Friendly's Slow Churned Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

my apologies for the gazillionth time, yet another review gets slow tracked, but.... so I was at Market Basket trying to find something new, but it's still a bit early in the season for that, so I decided to settle for something not on the blog. Hmmmm, slim pickins' indeed, what oh what to choose... well, I guess we're going slow churned again then!

This is Friendly's smooth churned "with extra creamy taste" chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. It's been awhile since I've had cookie dough, so this seems like a logical choice. Just like the black raspberry, this has "all natural flavor" (we'll get back to this in a moment)

State of the Freezer

I know, I know, over two weeks late for my quarterly state of the freezer address. I've been  a big ball of who knows what lately, but I just read something totally shocking.... and then I just realized I didn't read closely enough. I got scared when I saw that Gifford's ice cream was having trouble with it's handful of retail stores. Thing is, the trouble is for Gifford's of Maryland, not my local Gifford's of Maine. Weird coincidence... no no, wait, not a total coincidence. Hey, if you've got ten minutes, check out this lengthy Washington Post article about Gifford's (of Maryland) which happens to mention a trademark battle with Gifford's (of Maine) among other things. It's a shocking read really because this guy that stuck it to Gifford's is also the guy who bought a bunch of Brigham's ice cream shops in Boston, and then drove them all into the ground. The saddest part is Gifford's knew this guy was trouble, but went through with the deal anyway. Man, what ever happened to common sense? ...ok, if you want to get really ironic, how's this: The bad guy in our story, the man who broke Brigham's stores, well, he was selling Hood ice cream instead of Gifford's. Hood bought Brigham's ice cream lines almost 3 years ago. Wait, I don't think I said that with enough irony.

Ok, enough about that, what else do we have? Well, I've been trying hard not to overload the freezer with too many choices, but now we have another problem. You see, when I go to the grocery store, I pace back and forth several times and I have the worst trouble trying to pick something new. Now spring is approaching so we should have some new products on the market soon. I also have some ideas in my heads about how to kind of fill in the missing review holes 'til then. I won't get into it too much detail incase my vague plans don't go well and I change my mind.

I made a rubber ball band today....

Oh, I'd like to take a minute to apologize to my fellow bloggers. Blogging is very much an interactive activity and I've spent way too much time off in la la land to keep track of my fellow foodies. Watching other sites also helps fill in the gaps of all the places I can't (or won't) visit. With that said, that young whipper snapper Rodzilla has bested me to the latest Ben & Jerry's flavor yet again!! Make sure you go check out the first shots of Clusterfluff, Late Night Snack, and Red Velvet Cake, plus a review of Red Velvet cake. Hmmm, I wonder if he knows that soon there will be pints of Bonaroo Buzz? You do realize all this Ben & Jerry's talk makes me like I need to stop for ice cream on the way home now right? What else do we have out there? Well, GrubGrade has a review slamming of the new "triple thick" strawberry shake and the Impulsive Buy just posted a review of new Häagen-Dazs Limited Edition Blueberry Crumble.

Ben & Jerry's 2011 new pints (so far)

Red Velvet Cake: red velvet cake batter ice cream with red velvet cake pieces cream cheese frosting swirl
Late Night Snack: Vanilla bean ice cream with a salt caramel swirl & fudge covered potato chip clusters
Clusterfluff: Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Caramel Cluster Pieces, Peanut Butter & Marshmallow Swirls
Bonaroo Buzz: Coffee & Malt Ice Creams with Toffee Chunks & a Whiskey Caramel Swirl

What else? Oh yeah, if you go into draft.blogger.com, you can turn on a mobile theme! I was flipping through food junk and grubgrade with my blackberry at lunch when I discovered they had installed mobile themes, so I went digging and sure enough I found the option in blogger. It works pretty well on my wife's iPod, but not so much on my blackberry. I'll have to have someone with an android phone test it too. I don't get a ton of mobile traffic, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

Oh, I can't forget to talk about the Poll results (and get a new poll up there). The question I asked was "What's the best seasonal flavor?" and quickly a heated battle started up between Peppermint and Pumpkin! With 346 votes total, and a neck and neck race for well over half the race, I now declare Pumpkin the surprising winner here!

Pumpkin 127 (36%)
Peppermint 98 (28%)
Egg Nog 51 (14%)
Ginger (Snap - Bread) 38 (10%)
Bring on Spring! 22 (6%)
Other 10 (2%)

Ok, geez, I hope that's it for the moment. Be well all, and go have a scoop of ice cream!

