Culinary Circle Peanut Butter Passion Ice Cream Dessert

I am a hardcore lover of the great duo know as peanut butter and chocolate. In fact, I was kinda bummed when I couldn't find any tasting looking Peanut Butter Brownie for Turkey Hill's online party. However, this is not a sad story, for yesterday, I got a very special care package from Culinary Circle (the high end, in house brand of Supervalu owned supermarkets).

Behold, the brand new ice cream desserts from Culinary Circle. There are 8 excellent looking flavors in all (the other 3 are hiding behind these 5). It was extremely hard to pick who should go first ...and then I started thinking about peanut butter.

Edy's Slow Churned Berry Granola Crunch Froyo

[Discontinued] I hate to admit it, but now and then, I pick up a flavor to try and it doesn't get eaten for several weeks. Such is the case with this container of Edy's frozen yogurt. I was trying to be adventurous, but after trying several other tart yogurts, I inadvertently burnt myself out.

Edy's Berry Granola Crunch Slow Churned Yogurt Blends

So, you like ice cream right?

If you are visiting the site (and I thank you you for visiting), it stands to reason you are a fan of ice cream. You may just be a part-time fan, or a huge fanatic (like yours truly), but either way, you want to know more about ice cream. I like to think this blog is becoming a good resource about various flavors, products, and companies, but I've spent the last few weeks wondering if I can't offer more on this site. Sure, twitter is huge, but do you really want to read my tweets from the freezer aisle? So, I had another idea the other day, a forum! I've spent some time investigating free forums since I'm not really ready to host my own (I mean I could, but I just don't think I have the time right now with the baby and all, it's hard enough to find time to post).

So last week, I found a few different sites to pick from and I've decided to give Lefora a try, you can see the new forums right here. Now, the problem is, I'm going to need some help on this. I've took a shot at creating some forum topics, but if you have any suggestions, I'm more than willing to make changes. I want to make the forum broad enough to keep people interested, so any and all thoughts are welcome.

I just find it funny that will all the ice cream lovers out there, we seem to have so few resources at our disposal. There are a handful of dedicated bloggers and I've only found one other dedicated forum.

Also, I understand that starting a forum is no easy task, it's hard to get the ball rolling, but each new post is a reason for someone else to post. If you join, you'll inspire someone else to join. I'll do my best to do some examples posts.

Oh yeah, I apologize in advance for the ads on the forums, with something free, comes ads. I don't receive anything for these ads, all the money goes to the host of the forum. If things go well, maybe we can upgrade to the ad free version.

As always, please email me at onsecondscoop at gmail dot com.

Friday Night Fight : Which is the best Jon Donaire Ice Cream Cake?

Welcome to our very first Friday Night Fight! No worries, there's no actual fighting, just scooping, lots and lots scooping. Walmart has been steadily increasing the range of products in their ice cream cake freezer. The very tasty Strawberries & Cream Ice Cream Cake is no longer alone on the shelf. Over the last month we've had not one, but two great cakes from Jon Donaire, both of which were devoured very quickly.

Ok, let's get it on!

In the yellow corner, Weighting in at one pound, 12 ounces, we have the Amazin' Mouthfuls Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Jam-Packed Ice Cream Cake (say that 3 times fast!). He may be small, but he's packs his punch at just $9.88!

In the green corner, weighing in at 2 pounds, 6 ounces, we have the mighty Ice Cream Layer Cake. Just $14.88 gets you twelve rounds with "deliciously moist chocolate cake with rich, creamy vanilla ice cream".

Well, that was a first.....

Let me know if this has happened to you because I think today was the first time for me...

After I decided I didn't want a milkshake ...or a frosty ...or Friendly's, I decided to head over to Crystal Caves in Auburn, home of Robbie's homemade ice cream. They have over 50 flavors, some standard, some unique. Being the giant Snickers fan that I am, I was more than happy to shell out $2.99 for a medium - 2 scoop cone of snickers ice cream (well, it was 2 figurative scoops anyway, seems like everyone has forgotten how to do a real scoop anymore).

I was presented with a light colored (off-white) ice cream with a caramel swirl and what appears to be very finely blended bits of snickers bars. I didn't spy any napkins within reach, but I decided I would be fine, and headed back to the car.

