Kit Kat Milkshake

I hope everyone had an amazing Halloween! Whether you dressed up or not, I hope you at the least got to eat a TON of candy. I definitely ate more than I should have, and since we got almost no trick or treaters, I have an absurd amount of candy leftover. And while I'm more than happy to just eat it straight, it's always fun to mix it up into something new.

A milkshake is my favorite way to go about this.  Three years ago, I shared a Snickers and Pretzel Milkshake and it was a huge, huge success. I thought it was such a great way to use up my favorite goodies from Halloween as a kid, so I wanted to make a new version this year. My tastes have changed since I made that milkshake--back then I was a die-hard Snickers fan, but today, I'm all about Kit Kats.

This Kit Kat milkshake is just your basic chocolate milkshake with a lot of Kit Kats blended in. There's nothing crazy about it, but nevertheless, it's pretty amazing. A couple scoops of chocolate ice cream (or any other flavor you want) get blended together.  The mixture is then poured into a tall glass that's been drizzled with hot fudge or chocolate sauce, and is topped off with a generous dollop of freshly whipped cream and finished with two more Kit Kat bars. 

Birthday Cake Ice Cream

My sister is the best at picking unconventional birthday treats (stay tuned for her pick, next!).  As excited and ready to take on her birthday request as I was, I wanted to make something else too.  Something that combined my sister's favorite things all in one.  I wanted to make Birthday Cake Ice Cream. My sister loves nothing more than a simple, classic yellow cake with sprinkles, and because birthdays and ice cream go hand in hand, the combination is a winner.  It's obviously been done before, but I wanted to make the ice cream for myself, because ice cream is one of those treats that is always better when it's made at home. And really...is there anything happier than cake flavored ice cream with sprinkles? It's the happiest treat imaginable. 

Baileys and Shortbread Milkshake

And the booziest day of the year has arrived! I've never been much of a St. Paddy's gal, and since I've been commuting to work or from school over the past few years, I've come to associate the holiday with nothing more than a mass transit and commuter nightmare. Penn Station is awful on its own, but it transforms into this hellish, rowdy black hole, the kind of place where all you want to do is head in and head back out, as fast as you possibly can. I think based on those facts alone, it's clear that I'm no St. Patrick's Day partier, but it doesn't mean I'm a party pooper either.  I just celebrate with food instead of booze! Marrying the two and incorporating my one true love, ice cream, is the best of both worlds. 

White Chocolate and Raspberry Ice Cream

With this crazy winter we've been having over the past few weeks in NY, it feels like V-day has really crept up on us out of nowhere. Can you believe it's this upcoming Saturday? Neither could I until I saw different shades of red and pink taking over my Instagram account last week. It looks like I forgot all about it (again) but hey. There's still a full week before the big day and that's plenty of time to bake up, or in this case, freeze up, something tasty and special to share with someone special.

With all the messy winter weather we've been having, enjoying a scoop of ice cream may be the last thing on your mind. I don't blame you- I'm craving warm, comforting dishes all the time now, but even so, personally, I don't think I'll ever be able to refuse a bowl of that creamy frozen goodness.  Even in the dead of winter, ice cream is still one of my top choices for dessert and comfort food in general. It makes me feel like a kid again, and homemade ice cream is always a special treat. It's creamier and richer than any ice cream you'll buy in the store, and if you make it yourself, the flavor combinations are endless. With Valentine's Day just around the corner, a white chocolate and raspberry ice cream couldn't be a more fitting flavor for the occasion.

Cranberry and Pecan Praline Ice Cream

I know, I know, we're practically on the biggest foodie day of the whole entire year (it's the day after tomorrow and I STILL don't know what I'm baking up), and here I am, bringing you ice cream.  Some parts of the country are buried in snow, and other parts are getting ready for the snow that's on its way, yet somehow, I find sharing an ice cream recipe to be perfectly reasonable. I mean, this particular frozen treat is studded with ruby red cranberries and sweet and crunchy pecan praline, which to me, seems to be the perfect blend of cool ice cream and warm fall flavors.  It's an ice cream treat that's Thanksgiving-worthy. 

