Ice cream: Stuff of the gods

Ice cream. The mere utterance of the word sends me into spirals of decadent delight. It's cold, creamy and sweet as it lays on my tongue. It slides over my taste buds and down my throat and I close my eyes in sheer delight. Ah. It comes in almost any flavor imaginable and likely I've tried them all. Well, not really, but I can say I have never met an ice cream that I did not like.

I always feel like I'm doing something bad when I eat ice cream. Somehow I like that feeling. I won't venture a guess as to what that says about me. You can reach your own conclusion.

When I've really had a stressful day, it's Graeter's Mocha Chocolate Chip on my way home from work that I adore. On a normal stressful day it would be one scoop. If it is one of those days from hell, I say give me the works--two scoops in a dipped chocolate cone. When it is in season, I splurge on Black Raspberry Chip and I don't look back. Ever.

Never look back with regret when ice cream is involved. I mean, never. Ice cream is a gift from the gods. I'm convinced of it. And we do not want to ruffle the feathers of the ice cream gods by feeling regret or, shudder, remorse, over having slurped our way through a hot fudge sundae or dove face first into a banana split. Never do that. It upsets the alignment of the planets, or something, or triggers some blip in the universe. That can't be good. So no regrets, okay?

All right.

July is National Ice Cream month, you know, as proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. He said it was a "fun and interesting food that is enjoyed by 90% of the population." I don't know about you, but I would seriously question the thinking of that other 10%. Who does not like ice cream? I suppose there are those who are lactose intolerant. I'll give them that. Poor souls.

In my household, ice cream was always Queen. When the kids were living at home, there was a huge tub of vanilla or chocolate or Neapolitan in the freezer. Those were our bases. After a couple of scoops of any of those, the toppings reigned. Some liked just plain chocolate sauce. Some loved strawberry jam. Fresh bananas are good, as are peanuts or cashews. Any kind of nuts. Any kind of jam. Any kind of fruit. But always, chocolate.

Yes, chocolate reigns supreme in the topping world, in our book.

Whipped cream. Don't forget the whipped cream.

So, in this month of ice cream, I have to wonder. How do you like yours? What flavors do you like the best? Toppings? I've put a little poll here on the blog so feel free to respond. I'm really curious about the subject. I'm like that sometimes.

p.s. Click here for a previous post, where I showed how to make an ice cream pie. Yum!