Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Happy New Year from scoopalicious!


So the holidays got a hold of me and I never made it to 12 days of gifts so to redeem myself I promised I would get in a final post of 2011. So here it is short and sweet....be merry, have fun, enjoy great company, remember the wonderful times had in 2010, and have lots of ice cream as you ring in 2011.

And just in case you are looking for that one fun thing to bring New Year's eve, Disney's Family Fun has a great New Year's Eve idea to decorate some cones as an awesome edible decoration or to top off an ice cream toast.

And the countdown begins.....


Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Perfect Holiday Ice Cream - Whole Food's Peppermint

One thing I love is Peppermint ice cream so I was very excited when we were asked to check out the new Peppermint ice cream by Whole Food's 365 line of products. This actually arrived awhile back when I got the Pumpkin ice cream so its been burning a hole in my freezer anxiously awaiting the holiday season. So finally after an exhausting night of wrapping I sat down to have some me time and excitedly remembered that this was waiting for me to break open. So I did of course. 


Peppermint ice cream is one of those flavors that is not consistent in ingredients. Sometimes its straight up peppermint with no mix-ins, sometimes you get the light pink with the small red candies, sometimes its vanilla with chocolate covered peppermints so I was very curious to see what this one was all about. Interestingly I searched the container and there is no description (other than the list of ingredients) as to what is inside. Could have been an issue was I trying to make a decision to buy but I already had it in my freezer so no biggie but sort of odd not to tell you what you are getting. 


Anyways, as I opened it the ice cream is a gorgeous pink color. Not too light and not too bright and mixed throughout is Peppermint Bark and Peppermint candy. Again I got this from the ingredients soI am not exactly sure but there are lots of chunks of minty chocolate amongst a wonderful peppermint flavored ice cream. One thing I find better about this flavor over the pumpkin is the texture. This one definitely is smoother and creamier. 


Oh and I just want to mention as I did with the Pumpkin flavor that this ice cream 
has no gluten products, is vegetarian and is made from milk from cows not treated with rBGH.


All in all I have to say this would be a great addition to a holiday dessert tray. Pair it with dark chocolate sauce and a dollop of whipped cream and its heavenly.


Again another shout out on the great branding...I absolutely love the graphic patterns and simplicity of the packaging. So unexpected amongst the big brands in a freezer. I think this definitely stands out amongst the crowd as does the flavor.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Ice Cream Gift Idea #8


I know we've definitely mentioned this next idea before but its worth sharing again because it really has some of the best ice cream recipes I've made. David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop is a recipe book full of classic recipes like Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream to innovative concoctions like Pear Pecorino Ice Cream plus recipes for lots of sweets that go great with ice cream too. This is definitely a must for any avid ice cream maker on your list.

Ice Cream Gift Idea #7


Oh Violet has to have one of these! How fun is Etsy just to surf around and see the amazing creations people are making. This shirt is so precious and perfect for the little girly girl on your list. Chic Baby Rose out of California is designing these super cute ice cream long sleeved T's and the fun part is that you can customize the flavor by choosing what color tulle to top the cone off with. Love it!!! And if anything just go check out the other goods she makes. The hats, tutus, and dresses are so amazingly cute and just fun to look at!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Ice Cream Gift Idea #6

Well I had to post about this because Moon Dough is at the top of my daughter's list and I noticed they had a cute ice cream set. I guess the deal with this stuff is that it supposedly does not dry out like Playdoh does, its hypo-allergenic, and wheat-free. I guess I will believe it doesn't dry out when I see it but it looks fun and I love that there is an ice cream inspired set. I saw they had a pizza set, a barn set, and a dog set to name a few. Lots of fun for that big or little kid on your list and one that won't break the bank too!


Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Free Ice Cream at Maggie Moo's

This just in in honor of National Cupcake Day (with a shoutout to our buddy Stef of Cupcake Project - - and a promise of an upcoming photo of the cupcake and ice cream worlds colliding)...


Do good and eat well!

It's late and I have been sick for the last couple of days and I need to get to bed so when the baby wakes, I can wake too, so I am just going to paste the relevant details from the press release. But promise I will be back and posting as soon as I can. In the meantime, thanks to Tina for pulling more than her share of the weight for the last four months...