Trying a DQ salad... and why you shouldn't eat it in your car

So like I said yesterday, I am super psyched that we have a DQ near work. Now I try to bring leftovers for lunch to save a few bucks here and there, but on occasion I do need to go out and pick something up. Now since I've already tried the midnight blizzard yesterday, I really should try to be a little healthier today and get something else.

This is the grilled chicken version of the DQ salad, but it is also available in a crispy chicken version. They've seperated all the toppings out with cheese (top right), purple cabbage (bottom right), carrots (bottom middle), tomatoes (bottom left), and to mix it up fresh bacon bits instead of croutons (top left). I was tempted to eat it this way, but that didn't seem fair.

I put the lid back on and shook it up. This wasn't my best plan as now all the toppings are now bottomings... wait, that's not a word. Live and learn. Time to start working through all this iceberg lettuce. Everything was going fairly well until....

Yeah, that's right, I tilted the bowl to get a better angle on it, slipped, and flung salad bits all over the front of my car and all over me. I spent longer picking this thing up then I did eating it. Man I'm a clutz sometimes.

Upside: the salad had a nice fresh vibe for just $4.99

Downside: I was pretty bored of the iceberg lettuce by the end

So, decent job here, no major compliants. Let's do a quick health check: 330 calories, not bad, but 140 calories from fat? It must have been the bacon bits, good thing I spilled half of them! There's also a fair amount of cholesterol (30%) and sodium (41%), but 35g of protein, that's cool. Even has lots of A, C, and calcium.

DQ Blizzard of the Month Midnight Truffle Blizzard

2014 Note: Started as a blizzard of the month, currently a full time blizzard

I knew that the midnight blizzard was out at DQ, but I thought I had reviewed it before. Well... I was wrong, and considering that today day was effectively sucking, it seemed like a very appropriate time to head out and visit the brand new DQ they built near work.

Now here's the advertised version....

And here's the real thing. Wow, it's so amazing, it's glowing!! Ok, ok, that's just my cellphone stressing out over the massive sunshine blazing through my windshield. Hmmmm, let's try taking this picture again.

Ahhhhhh, that's a million times better. Now you can only see a few truffle pieces on the left hand side there, but no worries, there's a million of them in there. I literally had a few in every spoonful. Unlike the dark rich brown color of the advertisement, we've got some remaining white vanilla soft serve with streaks of brown  "dark, decadent cocoa fudge". It looks pretty good, though I am a little afraid.
As is expected of DQ, it's pretty good. I can't quite nail down the right word to explain what the chocolate tastes like. It's reminding me of something but I can't place it. Like I said, there is just truffle after truffle in this treat. They can be a bit spongy, almost like a small chocolate marshmallow, but overall I like them (especially the less spongy ones).

Just thinking out loud here, but I'd almost like to try this treat with some hard chocolate chips mixed in. You would get this great mix of hard chunks and soft bits in every bite, almost like when you mix cookies & cream and cookie dough.

Ok, this one is definitely good enough to go give it a shot, you've got about a week left to try it.

Sundae Sunday : Rockin' with some M&M cookies

Have I ever mentioned how much I love making sundaes? I mean, really really love. It's just fun. Picking the right base flavors or experimenting with somenew, going nutty with the whip cream, dreaming up the latest topping and then often dressing it up with a little sauce for good measure. (sorry, I don't keep cherries on hand). My daughter actually picked a sundae over the cookie dough pie when I asked what she wanted for snack, and that's fine by me because I need to do a little creating. Heck, I wouldn't be terribly opposed to working a second shift somewhere so that I could make treats more often... not that I have the energy for that, but nevermind that now.

This is the big brown box of M&M cookies that has been calling my name ever since they built the new market basket in my area. I just kept putting off the purchase, but I finally gave in about two weeks ago.

Whoa, they're itty bitty cookies! I try a few and they remind me a lot of those little crunch cookies you use to get at MickyD's. They are definitely a similar size and consistency. Now let's throw 3 of these in a ziplock bag and start crushing!

See, now doesn't that look tasty? The crunch of these cookies is absolutely perfect as a sundae topping, plus you get mini M&M's scattered throughout now. This isn't actually today's sundae but the one I made last weekend with Friendly's slow churned black raspberry underneath.

