A Little Mortensen Magic

My darling younger sister surprised me with a guest post for my birthday. Since she called me the best middle sister/ice cream maven EVER, I couldn't say no to posting this. Haha! Just kidding. What a special present and a great way to close out National Ice Cream Month! Thanks, A!

Happy birthday to the best middle sister/ice cream maven EVER!

I live in New Britain, CT, and surprisingly (for a state that consumes the most ice cream per capita!), there really aren't many good ice cream places to choose from nearby.  Nothing that I know of in the city itself, and while the local Cold Stone Creamery used to be a good, short trip for us (located on the Berlin Turnpike in Newington), it's been changed into a frozen yogurt joint.  I'm sure the froyo is good and all (haven't tried it yet!), but that wasn't what we were craving the other day after a long, hot day - I had gotten stuck in a train car without A/C for my ride home from work!*  


Mortensen's original location on the Berlin Turnpike.  From their Facebook page.

Anyway, the boyfriend and I been asked to do a favor for a friend in the West End of Hartford, so I decided to jazz the trip up by making a detour on our way back home, to Mortensen's!  We had just intended to get ice cream, but realized we really needed to get some food in our bellies, too, so we started with burgers (mine veggie) and fries, all of which was very good!  The place certainly isn't JUST ice cream, so plan to have a whole meal there if you can squeeze it all in!



Unfortunately, we couldn't.  We'd spent most of the meal perusing the BINDER filled with flavors and their descriptions, and had settled on some flavors we wanted to try.  However, when it came time to order dessert...we decided we'd have to do to-go ice cream instead, and enjoy our dessert later on.  Our waitress kindly offered to hand-pack a couple of pints for us (this is usual practice - they will pack pints, quarts, etc. at your request).  I chose Graham Central Station and Maine Black Bear (even though there were a bunch of other flavors I wanted to try - but I always have to remind myself to try the unusual flavors, because I can get the staples anywhere!).  Troy chose their mudslide (I think it was called Mud Pie?), but when they didn't have that (the ice cream is made fresh daily, and flavors are constantly rotating), they offered to mush together their cookies n' cream with their coffee.  So we both went home happy!  We thoroughly enjoyed our ice creams, and I definitely plan to go back again soon to try even more flavors!  (Although Graham Central Station has become a new favorite....)



Mortensen's has been around just about FOREVER, and they are great, local, family-owned restaurant, so if you find yourself driving through central CT on a road trip this summer, be sure to stop in for a real treat.  One of my favorite things about the place?  They have fruit flavors which they offer year-round (strawberry, peach, etc.), which they switch out for seasonal ones when the time is right.  So, if you're there, say, during our peach season, you'll get locally-grown, fresh fruit in your ice cream!  And if you're not, you'll still get their premium ice cream with peaches from a carefully selected source (they indicate the locations from which all their fruit originates on the menu).  I love the concept, I love supporting fantastic local businesses, and of course - I love the ice cream.

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*While I don't NEED air-conditioning in my daily life, I've decided that it's definitely necessary in an enclosed train car where you can't open the windows and are stuck with dozens of other people, just all sweating it out...it must have been about 20 degrees warmer in there than it was outside!  Ugh.

Happy Trails to You!

My awesome younger sister, Arianna, emailed me today with some news...Maryland and Eastern Connecticut also have "ice cream trails" (just like New Hampshire!). She said she thinks only these three states are part of the trend, but like me, she hopes other states follow suit! Apparently these "trails" are a take off on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, which I wouldn't have known about unless I read the article Arianna found later in the day...) -- I know ice cream, not liquor!

So, Maryland's trail is quite small (only seven shops) with a special focus: on-farm ice cream. As stated  on their site: "Maryland has seven dairy farms that offer fresh, delicious on-farm ice cream. Together, they make up the newly minted Maryland's Best Ice Cream Trail."  Maryland's trail also has a contest attached. If you are into geocaching (or even if you aren't, now's the time to get started!), get your passport (found in the PDF flyer) stamped at each location, mail it in, and you could win some prizes!

