our class went on a field trip to The Home Dairy, where we observed milk processing and bottling. After that, we all got to order an ice cream cone and sit outside on a little curb in front of the building. Imagine a long row of little first- or second-graders, all sitting down with single dips of chocolate or vanilla ice cream at their faces. Brown, white, brown, white, all the way down the line. Suddenly, a vivid orange flecked with yellow disrupts the sedate pattern. That, dear friends, was me, the only little classmate to order her (and her father's) favourite flavour, orange pineapple.

My dad used to take us to Home Dairy once in a while, and they had terrific ice cream, homemade and scooped generously. They had lots of flavours, and a neat art deco building. There was no indoor seating because they were primarily a processing plant, but their ice cream business did well. I can also remember a couple of times when my scoop fell right off immediately upon my first lick. After that, he used to take the first lick of my scoop himself and press his tongue down hard on top of the scoop to make sure it was set well into the cone. I watched and learned, soon doing that myself whenever I got a cone of hard scooped ice cream.

My taste in ice cream has changed many times over the years, and I doubt that I'd like orange pineapple very much now. I used to like mint chocolate chip ice cream, too, but now even the thought of it makes me shudder. Same with caramel in or on ice cream. For some reason, I am anti-caramel. Maybe it's a case of being ill shortly after having it and having a bad association. I don't know.

For a long time I was a huge fan of Ben & Jerry's ice creams and their sinful chunkiness. Those are ice creams you actually chew. There's a lot of extras in there! Now, I just see it as Too Much. I want ice cream, not a bunch of other stuff mucking about in there. 

Perhaps I am an Ice Cream Purist. I'd rather pay more for good, smooth ice cream in small containers and feel the richness of all that butterfat. I don't eat ice cream all that often, so I don't feel too guilty when I do. I like Haagen Dazs very much, but they don't have my all-time favourite flavour, chocolate marshmallow. For that, I have to slum a little and buy Turkey Hill, a very good brand despite not being a premium ice cream. Haagen Dazs does have an addictive chocolate peanut butter flavour that makes me forget myself and chocolate marshmallow, however; I've been known to eat the whole pint once or twice. Not recommended. Especially before bed.

The little ice cream and pizza place on the way to the lakehouse has very good soft-serve ice cream. (And chocolate is back! as of Memorial Weekend.) Unlike Dairy Queen's "ice cream," it does not make me double over with terrible gas cramps. The best soft-serve is still frozen custard, however, and if you've never had it, you're missing something wonderful. 

When I was little, I was also enamored of sherbet, which is not, of course, ice cream. I think I loved it mostly because of its lovely colours, then because it tasted so fruity. I still love fruity sorbets, especially mango and lemon. So refreshing! (And yes, it drives me nuts when people pronounce it SHER-BERT, tossing an extra R in there for no apparent reason.)

Do you have a specific childhood memory of Ice cream? What is your favourite flavour?


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46 comments:

  1. The only childhood memory of ice cream that sticks out was when I was at a summer camp at a university. We had lunch in the cafeteria every day, and there was a soft-serve ice cream machine that we could use ourselves. My table always had a contest to see who could make the tallest ice cream tower on a cone. I don't think we ever measured them with a ruler, but I'm certain that I had at least a couple that were a foot tall (not including the cone).

    As far as my favorites go, I do remember having the most delicious gelato in London. It was actually an award-winning gelato.

    But when I'm not in London, my favorite flavors are, in no particular order:

    * Cookies and cream
    * Chocolate chip cookie dough
    * Cinnamon
    * Vanilla
    * Chocolate
    * Talenti's Caramel Cookie Crunch

    I've never been a huge caramel person, but Talenti's does it right.

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    1. Okay, so I just went to Ample Hills Creamery in NYC and had the following, which was delightful:

      "Nonna D's Oatmeal Lace is a rich brown sugar cinnamon ice cream is mixed with crispy oatmeal lace cookies."

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    2. Mikey--A soft-serve machine in the cafeteria is like a dream. I'd eat it for lunch every day, period.

