Lactose Free

Over a year ago, I eliminated a lot of lactose and fructose from my diet to keep my IBS under control. That meant no milk, no ice cream, no wheat products, that sort of thing. Oddly enough, some cheeses, like cheddar, are low lactose and fine for me to eat. Recently, I decided to try Lactaid products. The milk is fine, even the two percent fat. And the chocolate ice cream is decent and quite creamy, even if it doesn't have the rich chocolatey goodness of Haagen Dazs or Edy's. But it's fine, especially when I tossed a handful of Nestle's mini chocolate chips into the dish. But it does not make for a good malted, unfortunately. The taste, even with Carnation Chocolate Malt, was somewhat bland and there were hardly any bubbles. Ah well, at least I can enjoy ice cream.

Lactaid Chocolate Ice Cream

Lactaid Chocolate Ice Cream with Nestle Chocolate Chips

Lactose-Free Chocolate Malted

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Cold Treats

Yes, it's been a while since I blogged here. I've been caught up in the joy of Mets playoff baseball, something that hasn't occurred in quite a while. Nine years, to be exact.

I've been meaning to post about some chocolate ice cream, and now that it's fall here in NY, and the temperatures have fallen low enough for turning on the heat indoors, why not discuss ice cream!

I recently tried, and compared, two Edy's products: chocolate Grand Ice Cream and chocolate malt Frozen Custard. The chocolate ice cream was creamy and rich and chocolicious, truly divine. The frozen custard was a bit of a disappointment, not chocolate malty enough, but I've always been more of an ice cream lover than a frozen custard lover.

Edy's Ice Cream and Frozen Custard

Edy's Chocolate Ice Cream

Edy's Chocolate Malt Frozen Custard

I decided to try Edy's once my hubby discovered it was related to Dreyer's Ice Cream, which I'd gotten to taste while on the west coast. I loved the chocolate Dreyer's ice cream I'd tried, so I'm happy to discover its eastern version. It is confusing when the same product has different names in different parts of the same country!


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National Chocolate Ice Cream Day

There are holidays and there are HOLIDAYS! And National Chocolate Ice Cream Day might be the best of them all! I celebrated by making a yummy chocolate malted, using Haagen Dazs chocolate ice cream.

Chocolate Malted

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Orange and Blue

It was a great day at the ballpark, and the Mets have their team colors for sprinkles at the Mr. Softee concession.

Chocolate Soft Serve Ice Cream with Sprinkles

It was really hot, and the ice cream melted a lot faster than I would've liked, dripping everywhere. But on a hot day, it was just the cold treat I needed.

And the Mets won!


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Yummy Reasons to Celebrate

Tomorrow, August 2nd, is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day. When it comes to ice cream sandwiches, I tend to be a traditionalist. Plain vanilla ice cream between soft, rectangular chocolate biscuits or cookies, or whatever else they're called, preferably from Good Humor. I usually get them from the Mister Softee truck. Yes, Mister Softee sells Good Humor ice cream, as well as its own soft serve ice cream. But whatever your preference, even if this isn't a holiday in your country, enjoy an ice cream sandwich tomorrow, if you can.
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Moo

Spent the afternoon in New Jersey with a friend the other day, taking photos, mostly of New York City. And we had lunch in the Newport Mall where I found a Maggie Moo's. I've heard of this ice creamery but had never tasted it. At least, I don't think I ever have. At any rate, I had a cup of chocolate and it was yummy. Nice and creamy. They have lots of toppings and even waffle cups, but I opted for just the ice cream, having just eaten lunch and being a bit full. If you have one near you, it's definitely worth a visit.

Chocolate Ice Cream

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A Non-Chocolate Food Post

So... I saw this at the supermarket and had to try it. Sea Salt Caramel Gelato. And I can report that it is GOOD. Haagen Dazs did a good job with this. The consistency seems a bit in the middle between true gelato and ice cream, but it is creamy and has a nice caramel taste with just the right amount of salt flavor. It can never replace chocolate in my heart, but it's a tasty treat. It did come with a little plastic spoon in the cover, but since I was at home when ate it, I opted for a full-size spoon.

