State of the Freezer Address - 17th Anniversary Edition

How in the world am I still hanging around the internet blogosphere after all these years? OCD? Not knowing when to let things go? Nerdy love of cataloging things? All of the above?!

The current state of the freezers is: upstairs boring, downstairs chaotic/full. Despite my best efforts, I continue to buy more ice cream than I can consume (at my age anyway). I think I still love ice cream, and I was excited at how the year started, but I'm losing momentum again already.

The upstairs freezer (aka the fridge in the kitchen, circa May 2025)

State of the Freezer Address - 16 Years!

It's hard to believe, but the blog is now old enough to apply for a learner's permit! Alright, let's talk about what's in the freezers and then we'll go from there.

State of the Freezer Address - 15th Anniversary Edition

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of posting. I've been holding off on posting until I do an anniversary post, but then I've just been so extremely tired since the anniversary (the 8th) that I have not posted. Oh well! Let's see if we can get back in to the swing of things.

The state of the freezers? Well, when it comes to the basement freezer, it was out with the old and in with the new two weeks ago. Three bags worth went out on trash day. Yes I hate wasting, but I also hate staring at things that I know I will never eat. I had a smattering of really old stuff including Klondike Donuts (circa 2020) and three old pints of magnum (circa 2019). Those Magnum pints never got reviewed which is a shame, but at least I have the containers.

It was just a random mix of stuff that got tossed. For example, there was also a pint Haagen-Dazs Rum Tres Leches. I never like alcohol flavors, but it was cheap and I wanted to add the lid to my collection. It was passed the best buy date, and I only took a tiny taste, but I still found the flavoring strong and very much not my style. 

The upstairs freezer is decent and may or may not surprise you. I think I'm finally getting in to Tillamook after discovering their white chocolate raspberry flavor (reviews to come). I wound up buying several containers of Graham Slam despite it being a frozen dairy dessert, plus I keep Turkey Hill all natural vanilla handy for making shakes. 

Wait, have I complained about all natural Turkey Hill retreating from the freezer aisle yet? Most stores around me carry just a few of their all natural flavors now, and those flavors tend to revolve around vanilla. Man, I hope they don't disappear completely (though it's part of the reason that I am digging in to Tillamook).

Lastly we have a bit of Talenti. The dairy-free dark chocolate actually belongs to my son. I also bought him a pint of coconut milk vanilla yesterday which I then forgot to put in the freezer.... so yeah, I'm still pretty tired.

So why did I clean the basement freezer? Yes it was due, but more importantly, a case of Cold Case ice cream samples arrived and then a week later, a case of Jeni's samples arrived. I know that some people think that it's really easy to get free samples, but the reality is that it is not, so to get back to back offers of some top notch ice cream? Yeah, that was a pretty cool way to ring in the blog's 15th birthday. Those reviews should be coming up soon, but go follow me on instagram if you don't want to wait. 

That's all I got for now. I'll try to get the first two cold case reviews posted by tomorrow.

State of the Freezers Address The leaky 14th anniversary edition

 Man, I should have wrote this last week on the official anniversary date because it was cooler and less humid.... and also Mother's day, so that kind of took precedence.

State of the upstairs freezer: leaky! ok, not so much leaky as overflowing. The drain line apparently froze over and there was a frozen puddle in the freezer yesterday. I've never had this happen before. After yesterday's mid-day ice cleanup, I opened the freezer around 8pm to find a fresh new puddle (still liquid). I soaked that up. I'll probably have to pop off the back cover of the freezer at some point and try to clear the line. Fun times!

Which would you rather? (13th anniversary post)

Not dead, just really quiet in the freezer aisle. I kind of feel like I tried everything already but how can that possibly be? I have two more Talenti layers to try when I finally find them, I should try more of the Topped line up (though a lot of it carries an allergen warning), I'm debating the new Magnum truffle line up, and then there's a bunch of junky frozen dairy desserts to pick from. Is that really all there is this year? Maybe I could try to hit a whole foods and find something new from Jeni's? I am open to suggestions.

In the meantime, let's pose a question: Which of these two products would you buy?

Carvel's New Cookie Dough Ice Cream Cake

or these ICEE mystery flavors (Mermaid & baby narwhal)?

