last few days have been tough at work, afraid I've been way too wasted to post, which is unfortunate since there are two reviews stuck in my head.

anyway, hopefully I'll post soon, but 'til then, why not think about buying your own ice cream place: check out ice cream parlours for sale or maybe ice cream businesses for sale. Seem to be lots of cold stone creameries for sale, don't ask me why.

Thursday update: make that 3 reviews stuck in my head.....man oh man am I tired, so thankful for the 3 day weekend (i've put in my time for the week, you'd think I could go home and sleep now)

I'm just going to do a quick post for now, but I wanted to say we had some better success with the Strawberry flavor. It reminds me a lot of the stonyfield farm strawberry yogurt my wife usually eats. I mean, I don't think I would buy this on purpose, but it's still respectable stuff and my daughter had no problem finishing her bowl's worth.

It's been a long time since I had fun with ice cream, actually, technically, sometimes I forget to post my fun. Ice cream art is fun...but when you're media is melting quickly, and not real tough, well it doesn't always come out right. Today, may I present, the yogurt castle!

It's a vanilla yogurt castle with a Crunchy moat. Ice cream art is fun, but I need to learn to plan ahead more (especially with quick melting yogurt). The window's a bit big, and the castle door should be more official, but yeah, it was all spur of the moment.

I mentioned I had a special package coming and here it is:

You may not even seen on your store shelves yet, but you will. Big thanks to Stone Ridge for letting me try before I buy, but there is a problem: I am totally the WRONG person to be reviewing these products. I just don't like tart yogurt. It seems like it's a good product, and I dig two of the flavor choices ( strawberry and pomegranate blueberry ), but I just can't get over the tartness. This blog has let you know that I definitely lean towards the sweet side of life, not too sweet ofcourse, but sweet is the way to go for me.

This doesn't mean I can't hand over some details and get you excited about this upcoming product (well, if you're a yogurt lover anyway). Stone Ridge is starting off with four flavors: Vanilla, Peach, Strawberry and Pomegranate Blueberry. The containers you see before you are quart size, though I'm not sure what the MSRP will be. A 1/2 cup serving weighs 85g and gives you 110 calories, 10 from fat (that's 1g total fat, 0.5g of saturated fat). There's no fiber, and 2 grams of protein ...oh, and 8% of your calcium for the day. Like most yogurts, it contains live active yogurt cultures including l. acidophilus and bifidobacterium. The label says that yogurt should taste like yogurt, and it does ...it just tastes like the kind of yogurt I don't like.

Manufacturing note: Yes, Stone Ridge products are made in the same factory as Kemps products, but this does not mean they are Kemps products. Stone Ridge has their own recipes, they just don't have their own facilites. This is not uncommon in the industry.

I had totally forgotten about super premium Dreamery ice cream til, well, til today. It seems like an eternity since I've seen those artful pints in the freezer. Actually, I had to watch the ads a few times before the little light went on my head that reminded me I had seen these before. I had heard that the Dreamery line was gone, and I didn't question this since I can't remember the last time I saw it, but Dreamery still exists! Check out their website here. That's right, they live and currently offer *23* flavors. Funny, they have the old Edy's commercials on their website.

Before discovering their website today (Friday), I did an internet search for flavors yesterday (Thursday). This following history and flavor list is compiled from my random Google searches. It appears that flavors ran around 25% total fat and 40% saturated fat (plus 20%+ cholesterol).

