It ain’t Christmas. It’s way better!
National Ice Cream Day! Today!
My Most Favorite Sweet on the planet!
It’s also top-rated among Most-Beloved Foods. No. 3 is ice cream. No. 2 is spinach, namely fresh baby. No. 1 is quality sushi.
Quality ice cream only.
NO ghastly sugar-free or ice milk or soy milk (yech!) or Breyer’s — which ain’t ice cream, it’s a “frozen dairy product” and states so on the carton.
Despite my best intentions and determination, I cannot keep ice cream at home.
I’ve tried a zillion times and in all its forms: from cartons large and small to bars to sandwiches to slices. Results are the same. My willpower melts. The treat’s gone in an hour, a day, 3 days max.
I’ve brought a half-gallon home, eaten too much, then dumped the remainder just to roadblock future temptation!
Better for my wellbeing, waistline and wallet that I pay the high price for a single serving (i.e., Haagen Daaz in a mini-cup) or 2 scoops at an ice cream store.
Sane and satisfying and sans sugar crash of that pint of Ben & Jerry’s — and who hasn’t done that?!?
Due to health conditions, I’ve radically cut my ice cream consumption to nearly nil. I truly miss it. Especially in the summer desert heat. Kinda heartbreaking, truth told.
I “redirect” frequent cravings with a substitute that’s healthier but nowhere near as satisfying! Whey protein shakes. Chocolate powder, banana, peanut butter, cold water and ice in the Nutribullet. While my body appreciates it, my soul weeps.
Costco recently introduced ice cream to its food courts. Rather, a vanilla soft serve topped with a chocolate or strawberry syrup. Saucy! Or naked in a waffle cone.
Large servings and for Costco’s renowned low prices: $2.50 (3.40 CAD) for a sundae and $1.99 (2.70 CAD) for a waffle cone.
After today’s big Costco shop … I indulged! I’ve no shame in saying.
Time to time, everyone needs to indulge in one’s culinary passion. It eases thy burdens and restoreth thy soul.
I went full-on restoreth. Got a hot dog too. LOOVE hot dogs! In the Top 10 Fav Foods! A nice thick dog in a big bun with a soda for $1.50 (2 CAD).
Due to covid, Costco removed its condiments: relish, mustard, chopped onion, sauerkraut. Mustard and onions at home but I did quite miss the sauerkraut. (I’m solid-Germanic in dog dressings!)
Now a hot dog — paired with an IPA — and an ice cream sundae on my fold-out chair on my little patio hardly qualify as Michelin 5-star dining.
Yet humble are my roots and honestly delightful was my meal of simple beloved foods. My soul and inner kid grinned ear to ear.
Cool factoids about National Ice Cream Day
It’s on the 3rd Sunday in July every year — so proclaimed in 1984 by President Ronald Regan, an avid “ice cream-teer.”
July was also proclaimed National Ice Cream Month … leaving you at liberty to patriotically indulge 31 days in a row.
The favorite flavor in Häagen-Dazs shops is cookies ‘n’ cream, then vanilla, dulce de leche and Belgian chocolate.
The average American consumes more than 20 pounds (9 kg) of it a year. (I’d better get crackin’!)
Turkey Hill churned out 30 million gallons of ice cream last year –enough to give “every man, woman, and child in Pennsylvania 112 scoops to celebrate National Ice Cream Day!”
Now for something totally different:
Oyster ice cream was a fav of Mark Twain.
The base is cream and oysters gently heated, then run through an ice cream freezer. The result is a savory not sweet “beautiful oyster salty briny flavor,” according to Chef José Andrés.
I’ll take chef’s word for it.
As for me today, no shellfish … only simple … sweet … satisfying … soulful …
Celebrating Ice Cream Day … with a dog as dessert. Courtesy of Costco. July 19, 2020
Allelujah, Arizona! 