Connecticut's trail focuses only on the eastern part of the state, but it covers thirty-nine ice cream locations, and has a pretty cool map (click on the numbers on the map for more info about each location). In addition to their great brochure, they also have some super special picks (Hockey Fight -- "cherry vanilla original featuring white chocolate chunks as teeth and shredded Bing cherries as blood" -- anyone?) on their site. Maybe the best part of Connecticut's trail? The name. Sundae Drives! I love it.

My sister already suggested a road trip -- I'm totally game.

Graphics courtesy of marylandsbest.net and mystic.org.


[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Hershey's Premium Ice Cream at Hogie's Sweet Shop in New Hartford, Connecticut

Ok, so I just lost a huge part of this post, so bear with me as I try to rewrite it. I am wondering if I should reconsider where I write my posts so this doesn't happen!

Ok, but that isn't about ice cream, it's about Blogger, so back to the ice cream post.

A few weeks ago when visiting the fam, on our way home from dinner at Blue Sky Foods , we stopped at Hogie's Sweet Shop on Main Street in New Hartford.

My family is a great hope with this blog by the way...they often seem to suggest stopping at an ice cream shop for the goodness of the blog. Thanks family! And a special thanks to Arianna for always remembering her camera and for the awesome photos!

You'll notice that Hogie's has one of those freezers in the front where you can see the kinds of ice cream to choose from. I love those. I am such a visual person, I love to see what I am choosing. However, oddly enough, only some of the ice creams were in the front case, the rest were in the back. This was kind of frustrating. I mean, I almost rather all were in the back. I want to see all of my options or none of my options.

Though the little shop looked like a place that would carry homemade ice cream, it actually carried Hershey's Ice Cream. I was looking forward to trying it, because I had always seen small cartons of Hershey's Ice Cream at the bodega by my old studio, but I had never tried it.

Ater some heming and hawing over their extensive menu (see further down in the post), I finally decided on Cherry Chocolate Cordial (black cherry ice cream with thick chocolate fudge and real black cherries with cherry filled chocolate hearts.). The ice cream was creamy and rich, and I love the combo of cherries and chocolate. A kiddie cup was even enough for me!

As you can see in the menu at left, not only do they have an extensive listing of flavors, but they also had some pretty unique ones. I decided to head over to the Hershey's site to give you a glimpse of some of Hershey's more unique flavors. Please keep in mind Hogie's only carries some of these. Hershey's has quite an extensive collection of flavors and even Hogie's long list of flavors is only a fraction of what Hershey's offers:

1. Royal Red Velvet Cake (Classic baked red velvet cake blended in a cool cream cheese ice cream with vanilla créme.) -- YUM. Wish they had that. This brings back fond memories of the first time I ever had red velvet cake (thanks Christina -- it was amazing) and the yummy red velvet cupcakes at Stacey and Clint's wedding. Couldn't stop eating those!
2. Sinfully Amazing PB Pie (Rich peanut butter ice cream filled with peanut butter cups, peanut butter flakes and mixed with a delicious chocolate pie crust.) -- Too bad Husband missed out on this one. This sounds almost as good as the Peanut Butter Pie I make from the New Basics Cookbook.
3. Playdough (Bright yellow vanilla ice cream with hot pink and blue sugar cookie gems.) -- Ah, they had this at Hogie's, but the name just turned me off. It reminded me too much of eating, well, play dough!

Gosh, that is only the beginning...

Looking at the Hershey's site and being a huge cake/cake batter ice cream fan, I was disappointed to see that Hogie's didn't carry either Birthday Cake (cake flavored ice cream with a whipped cream spiral and confetti cake pieces) or Birthday Batter (ultimate cake batter ice cream exploding with sprinkles)...OMG, if they had carried both, I would have had a scoop of each...heaven!

Something else that is important to note (and I am not sure if I ever mentioned this before in an older post) but Hershey's Ice Cream is not related to Hershey's Chocolate. In fact, Hershey's Ice Cream says this right on their site. The thing that interests me is that they are both from Pennsylvania and their logo is pretty similar. I wonder if they were ever related?