18 original flavors - End of Summer 1999
Banana Boogie
Banana Ice Cream with peanut butter and chocolate flakes
Black Raspberry Avalanche (some press says Black Raspberry Parfait)
Vanilla and Black raspberry ice cream with black raspberries and dark chocolate chunks
Blue Ribbon Berry Pie
Rich Vanilla Ice Cream with Swirls of Boysenberries and Raspberries and Pieces of Flaky Pie Crust
Caramel Toffee Bar Heaven
Creamy Caramel Ice Cream with Mountains Chunks of Real Toffee Bar Pieces and a River of Caramel
Cashew Praline Parfait
Vanilla ice cream with pralined cashews and caramel and fudge
Chocolate Truffle Explosion
Chocolate Ice Cream with truffle chunks
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup
Rich Chocolate Ice Cream with Chunks of Peanut Butter Cups and Peanut Butter Swirls
Cool Mint
arctic white mint ice cream with fudge swirls, cool thin mint cookies and whole peppermint patties
Creme Caramel
Caramel ice cream with swirls of caramel
Cuppa Joe
Galactic Chocolate Swirl
like Rocky Road with a caramel swirl - replaced with Nothing But Chocolate!
Grandma's Cookie Jar
Creamy Vanilla Ice Cream Loaded with Chunks of Chocolate Cookie Dough
Harvest Peach
Vanilla ice cream with ripe, sweet peaches
Hot Chilly Chili
vanilla ice cream with a mole fudge swirl and spicy covered nuts
New York Strawberry Cheesecake
Cheesecake ice cream, swirls of strawberry and chunks of New York style cheesecake
Nuts about Malt
Chocolate malt flavored ice cream, swirls of fudge and chocolate-covered almonds
Sticky Bun
cinnamon ice cream with chewy sticky bun pieces, pralined pecans and raisins
Vanilla
vanilla ice cream


Fall 2000, five new flavors phase out five old flavors
Coney Island Waffle Cone
vanilla ice cream with a caramel swirl and chocolate covered waffle cone chunks
Chocolate Almond Bar
Chocolate ice cream with milk chocolate and white covered almond chunks and caramel.
Raspberry Brownie A La Mode
Vanilla ice cream with swirls of raspberries and chunks of fudgy brownies
Strawberry Fields
Creamy Strawberry Ice Cream with Bushels of Real Strawberries
White Out
Vanilla ice cream with a white covered pretzels and almonds and swirls of white fudge


3 new flavors - sept 2002
Banana Split**
vanilla and banana ice cream swirled with milk chocolate fudge, strawberries and bananas
Cherry Chip ba da Bing**
vanilla ice cream loaded with a jackpot of Bing cherries, chocolate chips and cherry swirls
Nothing But Chocolate!**
a combination of milk and dark chocolate ice creams with fudge brownies and thick, chewy fudge swirls (replaced Galactic Chocolate Swirl)


Not sure when these came in
Tiramisu
Tiramisu-flavored ice cream with pieces of coffee-soaked sponge cake and espresso chocolate swirls
Deep Dish Apple Pie
Cinnamon spice ice cream with chunks of apples, real pie crust pieces and swirls of caramel


summer 2003: Dreyers sells Dreamery (and Whole Fruit and Godiva ice cream) to CoolBrands so Dreyers (Edys) can merge with Nestle.

Dec 2005: International Franchise Corp. acquired Yogen Fruz and CoolBrands International's franchise division (that would explain why they have an office in Barbados)

Just to reiterate, Dreamery is not dead! I am going to contact them and try to get an official statement. I'll do my best to track some pints down and do some reviews.

Current Lineup: 2009 :
Banana Split
Black Raspberry Avalanche
Blue Ribbon Berry Pie
-Brownie Turtle Sundae
Caramel Toffee Bar Heaven
Cashew Praline Parfait
Cherry Chip ba da Bing
Chocolate Peanut Butter Chunk
Chocolate Truffle Explosion
Coney Island Waffle Cone
Deep Dish Apple Pie
-Fortunate Vanilla
-Give Me Smores
Grandma's Cookie Dough
Hot Fudge Sundae
New York Strawberry Cheesecake
Nuts About Malt
Raspberry Brownie A La Mode
Strawberry Fields
Tiramisu
-Triple Butter Pecan
-Ultimate Mudslide
Vanilla

During the quarterly state of the freezer address, you will notice there's always a large Skinny Cow box in the middle of the freezer. This is the treat box. It didn't take long for me to realize that saving treats in their individual boxes just wasn't going to work in the long run. If the treat box is somewhat empty, I will dump the entire box of new treats into it. If it's somewhat full, I may wait a bit. I know, it's not rocket science, but I wanted to share.

