Ice cream

Wonderful stuff, ice cream. When I was a kid in Michigan, we had a DQ and an A&W drive-in right next to each other; it was a common occurrence to see a car park at one and then send someone over to the other. There was a Bresler's 33 Flavors at the local mall when I was a teenager in Illinois; I haven't seen one of those in years, but Baskin-Robbins is quite similar. Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour Restaurants were absolutely wonderful (I Made a Pig of Myself there many times), but unfortunately the chain closed down after new owners changed the concept in the late '80s. Possibly the best ice cream I've ever had was the gelato in La Maddalena; we'd have dinner at L'Aragosta (one of my favourite restaurants anywhere), then wander down the street to a gelateria for dessert.

My favourite ice-cream flavours are vanilla, rum raisin, spumoni, strawberry and peach; my favourite fancy ice cream is Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. Turkey Hill put out some really good stuff, including "Limited Edition Flavors" that are only available for a short period. This month, for instance, they have Peppermint Stick and Rum Raisin Premium Ice Creams, Peanut Butter Marshmallow Frozen Yogurt, Raspberry Duetto (vanilla soft serve with raspberry Venice® ice) and Cherry Orchard Sherbet.

I just found out this evening that they have a blog. An ice-cream-oriented blog, of course. And this month they're doing a giveaway:

Speaking of the holidays, this year we’ll be celebrating them with something we’re calling the “12 Days of Ice Cream.” Starting on Friday, December 14 we’ll be posting a new entry every day (including weekends) through December 25. Each day will feature a different ice cream related gift, which we will give away to one of that entry’s commenters chosen at random. We’re excited about it and when you see some of these gifts, we think you will be too. The best part is, we’ll be giving away a year’s supply of ice cream to one lucky reader. If you remember our National Ice Cream Month giveaway in July, that’s a pretty cool prize no matter what season it is.

Whatever you do, don't go comment on their blog this month. I don't need any more competition....

H/T to my old shipmate Dave.