One final note about Hogie's: they don't have a website. From the web searches I did, it seemed to me they have two locations (Main Street in New Hartford and Willow Street in Winsted) but neither have much of a web presence at all.

Would I go to Hogie's again? Sure! Would I buy a carton of Hershey's Ice Cream if I saw it again? If I could find those fun flavors!

Note: All ice cream flavor decriptions are taken from the Hershey's Ice Cream Site.

Brigham's Wins Me Over With French Vanilla Ice Cream

I am coming on years here in Boston, and now I can say I am about 1/3 a Boston Girl, and 2/3 a Connecticut Girl -- I have spent a third of my life up in the Boston area. That being said, it's time for me to admit my leaning towards all things Boston (Growing up in Central Connecticut, we had to decide Yankees versus Sox, Giants versus Pats, and Knicks versus Celtics -- not being much of a sports fan, I never really chose.) However, I have to say, I am truly a Boston Girl (that's right, Pushstars, that song just might be about me. I find myself caring about how the Sox or the Celtics are doing. I can't say so much for the Pats, as (the horror) I have never understood football. I ♥ hockey though, so I do have to say the Bruins are second only to Hartford's one and only (and now defunct) pro team, the Hartford Whalers (once a Connecticutian, always a Connecticutian).

But I digress.

Back on topic. Now that I am a Boston Girl (or 1/3 anyway) another thing I ♥ that "I can call my own" (another Pushstars' Boston Girl reference) is Brigham's Ice Cream. I once wrote Brigham's in my sadness over the death of their Fluffernutter Ice Cream. So sad, in fact, that I had to make my own recipe for it. Yes, which I should post, and I will, I promise (though, long story short -- vanilla base, with peanut butter and Fluff -- along with the Somerville Illuminations Tour, Fluff is one of the best things to come out of Somerville -- swirled in).

Last month, we were supposed to have the lovely Clint, Stacey, and Ivy over for dinner. At the last minute, Ivy got sick, and our plans got canceled. Good news is, she seems to better, bad news is, we never rescheduled, and I found a new obsession. I had intended to bake (because I love to) but time ran short and I picked up a Vermont Mystic Pie Company pie (by the way, these are so much less expensive at Costco than the grocery store -- when I saw the reciept, I realized a fresh bakery pie would have been the way to go -- but alas, now we have a frozen pie that is actually quite good once cooked in the oven for a surprise visitor) and a container of Brigham's French Vanilla Ice Cream.

A few days after the canceled visitors, in a moment of sweet tooth weakness, I made the huge error of opening the carton. I dipped my spoon in and...WOW. On first bite, I knew this would be a problem. This ice cream was so rich, so creamy...it was the treu definition of frozen custard. It literally was creme brulee without the brulee, poured into an ice cream machine and churned. Oh. My. God. I love custard based ice cream (made with eggs as opposed to the Philadelphia style which has no eggs) so naturally I was in heaven, but to me, this was so much more. It was just the right amount of sweetness and egginess (I don't know if this sounds like such a great way to describe ice cream, but if you like custard based ice cream, you will know what I mean).

Anyway, long story short: I am a fan of Brigham's. Especially this French Vanilla. It alone makes living in the Boston area well worth it.

Stay tuned for an upcoming list of why the Boston area is a great place for ice cream lovers.

Author's note: I usually write my posts and then go back in and throw in the links. I did this with this post, went to link to the French Vanilla, and found no listing for it on their site. Oh, no, I thought. This did not have the same fate as my Fluffernutter, did it? I emailed Brigham's and this is the reply I received: "We no longer have that flavor available, it was only made in prepackaged quart containers, never in bulk for our scoop shops." Bum-mer. I am beginning to think maybe I shouldn't get Brigham's ice cream anymore. Everytime I fall passionately in love with a flavor, they stop making it. This is so true with Trader Joe's too: their black lentils, their orange cardamom cookies, and their vanilla bean paste...