So, if you want to be prepared for any snacking emergency, I humbly suggest the following four groups of treats.
First, you need ice cream cones! There's a primal need that can't be satisfied by anything but ice cream in a cone.


Second, you need sandwiches! Now, this can adjusted based on your tastes ...or if you are like me, you can go with both a cookie based sandwich (not shown), a wafer based sandwich (far left), and something different (far right).


Third, you need popsicles! That's right, I'm not always in the mode for dairy, sometimes I just want something cold. I like to have at least one from Edy's in the box, but having a second choice is a good idea (whether it's a second Edy's flavor or possible another brand of popsicle).


Fourth = EVERYTHING ELSE! I know, I could go on forever, but the reality is it's a free for all of what tastes good to you. If you can't decide which ice cream bar to throw in, why not pick a mixed box.

So so so many choices. Now there is the danger of freezer burning a treat or two if you forget about them for say.....6 months, but overall, I love having the treat box and I wish I would have thought of it sooner. Diversity is the key, not just in flavors and textures, but thing of it from a caloric stand point as well. Sometimes you just want an 80 calorie treat. Other times, you may need to tide yourself over for awhile and you'll need a BIG treat.

Why do I bother? really....for the same price, I could have had some of the ever growing line up of Stone Ridge Creamery ice creams. It's my own fault, I had fun with berries and thought maybe Hood could crank out a half decent flavor. Well, I was wrong, I just don't like it. I'm sure some people will enjoy the cheap blueberry muffin taste, but I'm just not in the mood for it. Guess I was hoping for less blueberry and more sweet cream.

The picture shows just the blueberry ice cream on top, but as you dig down, you will discover swirls of sweet cream ice cream as well. Oh well, at least it's a low cal flavor.

Actually, I just had a flash back to childhood. When all else fails, bury it in chocolate until that's all you can taste. I really do hate to waste ice cream, but I'm not going to have any urge to eat this stuff ...I know, I know, I'm being harsh, it's just that I'm unamused and I want my $3 back.

Nutrition: 70g: 110 / 25-1.5 / 0 / 3

Wow, what a tiring weekend. It's definitely harder to blog with 2 kids instead of 1, hehehe, that's right, I am the proud papa of a bouncing baby boy. I'll go ahead and apologize right now for any recent or future posts that seem short or are filled with typos. I've been doing my best to keep the site going as we adjust to going back to changing diapers and late night feedings (which is why I've been hitting the treat box at 2-3 A.M. recently). Our daughter was also a flower girl in a wedding Saturday and so earned herself a nice ice cream treat when all was said and done.

That'll teach me
I tossed out the last bit of some freezer burned cookie dough yesterday. Guess what happened when I took out the trash this morning? oh yeah, all over the floor.
Mental note: Don't throw out ice cream.

Klondike is making it's summer push
Slim-a-bear is no more! But have no fear, it's been renamed to Klondike: No Sugar Added and Klondike: 100 Calorie. It makes sense really. Klondike has 25 years of name recognition behind it, plus you don't want to scare people off. If it has a different name, one could easily assume it doesn't taste as good. Speaking of Klondike, how do you feel about their new summer advertising campaign? As much as the smooth & dreamy campaign seems to be aimed at women, the new Klondike campaign seems to be aimed at manly men, but quite frankly ...honestly ...and I hate to sound like some old fuddy duddy (by using terms like fuddy duddy), but "Khaki Pants Pete" just seems really inappropriate for an ice cream company. Well, it's that, or I've totally lost what little sense of humor I had to begin with. I saw the site last week and I'm still offended. (feel free to post a comment, their people will see it)

Chocolate Milk Kick
Don't know why, but I'm on a chocolate milk kick. In fact, I just had a Nesquik Chocolate Milkshake with my lunch. I wouldn't say that it actually tastes like a milkshake, but it's definitely thicker than there usually stuff. A $1.79 got me a 13.5oz bottle (instead of the non-milkshake 16oz size).