Well, just a few bites into the treat, disaster struck. The cone went a toppling over!!! I had just a fraction of a second to decided if I wanted to try and catch the scoops....and somehow I did manage to catch the ice cream with my hand. Oh yeah, ice cream and caramel all over my "clean" hand, and I say "clean" since that was the hand I just paid with (mmmmm, germy money).

So, what do you do in this situation? I was half tempted to toss it, but I really didn't want to go back inside (I was pushing my lunchtime as it was)....so I slapped that bad boy back on the cone and started eating again. Now, ofcourse, comes yet a third dilemma: how do I open the car door? I can't exactly grab my keys with the sticky hand. I could put the cone in my sticky hand, then open the car with the clean hand, but then the cone is a mess and I'll have to clean a hand that has an ice cream cone in it. So, I ate my ice cream as fast as I could until a point where I was sure it wouldn't fall over again. Then I gently switched hands and opened the door.

Wait, it gets better....well, worse, than better. I don't have any more napkins in the car, oh that's not good ...looking ....searching ....oh, awesome! a few napkins fell behind the seat and I finally get some of the ice cream off my hand. My word do I feel silly. The ironic thing was that the whole time I was in line, this mother kept telling one of her sons to be careful and kept telling him he was going to make a mess ....thanks for the negative thoughts lady ....hehehe, just kidding, it was a poorly scooped cone, plain and simple.

Oh, and as for the ice cream: I assumed that Snickers ice cream would taste at least a bit like Snickers, kind of like how Uhlman's Milky Way tastes like a Milky Way. I guess I expect too much..... I'll go back, but I'm getting something else next time.

Free iPhone ( iPod iPad ) game for National Ice Cream Day

Well, I had to pull a lot of strings, but, with some effort I ...oh, I had nothing to do with it, I just got an email on Friday saying that the game Scoops would be free on iTunes today to celebrate National Ice Cream day (that's a savings of $1.99 for all you budget minded folk).

I could have posted earlier, but I wanted to try the game first. It's real basic: You move your ice cream cone by tilting the iPhone left and right with the goal being to catch the falling scoops of ice cream. To complicate things, vegetables fall from the sky. Every time you catch a scoop, your buffer goes up (the little blue bar at the top middle of the screenshot). Every time you miss a scoop, the buffer goes down. Catch a veggie and the buffer is back to zero. Accidentally catch 3 veggies and you're all done. Rainbow scoops change to whatever color you caught last (so bonus points). As your gigantic ice cream cones reaches for the sky, there is some basic physics involved and the cone will be harder to control (though it won't actually fall over). So, it's not the greatest game I've ever played, but since it involves ice cream, and it's FREE, I say fire up iTunes and go download it!

Update: Scoops is now FREE! If you really enjoy the game, you can change the theme from ice cream to 5 other themes at just 99 cents a piece.

AICC-3 : Gelati-da's Amaretto Chocolate Gelato

I love coincidence: The Ice Cream of the Month Club has inadvertently given me the most appropriate treat for National Ice Cream Day: Gelati-da, "the only true re-creation of THE WORLD'S ORIGINAL ICE CREAM®".
gotta go, i'll right more later. Don't forget to eat ice cream today!

--Ok, I'm back finally (it's Tuesday). Well, two subjects to cover: taste and texture ...wait, yeah, that was a pointless way to start this, but anyway. As I was having my second scoop, I had a thought. This tastes like a funky chocolate ice cream mixed with Dr. Pepper Topping. At this point, I realized I need to educate myself about what amaretto means in terms of flavor. I think it's an adult beverage ...yup, an almond-flavored liqueur, possibly with a mild bitter taste ...and apparently, it can be mixed with cola for a Dr. Pepper like taste. Wow, I guess my taste buds weren't messing with me after all. I can't say I love the flavor, but if Dr. Pepper is your thing, you're probably going to like this.