I really think that ice cream is my favorite treat, ever.  As much as I love cake and cookies, ice cream is just a whole different thing. I find ice cream so comforting, and it's an indulgence that I don't think I'll ever be able to say no to. Regardless of the temperature outside, ice cream is the one pick me up that will always bring a smile to my face, and it's one of my favorite ways to end a big meal (or any meal, really). I don't know about you, but as much as I love pie and cake, sometimes the thought of eating a thick wedge seems less than ideal after I've eaten a huge meal.  Ice cream somehow seems lighter to me, and is a sweet treat that I'll look forward to more for dessert.  Serving ice cream for dessert on Thanksgiving doesn't need to be reserved to plain vanilla on the side of a slice of pie (not that there's anything wrong with that: see here).  The ice cream itself can be the star of the dessert spread!

Apple Cider Soda Float

My schedule has been a little out of whack lately.  I had been hoping to share this quick and easy drink over the weekend, but my timing has been off these past couple of days.  I've had busy days at work, tough days at the gym, and one very exciting weekend that I needed to prepare for.  I was in Philadelphia all weekend, and it threw my normal weekend routine off.  Not that I minded though, because I love Philly, and I was in town for a Weezer concert (which was seriously, pretty darn amazing), and I got to eat some delicious food.  I had planned on sharing this post on Friday or Saturday, but I just didn't get around to actually typing it up. I think being a few days late on my post isn't the worst though...at least we're starting off the week with something simple and delicious!

This apple cider soda float came out of having an excess of cider in my fridge.  Cider is one of my favorite things about the fall, and I love using it in all kinds of ways.  I love it in baked goods as much as I love drinking it straight, cold or hot.  It's comforting and got such a great warmth to it.  I thought it would be fun to use cider in a completely new way though, in the form of a soda float. 

Salty Caramel Ice Cream

Can you feel it?  Can you FEEL IT? By "it," I mean the crisp cool breeze that hits you when you walk outside first thing in the morning.  I mean that little voice inside your head that tells you to bring along a light jacket as you leave your house in the morning for work. I mean the sudden chill you feel as you let the dog out or take the trash out at night.  Have you been feeling it too? I certainly have.  I've got that fall feeling and I'm pretty ecstatic about it.  I absolutely love fall, and the fact that it's still 70 degrees is bumming me out.  I know I'll regret those words in a few months when we're stuck in the middle of a winter colder than last year.   I should take advantage of the few long, mild days we have left, but I just can't.  The fall bug has bitten me hard. 

Now that it's officially fall, whether it feels like it or not, it's time to change up my baking.  Ironic that I'm saying this in a post about ice cream, right?  This ice cream is special though.  It's salty caramel, so it's "fall ready."  It's got a rich and deep flavor and perfectly suited for the arrival of the new season. Since the weather is still on the warmer side, we might as well keep on enjoying scoops of ice cream, right?

Salted Chocolate Diablo Ice Cream Sandwiches

Oh man do I have a treat for you guys today.  Well, I should rephrase that.  I have a treat for my fellow choc-aholics today.  Behold these incredible little ice cream sandwiches.  Super rich, super fudgy, super dense chocolate cookies sandwiching smooth vanilla ice cream.  It's an already out of this world combination that gets even better, if you can believe that.  These chocolate cookies also have an added kick from a touch of freshly grated ginger and cayenne pepper, making these ice cream sandwiches the ultimate grown-up version of your favorite kiddie ice cream snack.  

I discovered these little ice cream sandwiches while browsing through my Instagram feed.  One thing led to another, and I found myself on The Artful Desperado's page, and these cookies caught my attention immediately.  I'm chocolate-obsessed, and these sandwiches looked too incredible for me to merely bookmark and save for later.  I saw them, and knew I needed to make them as soon as I could.   The cookies embodied all of my most favorite things:  tons of dark chocolate, sea salt, and ginger.  Adding a little vanilla ice cream to the mix and calling it a day is what sold me on the cookies though.  I absolutely love when seemingly disparate flavors and sensations come together, so I knew that these ice cream sandwiches, with their chocolate-spice and hot-cold features would be right up my alley.