      Your top two flavours are ones that I avoid. LOL. I've eaten a lovely cinnamon ice cream, but it feels like a seasonal flavour to me, sort of like pumpkin pie is for Thanksgiving. Rick would be all over your Oatmeal Lace ice cream. He's the one I buy Ben & Jerry's for, and they have an oatmeal cookie variety that he really likes.

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  2. One trip to Italy and I fell in love with gelato. Hard to find good gelato in the USofA but Talenti's does make really good gelato and it's right there in the Whole Foods or even Walmart. Try some Talenti chocolate mousse or raspberry or pistachio (or two in one cup, as in Italy) and you will not miss ice cream a bit. Anyhow, thanks for the memory of ice cream falling off the cone. Made the dogs happy, though.

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    1. kayT--When we get up to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, there's a wonderful Italian gelato place that we frequent. The proprietor, Nina, is Italian, and her flavours are incredible. It's ridiculously expensive, but worth it.

      Is there any kid who didn't have a scoop fall off the cone at one point? I've seen it myself at fairs and ice cream stands many times. My own kids had a different specialty, and that was bumping their ice cream cones up against the headrest of the front seat. Good times.

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  3. I am a fan of the vanilla. I will eat a salted carmel vanilla but mostly I just like plain old vanilla. Turkey Hill makes a "homemade vanilla" that I like and I just noticed that it is on sale at my Jewel this week! Might have to add it to the list...
    Thanks for writing about ice cream, Nance!

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    1. Rick is a fan of the vanilla as well. Turkey Hill makes a Neapolitan Vanilla, which is three vanillas in one. He was in heaven. He also likes its versatility in that he can dump caramel or chocolate topping on it if he's in the mood, or if I've baked something, it can be a sidecar.

      My sister had a friend who, as a child, was a huge vanilla fan, too. When they were kids, my mom would take us all for ice cream to a place called Mary's. They had dozens of flavours. We'd get raspberry ripple, rocky road, lime sherbet, strawberry cheesecake, mint chip, and Curt would step up and order, "A triple dip of vanilla, please." My sister would get downright irate! She would berate him the whole way home about his lack of imagination.

      He never budged, though. It was always vanilla for him. The Vanilla People know what they like!

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    2. My cousin's husband is the same way - and when we would tell him to pick a FLAVOR he would say that vanilla is a flavor!

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  4. I was a big fan of sherbet when I was little just because it was so pretty, and it was cherry screwballs from the ice cream truck. When I was five or six a Carvel opened right by my house. I had soft serve vanilla dipped in chocolate sprinkles every single day - no wonder I was fat by the time I hit middle school lol. Coffee ice cream is the only kind I've years but sure don't have it often. I remember my ice cream falling off the cone too! :D

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    1. Martha--Sherbet is so pretty! And it's always so refreshing. I remember screwballs with the gumball in the bottom. My sister used to get those. We didn't have the Carvel franchises in Ohio, but I remember seeing them when we visited family in NJ. We had lots of independent little ice cream stands.

      Haagen Dazs has a terrific coffee ice cream. Smooth and rich.

      It must be difficult for scoopers at ice cream shops to know just how much pressure to use to put the scoop onto the cone without breaking it, but to get it to stay. I know I'd never last as an ice cream scooper; I have zero arm strength.

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  5. I LOVE THIS POST DEPT Nance! I love that you were an individual with smarts at a very young age. Unafraid to be different! Some ice cream , as you say, will make my stomach hurt for hours. Not worth it. I bought an little teeny weeny ice cream machine. It looks like the school thermos you used to bring in your lunch once in a while. It makes just one serving. I can use almond milk and oat milk and add some SUGAR and have myself soft ice-cream any night. Tonight I may add a tad touch of chocolate sprinkle dust that I brought home from Mexico. I have always preferred hard pack, (baskin Robbins 31 flavors) to soft serve . And I've forever been a sugar cone fan. You can have that flaky thing , a safety cone with crappy paper. We have some vegan ice cream at Maggie Moo's but the fat content is as high as a regular ice cream. There was a butter brickle ice cream we could only get at the WINDMILL ice cream store in Minocqua Wisconsin. I've never found it anywhere else. Ice cream ALWAYS makes me thirsty. Look at the can of worms you opened!!! Fun topic

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    1. kathy b--I'm glad you had fun with this post!