From Maggie Moo's:

MaggieMoo’s Ice Cream and Treatery will celebrate National Cupcake Day on Wednesday, December 15 by giving customers a free ice cream cupcake sample with any donation of a canned good from 3 to 7pm.*

“We are excited to use National Cupcake Day as a platform for MaggieMoo’s to collect food for local food banks,” said Jenn Johnston, chief marketing and operations officer for GFG Management, LLC. “Also, National Cupcake Day is a fabulous way for us to reward our valued customers with MaggieMoo’s unique ice cream cupcakes.”

Customers can visit MaggieMoos.com and join MaggiE-mail, follow Miss Maggie Moo on Twitter or become a Facebook® Fan

* While supplies last. Limit one offer per guest during the day of the promotion. Counts vary by store. Valid only at participating U.S. stores.  No purchase necessary.


Enjoy!

Ice Cream Gift Idea #5


Send the gift of love....send em ice cream. eCeamery has some great holiday gift packs with some seriously good flavors. Or if you want to be creative the cool thing about eCreamery is that you can create your own flavor, name it, and they'll package it and ship it. You choose form a Gelato, Sorbetto or Ice Cream base, add your flavors and mix-ins then give it a fun name and you have your very own pint of ice cream created just by you. It really would be a fun gift to send to someone. Who doesn't want ice cream delivered straight to their door?!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Ice Cream Gift Idea #4

Oh this is so fun and kitschy I just love it! Leave it to good old Fred to come up with this and for my coblogger Bethany to find it. It's a jumbo Ice Cream Cone Lamp that measures over two feet tall. How fun is this! Oh and no it is not self levitating! This lamp is all yours for just $48. Get it while its hot because they have limited quantities.


Monday, December 13, 2010

Ice Cream Gift Idea #3

Well yesterday I commented that I liked the ice cream bowls because they looked homemade well today I love this gift idea because it is handmade. I found this adorable and handmade ice cream cone necklace on Etsy. It is so cute and looks very well hand-crafted. It is made of sterling silver and is 16" but because it is handmade you can ask for a preferred length. 


Have an ice cream lover who admires handmade or silver jewelry? This is the perfect scoop for them!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Ice Cream Gift Idea #2

Most of you by now know I love ice cream but the other thing I am not sure I mentioned is a second love of mine is Target. I live 1 mile from one and probably go in 3-5 times a week. for who knows what. Well today's gift idea is simple and cost effective and so adorable. It's a set of four ceramic ice cream bowls for $7.99. I love that these have a handcrafted look and also are sophisticated looking enough to serve at the dinner table for guests filled with homemade ice cream. They come in three great muted colors of Avacado, Cocoa, or Eggplant. Pair these with some petite ice cream spoons and it is the perfect gift. 

Saturday, December 11, 2010

12 Days of Ice Cream Gift Ideas & TODAY ONLY AWESOME deal

And the countdown begins til almighty Santa drops by in the dead of the night and that means limited days left of holiday shopping. So we here at Scoopalicious are going to share with you an ice cream inspired gift a day for the ice cream lover on your list.


TODAY ONLY 


Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker with Extra Freezer Bowl for $39.95



William Sonoma brings you the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker with Extra Freezer Bowl...yes I did say "extra" freeze bowl..all for $39.95. Seriously this one is almost too good to be true. You can choose between white or red and its capacity is 1.5 quarts. Get it while supplies last cause they are limited. This one is almost too great to pass up myself and I already have an ice cream maker!


Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Hooray for Holly

Turkey Hill's Super Sundae contest was loads of fun (even though my 5 year old razzes me about her recipe being a finalist and not mine!) and even more fun having Holly being crowned with the winning Super Sundae. She is going to celebrate by sharing her winnings with her kindergarten class and having an ice cream party for them all. I have a feeling she is going to be pretty popular that day. Thanks again Turkey Hill for hosting a fun contest and thank you to all of you who voted and voted and voted for her. We can't wait until our fun ice cream prize pack arrives!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Yippee we have a finalist..PLEASE VOTE NOW for Sundae #3

In Holly's eyes (my 5 year old) she is already a winner just having her creation chosen as a finalist for the Turkey Hill Super Sundae contest. The fun part now is voting, voting, voting for her "It's a Party" Sundae #3 and keeping our fingers crossed that it comes out on top. I told her if she wins she can use the supply of ice cream for an ice cream party for her class so she is even more excited to come in first place of course.

So Pretty Please With a Cherry on Top go to Turkey's Hill blog and vote for Holly's "It's a Party" Sundae #3 as the best Super Sundae!