Making New Friends
Stayed tune for a new product review in the next few days. It's great to chat with people from the various ice cream companies and it looks like we have a new friend from Stone Ridge Creamery. (As you may have noticed, the Stone Ridge Creamery section in your local SuperValu owned store seems to have increased yet again)

T-Minus 9 Days
Just saw this junkfoodblog post about next month's Tagalong blizzard. I just hope it's more satisfying than the Edy's version.

I'm sitting here waiting for lunch to cook, and just a few minutes ago my belly was very empty. I decided to give it a small sample of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked Froyo. I actually tried it a few months ago but somehow manage to forget to talk about it.

Like all the other B&J's froyos, this is respectable stuff. You'll know you're not eating ice cream, but at the same time, you aren't saddled with any unpleasant: no bitter or tartness. no strange aftertaste. no overall funk. It's just a quality product. The difference is the texture. It actually reminds me of that Smooth & Dreamy CVS I had a month ago. A commenter said it best when they described it as "frozen milk", not that ice cream isn't frozen milk effectively, but you still get the idea. It's just not creamy, but as frozen yogurt, you cant expect it to be.

Nutrition: 99g: 180 / 25-1.5 / 1 / 4

Let me say two things to start this off: Wow! and....eh?

Let me explain. First off, this flavor scooped easy, but I recommend letting it melt a few more minutes because when you eat it, you're gonna think "WOW that's smooth". People have been saying I need to try some of the others Five flavors and now I see why. This is just top notch quality ice cream. It scoops perfectly with the spoon and just flows so well when you bite into it. Am I exaggerating? I don't think so, I try hard not to..but wow, just wow, impressive.

Ok, now that's get back to the "eh?". Not sure how clear it is from the picture, but when you crack open this container, you will be shocked by the number of vanilla bean flakes everywhere. I was so impressed that I tried taking a big whiff of a sniff thinking I was going to be overwhelmed with pure vanilla fumes. Well, I wasn't, but I had to try. The specks really are impressive. They trigger that little mouthwatering part of your brain that tells you to start getting giddy with the thoughts of how wonderfully vanilla this would be. Wow again, because that just sounds weird. How can you be impressed with the most basic of flavors? easy, when you take that flavor and you hit a grand slam with it.

But is this a grand slam? I'm not sure, I'm tempted to say yes, but I think we need a gourmet chef to chime in...do we have any in the audience? I ask because sometimes the vanilla, it, well, it hits me as like a strange spicy cinnamon flavor. It's the weirdest thing. I desperately want to love this flavor, but then it hits me. Is true vanilla spicy? have I been thrown off by a lifetime of mild vanilla extract?

I still finished my serving and had to resist the urge to try more. Overall, it's still a very impressive product, but I'm confused. I've never cooked with vanilla beans so I don't know if it's suppose to taste like this. I think it's on purpose and that my taste buds have never actually known what vanilla bean truly is.

It's funny how these five flavors are each so unique. It's more than just being simple, they're going in for a true taste. the milk chocolate was really about pure cocoa, and here vanilla is really about the bean. Very interesting HD, very interesting indeed.

On Second Scoop: I think I'm getting use to it, but it's still weird...and still amazingly creamery, must be the ingredient combo. I think I'm going to have to pick up some of their regular vanilla and give it a try.

Update: Ahhh, ok, call me unedgeamacated 'cuz apparently after many years on this planet, I finally now know what a true vanilla bean product tastes like. If you don't know what I mean, pick up some Vanilla Bean five and you'll know what I mean.

Nutrition: 102g: 220 / 100-7 / 0 / 5

Oh man, the other one wasn't a fluke, these things are just AWFUL

oh, oh OH am I ever unamused at the moment. What have they done to this poor yogurt? do they let it spoil before they freeze it? I was ready to chalk the one from Walmart up as a fluke, but this one is from Stop & Shop and just as bad. My word, what have they done???? Such a waste because they sound so good: Raspberry frozen yogurt with white chocolate flavored chips.