Now, let's talk texture, well, actually, let's talk ingredients. I was quite confused by my Caio Bella experience, both by taste and by the fact that the fat content was so high. I thought gelato was suppose to be different, yet the milk and cream in Caio Bella's formula puts it up their with Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Daz. Thankfully, I've learned the truth. "True" gelato is typically 8% milk fat, taken from, well, milk. the CB gelato is not the norm with it's high fat content (from cream). So, right here, you have an excuse to try true gelato: Gelati-da only has 7 flavors, and amaretto chocolate is the "fattest" of the bunch, but still only clocking in at 40 fat calories (2g from saturated fat). We can't eat super premium ice cream every night ...I mean, we can try, but we really shouldn't, not every night.

Final thoughts: I can't say I would by this particular flavor again, I just don't love that Dr. Pepper tang that much, but overall I would say Gelati da has made me much more willing to try other gelati, both as a taste test and a healthier alternative.

Walgreen 's Caramel Overload Ice Cream

My brain may be painfully high on varnish fumes, but I'm pretty sure this is the most horribly freezer burned ice cream I have ever tried, and that's a shame because I'm pretty sure this is a top notch flavor. There are these delicate flakes of chocolate through the ice cream which makes it one of the coolest looking ice creams I've seen in awhile.

Walgreens Caramel Overload Ice Cream

Caramel Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips and Caramel Swirl

AICC-2 LaLoo's Rumplemint Goat's Milk Ice Cream

The staff over at the Ice Cream of the Month Club have really outdone themselves this month. It's not that the other shipments haven't been quality ice cream, it's just that this month just goes above and beyong with not only unique flavors but unique products. Today's example is goat milk's ice cream. That's right, I can now say I've had goat's milk ice cream and lived to tell the tale.
What you see before you is the Rumplemint flavor from Laloos, which is only one of 6 flavors they offer (not including yogurt or seasonal flavors). The description is "luxurious" tiles of dark chocolate and fresh garden mint - all natural and lactose friendly. It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but it is very very green!

If I had to describe the flavor, I'd call it an Andes mint flavor, but I mean that in a nice way. A long time ago I had the Walgreens version and I just didnt like it, it was too warm and fuzzy with it's creme de menthe funk to it. Not here though, the mint ice cream and dark chocolate combine for something much nicer. It's pleasant and reminds me of a tasty after dinner mint. I was only going to eat a few bites for my first taste test, but I liked it enough to have a whole serving.

Enough with the flavor stuff, you want to know if I started Baaa'ing after I ate goat's milk don't you? Wait, goats don't Baaaa ...or do they? sorry, I don't hang with goats much. Anyway, had I been blindfolded ...I would have never know this was goat's milk. There's no funny taste, nor is there any funny after taste, it's just good old fashion ice cream. The bonus is that apparently goat's milk is good for you, including people with ulcers, and they say it's lactose friendly, so how could you lose? Well, technically you would lose on shipping, but hey, Laloo's wants to be in your local freezer section, so keep an eye open and give it a try ...it won't kill you! or make you go Baaaaaaaaaaa!

On Second Scoop: I wasn't sure what to eat after mowing, so I decided to try a few more bites of Rumplemint ...yeah, those 3 bites turned into about 30 bites. I'm not a huge mint fan but boy was this hitting the spot. I love how they keep that menthol-i-ness to a minimum, it makes the ice cream way more enjoyable, especially after it melts just a smidge and you just can't stop going for more.

UPDATE: Shaws now carries Laloo's! There is only one "little" problem ...$6.99 a container!!!!!!!

Nutrition: 180 / 80-5 / 0 / 5

Strawberry Shortcake Showdown Good Humor vs. Skinny Cow

I don't know if this is a fair competition, but considering I ate and then forgot to review the Good Humor product labeled "Strawberry Shortcake", I decided to do a head to head after trying a Skinny Cow "Strawberry Shortcake" last night (ok, technically I had two, one before bed and another one as a midnight snack)

Presentation
There are two parts to presentation: advertised and actual.

Advertised: As you can see, they both look pretty tasty, though if you were going for authentic strawberry shortcake taste, you'd probably be tempted to go with the Good Humor bars. GH also has the advantage of being on a stick, so you might assume it's a less messy treat.

Breyer's Rocky Road Ice Cream Review

ahhhh, Breyer' Rocky Road, arguably one of my favorite ice creams of all time....
...until now!! oh am I ever unamused!! They have gone and ruined my favorite flavor! what we're they thinking! sure, its been awhile, but i never expected to be greeted by an overpowering cheap marshmallow flavor!