While both cute and eye catching on the freezer aisle shelf, I'm not really a fan of mystery flavors. Apparently the mermaid flavor came out in a separate tube pack last year (see TIB post here), but the baby narwhal was an actual ICEE last year (see TIB post here).

Me? I want that cookie dough cake. Sure it's basically just a regular ice cream cake with cookie dough mixed in and then more cookie dough pieces on top, but that sounds kind of awesome in my book. Well, maybe not awesome, but like a step right below awesome.

One more foot note. A reader pointed out that basically all of Blue Bunnies offerings have switched over to frozen dairy dessert. While I hadn't noticed because their tubs aren't really in my area anymore, it was still pretty disappointing to..... holy freholy! I just realized that I missed the blog's 13th birthday! Things have been pretty crazy in the household these last few months, so I guess I shouldn't be totally surprised I missed it. 

Do I have anything meaningful to say at 11pm at night? Ummm, yeah, no. I have been thinking alot about the death of mainstream ice cream and have basically just been improvising my own flavors for the last few months (aka mixing turkey hill all natural vanilla with either mix-ins or some other premium product). I know my peers all dig those super fancy pints with tons of mix-ins, but I spent a lifetime eating a big bowl of good ice cream rather than a small bowl of great ice cream (I hope that makes sense). I'm not saying that one way is right and one is wrong, I'm just saying that I'm kind of old fashion when it comes to my daily serving of ice cream (I'm still more than happy to try those flavors as a treat!).

The blog will continue on, but I won't be back to official ice cream hunting until the fall (at least that's the tentative plan). I will keep searching at my local stores for new stuff and I will try to do at least one post a week, but I make no promises for what I might bring home.

Be well everyone!

State of the Freezer Address Eleven Long Years Edition

Every year I say the same thing, so say it with me now...

"I will not wait until the end of May 8th to write the State of the Freezer address"

Well, as always, life got in the way and it's now 10 pm. 2019 has been crazy and I've only been home for about 20 minutes now (had to eat a quick waffle first). I want you to know that I do appreciate those of you who continue to check out the blog and I thank you for all of your comments. I know I'm not the best writer or the most gracious comment reader, but I am glad that all of you are still out there thinking about ice cream and gelato all the time.

Ok, so what comes to mind when you my downstairs chest freezer? 

1) It needs a cleaning because there are items lingering from a year ago
2) Counting stuff that isn't on the blog yet (the answer is 7, plus I think 2 more upstairs)
3) Dubba still has a thing for breakfast foods
4) How many treats total? (22 you can see, plus at least a half dozen you cant)
5) Can Dubba still count this late at night? (yes but barely)

You get the idea, I still love ice cream, that hasn't change, though the last year has been challenging on what I can and can't eat. I still have varying trouble with chocolate things which is why that Magnum pint hasn't been cracked open yet. I have seven items in the queue (so I'm like a dozen items behind total). This year is kicking my butt but in my defense, I did switch to a new job which is both more challenging and requiring more of my time (which stinks because it is baseball season).

As always, not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. I still dream of running an ice cream company someday but I doubt some random person is going to give me the funds to start one. Oh well. Be well and maybe I'll add a P.S. tomorrow. For now, SLEEP.

State of the Freezer Address The First Decade Edition

That's right folks, it's the 10th anniversary of my very first blog post. Ten years! That's nuts.... no, apparently I'm nuts for hanging around this long. I don't think I planned on still being here ten years later... in part because I thought I'd be some famous flavor guru consultant by now. As you can tell, I am not, but we all need to have dreams. That was mine. It's long gone now. Wow, that went downhill fast. I just mean that I've accepted my fate that while I may be the world's longest running ice cream archiver, there won't be any fame or fortune going with it. I wouldn't know how to handle fame anyway, though I guess I did work up the courage to be on an awesome podcast for four and a half years, so that's gotta be something for someone with social anxiety right? Ok, enough of this, on to the positives, but first, a little freezer talk.