Backyard Mint Ice Cream

I'm one of those people who loves the feeling of minty freshness.  I love minty chewing gums, mojitos, candies, and I even brush my teeth a few extra times a day just to get a minty fresh feeling at a moment's notice.  My minty obsession is a little strange though, because it's very situational.  I love mint when it's adding a little brightness to a dish or drink, and I love it when it makes me feel fresh and bright, but when it's paired with chocolate in the form of Andes chocolate bar, I get a little hesitant.  It doesn't make very much sense, because I love just about anything paired with chocolate, but for some reason, the mint-chocolate combination has never been a favorite of mine.  I'll eat it, but it just doesn't do very much for me.  This includes classic mint-chocolate chip ice cream, which is also strange, because I love just about everything about ice cream in general. 

I think my main problem with mint-flavored treats is that they come off as artificial, and you can really taste the difference.  The fact that most minty treats come in bright shades of green also bothers me, because that's just not a natural color by any means.  I have issues with eating foods that have been dyed in really bright, outlandish colors that aren't natural (I'll make exceptions for some frostings and red velvet cake), and I really prefer when foods are the colors that reflect the ingredients that make them up.  I'm going to blame the bright green color and really artificial taste for my dislike of most mint treats.  Regardless, I was willing to give mint ice cream one more shot. 

The Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World

The title of this post says it all- this ice cream right here, is the darkest, chocolat-iest, richest ice cream in the world...or at least that I've tried.  It's no secret that I find chocolate to be one of the most addicting substances that I've ever encountered, and I'm always on the hunt for treats that are richer and more chocolate-intense than their predecessors.  I'm obsessed, and I've been this way for as long as I can remember.  For the past few months, I've been on the prowl for chocolate ice cream.  Not just any chocolate ice cream, either.  I didn't want chocolate ice creams with chocolate flavor that was masked with the addition of all kinds of mix-ins- those ice creams are easy to come by.  What I was searching for was simple.  I wanted a pure, rich, chocolate-only ice cream, that really tasted like chocolate.  It had to be intense, not too sweet, yet clearly and utterly full of deep chocolate flavor.

I tried to find this ice cream in all sorts of places.  I searched the premium ice cream section of my supermarket, but none of the chocolate ice creams met my expectations.  I went to several ice cream shops to sample ice creams, and while I thought their classic chocolate ice creams were good, for sure, they weren't as remarkable as the other non-chocolate ice creams I sampled before ultimately deciding to pass on a chocolate ice cream cone. I even tried chocolate soft serve from the Mister Softee truck, thinking that perhaps I was confused, and what I was really searching for was my beloved chocolate ice cream from my childhood.  While the first licks of the chocolate soft serve were certainly satisfying, when I got halfway through the cone I realized that I wasn't confused, and that as good as my soft serve may have been, it was not the chocolate experience I was searching for. 

Cherry Sorbet

Cherries are probably one of my favorite things about summer.  I know there's a lot of things I could say that about, things like ice cream, peaches, barbecues, lobster rolls, and the list could go on and on.  Cherries, however, will always, always, always be at the top of the list.  They're one of those fruits that I will only eat fresh, and summer is the only time to get them.  Whenever I see a good deal on cherries at the supermarket, I tend to stock up because I know they just won't last.  They're the kind of fruit that I will empty the entire four pound bag into a bowl, and just eat by myself.  I'll pick at them while I watch television; whenever I walk by my kitchen I'll take a moment to eat a few; I pack them in my bag to bring to work.  For me, it's never truly a great summer until I've eaten my weight in cherries.

I've never really liked cooking with cherries because I always feel so bad about doing it.  I'll explain.  First of all, cherries are one of the more expensive fruits that you can buy, even in the summer when they're readily available, so things like cherry pie can get pricey rather quick.  Second, and probably more important, cherries are just so good eaten fresh, right off the stem.  I feel terrible eating them in any other way, because I feel like I'm not enjoying them in their best state!  Regardless, every summer I gather all my strength and convince myself to make at least one thing with cherries, because after all, things with cherries in them are still pretty darn tasty.  I mean, I don't think I'll ever turn down a slice of cherry pie or a scoop of warm cherry clafoutis...so this weekend, I did the unthinkable.  I bought two giant bags of cherries, and made not one, but TWO delicious things with them.  