TO VOTE...just leave a comment at the bottom of the post about the finalists.

The finalist....and hopefully the winner!
"It's a Party" Sundae Creation by Holly

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Interview with Tim from Tim's Ice Cream Truck

Who doesn't long for the ice cream truck to come by on a hot summer day?! Well Tim @ Tim's Ice Cream Truck knows a good thing when he sees it and decided it was his turn to be the ice cream man. Below is an interview about his experiences living his dream.




How did you get your ice cream truck?
My original plan was to buy a used ice cream truck. It was much harder than I expected and the only truck I could find that was in my budget (under 5k) was in New Jersey (a full days drive away) and needed a new freezer (most ice cream trucks use special cold plate freezers that cost thousands of dollars that stay cold the entire day without needing to be plugged in).

In desperation I decided to call around to all the ice cream truck companies in Boston and found one guy who had a few extra trucks. They were out of my price range but I told him my story and what I was trying to do and he said he might be able to help me out.

I ended up leasing the truck from him and paying by the week. The process was still very involved though because I was not a high priority on this guy’s agenda (He owned over a dozen trucks) and it required persistence and over two months of nagging him to finally get the truck lease set up and the vehicle insurance figured out. Many times I felt like giving up; he rarely returned my calls and would often forget to call me back when he said he would.

Sometimes I would call him two or three times a day every day for a week until I finally got through to him. It was actually kind of ridiculous. However one piece of advice to anyone who is thinking of getting into this business, or really any business, is that persistence pays off. The best way to show you are serious and to set yourself apart from everyone else is to be very persistent and never give up, because this shows better than anything else you can say that you will work hard in your business and be a good business partner to work with.

The other thing is you can’t take rejection personally. People in general just have a million things to work on and think about these days and a lot of times they just forget about you. I remember something my mom told me once I finally got the truck, “it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.”




Where do you get your ice cream?
Most of the ice cream I sell is not available in stores and can only be ordered in bulk from a wholesale ice cream distributor. You will notice that some items, like the Good Humor strawberry shortcake bars that you buy at the supermarket, are significantly smaller than the versions that are sold out of ice cream trucks. Ice cream trucks are facing more competition these days from Wallmart and gas stations because companies like Blue Bunny and Klondike are selling items in stores that you used to only be able to get at the ice cream truck, like the Choco Taco.





Tell us something interesting that happened to you while being the ice cream man?
I was parked by the pool one day and a girl wearing a way-too-big Dunkin Donuts shirt and dirty camo pants came walking down the sidewalk with a big army ruck sack on her back. I said hi and we started talking. I was sort of surprised when she told me she grew up in the same town I did because she was dressed so raggedly and our town is pretty wealthy. She had been homeless for the last 3 years and had been living in abandoned buildings all around Massachusetts.

She told me about the homeless community in Harvard Square and the knife she always carried and how most kids on the streets, including her, were addicted to heroin. She told me story after story that I could hardly believe and yet I knew they were true. She wasn’t even twenty years old but it felt like she had already lived through a lifetime of experiences.

We must have talked non-stop for almost an hour and when my throat started to get dry I pulled two cold IBC Root Beers out of my fridge hoping she would stick around a little bit longer. Another half hour went by. My mom, who swims every day, saw my truck parked on the street by the pool and stopped by to check on how things were going. Without a second thought she greeted the girl by name and explained to us that we used to go to preschool together at the church right down the street from where I lived. Small world…


Do kids still scream iiiiice creeeeeeam when they see you coming?
Yes. Sometimes the younger ones would think that I was another ice cream truck and yell the other guy’s name which was a little embarrassing.


Have you been chased down the street to stop? Or how far will someone go to get you to stop?
Unfortunately, the idea of chasing an ice cream truck is largely a thing of the past, at least in the town that I spent most of my time in. I found that a lot of people are so lazy that they aren’t even willing to walk over to the ice cream truck unless it is within a 15 second walk of where they are sitting. The best way I found was to park on people’s path back to their cars so that they didn’t have to go out of their way to buy something. I talked to one guy who used to park in a pool parking lot and when they made him park on the street instead he lost about 30% of his business.

I have talked to other ice cream truck drivers who have told me that some towns don’t even allow you to play the ice cream truck music in the neighborhoods now because there was an accident where a kid who was chasing an ice cream truck was hit by a car while he was running down as street.