Disclaimer: Apparently there is a trend towards "TART" yogurts, and I'm probably being too harsh, but to me, it has an unpleasant consistency and strikes me as spoiled, not tart.

Nutrition: 127g: 210 / 45-3.5 / 0 / 3

Well....at least the cone is crunchy...

...and...technically...the caramel does cover the (lack of) taste of the vanilla for the first few bites

but those are my only positive thoughts. What we have is a crunchy cone filled with bright white fluffy 'stuff' that is cold like ice cream but will satisfy very little of your craving for ice cream. It's a shame really. Skinny Cow is owned by Nestle, and it sure seems like they are using Drumstick technology to create a crunchy cone, but why waste this effort on such a flavorless filling. Seriously, it's not like vanilla flavor adds calories, and they aren't even using real vanilla, so you can't blame it on cost either. I guess I just don't get it, what's the point?

On Second Scoop: Yeah, I definitely won't buy these boring things again. The only excitement I found was that the last one had an oversized lump of chocolate in the bottom of the cone - tasted like a chocolate chip cookie.

Nutrition: 150 / 25-2 / 3 / 4 ( 3 weight watchers points )

Hood doesn't get a whole lotta love on this blog, mainly because they crank out low quality stuff for those on a tight budget. However, I like to be fair and check in now and then. Since I was in need of some sherbet, I decided to try Hood's Wildberry sherbet (which was on sale of course).
On the left is the raspberry, the thin strip in the middle is the blackberry, and on the right is the wild strawberry. My first few bites were of the strawberry and I thought "hmmm, this isn't too bad". I guess Hood can't mess up sherbet....or can they? I took a bite of the purplish blackberry and realized it was kind of flavorless. That's odd, but maybe that's why there is only a thin strip of the stuff.

That leaves raspberry, my favorite sherbet flavor, I'm sure it will taste....just awful. Ewwww, what have they done? It tastes like that whacky raspberry fluff I bought, only diluted with fat free milk. oh, it's unpleasant. I tried mixing them all together, but I had already eaten too much of the strawberry to save the overall mix.

So, I'm disappointed. Actually, can you be disappointed when you expect it to be bad? Oh well. I'll finish off the strawberry portion, and then I'm done with this stuff.

On Second Scoop: I had a quick bite and I realized I was a little rough. The strawberry is fine like i said, the blackberry is very mild, and the raspberry is...ummm...it's ok I guess, it's just not where I like it to be, so I just can't enjoy. Maybe some of you will, but I can't.

Nutrition: 110 / 0 / 0 / (1)

wrapping up the weekend because I'm too tired to eat and then review ice cream....nah, that's not true, I almost always have energy for ice cream.

Midnight Snack
I can't help myself. The blue bunny strawberry sedonas have become my midnight snack of choice. They're filling, but not overly fatty. Sure, I could go for straight bowl of ice cream, but that's way too much effort at 2 A.M. Plus, I like the way the granola sits nicely in my belly and tides me over 'til the morning.

Those are huge!
Have you seen the new commercials for Snickers ice cream bars? Well, I was at Shaws yesterday and what do they have packed into the end freezer? Boxes and boxes of GIANT Snickers ice cream bars. If it hadn't been so early, I totally would have snagged one for the ride home. (Wow! who knew Snickers was the #1 candy bar in the world with over $2 billion in sales a year!!)

What have I done?
oh the freezer is full, but for the first time in a long time, I think it's more food than ice cream. Luckily we've been burning through some of the older stuff and I'll try to get caught up before my freezer auto-defrosts itself to death.

What's up with that?
Oh yeah, now I remember what I wanted to rant about: what's up with only putting certain flavors of ice cream on sale? Not that I don't mind trying new flavors, and I'd rather have some on sale instead of nothing on sale, but why are they toying with me like that?