Sweet Corn Ice Cream with Blueberry Sauce

Today on the blog we have a recipe for sweet corn ice cream that's been topped off with a delicious blueberry sauce...wait. Are you experiencing slight feelings of déjà vu?  Does this sound a little familiar?  Didn't I only just publish a recipe containing both blueberry and corn flavorings.  If you read last week's post, you'll know that I was a sick soul with a need for the comfort that only homemade pancakes could provide, and that the pancakes that provided that much needed comfort came in the form of blueberry and cornmeal goodness.  Just writing about those pancakes makes me crave them again, because they were really that good.  It seems like I must have really liked that flavor combination because less than a week after those pancakes were made, I was back in the kitchen making something with the same flavor profile. 

My pancakes from last weekend may have been the catalyst that drove me to make this ice cream, but this is one of those recipes that I've been meaning to make for a long time and just never got around to actually making. I first learned about sweet corn ice cream last summer and I thought it was such a brilliant idea.  It seemed like the perfect ice cream for celebrating the best of summer, and I just had to make it...except that I never did.  I really wanted to, but I would always somehow either forget to buy corn or some other recipe that I just had to make crossed my path.  Before I knew it, summer was over and delicious sweet corn was nonexistent.  I told myself last year that I could not let next summer pass by without churning up a batch of sweet corn ice cream, and here it is!

Tin Roof Ice Cream

Hello! I hope everyone had a really lovely weekend, and happy Wednesday!  The weekend is just around the corner, and although I don't certainly don't have exciting plans for this weekend (I don't think anything can top Governor's Ball, which was too amazing), I do hope to spend some quality time in the kitchen with my oven, and maybe my ice cream maker.  I can't say I've fully decided what baking project I want to tackle this weekend, but I'm just hoping that it can come close to being as delicious as this ice cream right here.  This, is Tin Roof Ice Cream.

Tin Roof Ice Cream is officially one of my all new favorite ice creams.  If you're like me, you've probably never heard of tin roof ice cream, but once you read the ingredients, you'll know that it's a something you'll want to eat again and again.  Tin roof ice cream is incredibly simple- it's just a sweet, vanilla ice cream base, a swirl of fudge ripple, and lots and lots of chocolate-covered peanuts mixed in.  Simple, basic ingredients get combined together into an ice cream that is beyond words delicious. 

Cucumber Lime Paletas

Weee it's FRIDAY!  The weekend is HERE! Sort of.  Almost.  Close enough, right?  Anyway, this weekend is supposed to full of absolutely beautiful weather, at least in New York, and I couldn't be happier about it. Governor's Ball is going to be amazing on Saturday, and I plan on enjoying every moment of it.  Sunshine, music, delicious food, and a whole day with friends- what more could anyone ask for, right?

Since this weekend is set to be full of sunshine and some hot weather, I figure that we could all use a refreshing paleta to cool off with.  Paletas are nothing new anymore, but in case you don't know, they're Latin American ice pops made from fresh fruit. They're incredibly refreshing, and are a summertime treat that I grew up with.  My mom would make me and my sister paletas all the time when we were kids with whatever fruit we happened to have around.  As much as I love ice cream pops, paletas really are my favorite frozen treats (aside from ice cream, of course).  They're so refreshing and can be made in an infinite number of flavors.  They're also ridiculously easy- all you have to do is stick everything in a blender, blend away until all your fruit is completely smooth, and then pour into ice pop molds.  A few hours later, you'll have the best way to cool off during hot summer days.  

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

This vanilla bean ice cream has been on my "to-make" list for some time now.  I'm definitely a chocolate person all the way, but I find a scoop of rich, pure vanilla bean ice cream completely irresistible.  Granted, I typically like my vanilla ice cream topped off with a generous drizzle of hot fudge, or a few spoonfuls of a freshly made berry compote, but every now and then I'll come across a vanilla ice cream that is just so good, it needs absolutely nothing else to finish it off.  It's the kind of ice cream that I just can't help but grab just a spoonful of straight from the container whenever I happen to pass through my kitchen.  This, is that kind of ice cream.  