This is the boring upstairs freezer. Not super boring mind you, but this houses our regular ice creams and whatever is currently being reviewed on the blog like chocolate churro (bleck) and some new gelato fiasco. The Trio and Blue Bunny mini swirls will be up next probably. This picture is accurate except for the Friendly's ice cream cake ice cream that my daughter brought up from the basement freezer afterwards (yup, it's back for another year)

And now happy stuff: so what have I accomplished in ten years? Well, blogging says I'm approaching ten million page views, that's something right? Ofcourse, I think that factors in web browsers pre-fetching webpages. Google Analytics has the blog pegged at just 5.1 million actual page views. The top review of that time? Possibly my favorite Ben & Jerry's flavor, the mighty Milk & Cookies with 24,000 page views. That's not the coolest part about that though. I've met John the flavor guru who created M&C and he told me that he had read the review. I was honored to say the least. He's pretty great and meeting him and the rest of the Ben & Jerry's crew was definitely one of the high points of this blog in the last ten years.

You might remember that one of my main goals for starting this blog (besides eating more ice cream) was to become a better writer. As you may have noticed, that never happened. You might even argue that I've gotten worse. I meant well, I swear. What has improved are my pictures skills. Just look at my instagram account or my old breakfast sundaes tumblr project and I like to think I can take a decently appetizing photo. Not every shot is a winner mind you because I can get impatient (or nervous), but yeah, I love taking pictures. No urge to be in front of the camera, but you'd probably be surprised about how much time I spend thinking about how wonderous something looks. Uggg, I'm getting tired and losing my ability to make points. I guess I should apologize that a lot of the photos on the blog have been a bit off recently. While cell phone cameras have gotten so much better over the years, they can't completely take the place of  my primary camera whose lens died awhile ago. I did pick up a cheap telephoto lens to verify that the camera still works (and can still be fun from a distance aka outside basically), but it has limited abilities in the world of ice cream pictures. If anyone wants to sponsor a new E-PL9 for the blog, let me know (sorry, couldn't resist, and like I said earlier, everyone needs dreams).

We should probably dive in to the basement freezer where all the good stuff is right? The problem is that it's chock full of stuff and I am feeling lazy (it's now 10pm). Oh, that's another thing to point out, or maybe, something I don't want to point out. Who knows how many countless hours I've spent cataloging the freezer aisle. It's a fun hobby that not a whole lot of people understand (present company excluded ofcourse). I can't believe I've written 1454 reviews. If you did one review a day, it would take you four years to hit that number. Wait, does that make my ten years seem less impressive? hehehehe. Ok, hold on, let me spend a few minutes getting the basement freezer ready. I do need to sleep at some point (I am a decade older than when I started).

Ok, that didn't actually take as long as expected, probably in part because it's more Eggo boxes and frozen corn than I expected. You'll hear about it in the next review, but Blue Bunny likes me again! (those are all free samples you see). I've also got a new banana based ice cream for my son to try as well as the return of Steve's ice cream (Dean Foods rescued them last summer). Actually this picture technically makes me feel bad because I still havent reviewed the mini a la mode cups they sent over to sample awhile ago (my apologies to them).

To recap, I still love ice cream, I love taking pictures, and I am very grateful for all of you for hanging out here at the blog. I know the way people interface with the internet (and each other) is always changing, but I will do my best to keep this giant archive going. Be well and I'll see you later!


P.S. I forgot to add a thanks to all the companies that have sent samples over the last year. Perry's and Gelato Fiasco continue to be good to the blog. I'm happy that Blue Bunny is back to sending stuff. I actually got Haagen-Dazs samples for the first time which was cool. Who else? Cool Haus, Isaly's and Revele all hooked me up with samples. A La Mode sent a ton of stuff after I bought a store damaged box of their bars. I also got a stack of coupons for Solero and Slim Twin (which I might giveaway) as well as a pair of coupons from Graeters. There were a couple other companies offering stuff like Breyers Delights (I politely declined due to my troubles with sugar replacements). I'm not bragging here, just very glad that some companies see the value of keeping this blog in the loop. --- Disclaimer: Nick got a big box of High Road Creamery stuff but I can't guarantee any timely reviews on it.