      DQ ice cream isn't even ice cream. It's only 5% butterfat, so it's barely ice milk. They whip so much air into it that it's more gas than anything else. That's why it gives me so much distress. It's sad because those shops are everywhere, and sometimes, you just need a little fix.

      I'd love to see your mini ice cream maker. If you could send me a link to my email, that would be great. It sounds like something I'd like to experiment with.

      I'm a sugar cone person, too, if given the choice, or a waffle cone. The other kind is just a container to me. Like a fortune cookie--really no taste.

      Ice cream always makes me freezing cold. I usually wrap up in my quilt to eat it if I'm at home. And I miss our local Baskin Robbins. I loved Baseball Nut flavour.

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  6. Chocolate peanut butter cup. Although now that I know about the Haagen Dazs, I may have a new fast friend. We have a dairy about an half hour drive away and our pandemic treat has been to,go,there for a cone on a good driving afternoon. Ignoring the 'stay home' mantra. The biggest problem with this is that being masked precludes the tongue on top move to save the scoop from wobbling out.
    When I was a kid, we drove to a dairy to get milk when we were staying at our cottage, and I am told,I demanded a cone with no stupid drippy ice cream in it. Um, how things have changed.
    My poor nut allergic grandkid has her own ice cream maker and goes for weird flavours and colours. Why am I saying 'poor' a out someone who can make ice cream of whatever flavour she can dream up? Because she cannot do the run tomthe dairy with us, that's why. Anticipation is a lot,of the fun.

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    1. Mary--Ah, a woman after my own heart. Chocolate and peanut butter are a match made in heaven. Do try the Haagen Dazs. It has swirls of peanut butter in the good chocolate ice cream. Mmmmm.

      Nut allergies do take away a lot of fun! Your granddaughter sounds as if she is creatively compensating, though, and making one's own ice cream is a great way to do it. An ice cream maker not too far from me makes wonderful flavours, and always adds several seasonal ice creams, sorbets, and frozen yogurts year round. Here is their web page, just to give your granddaughter some ideas.

      And you're so right--Anticipation IS a lot of the fun. My dad raised us on that. We all used to plan and talk so much about everything that the actual event was only a small part of it all. The Joy truly is in the Journey.

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  7. We had a custard stand in my little town where I grew up. My dad had a back hoe. He used to pile 3 of us in the front bucket and one in the back bucket and drive us the few blocks to get ice cream on those really wicked hot summer nights. I'm SURE that would be illegal now. It was probably illegal then. LOL But, we all made it through alive although probably quite sticky and dirty. Heck ... that's what summer was all about in North Hills.

    My favorite then was vanilla custard cone dipped in chocolate (25cents). Now . . . I think peach is probably my favorite. I'm not much of an ice cream fan, but I will have some on occasion.

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    1. Dee--Oh, I love this story! I can just picture it, and how fun that must have been! Certainly, if it happened now, someone would call the police or child welfare and he'd be facing some sort of trouble, but back then, what a wonderful treat! I know my own kids would have loved it, probably my little granddaughter would love it now.

      What a terrific memory.

      And lucky you--a dipped cone! Do you know I never, ever had one? And I always coveted one. I'm not sure why we never got one. Maybe my parents thought it would be too messy or something. To this day, I've still never had one.

      I do like a good peach ice cream, too. It tastes so homey and satisfying. Or vanilla ice cream with fresh peaches, even better.

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  8. Between the ages of 2 and 8, I lived in a nice little neighborhood in Lynnhurst, MA, and was always thrilled to hear the bell of the Howard Johnson's ice cream truck. I loved it all. The guy in his white uniform with the chrome-plated change maker on his belt, the colorful truck, the way the heavy compartment doors would billow forth clouds of steam when he reached in to get our nickel popsicles or fudgcicles. Or, if you happened to have a shiny dime, perhaps a chocolate covered vanilla ice cream bar, or my favorite, the toasted coconut covered vanilla bar. People collect old ice cream wrappers, but I've never seen any of these on eBay in decades of looking. And this is only color photo I've found of this type of truck. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4045800468866214&set=a.720547078058253

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    1. Yahoonski--Hey, good to see you here!