I Scream for Connecticut Ice Cream!

I was born and bred in Connecticut, so it is only due time that I give a shout out to some ice cream in the Nutmeg State. (No, didn't have any nutmeg ice cream while I was there...hmmmm...)

A couple of weeks ago I was in Connecticut. I had ice cream with my lovely sister Sarah of ReBooK and brother in-law Liam...then I told my favorite younger sister (she just turned 27 the other day -- Happy Birthday, Arianna!) of our ice cream escapades, and she wanted ice cream too, so on the way back from Connecticut to Massachusetts, we exited I-84 for some creamy goodness.

Sweet, Sweet Claude's...

Sarah, Liam and I ended up in Cheshire (as Tina and I are both graphic designers I am going to add a little designer fact here -- information graphics guru Edward Tufte lives in Cheshire. Who knew?!) because Liam was on a mad quest for Mahjong and after call after call, Sarah finally found it in Cheshire at Toyz Toy Store. Whew!

Liam and Sarah promised awesome ice cream if I took a ride with them, and who was I to resist toys and ice cream. We stopped at Sweet Claude's Ice Cream (though they seemed to have a website posted on their wall, I couldn't find it online, and when I called to confirm, they said they do not have one, so this is the best I could get...). There was a group of people getting ice cream in front of us and only one girl at the counter, so the wait was a bit long, but it allowed for me to drool over the menu of many flavors, toppings, and homemade sauces...and admire the beautiful antique ice cream paraphernalia all over the shop.

In the end I decided on my old favorite, Cookies 'n' Cream. Sarah was a bit disappointed (as was I) that her favorite, Sweet Cream, was no longer on the menu (the girl at the counter said it would come back occasionally as a special), so she ordered vanilla with strawberry sauce, whipped cream and a cherry, which though missing the Sweet Cream base, she said was "pretty amazing". This looked and tasted so good, that contrary to my rule of vanilla only with toppings (I am a purist -- flavored ice cream, no toppings; vanilla ice cream, toppings), I added this topping to my C'n'C. It was amazingly good! Liam ordered a strawberry milkshake, "which," my sister says, "he pretty much always enjoys." The ice cream didn't disappoint, and even though I ordered a small, it seemed to me what would be a large everywhere else. Being so good, I finished it, but I probably should have stopped a bit sooner than I did!


Go Huskies!

Later on in the day, as Arianna and I drove back to Massachusetts, we spoke of ice cream again, and Arianna having had missed out on the first trip asked if we could stop somewhere for ice cream. Me, turn down ice cream? Never! Talk ended up on the UConn Dairy Bar on the Storrs Campus, so we kind of spur of the moment pulled off the highway, and drove the few miles to the University of Connecticut (where, I might add, I had not stepped foot on the campus in over 10 years, when I went with my AP European History class -- thanks for taking us, Ms. Kowitch -- to see Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel speak at the Gampel Pavilion and then finished the day at the Dairy Bar).

Seeing as I hadn't been there in ten years, I took the wrong road to the Dairy Bar and drove Arianna on a tour of the Agricultural School. It was a beautiful day, and a nice drive, even though we managed to circumnavigate the Dairy Bar without even knowing it, so getting there took a little longer than expected. Finally, we found it and both Arianna and I ordered the cake batter ice cream. Good? "I've had better," Arianna said, and I wholeheartedly agreed. It was good, but wasn't what you expect when you think cake batter. It was creamy and sweet though, and clearly the UConn Dairy Bar was good enough for me to remember and want to visit again ten years later...). My apologies for the not-so-great phone photo -- I wasn't expecting the detour, so didn't have my camera!

Well, hats off to you Connecticut! You brought us the first newspaper, the first public art museum, the cotton gin, and some pretty darn good ice cream.

And guess what I just found out? You also gave us the first ice cream making machine! Thank you, thank you, Connecticut!

(Connecticut Firsts discovered at About Connecticut)