So take it from crunch-lovin' someone who did this a thousand times as a child, smash a cookie on top of your next sundae and enjoy!

Cold Stone Creamery's Cookie Dough Ice Cream Pie

my apologies for not writing sooner but it's been a crazy week....   and now there's a nasty thunderstorm rolling through meaning I gotta jump back to the laptop here before a bolt of lightning blows up my PC. OH YEAH, that was a big one, house is rattling with that one, and it lasted awhile too. I'm not saying we don't get nasty storms, just not usually in the winter. To make matters worse, my daughter still isn't 100% convinced that we are safe in the house during a storm, I on the other hand am not worried. Ok, sorry, we should talk ice cream. (BOOOOOOOMMMMMM).

So when my ice cream loving wife went to cold stone creamery last weekend, she actually brought home two treats. The first you saw on Monday, but I really need to share what else she brought home.

This my friends is a cookie dough ice cream pie!! 

Cold Stone Creamery Chocolate Chipper Ice Cream Cake

Alright, it's mid afternoon and you've got one last chance to bring something home to your sweetie. Sure flowers are the old standby for the ladies, but what about the guys? or maybe you are looking for something to share after a romantic dinner. Well, how about this?

This is a "petite" size Chocolate Chipper ice cream cake that my wife just brought home from Cold Stone Creamery. Sure, usually they are 4" round cakes, but this weekend it was all about the hearts. In fact, I think some of the larger cakes might also be heart shaped as well!

Friendly's Slow Churned Black Raspberry Ice Cream

[2015 Note: got retired at some point, though I can't help but feel that some of the gums from this one made it in to their "premium" black raspberry]
I was at Market Basket two weeks ago when I was spying around for something a bit healthier and what do I see but "All Natural" slow churned from Friendly's. Really? slow churned and all natural??

Half the fat? extra creamy taste? and all natural? that almost sounds too good to be... whoa whoa whoa, wait!

New Cinnabon Cream of Wheat

Ok, I'll keep this short and sweet because frankly, I think Cinnabon gets way too much credit for randomly revamping products with their "unique" blend of cinnamon. I adore cinnamon products, but I could care less about Cinnabon branding after trying Cinnabon cereal, Cinnabon snack bars, Cinnabon this, Cinnabon that, and now Cinnabon Cream of Wheat. The only exception to me has been the Cinnabon (original) pancakes which are pretty decent, but that's probably because they are more mild than the other products.

Here's the box so you know what (not) to look for. Usually we keep a box of maple brown sugar cream of wheat in the house for food emergencies (i.e. when we don't want to cook).

That traditional Cinnabon product smell was getting to me as I prepped a bowl for myself and a bowl for my daughter. Then the wheels in my brain started turning. Hmmmm, strong, hot, cinnamony product that doesn't have nearly enough calories to fill me... if only there was something I could add it to....

That's right! Ice cream makes everything better! I did this for the heck of it and to my surprise, it wasn't that bad! Call me shocked that the two textures have a bit of chemistry together. Now don't forget that I'm using the rather lackluster stonyfield froyo here. Actually, it technically made the froyo taste better too! I've taken too uninspiring products and created a half decent treat that now has more vitamins, an extra gram of fiber, and 3 extra grams of protein. HEHEHEHEHEHE. Ahhhh, it's fun being crazy sometimes.

Does it shake?

So you all know that every now and then I profess my love of milkshakes. I can't help it, in fact, I'm starting to think I not only love the flavor and texture, but deep down I think I'm also fascinated by the temperature of milkshakes. The fact is that I'm that cranky dude who gets miffed when his food isn't piping hot and I also expect my beverages to be icy cold.

A few weeks ago I had an idea. I've always wanted to add a little synopsis at the bottom of every post but I just never seem to get around to it. To me, there seem to be a few basic questions that should be recapped.

1) Did I like it?
2) Would I buy it again? (is it worth it?)

and for my latest thought...

wait for it...

3) Does it shake?

hehehehe, ok, it really should be "Does it make a good milkshake?" To me a milkshake is a simple thing: Container, ice cream, milk, stir. Is this a helpful question? Iunno. Is this a fair question? maybe, it's not like I measure the amount of ice cream or milk that goes in. You pour in some milk, check your consistancy, and then toss in some more if necessary. It's not rocket science by any means. I ask if it's fair because there is the distinct chance that any flavor I make might wind up getting masked by Nesquik. Ok, that's give an example.