What do younger kids vs older kids typically order?
Younger kids like popsicles and the cartoon faces. Older kids go for slushes, chaco tacos, ice cream sandwiches, and cones. Older girls and women will often get a FrozeFruit bar (Coconut and Strawberry were the most popular). Men like the fancy Dove bars but also like the chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches a lot.








Does the ice cream song drive you crazy all day?
There were 2 other ice cream trucks in my town and some days I would be just sitting in my truck and I would hear the faint sound of the jingle from across town and I couldn’t be sure if I was really hearing it or if my mind was playing tricks on me. Sometimes I would hear the jingle very faintly as I fell asleep, knowing all along that there was no way one of the trucks was still out at 1 AM.



Check it out. Tim’s website, Tim’s Ice Cream Truck, is a great resource for anyone who wants to get into the ice cream truck business or who is just curious about what it is like to run an ice cream truck.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Entry #2 for Turkey Hill's Super Sundae Contest

So you've seen what Mom (aka me) came up with for the Turkey Hill Super Sundae Contest now here is what my creative daughter, age 5, built all by herself. I told her her mission was to make up a sundae with what we have in our cupboards. Her entry is titled "It's a Party"!


It's a Party
A raft of Marshmallows coated with Hot Fudge and Caramel sauce topped with Turkey Hill Party Cake Ice Cream and finished off with Whipped Cream and colored sprinkles and nonpareils.




Well her thoughts on why it is truly a party is because two friends can share it, it has Party Cake ice cream, it is loaded with full size marshmallows, it has fun colors and is coated with her all time favorite of sprinkles and nonpareils. Nothing we ever make or bake lacks sprinkles. I seriously should buy stock in them. I give her props for a fun looking sundae. Yes, I helped out a bit with the food styling but she loaded all the ingredients all by herself..mostly ;) I had to take away the chocolate sauce at one point or it would have been called It's a Party Boat floating away in sauce! The funny thing is she stacks the bottom with full size marshmallows (who would even eat those I know!) then she puts the sauces on top of them instead of the ice cream. So unless you stuff yourself with marshmallows you may not appreciate the yummy toppings. Regardless she had fun and it looks fantastic and that was the point. 

So once again...let's keep our fingers crossed that one of our entries is a finalist and we will be sure to let you know if you have the chance to vote for one of our fun sundaes.


Last day is today to enter...I probably shouldn't encourage you since it lowers my chances but I am always excited to see other creative entries too so feel free!


Thursday, November 11, 2010

Entry #1 for Turkey Hill's Super Sundae Contest

Here's the gist of the contest...make up a recipe using Turkey Hill Ice Cream for a sundae, name it and take a fabulous photo of it. Not so tough so I thought I'd give it a shot. This is my entry titled "Oh Snap"!


Oh Snap
Turkey Hill Ginger Snap Ice Cream sandwiched between two Pepperidge Farms Gingerman cookies drizzled with Dark Chocolate Fudge Sauce, Caramel sauce, and topped off with Whipped Cream


Once all entries are in they will choose four of their favorite entries as semi-finalists and will post them in November (contect ends the 14th) and then its up to you to vote and the sundae with the most votes wins. Keep your fingers crossed that you get the chance to vote for my Oh Snap concoction. I have to say for myself...it was quite good!


Stay tuned for Entry #2 made with love by the other ice cream lover in my house

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Pumpkin Ice Cream Review ~ Whole Foods




Yippee for Pumpkin Ice Cream....omg I am in love with all things Pumpkin. I am not sure if tis a New England thing but October and November hits and if it comes in a Pumpkin flavor I am all over it so when Erin at OrganicWorks asked about us checking out Whole Food's new seasonal ice cream flavors I was so hoping one was my all time fave, Pumpkin....yum! And guess what, it was! (the other was Peppermint which we'll be breaking into once holiday time hits!)


First things first. Since I am an art director by day I have to make note of the fabulous packaging of this ice cream. I absolutely love the colors, the simplicity of the typography and the graphic pattern. What's not to love and I haven't even opened it up.


On to the ice cream. I can't really say I am a Pumpkin expert but I tell you I have had four different kinds of Pumpkin ice cream this season so I have something to compare them all to. So my first reaction is wow what incredible  flavor. This one has the strongest pumpkin flavor out of all of them followed up by the subtleness of ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Not too much spice and plenty of pumpkin whereas some sometimes have more spice than Pumpkin. If you look closely at my photo you can see flecks of pumpkin and spices. On texture, its not the creamiest of all the ones I tried but it is very smooth and absolutely nothing to complain about.


