h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hands down, my favorite ice cream maker is Turkey Hill. This isn't just because it's local (it's made in Lancaster County, where I live), but because it's the only brand I've ever run across that every single flavor, without fail, is good.

Most local grocery store chains sell a store brand of ice cream which is also decent... the only big brands I try to stay away from are Hershey's (just not much in the range of flavors), and Breyers (it can be very grainy and unpredictably flavored).

The "luxury" brands are alright (I prefer Ben and Jerry's to Haagen Daz), but aren't very cost effective when there are perfectly good half-gallons of almost the same thing for a third of the price.

For flavors, I'm a chocolate with-bits-in girl. Rocky Road is good if there's not much else, but I always like some peanut butter and caramel (such as the flavor Snapper) in there as well. Historically in my family the "best" flavor is something called Chocolate Mousse, which is basically just chocolate chips in chocolate ice cream, but nowhere's made it for a decade.

My favorite has to be Turkey Hill's Death By Chocolate - dark chocolate ice cream with fudge and semi sweet chocolate chips. It's so dark it's practically black in color, but it tastes amazing.

I'm a Graeter's (http://www.graeters.com/) girl myself, and Oprah agrees with me, so there! Wonderful stuff, and made in small batches so it tastes homemade. Their most popular flavour is Black Raspberry Chip - the chocolate chips are huge and they don't get all hard and flakey like some of the cheaper ones. I like all the flavours with chocolate chips in them, but my current favourite flavour is plain ol' cinnamon.

One of the fads in the US right now is an ice cream store where you can pick various flavours of plain ice cream and have the server mix in a variety of things like nuts, marshmallows, chocolate pieces, candy bars, cookies and whatnot. The ice cream is pretty good, although I prefer Graeter's, and the fun is in seeing what weird combinations you can come up with. These stores are kinda pricey, though, for which my waistline is grateful.

Ice cream.........mmm.............I like Blue Bunny for its availability and creaminess. My favorite flavor is Black Walnut. It reminds me of growing up in the Ozarks where black walnuts were used to flavor a lot of desserts. Black Walnut is only good when the vanilla ice cream is creamy. Some of the brands are grainy. Blue Bunny's Ice Creams are very good. A close second place goes to Schwan's Butter Pecan Crunch. It is vanilla ice cream with bits of toffee, pecans, and a caramel streak throughout. Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is.

I just remembered that there is a pint of ice cream in the freezer (almond ice cream with a hazelnut/chocolate swirl). The perfect lunch for a sunny, hot (93F/34C), humid day!

Strange - I had completely forgotten about Schwann's. I haven't had it since I was about 10, though (so, er, 14 years ago), so I can't say whether I liked it or not. I liked anything with sugar in it back then.

Had also forgotten about places like Coldstone, Bruester's, and Maggie Moo's. Haven't been to the latter, wasn't particularly impressed by the second, but o my LORD Coldstone is wonderous. It's pricey (not a whole lot more than getting some Ben and Jerry's or Haagen Daaz, really, and there're more flavor combinations), but it's wonderful. I like the idea of being able to mix things I want to - wheras with normal flavors you have to either take or leave what they decide are "good" flavors. I, for example, love strawberry ice cream with sprinkles. This is hard to find generally, but the Coldstone people whipped some right up for me.

I want ice cream now... *toddles up to the freezer*

We had a Maggie Moo's in the area, but unfortunately for them a Cold Stone Creamery opened up across the street and put them out of business. My sister adores Cold Stone - but she just gets the plain ice cream without any additions! There's no accounting for taste. Strawberry with sprinkles sounds good. I like to mix banana and peanut butter ice creams with marshmallows - I call it 'The Elvis'. Another favourite: white chocolate and coffee ice creams with crushed Heath Bars.

Last Thanksgiving we got a Cold Stone pumpkin ice cream pie. It was wonderful and a nice change from the traditional pumpkin pie. (I also made something called ice cream bread. You mix a pint of premium ice cream with a cup (?) of self-rising flour and bake it in a loaf pan. The ice cream provides the milk and eggs for the recipe. The flavour is fairly mild, so I add other spices to taste, and the texture is excellent. We like to have it on Christmas morning because it's a quick and easy treat and makes great toast.)

*getting hungrier by the minute*

Oops: it's 1-1/2 cups flour. And you have to use premium ice cream; low fat ice creams don't have the eggs or enough butterfat to work properly.

http://www.mommymall.com/recipes/2005/10/ice-cream-bread.html

Must not gorge self on ice cream... just weighed self at gym, lost another half pound, must NOT ruin progress...