Gelato

Sea Salt Caramel Gelato with Spoon

And finally, proof that I do sometimes get something other than hotdogs and fries when I'm at the ballpark.

Chicken and Fries

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Haagen Dazs Gelato

I've been wanting to try Haagen Dazs' Chocolate Gelato for a while now. Finally, I could resist no longer. The supermarket didn't have regular chocolate, so I brought home this pint of Dark Chocolate Chip Gelato. It's not like the high end gelato I've had in restaurants and from specialty vendors, with a lighter color and more ice cream-like consistency, but the flavor is amazing. It's very chocolatey and so smooth as it hits the tongue. I need to find plain chocolate so I can try it in a malted.

Haagen Dazs Dark Chocolate Chip Gelato

Haagen Dazs Dark Chocolate Chip Gelato Closeup

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I Am Chocolate

Pop psych scores again! Apparently, your favorite ice cream flavor says a lot about you. Yeah, sure. So, let's examine this more closely. My favorite ice cream flavor is, naturally, chocolate. Most varieties of chocolate, actually.

"Chocolate: You’re more likely to be dramatic, lively, charming, flirtatious, seductive and gullible."

Okay, so I can be gullible. My father discovered this when I was a kid. I was easy to fake out. Like the time I was walking into the living room while eating M&Ms and he casually turned to my mother and said, "Didn't they just announce on the news that they were recalling M&Ms?" My reaction was instant. I spit out the M&Ms I'd just put in my mouth. I have learned, over the years, to be a bit more cynical, a bit more suspicious. Which is why I don't fall for Nigerian prince internet/email scams and why I don't forward crap on social media. Snopes.com is my friend.

• Dramatic? Not really.
• Lively? I've never been accused of that. Lazy and lethargic, yeah.
• Charming? Again, not really. More the opposite, I believe.
• Flirtatious? I don't even know how to flirt without making an idiot out of myself.
• Seductive? Laughable.

So, what does my love for chocolate ice cream say about me? That I love chocolate! Nothing more can be inferred. There's a poll on the site, so go vote for your favorite flavor.

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And, on a completely different subject, I can't say enough about the AdBlock extension. I have it for Chrome, but I believe you can get it for other browsers. Just search your browser's extensions section for it. Why it took me so long to install it is beyond me, but it's made sites like Facebook a beautiful, clean place with lots of white space on the side. I also paid a bit to help support it. So, if you use it, consider donating because the guy who created and maintains it does so as his job now, and it's well worth a few dollars. There's also AdBlock Plus, but I don't know the difference and it says it's open source, so probably someone else is doing that. I haven't tried it, so I can't say anything about it.

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Spekuloos and Spam

Had my first spekuloos flavored ice cream cone of the year from Wafels & Dinges. There's chocolate sauce inside the waffle cone.

Spekuloos Ice Cream Cone

As for the spam, here's one of the latest from an anonymous commenter on my book review blog:

"Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is a really
well written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful info.
Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback" which was followed by a link to some crap.

Uh, please, don't. Thanks.


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I Scream You Scream

I've been organizing the den and watching pre-season baseball this dreary week. So, not much to blog about. I've got ideas for long posts that once would've gone on another of my blogs, but I've been a bit lazy about working on them.

In lieu of an actual post, here's a photo of chocolate chocolate chip ice cream and vanilla ice cream co-exisiting.

Ice Cream

Feeling: okay

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Mission Accomplished

Ever since I got my first taste of Wafels & Dinges' spekuloos ice cream, I've been craving more, so today I went to Central Park where there's a Wafels & Dinges cart and got an ice cream cone, this time with chocolate sauce drizzled on top as well as inside the cone. It was even yummier than I remembered. I sat and watched the duckies at the Duck Pond while consuming this amazing confection. And let me tell you, it isn't easy taking a phone pic one-handed of a dripping ice cream cone.