Oh and the bonus is is that this ice cream which is Whole Food's 365 Everyday Value line of products has no gluten products, is vegetarian and is made from milk from cows not treated with rBGH. So its not only just good..its good for all. Actually calorie wise its not too bad either. For a half a cup it's 140 calories and 6 grams of fat somewhat comparable to light or slow churned ice creams. 


All in all this one is a keeper. Bummer is that Whole Foods isn't so easy for me to go to but how much can I eat in one season so its probably a good thing.  But I do have to say come Thanksgiving I will be one sad girl to see all the Pumpkin craziness go away so I will be savoring this one til the end.



Thursday, November 4, 2010

Monday, November 1, 2010

Ice Cream Balloons

My friend Amanda sent me a link to an image of ice cream balloons the other day.


I have no idea where she found the image, but I had to share it with our readers because it is so creative! 

Thanks, Amanda!

Friday, October 29, 2010

Fall Flavors

Scoopalicious's newest
team member, Violet gazes
at Tina in admiration.
I think Tina has a review to do of some super tasty seasonal flavors she got in the mail, but in the meantime, I am using this quiet time at home (baby and dog sleeping, husband at the gym) to write about some fall flavors I like...

Two of fall's greatest flavors are pumpkin and cranberry -- no wonder I like autumn. Oh, right, I am not forgetting the apples, too -- I hope to create a cider donut ice cream before the season is over! In the meantime, however, I have been indulging in one homemade flavor and one store bought flavor, and am extremely happy with both. (Though I have actually yet to try them together...I'll have to do that.)

Tina came over the other day to meet baby Violet. She brought pizza and salad, and of course, ice cream! I had also made some ice cream, so we were all set!

Cranberry Ice Cream

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from my sister, Arianna, asking if I had ever made Cranberry Ice Cream. As a matter of fact, I told her, I had, for this year's ice cream party. But it made me start craving cranberry ice cream, so I got out my copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Homemade Ice Cream and decided it would be a perfect treat for my Tina visit!

I love this ice cream. It's light and refreshing -- sweet and tart at the same time, but not tart in a tart frozen yogurt kind of way (thank goodness!). My only complaint is that the recipe uses a container of frozen cranberry juice concentrate and I guess they want to use the whole can, so they make the recipe kind of large...in the end I got 8 cups of unfrozen base, and my freezer only takes about 4-5 cups. I ended up sending Tina home with a couple of unfrozen cups and after freezing about 4 cups of base, I had to pull out another frozen canister to freeze the last two cups. I need to remember to half the recipe...good thing I like this ice cream!

In the past, I have only thought of freezing cranberries for the purpose of saving them to use in the off season. I really love cranberries but you can really only get them in the fall/winter, so I would buy a couple of bags then and freeze them for spring/summer use. However, with this recipe and the Cranberry Sorbet recipe made with red wine from The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More, I am beginning to rethink this!

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Tina brought Edy's Pumpkin Ice Cream when she came to visit. So, um, it's only been about a week since I have seen her and the carton is almost empty. Two of my favorite things: pumpkin (which falls under one of my favorite holiday categories of "orange food") and ice cream. It's just like pumpkin pie. In fact, a lazy (or smart?!) person might just have the brillant idea to slightly melt the carton of ice cream, pour it into a premade/prebaked crust, refreeze it, and voila, a new, frozen twist on an old favorite.

It really is a treat, this ice cream. Rich and creamy and accurately reproducing an American tradition.

Well, enough from me. Stay tuned for Tina's review of another pumpkin ice cream, as well as a trip to Sonic for their ice cream, as well as some other fun posts.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Super Sundae Recipe Contest by Turkey Hill starts now

Turkey Hill is at it again with another fun contest, the Super Sundae Contest, and this time its all about coming up with an awesome recipe for a sundae, creating it, naming it, taking fabulous photos of it, and submitting by Nov 14th. How fun and somewhat simple...um...I think! Well I say that but when I try to think of what kind of sundae I would create I draw blanks but I do know that chocolate is part of the equation and I am going to enter so look out for a sneak peek in the near future.