One of my very first posts was about how I adore their rocky road...and now this!! shame on you Breyers. Guess I'll only be eating haagen-daz rocky road from now on.

On Second Scoop: I'm still unamused...I remember the swirl being more mild and not so cheap tasting...maybe I've just been spoiled by the last year of reviewing. The base chocolate is still fine, and the almonds are sparse like they've always been (which is ok with me), but man...this swirl...

2012 Update: To add insult to injury, my favorite childhood ice cream has been demoted to a Frozen Dairy Dessert. What are you doing Breyers?

Nutrition: 150 / 70-4.5 / 1 / 2

Babcock Hall Blue Moon Ice Cream Review

"call it fate, call it luck, call it karma...I believe that everything happens for a reason"

That's right, the day after posting about the curious Superman ice cream, what do I get in my ice cream of the month club shipment? None other than a taste of Babcock Hall Blue Moon ice cream, one of the key ingredients in Superman ice cream. I was so excited, it was tough to make myself wait 'til Thursday so my ice cream would have a chance to come back down to freezer temp.

I spent all day trying to think of a good smurf joke.

So, after having sampled it, do I like it? Well, it doesn't have the crushing flavor of a 35 foot twinkie, but it's undeniable, it tastes like Fruit Loops. Granted, it's been a long time since I've had fruit loops, but it's a childhood flavor you never really forget. There is something odd though. When I had the Babcock Hall orange custard chocolate chip, there was a weird underlying flavor that I blamed on the orange. Well, it's back. The only way I can describe it? It's unsmooth. I know, not really a word, but that's how it feels to me. It just doesn't want to go down easy, something in the back of my mind prevents me from truly enjoying this youthful treat.

Local Flavor: Pinecroft's Bear Claw Ice Cream

I do my best to head over to We All Screen for Ice Cream! now and then because Jeff does an awesome job of finding all the great local ice cream spots that are showered across Massachusetts (and other parts of New England). Case in point, he found the well hidden Pinecroft Dairy which is close enough to visit at lunchtime! The second I saw the picture of Bear Claw ice cream, I knew I had to try it!

Well, I went today at lunch time and my treat was worth the $3.75 I paid, well actually, I wish i had gotten the regular size for like $4.25. It went down so easy that I was tempted to (and still hungry enough to) go back for a second cone. Maybe next time I'll get the regular because I'm sure I will head back soon enough...is after work too soon?

As for flavor, well, I liked it, I really did. It's a very strong chocolate, and it's got a respectable flavor to it, not just some cheap chocolate. The chocolate covered cashews had a good scattering, and they tasted fresh. Jeff mentioned a caramel swirl but I think I ate mine too fast to notice. The whole thing was just melting so quickly despite the fact that the temperature was only in the 60s, though the melting just made it all the easier to inhale. There was a lingering taste that I couldn't place, not sure if it was the caramel or maybe it was the cashews, but sometimes my brain was telling me marshmallow. Iunno, I just know that overall I really liked it.

Side note: I will agree with Jeff that cone assembly was a bit lacking, but maybe it's the soft nature of their ice cream that makes it harder to scoop. At least mine had ice cream in the cone!

Woohoo!! --WAIT, nevermind no no, we are back!

we're back on the air!!! woohoo!!! I was totally unaware of some changes blogger / google was making behind the scenes for those of us with custom domains!

I'll be back tonight with my first review from my June shipment from the ice cream club.

Update: and we're off the air again...or at least partially, uggg, still some old DNS records floating around I guess. Just have to wait for the world's systems to purge the old address before we're 100% back in business.

Update #2: and we're back again, oh man, gotta spread the word about tasty treats and I can't do that if I'm offline.

Regional Favorites: Superman Ice Cream

And when I say regional, I mean it in the sense that Superman Ice Cream doesn't exist in New England, at least, not that I know of. Had I seen someone eating the bright red, yellow, and blue ice cream, I'm sure I would have noticed.