This vanilla bean ice cream recipe comes straight from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, a book that any ice cream lover must have in their collection of cookbooks.  Whenever I decide on a recipe to try out, I typically will make a few changes here and there for the flavorings used to suit my own tastes; I'll add a little less sugar, a few more chocolate chips, swap in some buttermilk or Greek yogurt for milk.  I just like to play around with recipes and see what happens.  In this instance though, I knew from the beginning that I was going to leave this vanilla bean ice cream recipe alone.  My logic was that if it was written by David Lebovitz, then it needed no further tweaking.  Let's just say that I'm glad I left this recipe alone and made no changes to it...the recipe was perfect on its own!

Irish Coffee Sundaes

I've never really been one for celebrating St. Patrick's Day.  When I was little, I never really looked forward to it because for some reason, I just never really had very many green clothes.  As I'm sure you know, when you're in elementary/middle school, the cool thing to do is dress up in the colors of whatever holiday is being celebrated.  I always had pink and red options for Valentine's Day, and cute red options for Christmas, but I never had anything for St. Patrick's Day.  I mean, I'm sure I had green clothes somewhere but they always seemed to magically disappear come March 17.  In addition to the lack of green in my wardrobe, there was something even bigger lacking from the holiday itself...chocolate and candy.  There's no such thing as St. Patrick's Day fun-size candy! Any holiday that comes without the promise of sweet candy isn't much of a holiday for me.  I mean, I liked corned beef and cabbage as much as the next person (and still do), but it can't compare to holiday themed candy.  

Now that I'm older, St. Patrick's Day still isn't a holiday that really excites me (I don't think it would excite any sane person if they are unlucky enough to have to maneuver through Penn Station or Manhattan on that day...trust me, it's awful).  I'm not much of a drinker, so I don't see the point in going out to get completely plastered (I'd much, much, much rather consume empty calories in the forms of ice cream and cake, thank you very much).  I do enjoy a good beer on occasion, but what I really enjoy are boozey-flavored things.  You know, like caramel whiskey sauce drizzled on scoops of coffee ice cream and dollops of freshly whipped cream.  All of that in one combined into a single, perfect spoonful. 

Mexican Hot Chocolate Ice Cream

A few months ago, I was visiting mah best friend from college (that's still a weird title to say, but I'll get over it at some point) in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.  We had plans to get dinner and drinks, but we were also experiencing a major ice cream craving.  We had time to kill before heading out to dinner, so we figured that the only logical thing to do with that extra forty-five minutes of time we had was get some ice cream.  It didn't matter that we were having dessert before dinner, because it just felt like the right thing to do at the time.  We wound up at Ample Hills Creamery, where I had a really large scoop of an amazing Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream.   It took me some time to settle on that particular flavor, because there were so many others that I wanted to try, and Mexican Hot Chocolate seemed like a somewhat predictable flavor.  After sampling lots of their flavors, I'm so happy I settled on their Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream, because it was just out of this world. 

The ice cream had a very intense chocolate flavor that was followed by a strong hit of cinnamon.  I hadn't been expecting the cinnamon and spices to come across that strongly in the ice cream (it was a bit of a shock at first!), but it was actually really enjoyable.  I'm a huge fan of anything with an intense chocolate anything, and when paired with the cinnamon and ground chili, it's just so much better.  It's a whole new way to experience ice cream!  It's a little strange at first, having something that can give you both a brain freeze and warm up your insides at the same time, but after a few spoonfuls, it's really the perfect treat.  