Oh and I think the hard part of this all could be the photos as they talk about in a recent blog post about food photography and the fact that the sundaes will be judged 50% on the recipe and 50% on the photo so even more pressure. This is always my challenge when I make some ice cream then try to shoot it to post. Inevitably it starts turning into soup before I get that great shot. So this could be even trickier seeing that a hot sauce could be involved as well as whipped cream but I guess if one melts I eat it then try again. Oh that really stinks!

Oh and the important part...the prizes! Turkey Hill is going to choose four of their favorite entries and post for you to vote on (hopefully mine will be there!) and the sundae with the most votes will get a super sundae prize package containing 10 free containers of Turkey Hill ice cream, a set of six Bormioli Rocco waffle cone-inspired glass sundae dishes, a Tovolo Standz Ice Cream Scoop, and a jar of Ghirardelli chocolate fudge sauce. And so nobody goes home empty handed, each finalist will also receive a one-month supply of Turkey Hill ice cream...not so shabby!

I'll be sure to share the trials and tribulations of my sundae creations. Good luck and can't wait to see the results!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Ice Cream Ball Part 2

Bowling with the Mega Ice Cream Ball
As promised here's our second shot at trying our the Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker. The first time was a dud but I wasn't involved so this time I had to try it out for myself.

I have to start by saying that my camera died only a few shots in so the pics I have to post may not seem appropriate since kids and alcohol are both involved but I promise the two never mixed! We had so much fun with this ice cream ball on an end of summer camping trip. Five couples each with a couple kids makes for many people to keep this thing rolling and tumbling which is exactly what we needed. Wow..this is not the ice cream ball. It's the "Mega" ice cream ball. So it makes a quart of ice cream instead of a pint or so and with that said it means its heavy when all ingredients are in place so it was amusing seeing 3 and 4 year olds trying to get this thing moving.

I have to say again...this was SO much fun and the kids were so anxious to eat homemade ice cream around the campfire. So first we added all the ingredients..heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla and sealed it shut. Opened the other end, added ice and rock salt then sealed it shut. Then the fun began. As I mentioned it was quite heavy so it was a little challenging but then the brilliant idea of bowling came about. Beer bottles + ball = ice cream ball bowling! OMG...hysterical and fun. I must say...kids don't try this at home....it could get dangerous as again, this thing is heavy! The ball itself took a little bit of a beating during our bowling tournament but nothing that harmed the final product so it all went just fine.

Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker
It did take awhile to make. You had to keep it going for 20 minutes then add more ice and rock salt and go another 20 minutes. You can probably imagine how many times we heard from the kids..."Are we almost done yet?"..."When are we going to have ice cream?" Well when we were finally done we had soft serve consistency ice cream and a good amount of it because each kid got a half cup and then enough for us adults to taste test. It was super creamy. The end closest to the ice came out somewhat hard and then the other end was a little soupy but when mixed it was perfect. Sorry for the lack of photos of the actual ice cream since my camera died on me. Definitely a fun thing to bring along camping or on a picnic or your back yard. Everyone was so into it and anxious to see if this ball thing would actually produce real ice cream. It was a success and super fun....definitely recommend!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Turkey Hill is getting ready for some foooooootball!




This is so not right being a New Englander and proud Patriots fan (poor Tom Brady got in a fender bender last week..hope his hair isn't messed up ;)) but we love Turkey Hill so I we'll play nice and tell all you Steeler fans about an awesome chance to win tickets to see the Steelers that Turkey Hill is scooping out. All you have to do is purchase their football crazed flavor, Blitzburgh Crunch, go here and enter a code found on specially marked packages, and get a chance to win two tickets to a Steelers home game on December 23, 2010. Wait...there's more... during each of the First Prize drawings, you also get a chance to win a  $25 Steelers gift cards and then the kicker...at the end of each season (2010, 2011 & 2012!), they'll select one fan to receive a Grand Prize — a pair of Steelers season tickets

So I might not be as big of a football fan as I am of ice cream but this sounds like a good deal (if you win of course) and the flavor doesn't sound so bad itself either. Actually I do have to say this ice cream sounds fantastic. Blitzburgh Crunch is a whole lot of sweet cream vanilla ice cream with chocolate cake crunchies and crunchy chocolate cookie swirl. I love crunchies in ice cream. Actually kinda reminds me of how much I love the crunchies in the middle of a Carvel cake..yum...so if this is anything like that I'd love it. But I have a feeling I will love it regardless. Oh and I guess I could enter but not sure season tickets would do me any good up here in RI but still looking forward to trying the new flavor. I'll just cover up the label when I bring it to a football party just in case!