If you've never had it (like me), you're probably wondering what's in it. If Hershey's makes it, then Superman ice cream is Banana (yellow), Strawberry (red), and Blue Moon (blue!). However, the yellow could be replaced by lemon, or the red could be replaced by other berry (or berry like) flavors. Confused yet? Well, throw in the fact that Blue moon apparently tastes something like Fruit Loops or Fruity Pebbles and you've got one very unique flavor.

It's hard to really cover the subject, so I'm going to pass the scoop over to the mitten blog. This may truly be a Michigan thing, but at the very least, you have to give Quinn major credit for production values (yet again reminding me that the sky is the limit when it comes to blogging).

Makes me wonder what else is out there (that I may never get to try)

Blizzard of the Month: Tagalongs Peanut Butter Patties Blizzard

I meant to post this on Sunday, but we did make it out to DQ this weekend and when we got there I headed straight for the potentially awesome Girl Scouts Tagalongs Peanut Butter Patties Blizzard.

Now I say potentially, because, well, I really hate to say it, but I wasn't real thrilled with my blizzard. In fact, it makes me wonder how they measure the ingredients for the blizzard. Whoever did mine added way too much of the "creamy peanut butter". It was overpowering and made the blizzard kinda dry. I had to stir the whole thing up to try and mellow the flavor. As if that wasn't bad enough, the tagalong pieces were blended into oblivion. There were enough so that I did get a decent taste of them, but not any bites of them (not even at the bottom).

The downside to a fresh treat like this is that you put your treat in the hands of a different person every time. Standard blizzards tend to be somewhat more predictable, but unfortunately, my blizzard of the month experience was no were near what I had hoped.

Note: I saw someone mention building this with chocolate softserve instead, so if we go back, I may try one more time (or if you try it, let me know how it goes)

Alternate Ending: My wife went with the Choco Cherry Love Blizzard and was unamused. The description appears to be cherry topping and chocolate cone coating in vanilla softserve. I took a few sample bites and concurred that it just wasn't that good. It was a cheap cherry flavor with a funny aftertaste....instead of a chocolaty taste, it's more of a coffee taste, how weird.

Honestly? It was just an excuse

An excuse to eat ice cream that is! It was only 5:30 in the morning, and I was trying to rush in some food before the baby woke up, but I had a thought: How would HD Vanilla taste on some pancakes? Not bad actually! I liked the contrast of the cold ice cream to the hot pancake (Eggo of ofcourse), but I found myself mixing bigger and bigger scoops of ice cream with smaller and smaller chunks of pancake.

I don't know if another flavor would have been better since it is early, and early is often best served by simple, but its fun to play now and then.

Haagen-Dazs Snack Size Vanilla Ice Cream

When you see the little Haagen-Dazs cups sitting next to the neat little Ben & Jerry's cups, what do you think about? You think about which flavor you want right? I never would have made my decision based on snackical engineering, but after tonight, I think I would. While my little cup of Ben & Jerry's was a fun five minute break, my HD time was an exercise in sticky fingered futility.

That little golden spoon became the bane of my existence for approximately 217 seconds as I messily tried to dig into the hard HD. There is a slight ring around the spoon, but it doesn't have that nice sharp edge that the B&J spoon had. To complicate things, the outer layer of ice cream was melting and causing the entire little ball of ice cream to spin inside the container as I tried to dig in. I was forced to eat the melting part first since it was easier to scoop, but with each crumbly attempt, my fingers got a little messier. Funny how the hard nature of the HD has backfired in making a tiny treat like this.

So, it's not that this is a bad ice cream, i just don't think it's a good application of an ice cream. Sure, I could have grabbed a spoon from the drawer, but you can't do that when you're running back to the office or wherever else you may have to go.

Just so you know, I had picked this up because I was wondering if I would prefer it over HD's Vanilla Five. Five is definitely a bolder flavor, and a bit healthier, but if I had to pick, I'd probably go with the ....ok, you'll have to make your own decision on this one.

On Second Scoop: I was so worried about the comparing flavors, that I forgot a much more obvious comparison. After finishing off this little container I remembered something: The Vanilla Five is way creamier. The regular vanilla is nice, but it's very heavy and thick. I mean, it's suppose to be, but having experienced the ultimate creaminess of the Vanilla Five, it's hard to go back to the regular Vanilla.