I knew that I had to make a version of this ice cream for myself, I loved it THAT much.  It took me about a month and a half to get around to actually making it...and then only another month and a half to post it.  That's some serious procrastination, I know, but I just had a lot of other posts to get to first!  I made this ice cream sometime in December, thinking oh you know, hot chocolate is the perfect wintertime treat, and it's totally ironic to serve it in the form of ice cream, since it's a frozen treat, so this is thus the PERFECT treat to share in December.  That obviously didn't happen because I had things like eggnog rice pudding and tons of cookies to share with you guys as well.  After Christmas...I guess I don't have an excuse really.  I may have just forgotten about this ice cream until I decided to go through the files on my external drive, and I saw the photos for this ice cream...and they were already edited.  Then I remembered that I had actually had this brilliant idea when I first made the ice cream that I was going to edit my photos in advance so that they would be ready to post at a moment's notice.  I don't think one of my plans has ever backfired on me as badly as this one. 

But in any case.  No matter how late I am in actually getting around to posting this ice cream, there are two simple truths that remain from this whole sad story.  Number one, is that this ice cream is ridiculously easy to make, and number two, is that this ice cream is also ridiculously good.  I know that in almost all of my ice cream posts I've gone ahead and said that "this ice cream is really simple to make!" and "don't let the idea of a custard-based ice cream intimidate you!", and as true as those statements are, I will let you know that this particular ice cream is even EASIER to make than the simplest custard-based ice cream out there.  The reason for this is simple: there's no custard!  You read that right, there's not a single egg in this recipe, meaning that all you need is a milk, cream, and sugar base to churn out this incredible ice cream.  

This ice cream is completely foolproof, and I'm very confident that anyone could make this recipe and get great results.  If you can heat some cream without having it boil over, and then stir in a few ingredients, you're pretty much good to go!  The recipe contains both cocoa powder and chopped chocolate, which gives a rich chocolate flavor to the ice cream, and is spiced with both cinnamon and chili powder.  Play around with the amount of chili powder depending on your tastes.  If you're unsure, start out with 2 teaspoons of chili powder, and come back to the mixture and taste it later.  The heat can intensify as time passes, so this is the best way to tell if you need a little more spice in your ice cream.  This Mexican Hot Chocolate ice cream is officially one of my favorite ice creams that I've made to date, and I'm sure it's going to make a few more appearances in my freezer.  There's just something about that spicy chocolate flavor combination that is going to keep me coming back for more!

Mexican Hot Chocolate Ice Cream
recipe from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups heavy cream
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
3 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
2-3 teaspoons chili powder (to taste)
2 tablespoons brandy

Directions

Begin by whisking together the cream, cocoa powder, and sugar in a large saucepan.  Heat the mixture over medium heat until it comes to a full rolling boil and becomes foamy.

Remove the saucepan from the heat, and whisk in the chopped chocolate to melt it.  Whisk until completely smooth.

Once the chocolate has melted, stir in the milk, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, chili powder, and brandy.  Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (at least six hours, but if you can wait overnight, it's preferable).  Once thoroughly chilled, freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.  

Makes 1 quart ice cream

Triple Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Guys, I'm really sorry.  I'm really really sorry.  Not only have I been holding out on this fabulous and rich and creamy and dreamy and amazing ice cream, but I also had the nerve of Instagramming a teaser photo FOUR days ago, and since then, I just have not had the time to sit down and write up the post to share the recipe with you.  Shame on me.  What was I thinking, sharing a teaser photo for Triple Peanut Butter Ice Cream without having a post ready to go and publish the next day?  Seriously guys, that won't happen again. A recipe for an ice cream this delicious needs to be shared ASAP!

I've been pretty busy lately, hence the lack of ice cream recipe sharing on my part.  Between applying for jobs, updating my portfolio, work, and fitting in my daily workouts, I haven't had much time left over to just sit and write.  This, combined with the fact that things at my house this past week, and especially this weekend, were a little circus overloaded has made for a pretty hectic past couple of weeks.  If you don't know what circus I'm referring to, definitely check out my last two Instagram photos, and it'll all make sense.  My baby cousin's first birthday party was yesterday, and my mom was once again in charge of the cake, and once again, she totally delivered an amazing and utterly adorable circus themed cake, complete with tiny fondant circus animals, hand-crafted by my sister, streamers, and caramel corn.  It was the circus cake to end all circus cakes!  If you don't have Instagram, a photo of the cake can also be seen on my Facebook page.  I'll make sure to post some more detailed photos of the cake in a small post this week!  