Spekuloos Ice Cream

Feeling: satisfied

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Almost as Good as Chocolate

I should make it clear that I am not a chocolate snob. I love chocolate, it's true, but I have a fondness for vanilla, as well. I'll happily eat either flavor ice cream, though chocolate chip ice cream combines both flavors to perfection. Malteds, however, I prefer in chocolate.

I rarely like other flavor ice creams. Ices, yes. It's hard to beat a creamsicle, that confection made with vanilla ice cream and orange ices or orange sherbet. But for a while now, I've been wanting to taste Wafels & Dinges' spekuloos ice cream. I love the spekuloos spread on a waffle, but ice cream? Does that gingery flavor translate properly to the cold and creamy? I can now say that yes, yes, it does, to perfection. Spekuloos ice cream in a hard waffle cone coated inside with dark chocolate. Really, what could be better? Not much I can think of.

Spekuloos Ice Cream Cone

Spekuloos Ice Cream with Gingery Chunks

Showing Off the Dark Chocolate Coating the Inside of the Cone

Feeling: content

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Hot Summer Fun

I spent a lovely day yesterday strolling along the west side of Manhattan, along the Hudson River. I started with the High Line, then tried the Hudson River Park. At the High Line, I got some gelato. I am coming to believe that dark chocolate gelato might be better than regular chocolate ice cream regardless of brand. This was amazingly yummy, though melting fast in the unrelenting sunshine. I was worried I'd have chocolate soup before I got the photo taken.

Stormie with Chocolate Gelato

Feeling: content

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Variety

This is my idea of a tri-flavor ice cream treat. Haagen Dazs Dark Chocolate, Chocolate, and Vanilla. Yum!

Vanilla and Chocolate Ice Cream

Of course, it took 3 different pints to get all 3 flavors. :)

Feeling: content



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Chocolate Ice Cream as Art

Feeling: chocolicious


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Have a Sundae!

Google brings us the joyous news that it's the 119th Anniversary of the First Documented Ice Cream Sundae, a true cause for celebration. And doing the search yields the official Ice Cream Sundae page. Yes, that's right, the Official Ice Cream Sundae Website. Such yummyness knows no bounds! Now I can't swear to this, but it stands to reason, doesn't it, that celebrating with an actual sundae would be calorie free, right? Just looking at the graphic is making me drool.

Feeling: hungry for ice cream!


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This is So Cool

I was looking through the new Stats feature on Blogger for this blog and found this in the referring sites section. A few hits came from Sheer Bliss Ice Cream which I reviewed after tasting it during the fall on my trip to California. Thanks for the mention, Sheer Bliss! I wish I could buy your ice cream in NYC.

I've been buying toys again. Here's a picture of 3 "Ice Cream" Dunnys. Two are old and one is from the new series just released. They come blind box (you don't know what's in each box til you buy and then open it), so I get mine on eBay from people who buy in bulk, open the boxes, then put them up for auction so you can get just the ones you want or be sure to get a complete set without duplicates. These are just so cute.



Feeling: happy



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This is What Chocolate Heaven Looks Like

I wish I'd had time to try more local ice cream in Vermont, but time and the need to not gain a gazillion pounds conspired against me. I'd wanted an after dinner dessert at one chocolate place only to discovered they closed in the afternoon that day! The above is the amazing Double Chocolate with Fudge Swirl ice cream (they called this "one scoop") I got at the Vermont Confectionery. It was rich and creamy and oh so good.

Feeling: rushed


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Ice Cream News: Is Nothing Safe?

Baskin-Robbins is retiring some flavors, including the classic French Vanilla. Now, I'm a major chocoholic, but I can appreciate the joys of good vanilla ice cream. If they can do this, is nothing sacred? Will they retire one of their iconic chocolate flavors next? True, Superfudge Truffle is joining French Vanilla in retirement, but I never tried that. I usually go for chocolate or for chocolate chip (vanilla with chocolate chips) with chocolate syrup poured on. Yum. But with French Vanilla going, I feel we're at the end of an era.

Feeling: sad


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