State of the Freezer Address - 9 Years Edition

Hey everyone! I had every intention of writing a nice long post about my anniversary but unfortunately the fates aligned and it's now past my bedtime and I need to get going. I could blame my poison ivy or the increased workload from my boss being out of town, but that's just the tip of the ice cream berg. (I'm so tired, I literally wrote cream instead of berg).

This is the chest freezer as best I could arrange it and if the choices look lopsided, well, price chopper was having a good sale on both Turkey Hill and Ben & Jerry's. The upstairs freezer isn't much to look at right now.

Just know that I appreciate all of you who have stuck with me all of these years and hopefully I'll add some more words to this in the morning. Good night!

----------------------

Hello! I'm back! For those wondering what else is in the freezer (aka the review queue): More Gelato Fiasco samples! More Perry's samples! also Friendly's reviews (one of which will be nice and negative), and at least two Blue Bunny reviews though hopefully more if I can find a good place to get their new flavors.

Keeping an eye on my instagram account will hopefully give you a heads up about what's coming down the review pipe though technically you can follow on twitter or tumblr if you prefer those platforms (Facebook is just used for when reviews go live but sometimes uses my instagram photos for the links). My anniversary post on instagram pushed me over 3000 followers so that was a pretty cool anniversary present.

As for an update on the 2017 ice cream season, well, it's looking kind of over from this side of the aisle. If you check the product guide, you'll see that I've already covered most of what I wanted to cover at this point. I think I've mentioned before that I'm not spending money on stuff I know I will most likely hate, so anything with booze, coconut, or coffee basically. In the past I may have tried to cover them anyway but what's the point really?

That said, I don't know what the rest of the year has in store for OSS. Website traffic is down over 20% for the second year in a row which means that the site is now running below 2012 traffic levels. I don't do this for the traffic, I do it for the love of the industry, but that hurts. An old fashion blog about ice cream, no matter how long lived, just doesn't fit as well in our modern picture-based smartphone society. I kind of think that the website needs to have an accompanying app but who knows if I can pull that off (though I do have a rough idea in my mind of what I would like it to do).

Oh, one more thing, always remember to be awesome to each other, this includes being nice to the ice cream companies. I worry very much that we live in a world where we think every flavor from a company should be designed to suit our specific needs but we are all very different people. Going forward (and for the last several months), I've been trying to reinforce the difference between a good product and a product that clicks with me. I don't know if I'm doing a very good job with this mission, but I will keep working on it. I've learned a lot in the last nine years but that doesn't mean the battle to be a better reviewer will ever end. (hey, no snide remarks about my writing not improving in 9 years).

Ok, be well and scoop on!

State of the Freezer Address 8th Anniversary Edition

Hello everyone, hope you had a good Mother's Day. While the following post will probably involve a lot of rambling, I just want to start off by saying that I appreciate all of you that follow me. Whether this is your first season here or your 8th, do know that I am glad you are here and am grateful that you stick with me as my style and process has changed over the years. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes for worse, but it's a process that never ends apparently. Let's do a quick freezer check and then we will get to the rambling.

Upstairs freezer is housing stuff that you will see on the blog soon. Tasty Red Velvet Cake, more Perry's, and a young company called Yeti Frozen Custard. (usual selection of veggies and breakfast treats are in stock as well). Tempted to do a new review of Blue Bunny cookie dough because they have upgraded the swirl from super sweet to epic. Good times!

Year End Cleanup aka State of the Freezer

Did everyone have a good Christmas? Hope so. I usually throw out some holiday wishes Christmas Eve night or Christmas day, but things are crazy here (stupid cold), and I'm sure they are crazy there, so I decided just to hang back and let the day roll by. As much as it's great to see everyone, I kind of like the day after Christmas because it's a "home day" as my son would say. Sleep in, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, turn on that one radio station that's still playing Christmas songs and just play with toys all day. Ok, ok, technically I'm not that good at "relaxing" and that's probably why I started wandering through the freezers in preparation for the 2016 holiday season.