BUT ANYWAY.  I keep getting sidetracked and further delaying any talk about this Triple Peanut Butter Ice Cream.  Seriously, what is wrong with me!?

S'mores Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ok guys, here they are, FINALLY.  A couple days ago I shared a photo on Instagram of a tasty looking little creation that I called, "the ice cream sandwich to end all ice cream sandwiches."  Maybe it's a bit dramatic. Maybe it sounds a little over the top.  Maybe, you guys don't like s'mores and won't agree with me.

Wait a minute. Hold on...there are people might not like s'mores?  Do such people even exist?  I find it hard to believe.  To me, there's no better combo that a nice toasty marshmallow smothered by melting milk chocolate and crisp graham crackers.  It's a classic trio that never fails to disappoint and is the epitome of summer.  I can't let a summer go by without indulging in a least a few s'mores, and the thought that people might not like s'mores is just...weird. Really, really, really weird. If you happen to be such a person, I apologize, but is post might not be for you.  Or who knows, maybe it'll inspire you to give the classic s'more another go.

I've been meaning to make an ice cream sandwich version of a s'more for the LONGEST time.  Since the summer of 2011, to be exact, way back in the day when this blog was just a baby.  It was one of the first crazy ideas I had that just never had a chance to come to fruition.  It's unfortunate, because this ice cream sandwich is just too good, and it's terrible knowing that I've been missing out for so long.  Last summer, the idea came back to me, but I ended up choosing to go the DIY route and made my own s'mores completely from scratch (save for the milk chocolate, of course), and they were awesome.  As much as I loved my super homemade s'mores, I never lost sight of the ice cream sandwich idea.  This summer, however, I promised to myself that I would not let the summer go by without finally getting around to making the frozen version of my favorite summertime sandwich. 

The wait was so worth it. It took two and a half summers before toasted marshmallow ice cream, graham crackers, and dark chocolate graced my freezer, but oh man, were these sandwiches worth the wait.  

Strawberry Soda Floats

I'm a huge ice cream fan.  I don't know if that's been made perfectly clear to you guys yet, but now you know.  I'm a major ice cream fan.  The kind that is both obsessed with finding the craziest, most delicious, and most unusual ice cream flavors I can find, yet is also obsessed with finding the perfect PLAIN chocolate, or the perfect PLAIN vanilla, or the perfect OLD-FASHIONED butter pecan.  It's important to have a balance of crazy and classic, or at least I think so anyway.  Every type of ice cream has its own time and place for being most appropriate.  Scoops of perfectly creamy vanilla ice cream are pretty much required to sit on top of warm brownies and pies.  Nothing beats sweet and crunchy rocky road ice cream whenever you've had an annoyingly awful day. Sometimes, you just need a really tall Snickers and Pretzel milkshake for whenever your silly mood strikes. I get those mood swings every now and then, and they've always demanded some kind of crazy, slightly-overly-sweet treat to remedy them.  The kind of treat where, once I finish, I find myself thinking, "wow...did I really just eat that?" and then I tell myself that whatever I just ate was so good, that it was totally worth it.   

While I've always been a milkshake kinda person, soda floats were not something I was ever a big fan of.  The ice cream to soda ratio always seemed to be in favor of the soda portion, and that soda, typically, happened to be root beer. There's no easy way to say this, so I'm going to be perfectly blunt and just say it.  I HATE root beer. There's not many foods or flavors that I can honestly say I dislike, or even hate, but root beer is one of them.  I really just can't stand the stuff, and I don't understand how it's as popular a drink as it is. Just thinking about root beer brings back a funny taste to my mouth.  I remember the very first time I tried root beer.  I was on a class field trip in elementary school to some kind of old-fashioned farm from wayyy back in the day. On the field trip, we were offered what I thought was homemade Coke.  I took a big sip, and immediately realized that what I was drinking was most definitely not Coke.  It was a major disappointment, to say the least, given that my family hardly ever drinks soda and any opportunity to drink soda was a special treat.  I tried to give root beer a chance a couple of times after that, but I always ended up regretting my decision.  I really just don't like it.