Generally, I don't mix foods. I would rather eat them individually. It's no secret that I love ice cream. Just as my old neighbors up North, would bet on how early in the year they would see me outside in shorts. And if that wasn't bad enough, they even bet on the last day of the year that I was seen outside in a pair of shorts. It was a neighborhood thing and I was a good sport. Then, along came a bet that would lay the groundwork for the rest of this story.
Other times, after a meeting at the pulpit in TGI Fridays, someone bet that I would not eat a bowl of ice cream with a can of pork and beans as a topping. They lost. I can think of a lot of situations like that. It was all in fun, after all. For many years, I at chocolate ice cream. Then, a new Friendly's came to town and they had a double chocolate. That was the routine for a number of years. Then Friendly's closed. Eating Friendly's was not a new experience for me. One summer on Cap Cod, was were I was introduced to the double whammo- of - deep rich chocolate ice cream.
Growing up, out on my grandfather's farm, Sundays were spent out in the front yard under a big Oak tree. It was standard fare to make a big batch of homemade ice cream and my grandmother had made more than one big apple pie that were cooling on her cooling board. There were always dad's brother and sisters around and their aunts and uncles too. Holidays were a special time. That batch of ice cream always had to 'rest' a bit before the cylinder was uncapped. That's were my love of ice cream all began. Fresh milk from the dairy cows, eggs from the hen house it all fit together. I can still see my grandmother churning butter. I know one thing---when the fresh biscuits came out of the oven, that butter had to go on them pronto!!
Having set the stage for tonight's discovery, When I came back to Texas to be closer to my mom, we would sit out on the porch and talk about those days. I'd refill our coffee cups, and shortly later, she would go inside. Then the door would open and there she stood with a plate of hot biscuits and a 1/2 cup of semi-soft butter. Mom was an excellent cook and making biscuits from scratch was a thing a tik tok video would have been nice to have today. She worked her magic on homemade biscuits.
Shortly after mom passed away, I started eating Southern Style Butter Pecan Crunch ice cream from Kroger. Ironically, I just found out from his obituary, dear friend, Howard Driggs, had died. He was a lover of ice cream and designed and built a top line state-of-art ice cream factory in Decatur, Indiana. Howard grew up on the family dairy farm in Pymara, Michigan and had fun at Driggs Dairy and Toledo Milk Processing, as it kept him busy but not all that busy as more big boxes wanted his new factory to produce their private label ice cream. The list had some very big big boxes like Kroger, Aldi and others.
UNT Dallas Rail Station in South Dallas
My discovery was taking three Fudge Stripe Short Bread Cookies, crushing them and tossing them into the bowl. No, it's not just another cookie and cream thing.It's butter pecan meets super cookie".
SMU Mockingbird Station