Farmrich Chocolate Cream Brownie Bites
with a cookie crumb crust

State of the Freezer Address Seventh Anniversary Edition

Hello everyone! It's May 8th, 2015... the 7th anniversary of my first blog post. Oh man, I can't believe I'm still here. I can't believe you are still here. At this point, we've kind of grown from an ice cream blog to the world's largest ice cream archive really. Over 1300 products reviewed, gigs and gigs of overly technical pictures, millions of words of me talking in circles. In just the last few days, this "little" project has finally crossed the 100,000 page views per month mark. That's just crazy for some random guy with a spoon and a sidekick. (speaking of sidekicks, he gets to do his own anniversary post in a few days, so stay tuned for that). We've couldnt have grown with out all of you visiting and commenting and being part of the freezer aisle, so thank you very much for that. Now, do you want freezer shots first or me babbling first? Ahhh, pictures first...

This is the upstairs freezer where all the current flavors live (stuff that has been reviewed). Nothing you havent seen on the blog except maybe my affinity for frozen breakfast treats. It's a little light on the veggies at the moment, but that's because they are all buried in the....

State of the New Freezer

I know I usually do these things at a minimum on May 8th (and sometimes on 8/8, 11/8, and 2/8), but well something happened last week that I mentioned on facebook and twitter but not on the blog yet because I was too busy cleaning up the mess of it all. See, sometime Thursday morning, the compressor stopped running on our fridge. I remember thinking something sounded funny as I grabbed my breakfast, but I'm not exactly the most awake person in the morning, so I went about my day like I always do. Oh if only I had been paying attention.

Just a sample of what was waiting for an official review....

State of the Freezer Address The 6th anniversary edition

6 years my friends, 6 long years of covering over 1000 varieties of ice cream, froyo, gelato, and whatever else we can get our little frozen hands on... I must be crazy... nay, I know I'm crazy, crazy for ice cream! Ha, what started as a pipe dream and a cranky blizzard review has lasted longer than.... iunno, alot of things, like most shows on television nowadays.

Upstairs freezer: nothing that hasn't been reviewed (except the gelato)

Free stuff and the State of the Freezer Address 5th Anniversary Edition

Do you know how many times I've written this post in my head? At least a half dozen if not more. So many different things I want to say after five years. Do I tell stories or visions? Do I look back or look ahead? I don't know. I think one blog year equals at least 10 real years, so that makes me over 50 in internet years right? I mean, I already had my mid-blog-life crisis, so it's all vacations and grandkids from here right? Hmmm, at least I haven't lost my ability to babble.

Starting over: WELCOME! Welcome welcome welcome to the blog's fifth birthday, or blogiversary if you must. I can't believe we're still here. I can't believe my freezers are still full. Let's take a quick peak at them.

Upstairs is a mess, plain and simple. The usual breakfast food, frozen veggies, and stuff you've already read about (or will soon enough). This is where ice cream goes to be inhaled by my family.... or to be left and forgotten (a few of them are a little old... shhhhh, don't tell anyone).

State of the Freezer Address Snowmaggadon 2013 Edition

Greetings from the snow covered northeast!

This shot deceptively unimpressive because this storm has only just begun

Let's start with the upstairs freezer. Notice anything funny in this picture? look closely....  yeah, there's no ice cream in this picture. Between the year end purge, the weekly eating, and the impending blizzard, there is almost nothing going on at the moment upstairs except for the healthy choice greek froyo who's review should be up shortly (I just tried it last night). We better head downstairs.

Well, what can I say, apparently 2013 is going to be a very efficient year as there's not a ton going on down here either (unless you recognize what might be in that box in the top middle of the picture). One of the goals for this year is to really balance things out in terms of brands, flavors, styles, everything. I want everyone to feel like their favorites are getting the attention they deserve.

Now I wasn't really sure what to post today for a review but then I realized I could do my store brand cookie dough showdown as part of this post. See, I've been keeping my family at bay with random brands of cookie dough and cookies and cream, but that doesn't always make for the most exciting posts... so, we'll keep this short and sweet.

Hannaford ( Food Lion ) has their own line of Frozen Dairy Dessert and it takes a page from the old Breyers and Edy's moniker of "OVERLOAD". This line isn't new, it's just the first time I ever noticed that Hannaford's had different styles of ice cream from premium to regular to overloaded (frozen dairy dessert). What can I say, I don't shop there often.