Promo ends 1/31/2011 so get out there and get yourself some Turkey Hill Blitzburgh Crunch, let us know how it is, and most importantly don't forget to enter the sweepstakes.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Eagle Brand Homemade Ice Cream Recipe Contest Winners!

So sorry this post took me a while to write...been a little crazy here in babyland, especially dressing our daughter Violet up as an ice cream cone (thanks, Stephanie!)...


Anyway, congrats to the two reader's choice winners for the Eagle Brand Homemade Ice Cream Recipe Contest were:

Charlene with her Coffeehouse Ice Cream


Sunshine with her Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

Congrats to the winners and thank you to everyone for playing! We think all the recipes looked yummy and can't wait to try them!

Thank you to Eagle for sponsoring the contest!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Fudgesicle Triple Chocolate Low Fat Bars....& FREE coupons


Yup we're still here. After a crazy summer we are getting back into the swing of things. And yes, the winners of the Eagle contest to follow soon (sorry for such a lag and we SO appreciate all who entered).

Awhile back our good friends from Popsicle sent us some coupons to try some of their awesome frozen treats. And the good news is is that they also sent some for our readers too which is super nice of them (more on how to get them for yourself soon). So what to try...well I have a daughter who just loves Popsicle anything but even better she is just like Mom and loves anything chocolate so we were so psyched when we saw the Fudgesicle Triple Chocolate Low Fat Bars. The box contains three different kinds of bars...White Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, and Milk Chocolate. I think I am getting old because I so love dark chocolate (as they say its an acquired taste!) and I've never seen them in a frozen bar like this so we had to try. Plus I seriously overdid it this summer so even better that they are Low Fat because this option is probably the best bet these days :(

First taste..me with the dark and she with the white. Very yummy. I definitely prefer the dark version over the white. It has a rich flavor but not very strong. I guess they have to be kid friendly (crazy enough my 5 year old prefers dark chocolate too though) and the white was just okay to me but my daughter loved it. I think I am just used to your traditional fudgesicle taste and this departs from it a bit. All in all I have to say I would get these again. Especially for a sweet treat that does satisfy without being over indulgent.

And for a sweet treat they are not too bad on the calorie count...60 calories, 1.5 g fat, 9 g sugar.


GET COUPONS FOR TWO FREE POPSICLE PRODUCTS!
Leave a comment about your favorite Popsicle product or you must have a great childhod memory of Popsicles that you could share with us. We'd love to hear! Comment by Wednesday, Sept 15th for a chance to win two coupons each for a Free Popsicle product ($4 max value on each). One winner will be chosen.




Friday, September 3, 2010

Artisan Gelato Philly Style at Capogiro


Hmm...my priorities while away on girl's weekend in Philadelphia..sleeping (with a 1 year old its limited), eating (I never realized Philly is such a foodie town), cocktails (given!), and of course, ice cream! So as I am sipping my totally yummy sangria at the coolest Mexican place, El Vez, I notice across the street this cool and busy artisan Gelato shop, Capogiro. Unfortunately time did not allow to go afterwards but I made a mental note and knew we'd be back. 


So day 2 of Philly after a long day of exploring Chestnut Hill, which by the way is the quaintest little shopping area on the outskirts, and other parts of Philly we headed to Capogiro for a something sweet. OMG...all the gelato flavors looked to die for. My dilemma began cause I could only choose two. I suppose I could have more but didn't want to ruin dinner (at an awesome french bistro Parc ..if in Philly check it out) 

My ultimate decision...Rich Dark Chocolate and Dulce de Leche. Seriously the chocolate  gelato was the best I have ever had. It was super rich almost like a fudge brownie but not overwhelming and the sweetness of the caramel balanced it out. I must say they were both great choices. I do have to add though that it was not cheap. I think I paid $4.75 for a small (pic makes it look big..but not really).

But with that said Capogiro prides themselves on using pure, natural and fresh ingredients taken from Pennsylvania's farmlands and local dairy farms. Their flavors are all based on what's in season so the menu changes monthly or I bet daily sometimes. 

You can actually order online which could always be a fun gift idea for us ice cream lovers.


