Happy Taste Buds

Since Summer is upon us early here in the "Northland", I thought I'd take a brief moment and give pause to one of my favorite things. Ice Cream. It is also mentioned in the title of my blog so it is about time I pay homage to my title. I have already paid homage to the cats of my world, but now its time to shine some light on the greatest of God's creations (cue the Godly Aaaahhhhhhh).

It is such a chore to even know where to begin so I'll just dig right in much as I would dig in if I had a gallon of ice cream in my freezer. Ice cream is not allowed at my house because it wouldn't last but a day at most so all the commercial ice creams are exempt from this blog entry, though they very well could make an appearance at a later date.

I am not one to stray from my favorites. I stick to the tried and true. If I went out to eat at any given restaurant, I pretty much know what I am going to order before I even enter the door. So the following are my favorite "tried and true" local ice cream treats.

Folks in these here parts generally rave about a local ice cream shoppe called Portland Malt Shoppe. Though, I have sampled their ice cream, they are not my preferred place to go get an ice cream fix. What makes it very convenient is that you can go for a walk on the Lakewalk and reward yourself with an ice cream cone for the walk back.

When in need of a quick ice cream fix, I of course head to the DQ. Not by coincidence, I happen to live only a few blocks to the nearest Dairy Queen. The one by my house is kind of chintzy on their serving portions, though, and if I need to feel like I got my money's worth, I will drive a bit further. Plus my DQ is only open for the summer season. In other words, its not a "Cool Treats/Hot Eats" DQ; just simply a "Cool Treats" DQ.

At the DQ, I do venture out of my comfort zone from time to time and will order a variety of treats. One can never go wrong with a Cherry Dip Cone, but when Ice Cream is involved, I needs me some chocolate too. The Mudslide and Peanut Buster Parfait are classics, but my old standby is the Chocolate Covered Cherry Blizzard! YUMMY! Oh, and have you ever had any DQ treats with cocoa fudge? What a sensation.


One can hardly go wrong ordering at the Cold Stone Creamery. We have been lucky to get not only one, but two Cold Stones in our city. Cold Stone isn't my very favorite ice cream in the world, but it does have its place. The ice cream is very creamy, ooey, gooey, and RICH. A little bit goes a long way. I have tried almost every single creation made by Cold Stone with the exception of the coffee flavored treats. My favorite is my own creation whereby I take the Founder's Favorite creation, take out the caramel, and add in raspberries. Nothing is more decadent. Plus its fun having the option of having a waffle bowl or cone!


But when I want my entire Ice Cream hunger satisfied, I head to good ol' Bridgemans. In staying loyal to my yummy raspberry/chocolate pattern, I ALWAYS get the Hot Fudge Raspberry Torte ice cream sundae! That is to die for. Ice Cream lover's size is only $1.00 more and all the calories are completely worth it.


It would be sacrilegious to blog about all this ice cream and not go out for a sample of at least one of these sinful creations. Looking forward to having happy taste buds later on today!