So here's the patient and while it looks ok (complete with giant frozen dairy dessert air ripples), it was just so-so in my book. Edible, cheap, but nothing to write home about. I mean, I just had this last week and I've already completely spaced on how it tasted. I remember being bored, oh so bored. I thought Target did a nice job with their in house cookie dough so I thought maybe lightning would strike twice. Not so much. It's got a soft frozen dairy dessert texture but it wasn't real gummy. No, it was the base flavor that was boring me.....  and the boring chips.... maybe even boring cookie dough.... but, I shouldn't give up.

The other store brand we have is some Stop & Shop Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. Now some of you might be going "Ummm, Dubba, Why doesn't it say Stop & Shop?" but then there's another group of you going "Ummm, Dubba, that's not S&S, that's Giant brand". Well, both groups are right. Both grocery stores are owned by Ahold. Wait, you don't care do you? Ahhh, that's ok, but I feel better knowing why there's no S&S branding on this itty bitty 48 fluid ounce treat (What happened to 56 oz??)

I grab a giant bite that has four cookie dough bits in it (because I'm crazy) and my gut reaction is "wow, that's some cheap, dry cookie dough", but let's not panic. Let see if the base is really cookie dough flavored... hmmm, hard to tell actually.

There are plenty of cookie dough bites, but like I said, they have this funky dry texture to them. The cookie dough flavor is alright, but it's not nearly as fun as many other cookie dough bits that might be sweeter or have better texture. The tiny chocolate chips are a giant non-factor. They are too small to add serious crunch or add any flavor. I'd almost rather have them not here at all.

You know what I do like? The texture. It almost reminds me of some nice old school Breyer's, plus there is something sweet about the base. I can't say I taste cookie dough, but it just has this subtle swagger that blends well with the texture of the base. It's mild, but it's that bit of effort that says "hey, I'm trying here".

So, not a total loss, especially at $3.19 a container. It's definitely a positive experience for my first Stop & Shop purchase. I've got some of their greek froyo to try next, so watch out for that.

On Second Scoop: Just a quick note to down a couple of cookie dough bits before having a bowl of this one. It will trick your taste buds into thinking the base is more flavored than it is

(un)official 2013 Snowmageddon Sundae

Update: Well, the sun is out, and I need a little fuel before I go power through two feet of snow. First we've got a fresh from the over "supreme" brownie, you know, the one with cookie dough mixed in. Then we've got the Stop & Shop cookie dough ice cream slowly melting on top of that. A sundae isn't a sundae without some (all natural) whip cream. Now, you need to sprinkle on some kind of final visual element if you really want to win people over, so in this case it's brownie brittle crumbs and I gotta say I love how it looks. Actually, maybe I should say it tastes even better then it looks.

State of the Freezers Address

Greetings! This is the current State of (my) Freezers.

Let me start by saying that the blog has always been about demanding the best from ice cream companies and giving them a nice pat on the back when they come through for us. Sure I could just say I love everything, but, well, I've never been like that. I don't just love ice cream, I care about the experience too. There are just so many treats and flavors that could be better with a little tweaking (and there are some that should just never be made).

Anyway, today marks the four and a half year anniversary of the blog. You may say "1/2 year anniversary?" Well, I use to do a quarterly update of how the freezer is looking. I do forget from time to time, but I remembered this time, so let's see how my freezers are holding up.

Upstairs is usually were all the reviewed stuff sits. There's nothing you haven't seen here except the Breyers Grasshopper pie which I just bought and we'll cover it soon (maybe this weekend). All the other pints you see are mostly empty. (Oh, those are those cinnamon pretzels you make in the oven, I just haven't made them yet)

Ok, downstairs is where all the up and coming stuff hides.... sometimes a little too long, like those strawberry TCBY bars. They're actually decent and I have no idea why I can't seem to get around to posting a review of them. There's also cool dogs, an uncle harry ice cream roll, and an ice cream cake, all of which have pretty much been in here all summer long. There's some Perry's sherbet, a new weight watchers treat that will be up soon, two more New Orleans ice cream flavors, and another pint of yoplait (ooo, which reminds me, there's a half eaten pint hiding upstairs too).