      I have never in my life heard of a HoJo's ice cream truck, let alone seen one. Thanks for the link so that I could.

      I had never seen a Good Humor truck, either, until we went to Baltimore one summer to visit. What incredible treats that offered! I got a chocolate eclair bar, and it had a solid core of chocolate inside once you finished the ice cream around it. Magnificent.

      Ice creams or popsicles from a truck were such a luxury in our childhood. We had a local purveyor, and he wore a uniform as well. I also loved that cold rush and the clouds of vapor, and how he could just reach in and pull out exactly what we wanted.

      We also had a Mister Softee ice cream truck that offered soft serve cones, sundaes, and milkshakes, even floats. Apparently, they are still out there, and there's an app for that.

      Ice cream is truly ageless, isn't it?

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  9. Childhood ice cream memories: My mother rarely bought it and never took us anywhere to eat it. She would buy these combo things in huge containers that had 3 flavours: chocolate, vanilla & strawberry (what else?!) I usually stuck with plain vanilla. If there was apple pie to eat it with, that was heaven. At school they sold little Dixie cups and I loved to get one if there was left over lunch money. Mom used to give us a few nickels as well when the ice cream truck rolled through the neighbourhood.

    Later in my teen years we started seeing places like Baskin-Robbins which I loved. My favorite was blueberry. Moving along in time, I used to love going to the Häagen-Dazs 'ice cream parlor' when I lived in Madrid. There was one right around the corner from my apartment. Contrary to your preferences, my fave was (and is) dulce de leche. Sadly, since having my gall bladder out years ago, I can't eat ice cream without digestive issues. I sneak a spoonful every now and then, but that's it. (insert crying emoji.) Mr. O. loves dulce de leche and will O.D. on it if I don't keep an eye on him, lol.

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    1. Ortizzle--Your combo thing--was it just a huge tub of Neapolitan? That's the classic three stripes of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. As a kid, I liked that. It was pretty, and I could eat three flavours in one bowl.

      Those little Dixie cups of ice cream always came with a wooden spoon, and those set my teeth on edge. I could never enjoy the ice cream because of that damn spoon. Other kids used to be all excited about getting ice cream, and I only saw that wooden paddle. Ugh.

      We used to have several Baskin Robbins stores here, and they've disappeared. I wonder why. Certainly we have a terrific local ice cream shop, but I feel like there is room for BR, too. Maybe the plethora of frozen yogurt places drove them out.

      Rick has no gall bladder, either, but that doesn't seem to deter his ice cream intake. I'm so sorry it curbs yours. He loves the dulce de leche also, and I've long since given up trying to rein him in. He has to suffer the consequences of his own actions. I resist saying, "I told you so" because I am a saint. (Insert eye roll emoji)

      It sounds like you should concentrate on sorbet. Sadly, I have not ever seen a dulce de leche sorbet, but I will leave that to you to research. You don't have anything else to do, do you? LOL.

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  10. Go-to ice cream flavor - praline. Gelato highlight - vanilla & raspberry gelato from the Queen Creek Olive Mill in Phoenix. Summertime treat - a chocolate milk shake from the burger bar in my hometown and mango smoothie from the golden arches when I travel in the other direction. I prefer the full dairy ice cream. When the neighbor boys were young we used to make banana splits with as many toppings as we could find. On the rare trips we made to a nearby city in my youth, my dad always stopped at a drive-in for soft serve ice cream. I've also made ice cream in a bag with my grandchildren.

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    1. Mona--A McDonald's has mango smoothies? Made with ice cream? Wow. Of course, the ones here may have it as well and I just don't know it. I haven't been to a McDonald's in years and years.

      I've also never had praline ice cream. I've had pralines--both the hard, crunchy kind and the soft, sugary kind. I've heard it pronounced PRAY-leen and PRAW-leen and pray-LEEN. I do like a chocolate milkshake, but I can't remember the last time I had one.