Can you make a low fat milkshake?

I love milkshakes but they are by no means easy on the weight scale. Considering my milkshake cup holds 2 cups of shaky goodness, I could easily go over 800 calories if I'm not careful if I used B&J or H-D. I need a milkshake, but I don't want to go crazy. So, it's time to try and redeem the weirdness that is Breyer's Fat Free Strawberry ice cream. To keep it light, I'm going to run with some 1% organic chocolate milk. When all is said & done, I've got a cup and half of ice cream and milk and I'm at a mere 300 calories! Now we're talking! The fat free ice cream melts quick and the milkshake is ready for testing. Hmmm, not quite enough chocolate flavor to get that great choco-berry taste I love... wow, that's a really good name actually. Quick, I need to copyright that!

Anyway, I dumped in a little too much chocolate but I still enjoyed my icy cold treat. Sure it didn't have that super thick creamy texture of the 800 calorie shake, but it was still had a refreshing taste that was almost guilt free at 300 cals and minimal fat. You know, there might be something to this milkshake question!

On Second Scoop: I stand corrected. I tried this a second time and it didn't come out nearly as well. I'm thinking the overload of chocolate covered up any other flaws. The fat free / 1% combo will still suffice, it's just that your mileage my vary.

Encore review for an encore edition Ben & Jerry's Magic Brownies Ice Cream

I don't know why, but I've always been bothered by my first review of the encore edition of Magic brownies. I always want to buy this flavor again when I walk by it but I remembered it not being anything special. In my defense I had only been blogging for three months during that first review so I was concerned that maybe I had been a little too harsh. I mean, I love quality black raspberry ice cream, so why wasn't I passionate about this one?

photo courtesy of cafemama

Before we start, how many of you out there had the original magic brownies flavor? It was vanilla ice cream with fudge brownies & raspberry swirls. I'll be honest, I didn't have it, but the raspberry swirl sounds tasty if done right, and since this is B&J's, they probably did it right.

photo courtesy of cafemama

I had to post this picture too. It certainly looks fairly tasty, though it's hard to tell how big those brownie chunks are. If I had to guess I'd say they might be good sized cube brownies. Press releases show this flavor as being announced in May of 2005, and these pictures were taken in early 2007 which would have been the last year for this version of the ice cream.

Now my first review was in 2008 when they came out with the Encore Edition flavor remix. This pint is now black raspberry ice cream swirled with sweet cream ice cream & fudgy brownies.

Looks a whole lot different then the original doesn't it?

Now this close up is all about showing you just how gigantic these brownie pieces are, and you might think that this would make it the best flavor ever. I mean, how can you argue with a literal slab of brownie in your treat? Well, easy, it's too big. This could easily be 5 or 6 pieces of brownie scattered about, instead it's one big slab. There is the catch phrase "go big or go home" but I'd rather see them spread out, or really not bother at all. Granted if there were no chunks then it wouldn't be a unique Ben & Jerry's flavor anymore would it?

Like before, I'm not saying this is a bad flavor. It's excellent quality ice cream, it's tasty, it's just that. It's fine, I just still believe it could be better.

Oh well, at least my review has real pictures this time. I can't believe I use to eat all that ice cream without taking pictures! Come back tomorrow, I've got one more container downstairs that can't wait to be cracked open.

2012 Update: Well, Magic Brownie has once again left our freezers on this side of the Atlantic... but the original version of Magic Brownies is back in the U.K. as "Winter Berry Brownie". Now to be honest I don't know what raspberries have to do with winter, but whatever, if it does well, maybe it will come back to  us next year. (read announcement here)

Weight Watchers Chocolate Fudge Brownie Premium Ice Cream Cup

Wait, whoa, did I just write "premium" ice cream cup? Funny, since premium usually implies high fat content. Maybe I should start at the beginning.

I ran into Walmart to get just a couple of things but as I went through the store I really started to want chocolate ice cream. The diet is still going well after three weeks, I'm half way through my goal (I'm down to +6) so I'm really trying to run with the whole calorie counting thing. So rather than pick the 250-300+ calorie treats, I spied some weight watchers in it's new white and light blue packaging.

Nothing fancy, but it does look modern. I check the back and it's a mere 150 calories with only 15 from fat. Sweet, sounds like no guilt to me. Offhand that picture makes me expect something like Edy's Double Fudge Brownie Fun Flavor, so let's find out.