You may also have noticed the un-reviewed simply caramel frozen milky ways that have been waiting about 3 months for a friday night fight. There's even some Klondike low fat ice cream sandwiches which I think have been in there since.... I don't even know anymore. Maybe I need to start keeping a calendar of when I buy things.

Ok, so as you can see, there's still a decent backlog of stuff to do. Big thanks to New Orleans Ice Cream Company, Graeter's, Perry's and Haagen-Dazs for all the free samples over the last several months. In a perfect world, I'd love to set up a little facebook app where you guys could vote on what we eat next. That would very cool.

State of the Freezer Address The 4 Year Anniversary Edition

Wow, I can't believe today marks the 4th anniversary of my first blog post! I was feeling so sentimental that we almost went out to eat tonight.... but then I just would have filled up on dinner and had no room for some crazy tasty dessert. Going out on a weekday isn't exactly easy, so I had a nice blizzard for lunch. The monthly flavor was sold out, so I went with the best-est blizzard of all time, the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard. So tasty and so easy to make perfect.

Like most blog posts, I've written this one in my head a half dozen times. I've thought about telling grand stories of how things have changed so much. I mean, I was getting like 11 hits a day for the first state of the freezer address, now many days we are over 1100, and I want to thank each and every one of you for checking back and following me as I navigate the 25 billion dollar U.S. ice cream industry with the help of my family, friends and all of your wonderful comments.

This is the upstairs freezer and it doesn't have anything too secretive in it. In fact, half of these items are just our attempts to get my son to enjoy frozen treats. We've got two kinds of coconut milk ice cream, rice dreams, tofutti cuties, edy's fruit bars, and popsicles just for him. On top of that we've got a half dozen containers of previously reviewed flavors plus there is always some B&J froyo around for my wife.

This is the basement freezer where I hide all the stuff that has yet to be reviewed like cool dogs (ice cream hot dogs), the five remaining Wonka flavors, the awesome looking TH pretzel flavor, the new full size Milky Way bars, an ice cream roll, HD spiced biscuit and even a strawberry greek froyo. Oh, and yes, those are those frozen cinnamon soft pretzels in the middle of the photo (hope they are good!)

If you look closely, there are a few more things buried on the other side of the basement freezer. A container of Edy's, more TCBY that I've tried but not reviewed (sorry), some slim-a-bear sandwiches, and a very hidden (green) box of Jamba yogurt & sorbet bars (man I bought those awhile ago, freezer burn might be an issue). Actually I think there are even a few more things buried at the very bottom of the freezer. Oh man, that makes a total of 36 different flavors and treats.... ummm, yeah, I may need to slow down a bit.

As you can see, I am as backlogged as ever. I really wish companies would spread their new products out a bit more. Don't get me wrong, I love the spring 2012 ice cream product line up, it's just so hard to keep up... but man, it sure is fun trying!

Oh geez, it's late and I still need to watch the Castle finale and also see who wins the Voice (hey, I love music, what can I say)... man, I forgot all my stories. I guess I just want to say stick with me. This looks like an awesome season for ice cream and the blog. My short term goal is recovering from long term sleep deprivation, and after that we'll finally see.... well, I hope to see a lot less grammar errors actually. Hehehehe, ok, good night!

State of the Freezer Address The Still Kickin' Edition

Ok, let's jump right to the pictures.

You know what's funny? After the frustrating 3 day loss of power, the basement freezer sat empty except for two bags of ice... and then the Rice Creams came and it all started back up again (Thanks Drew!). I try to control myself but I am such a sucker for things I've never seen before. I'm a new product junkie. At least you know what's in store for the next week or two. We've got (new to me) Stuff'd flavors from Turkey Hill which I am looking forward to, plus I still have two pints from Wegman's to cover. You'll see a couple of low fat treats in the middle there (the one in red is hiding). What's in the white bag you ask? Just some Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream Sandwiches (still trying to figure out how to work them into my new portion controlled eating habits... I'm thinking they might get eaten on the way to work)

Funny, I thought there was more ice cream upstairs, it's mostly just breakfast stuff and veggies right now. Most of this stuff you'll recognize from recent reviews, except maybe the Oikos which hopefully I will post this week.