      My dad was fond of taking The Long Way to all of our destinations, especially to my grandmother's house. (His in-laws.) We hated that, but the payoff often was that we'd stop at a little drive-in soft-serve/soft custard stand. It was the only thing that made it bearable.

      I wonder if my littlest granddaughter (a precocious 7) would be at all interested in making ice cream in a bag. She'd probably say, "Nana, can't we just go GET some ice cream already made?" She has as much patience as I do.

      Are you one of the people who can eat a burger and have the milkshake too? That confounds me, that combination. A milkshake isn't a drink to me; it's a dessert.

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  11. I've forgotten about orange pineapple ice cream! I used to love it too. But I haven't met many favors I don't like and cookie dough is one that goes on that short list.

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    1. Jean--And you don't see that flavour anymore, at least I don't. And it wasn't a sherbet, either. I've tried cookie dough ice cream, and I just don't like it. Maybe because the little plugs of cookie dough are hard and frozen, not soft like when you make cookies at home and sample the dough. That's my problem with most chunky ice creams--the chunks are frozen and hard and don't have a nice texture and aren't as flavourful as they would be if they were at room temp.

      Thinking back, I liked a lot of ice creams that were pretty--raspberry ripple, strawberry cheesecake, orange pineapple. I have always been a sucker for colour.

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  12. Yes, yes, I DO have a fond memory. Summer time, just me and my dad would walk the 3 blocks to the creamery for cones. My favorite was black walnut. If they didn't have it, my 2nd favorite was strawberry. I ended up marrying the son of the very creamery's foreman. He'd bring me a gallon of each...fresh from the machines...still soft.

    Now, Bud and I are retired. And I thought I was in heaven back some 60 years ago...today we buy nothing but TEXAS' own Blue Bell. And their black walnut is sooooo much better. Oh my!!!

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    1. Anni--You married your very own ice cream man! How romantic (and convenient). My dad liked black walnut, too, when he could get it. It was very scarce around here.

      Retirement IS heaven, isn't it? And retiring with an ice cream man must be doubly so. ;)

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  13. As you know, I am a HUGE fan of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food (and I mean huge in every way - which is their fault, obviously). But I also like that Turkey Hill one with marshmallow. Have you heard of Young's Jersey Dairy? It's near Yellow Springs in Ohio & it has lovely ice cream, as does Graeter's. But you are absolutely right about custard - oh my merciful heavens! That is the GOOD stuff!

    I have two favorite childhood ice cream memories. One is that my mom would take us to Baskin Robbins & I would either get Rocky Road or Bubblegum. That was always a special time. The second is when we'd have homemade ice cream at my grandmother's house. Someone often made Sundrop Banana & it was the bomb! We'd eat ice cream and watermelon & in general we would ALL need hosing off afterward!

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    1. Bug--I've not heard of Young's Jersey Dairy, but those Jersey cows are awfully pretty, almost fawn-like. Graeter's ice cream is carried by a few stores around here, but not many. I see that Giant Eagle, a local store, has Turkey Hill on sale this week, so I may have to indulge in some chocolate marshmallow.

      I loved going to Baskin Robbins, too. They had really cool flavours. There was one by a branch of the bank where I worked in the summers during college, and it was often my lunch. Once in a while, when they dropped off deposits through the drive-up, they'd bring each teller a scoop of ice cream in a cup.

      Sundrop banana ice cream sounds...different. I'd try it, at least. But knowing your fondness for odd food combinations, I won't take your word for it being delicious. ;)

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  14. This is such a cute and fun post; my favorite flavor. Even as a kid, you made your own path.
    I do hope we can still be friends, but I just realized I think I pronounce sherbet with the extra R. Maybe I don't? It's been so long since I've even said the word that now I'm doubting myself. But I did love it as a kid.

    But my favorite childhood memories of ice cream are the ones where we chased the ice cream truck down the street and purchased either a screwball (with a gumball in the bottom) or a pushup which is just orange sherBET. ;)

    We had a nice place in our town that had the best soft serve ever and I loved it as a kid. I hardly ever eat ice cream now, but if I had my druthers, I'd have rocky road: chocolate, marshmallow and almonds. YUM.

