What I Discovered About Ice Cream Scoops.

It goes without saying, for anyone who knows me, that I like...strike that...I love ice cream. Always have.Always will. In fact, I like it so much that I even eat it in winter. Funny thing about that. I also like wearing shorts. Always have. Always will. The thing about shorts is that my former neighbors used to take bets how early in the season someone would see me wearing shorts.Then, they would bet on how late in the season I would be seen wearing shorts. To me, shorts were not just for summer. That applies to this topic about ice cream for those that wonder why I jumped from ice cream to wearing shorts. They both are brothers to me from my standpoint. Before I go back to talking about ice cream, I'll end the short story with a small ending. I've been known to walk the beach in the dead of winter at Pawley's Island wearing shorts and a windbreaker? I will mention that it had snowed that morning in South Carolina,too. 

 

 Years ago, I had my first taste of Friendly's Ice Cream in Boston. Yummie! years later, in the lower Great Lakes, Friendly's build a store in a shopping center near my home. Used to walk up to Friendly's at night to get a double dip of double chocolate.Because my taste buds are so active---I can taste several different things from one bite of something prepared--- Baskin-Robings or other places just didn't compare to Friendly's taste. At the western edge of Lake Erie there was a Franklin's ice cream store. That had pretty tasty ice cream products, until Friendly's came to town. I dropped Franklin's like a hot potato and went back to Friendly's. Back here,in Dallas, Braum's is the equivalent of Friendly's and Franklin's. Although, they are based in Oklahoma, as long as it's not football season, I start out at Braum's drive through window in March thru August, then I go to Kroger and get their churned Butter Pecan from September until March.

 Any way, since I am without a car now and have turned my world upside down according to habits, I have been getting weekly deliveries of Butter Pecan from Kroger. And, with loosing so much weight in the hospital from November last to the end of May, I have watched my calories, eat much more healthy than before (I was eating healthy beforehand). Never-the-less, I was making a good effort to be lean and mean again by fall when I could get out and walk more without the Texas heat, humidity and dew points being much of a concerned. My old trusty ice cream scoop is a one piece molded scoop that I like. No springs or gears to worry about...just one nice scoop in which to scoop my ice cream. But, being more wise today than I was years ago, I tossed the card that it came on giving the size. I've tried to measure it wet and dry and pretty much have it down to a scoop some were between small and medium. Wouldn't you know it. So I started a bit of research on ice cream scoops. Boy, did I open a can of worms with that. I soon found out that even the old USDA of USA that usually sets the standards for such things was a bit more uncommitted to saying in print what was standard. Surprising? Not really. 

Over the years, I have watched Washington waffle all over the place to not have something riccochet back at them. As I got farther into the research, I discovered that one small scoop was 88 calories of ice cream. One medium scoop was 133 calories. Now, let the modern era waffling begin. There are Large and Medium scoops that the USDA gave info for. Large ones are 3 table spoons; mediums are 1 and one-half tablespoons. Where on earth is the small? They reported earlier that the small was 88 calories but fail to say how many tablespoons before they start giving scoop sizes. Like, #8 which is 4 ounces or 1/2 cup. A #6 is 5 1/3 ounce and a # 40 is 4/5 of an ounce. Then, they report 1.57 inches for a small;1.96 inches for a medium and 2.36 inches for a large. But get this... for a liter, (that's the big tubs like in the ice cream store) it is 4.2 cups. And finally, they say, 1/4 to 1/3 cup is roughly 2.5 ounces. Now I know what the great Chef's of the world know. Just pour a pile of salt in the center of your palm, dump it into the pan, look at the camera and say with confidence after a slight pause: 1 tablespoon.

 From this day forward, I'm taking the calories in a half-gallon of ice cream, divide it by three and log the calories as 1 scoop or 2 scoops of what ever the remainder shows up on the calculator. Also, I have found a new meaning to what waffling is, big time! 

I'm going into the kitchen now, chunk up two biscuits that I make after lunch, dice three nice strawberries on top of the biscuits and with my trusty friend in the silverware drawer, dip myself 2 dips of butter pecan. That's one dip on each side as it sets before me. See, USDA...I didn't waffle on that, buddy! Especially when it comes to my ice cream!

 

Blue Bell Is Back

Many years ago I tasted ice cream from the Franklin Dairy Stores.  Their brand was my favorite for many years. Then, I went East and tasted ice cream from the Friendly's chain in Boston . They had a double chocolate that was like fire works to the palate. When they expanded West, it caused me to defect from Franklin's and eating Friendly's for many more years became normal.  Then Braum's  became the taste bud's choice in Texas. My first trip to Braum's this year was in early March. Double dip of chocolate in a waffle cone was the standard fare. But the take- home choice was found at Kroger's. Their Death by Chocolate would jump into my cart every time I pushed the cart down the freezer section isle. So when the scandal at Blue Bell turned Texans upside down not knowing what they were going to do with no Blue Bell during the summer there was a report about what made ice cream really good in the first place. At Walmart, their SAM'S label sold at Walmart is made with all the natural ingrediants and I discovered it tasted just like the old Franklin's Ice Cream and Friendly's. Rich, creamy, and just plain old-fashioned to the 'T'.

When I finished shooting fall scenes that some of my web designers like to use when they do web pages, I headed to Kroger's to get a couple of fill-in items. As I went past the freezer's,  people were lined up putting Blue Bell in their carts--and then going back to get a second half-gallon and some ever got three!! All I could do was to chuckle. I'm so ice-creamed out right now!

While people were having Blue Bell withdrawals this summer, I was content with Braum's and Kroger's Select Death by Chocolate or Sam's French Vanilla (which to me taste just like taking the crank off the cylinder and pulling out the blades so you could scoop that first big spoonful of home made ice cream.

Here's a few shots from this afternoon.

While this is most likely one of the old buzzards at the lake, it has some tell-tale signs of being a juvenile bald eagle with the white feathers beginning to show on the head, the wings and tail.

seed pods and leaves changing made for a nice contrast

That look of leather on this solo leaf  is just plain pretty.

07Nov2015: edit to correct a typo and misspell.