Looking Forward

What's in store before we hit our 4th anniversary? Well, my goal right now is to start sleeping again, and thankfully those wheels of change are finally in motion. To be honest, I haven't slept good in about two years and it really starts to take a toll on you after awhile. Once sleep happens then maybe my brain can clear enough to final change the design on this site. That's something I've been meaning to doing since the 3rd anniversary. You know, technically I could roll out this one design I have for a few days to see what you guys think. If you like it, I can finish it off. If not, well, I can go with Plan B which is a much less drastic change.

I also need to give in and get this site on facebook. I already have an account since I needed it to help test drive consmr, but I never made an official fan page for the blog. I'll admit I was resistant because I keep waiting for facebook to implode like myspace, but after discovering that little is going on over at google+, well, it's time to give in and make this site a bit more accessible..... and by the power of magic, I give you a facebook page. Oh the excitement! Hey, if it doesn't go well I can always retire it and go play with pinterest. I wonder if you can tie it together so that facebook comments and blogger comments come together and show on the blog and vice versa, that might be pretty slick and help drive some discussions. I really do love feedback, especially when it's descriptive, though just so you know, "tastes like poop" isn't exactly a meaningful description.

One More Thing

So, when an ice cream addict like myself works to lighten the load a bit, you might wonder how I keep the old addiction going without packing on the pounds. Well, I say live vicariously through others.

shake for the wife, sundae for the daughter

Just because I shouldn't eat so much ice cream doesn't mean I still can't have fun with it.

State of the Freezer Address The Empty Edition

Man oh man am I tired.... I mean like really, super, duper, "am I still awake?" tired. 36 hours without power means one chilly night of sleeping and then a second night that turned into a sleepover at the in-laws (big thanks to them and everyone else that offered us assistance).

Thankfully the power came back on in the middle of last night, but after 36 hours, I am uncomfortable eating anything left in the upstairs fridge. Ohhhh man, time to fill up the trash can. I should have taken a picture before I started.

Poor spongebob, you took quite the beating, didn't you?

State of the Freezer Address The Hurricane Edition

Well, it's already been a fun morning. At approximately 4:52AM the power went out. At approximately 4:52AM and about 10 seconds, my daughter "woke up" and noticed the lack of power. She's not a big fan of the dark. To our great surprise, the power came back on at 8. About ten minutes later, our first tree came down... no where near the power lines hehehehe. So, we've been busy doing our morning routine in prepartion for the next power outage (or lack there of, fingers crossed!).

So here is the freezer as of a few days ago. It's actually a bit fuller now, but beside that, you get the idea. A power outage would be a huge loss. I think we may actually have a taste testing party to be on the safe side. Granted, I do have a generator if all else fails, so I will try to keep things cool!

Poll Results

Poll #1: Should the blog jump on the facebook bandwagon?

Yes, full integration! : 11 (13%)
just a facebook page : 14 (17%)
Don't care : 22 (27%)
Please don't!! : 33 (41%)
Votes so far: 80

Ok, that seems like a pretty good reason not to waste my time with facebook. Instead, I will divert my energy into a new layout (I've got two seperate ideas in my head, I'd love to make them both work, we'll see!)


Poll #2: What's the better way to cool off?
Ice Cream Cone : 36 (24%)
Bowl of Ice Cream : 55 (37%)
Shake (Frappe) : 26 (17%)
Anything! : 31 (20%)
Votes so far: 148

Not sure why I never thought to ask this question before. I'm actually torn between an ice cream cone (in a shady spot with a cool breeze) or a go anywhere shake. You can see a Harris Poll that asks a similar question (SANS shake).

In closing

Ok, as long as we have power, I'm going to try to get out a few reviews to catch up. (HA! I just checked google analytics and for some reason no one is looking up ice cream right now)

AHHH, the power is flickering!!

UPDATE: We had lost power from 5-8am on Sunday. It came back on so I did some hurricane prep and quick threw up this post. Not 2 minutes after I hit publish did the power go back out til almost 8PM. I checked on the ice cream at around 9:30 and it was all super soft. To be honest, I'm not even sure it's good... which is pretty depressing considering the amount of ice cream I have in that chest freezer (among other things). The annoying thing is the power went out again at 7AM and could still be off.