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    1. I just remembered our local Ice cream place was Carvel too. I suppose it wasn't just in my town though.

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    2. Suz--Of course we can still be friends. Just don't talk about sherBET around me. LOL.

      I ate my share of push-ups, too. I could never resist them, even though they became a soggy, cardboard mess near the end. Those first few bites were heaven. My sister always got the screwballs.

      Carvel had all the cool ice cream cakes, too, in all the neat shapes. They didn't make it to Ohio. We had a lot of independent soft serve places, with names like Dairy Swirl and Dairy Isle and one called The Polar Bear with the cutest sign ever of a polar bear hugging a huge ice cream cone.

      I could probably set aside my aversion to chunky ice cream for rocky road. I am always up for all things marshmallow.

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  15. I grew up around Isaly ice cream shops. It was the company that originally made the Klondike bar so in many ways my childhood memories revolve around Klondikes bars long before there was a jingle about them. Still prefer the original one, even now.

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    1. Ally--Oh, Isaly's! Their ice cream scoop shops used to make ice cream cones tall, like a skyscraper. When we visited my grandparents in Ashland, OH, we often went downtown and got cones there. They had great raspberry ripple.

      Klondike bars are so thin now, aren't they? They used to be a nice, thick slab of ice cream with a good chocolate coating. Now they're a shadow of their former selves. Rick was a huge Klondike bar fan. We often experimented with all their new flavours, but once they got stingy, we stopped buying them. Too disappointed.

      Are there any more Isaly ice cream shops? Off to Google...

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    2. In college I worked as a waitress in an Isaly's restaurant, which was different than the ice cream dairy shops but owned by the same family. We were trained to make those skyscraper cones. I can tell you it wasn't easy to do that. All the restaurants are closed now. I miss the old Klondikes too. They were worth eating.

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  16. My favorite memory of ice cream when I was preschool age was going to the Butler family home for the best ice cream I've ever had. My favored flavor was Black Cherry. We drove between their home and garage (a '40s version of drive thru) to purchase our cones. They made the ice cream in their garage where it had become so popular they began selling a few different flavors.

    Many years after we moved to Arizona our neighbor's son became a trainee at Baskin Robbins. Later he bought his own store and another one or two, eventually, before his untimely young death due to some rare disease. He experimented making the various ice cream specialities and would bring some of his efforts home, treating us, too, on occasion. My favorite was a new one with caramel they introduced but I don't see it listed among their flavors any more.

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    1. Joared--You've known some real ice cream entrepreneurs. Lucky you!

      I think BR retires some flavours, like Ben & Jerry's does. Or perhaps they only bring out some of them for a limited time or at certain seasons. I hope you've found some suitable substitutes for both of your faves and still enjoy black cherry and caramel ice creams.

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  17. When I had braces, my mom would sometimes take me to a local ice cream shop, Swensen’s, which had really delicious sundaes. I am a firm believer in sundaes, and that they should be served in a glass dish, not paper. Sadly there aren’t too many ice cream places that have that anymore. There’s a place in Oakland, which is close to us, but their ice cream is a matter of quantity over quality. They give you a LOT of so so ice cream, which is not my thing.

    When I was a kid, my favorite flavor was chocolate, and I also loved rocky road. But there were a LOT of flavors that I loved, including French vanilla. I am still very fond of French vanilla, but also really love coffee ice cream (esp with a bit of chocolate sauce drizzled on it, then nuts) and I really love Baskin Robbins Cherries Jubilee. It’s a ridiculous pink color, but it’s delicious.

    I’m with you on the sorbet, SO refreshing. I used to only like the tart flavors, like lemon or grapefruit, but I’ve branched out a bit now and enjoy pomegranate or raspberry as well. Sometimes at a nice restaurant I’ll have the sorbet for dessert. Yum. I’m also with you on the quality thing. I really like creamy, rich ice cream, not one that is whipped with too much air.

    It’s 103 outside right now (though thankfully it is extremely rare for us to get humidity here, so it is very dry) and we’re not yet at the hottest part of the day. Ice cream or sorbet sounds really good right now, though there is no way I am going out to get any. Besides, I just ate all of the watermelon I bought for the weekend.