Final Scoop (2012): Just for a little clarity, I want to say that a fresh pint of Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream is excellent. Nice flavor and texture, the post above was merely commenting on the infuriating spoon. The ice cream is wonderful and I can down half a pint without even thinking about it. You just can't beat a nice relaxing vanilla. Nice job.

Nutrition: 104g: 260 / 150-10 / 0 / 5 - 105mg cholesterol

The summer of whacky marketing ideas

Leave it to the small fishes to try and latch onto the "new" wave of web tech.

Let's take it from the beginning:

I saw that Bethany over at Scoopalicious gave Rice Krispy treat ice cream a try. I tried making a rice krispy ice cream a long time ago, but I had just started so the results weren't too impressive. Anyway, this got me to do a search for rice krispy ice cream which led me to this review of Whole Foods QB's. I then did yet another search which led me to the Snackerrific review of these little buggers.

Wait, be patient, this story has a point. Scroll to the bottom and you will see a comment left by "Dave", one of the QB treats. Not only that, he has a twitter feed, along with his cohort's Suzy (strawberry) and Esquivel ....Esquivel? seriously? The tweets are awful too. Uggg, internet life is tough. The tools are there, but you have to know how to use them.

You know the saddest part?

...I'm still tempted to drive way out of my way to Whole Foods and try these bad boys.

Ben & Jerry's Snack Size Mint Chocolate Cookie

I may not be a huge fan of mint flavored ice cream, but guess what? This little guy is just the right size portion of a very well made flavor. And you know what really won me over? The soft yet flavorful little chunks of cookie. I try so many ice creams now that it was nice to dig into something besides chocolate (or chocolaty) chips. The excellent little pieces could have easily made this flavor be called mint ice cream sandwich.

I will admit I chuckled a little at seeing the tiny included spoon, but to be fair to the blog, I ate the whole thing with the spoon. To my surprise, it worked really well. I was expecting hand cramps or at the very least messy fingers, but I had neither when I was done.

The ice cream is typical Ben & Jerry's quality of course. A true mint flavor with a nice texture and creaminess. It's not a weak mint, but I didn't feel overpowered either ...let's call it fairly strong. I don't think I could eat a pint, but a single serving was just enough to give me a nice taste, yet not fill me up or weigh me down. If you've ever wanted to try Mint Chocolate Cookie but we're afraid to, go with the snack size.

Nutrition: 83g: 200 / 100-7 / 0 / 3

Happy 4th of July!

Hey everybody! don't fret, I'm still here. I know I haven't posted in several days now, but that doesn't mean there aren't 5-6 posts in my head. This has arguably been one of the toughest weeks at work since I started my career. The good news is I'm in one piece and have been enjoying way too much ice cream on this glorious (and much deserved) three day weekend.

Actually, while I've been "on hiatus" (i.e. too busy and too tired to post), I've been thinking about my posting skills. I just don't have the gift of gab, nor do I excel as small talk, but that doesn't mean I can't be more thorough. I want to write a review that not only gets you to try new flavors, but makes you want to come back and comment on your experience so everyone knows what the general consensus is on a product. Ok, let's see if I can take things up a notch....

I've been trying to lay off the midnight ice cream snacks since they kind of, ummm, add up, but it's hard to disagree with the fact that this is a great weekend for ice cream. You know, I'm a lucky guy. Not only is my mom a good cook, but so is my wife's mom (and they make totally separate dishes, so that means a very wide range of tasty food between the two of them). Well, my wife's mom went out on a limb and made a Peanut Butter Fudge Ice Cream Pie (similar to the one described here). Basically you take a graham cracker crust, thrown down a layer of peanut butter and honey, and then top that with a nice thick layer of vanilla ice cream. To finish it off, you drizzle some fudge and sprinkled generously with chocolate chips. She definitely gets points for effort and creativity, but even though it was only a 1/4 of honey, it could be argued that it felt like too much. No worries though because the great thing is, you could totally do this recipe 137 different ways 'til you get it just right ....I'm thinking chocolate graham cracker crust to start.

Ok, I'm going to do my best to post as much as I can tomorrow, which will hopefully include a trip to DQ and a Jon Donaire ice cream cake showdown, woohoo!