Thursday, August 26, 2010

Vote For Your Favorite Eagle Brand Ice Cream Recipe!

As Tina mentioned, I was a bit tied up lately (thanks for the good wishes -- we are totally enjoying our time with Violet!), but at the same time, I am told I can't move around too much so it's a good time to catch up on the blog while I also catch up on LOST. (Yep, Kevin pulled me and now we are addicted!)

Anyway, it's time now to vote for our entries in the Eagle Brand Ice Cream Recipe Contest. Scroll to the bottom of this entry for the ballot and please be sure to vote by Tuesday, August 31st, 11:59 PM EST.

In alphabetical order, here they are (please follow the links below the images to read more about the flavor and the recipe):












Thanks to everyone for their fabulous entries! Once things calm down a bit here, I hope to try them out. Yes, Violet is going to be a huge ice cream fan just like her mom -- we need to get her started early, and these will probably do the trick!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Add another scoop to scoopalicious

So July was a crazy busy month of daily posts and I have to admit I am psyched for the break but August, although we are slacking on posting, is an exciting one because our dear Bethany welcomed a little baby girl this past weekend. We are very excited for her new family and I am sure Bethany will have her eating ice cream in no time!

So we do apologize for the delay in the Eagle Brand Ice Cream contest...baby B came a few days early before winners were determined but we are very excited to share the recipes and winners with you all so stay tuned! 

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Contest Reminder..win an AWESOME Eagle Brand Prize Pack



This could be yours!!!! So what's the catch...all you have to do is make some ice cream with Eagle Brand's Sweetened Condensed Milk and tell us all about it to be entered to win 1 of 2 Eagle Brand Prize Packs by August 11th.

If you didn't catch our first post about this fun contest basically Eagle Brand was nice enough to send Bethany and I this awesome Ice Cream kit to try out and they were even nicer to be offering the same thing to you. So in the next week get yourself some Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk and take a shot at making some ice cream and you could have this all to yourself too. (Prize pack includes but could vary: insulated picnic basket, popsicle molds, Pint coozie, ice cream scoop, insulated container, Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk, hot fudge, Magic Shell topping, ice cream topping, Walmart gift card for more Sweetened condensed milk, and I hope I didn't forget anything..its great!)

Here are the guidelines...

  1. Go to Eagle Brand and look over the ice cream recipes to use as inspiration. Get inspired and make up (and test) your own recipe! You can make straight up ice cream or an ice cream dessert, but it MUST use Eagle Brand Condensed Milk. It's preferred that you make this without an ice cream maker so we can appeal to the masses, but you can use your ice cream maker if you must (I did, Bethany didn't).
  2. Blog about your recipe and be sure to include a picture of the finished product! Send us the link to your recipe. If you don't have a blog, send us a write up and picture and we'll get your recipe up for our readers to see.
  3. Enter by Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 11:59PM EST
  4. We'll have a readers vote the following week and the top two winners will win the prize pack from Eagle.
  5. PLEASE NOTE: We can only ship prizes within the US due to high shipping costs and coupon restrictions! If you fill out the survey and DO win but do not live in the US, you can opt to have your prize mailed to someone in the states. Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience! 





My Eagle Brand Recipe
It's simple. It's fun. And its a knock off from my awesome ice cream making co-blogger Bethany. So back in June Bethany had her amazing ice cream party and I dragged along my little girl who instantly wanted the "blue" ice cream which was Cotton Candy all the way. It was by far her favorite out of B's over 30 flavors so I figured this was a perfect excuse to try a go at it myself.

I must say making ice cream without eggs is so much easier and Eagle Brand's recipes are short and sweet so making the ice cream was a breeze. I think the longest part was the churning. Basically I mixed all the ingredients and put it in my ice cream maker. But then it churned, and churned, and churned, and churned for what seemed like forever and it still never got to a true soft serve consistency so I gave up and put it in my fun new Zak insulated container to put in the freezer. I have to wait til tomorrow to find out how it came out but I of course had a spoonful before I put it in the freezer and it was quite sweet..I think Holly is going to love it!


Fairy Floss Knock Off
(By Tina who made her daughter's favorite flavor from Bethany's famous ice cream party!)

Ingredients:
  • 1- 14 oz can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk 
  • 2 cups half & half
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 3 tbsp cotton candy flavoring
  • food coloring to desired color (we used straight blue...few drops)
Directions: Combine all ingredients and freeze in your ice cream maker

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