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    1. J--I am a firm believer in the sundae as well. I default almost entirely to the hot fudge sundae, having grown up with that as THE ice cream sundae in my life. I'm not a fan of fruit topping sundaes because so many of them are syrupy and fakey. One ice cream stand used to have a frozen yoghurt fruit bowl, and it had absolutely fresh fruit, like a fruit salad, full of melon and berries and fresh pineapple, all poured over soft-serve frozen yoghurt. That was my go-to one entire summer.

      I have a pint of mango sorbet in my freezer right now that may actually be my dinner. It's hot and humid here right now, and after a weekend at the lake, we're tired and don't feel like fussing or eating.

      I am so concerned about your heat and drought out west. I wish for rain for you constantly.

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  18. I thought of a more recent memory while reading your comments, and an older one as well. Both involve the ice cream truck…back in the day I used to enjoy a missile, which was orange and pink and pineapple, and SO DELICIOUS - Just so much sugar. I don’t think it was ice cream, but I’m not sure. Fast forward to 1998, and I worked in a local business park, and the business park manager used to pay to have the ice cream truck come by every Thursday during the summer, and we all got free ice cream. My favorite was a coffee ice cream bar dipped in chocolate with nuts. It was Haagen Daz, of course. Also Haagen Daz, they used to have a creamsicle that was amazing. Then they replaced the vanilla ice cream in the middle with vanilla frozen yogurt, which turned me off of them entirely.

    Around here, you can now buy Baskin Robbins ice cream at the grocery store. They have some of the more popular flavors…try the pralines and cream if you get a chance, it’s a favorite with MANY people. Maya likes the world class chocolate, which is 3 kinds of chocolate swirled together. I of course like the aforementioned cherries jubilee. Ted was a peanut butter and chocolate fan for a few decades, but he can’t have ice cream any more without painful repercussions, so he abstains.

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    1. I’m taking over your comment section, sorry. Did I mention it’s hot outside? Anyway, I looked up my popsicle from my youth, the Missle, and it is now called a Big Stick, and the flavor was NOT orange and pineapple, it is cherry and pineapple. Yummy though. Regarding regional treats, do you have It’s It’s? They are at the grocery store, and are two oatmeal cookies with ice cream in the middle, then dipped in chocolate. Fond memories of my youth there. I think they’re located in South San Francisco, and they have quite a few flavors now. When we lived in Philadelphia, I took aerobics with a woman whose husband was related to the inventor.

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    2. J--You may run amok throughout my comments anytime.

      I don't remember the Missile, but I remember the Bomb Pop; it was a popsicle that was red, white, and blue and huge. I don't remember anyone eating it before it melted all over the place and plopped off. We never got those. If we were going to spend the big bucks, it certainly wasn't on a popsicle; we would get an ice cream treat.

      I've never heard of It's It's, but they sounds wonderful and like something Rick would adore particularly. Perhaps I'll look into futzing around someday and making something similar myself. (Ha ha. I will most likely never, ever do that. The most I would do is offer homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on the side of a dish of vanilla ice cream.)

      I don't think I've ever seen BR in the grocery store, but now that you've said It's A Thing, I'll look for it. I'm no fan of chunky ice creams anymore, but I remember their Baseball Nut, and I did love that. I'll see what I find, if anything.

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  19. I LOVE maple walnut ice cream. Hard to find around here (but I have made it) - it is big in Vermont. I also love home made ice cream - vanilla, or lemon sorbet. coffee ice cream is really good too. I should just stop right here!

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    Replies
    1. Vera--I like maple nut ice cream, too. I only get it from a local ice cream shop once in a while, however, and rarely at that because their other flavours are so incredibly good. I feel like making my own ice cream is truly the answer for me, but it could also lead me to terrible indiscretion.

      I wonder if fondness for ice cream returns to us when we get to A Certain Age. Many of us are enthusiastic about it, and I wasn't always so. Were you?

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    2. I've ALWAYS loved ice cream...but I eat less of it now (trying to be good - I eat less of any sweet now).

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