...ummm, ice cream

I have been well-known ...
among my friends and family...
for NOT having a sweet tooth...
Mom could never understand it...
["are you sure we're related ?"...]
neither could my best friend...
["oh, well... more for me..."]

if it was rich... and gooey...
and chocolate... or really sweet...
one bite was enough for me...
"too sweet", I'd say ...
and pass it on to my friend...
[maybe that's why
she was my friend... hummm...]

having said that...
this next statement
becomes a non sequitor...

I LOVE ice cream...

well...let me qualify that...

I LOVE some ice creams...


I like my ice cream on the "hard" side...
I like "chewing it"...
the ice cream itself...
NOT a bunch of stuff in it...
I like it to have "tooth"...

also, NOT too sweet...
definitely NOT too rich...
NOT too heavy...
with a lot of add-ins ...
OR rich ingredients...

especially ...
NOT coating my mouth ...
with butter fat residue...

and...

NEVER, EVER...

all glommed together ...
half melted...
with a bunch of candy or nuts...
or gooey swirls...

[Coldstone...?
uhh, no... not for me...]

I feel MUCH better now...
having cleared that up...

a little background...

when I was a kid ...
our family traveled 25 miles for Chinese dinners...
once in a great while...
[one of our few family outings...]

and after Chinese food...
we always went to the Superior Dairy...
for ice cream cones...

I ALWAYS got chocolate chip....



it looked like this...vanilla ice cream ...
shot through with shaved semi sweet chocolate...
a lot like an Eskimo Pie bar...
not too sweet... not too rich...

the last time I had it was on Mom's 90th...
it was still just as I remembered it...

as I grew... my taste in ice cream ...
has remained skewed towards "simple"...
or "not too sweet"..."not too rich"...

and at home, growing up...
because Dad ate most of the "ice cream" ...
at our house, and he was always heavy...
Mom would buy ice milk instead of ice cream...

Dad liked vanilla, mixed with soda...
7Up, Pepsi, rootbeer...
whatever...he liked floats...
milkshakes...& ice cream sodas...

all easily made at home with ice milk...
and NOT TOO rich...

to this day, my favorite fountain drink...
is a chocolate soda with vanilla ice cream...
NO whipped cream, please...
[butterfat, you know...]

even as a "scooper" at Baskin Robbins ...
[during grad school in Chicago...]
my favorites included "mandarin orange sherbet"...
[semi sweet chocolate & orange...yummm...]
and "daiquiri ice"... [like the frozen drink...]

*notice* NONE of these are ice cream...

I have always appreciated simple flavors...
especially fruity ones...
my favorite being, "fresh peach"...



I "fell" for homemade peach ice cream...
made from tree ripened fruit...



hand cranked freezer...
warm summer days in the back yard...
under the large trees...
where a hint of breeze lingered...
despite the sweltering central valley heat...



then... I discovered this...
so much like homemade...
not at all rich... not too sweet...
with big chunks of peaches throughout...
ummmm....



then there's this...
Haagen Daz chocolate...
when it's rock hard...
it is so good...
not too sweet...



and this "specialty"...
Haagen Daz Mayan chocolate...
semi sweet chocolate with cinnamon...
there is a swirl...
but the semi sweet chocolate is so good...
I can ignore that bit of too sweetness...



ginger ice cream... first enjoyed by me in Boston...
after a very garlicky Thai dinner...
is another favorite of mine...



and I LOVE peppermint ice cream...
but prefer the bits of candy to be on the small side...
and the ice cream to be rock hard...
I've been known to buy several cartons during the holidays...
and ration it through January...



when I worked at BR...
I loved their pumpkin pie ice cream...
some people put "crust" in "pie" flavors...
I can do without it...
especially if the ice cream is hard...



the same goes for egg nog...
I don't like it if it's too "rich"...
"rummy" is fine...with a strong "nutmeg" presence...
and again...very hard...



by now... you've got the idea...
the rummy raisins are the thing...

someday... I'll overcome my laziness...
and make my own...

I have the machine...



I wonder if you can make a decent "Guinness" ice or sorbet ?

hummm...