Summer is here!
The kids and hubby and I are spending a lot of time outdoors. Sprinkler time, cooking hotdogs over a fire, and taking walks are among our favorite outdoor activities. I have been making delicious but simple dinners that don’t heat up the kitchen too much (fruit, tomatoes with cottage cheese, and chilled pasta salad; grilled chicken salads with cheese, salsa, and avocados, etc).
We love to top dinner off with a refreshing dessert.
Sometimes hubby and I wait to do this until after the kiddos are tucked in bed for the night…please tell me we’re not the only ones that do this? 😉 One of our boys (who was three at the time) once said, while watching me wash my face one morning, “I know why you have to wash your face. You and Daddy were up all night eating snacks!” 🙂 Haha…well, no, but he wasn’t too far off – we did sneak, er, I mean, we did have, some ice cream after the kids had been tucked into bed.
One of my favorite summer (and fall, and winter, and spring) desserts is a dish of Blue Bell ice cream.
Blue Bell ice cream is back in stores (it has been for awhile; I’m just slow in writing about it 🙂 ). Remember when the company struggled with listeria contamination issues, and they pulled their products from the shelves? It was such a sad time to go down the ice cream aisle at the grocery store. I’d walk down the aisle, see the empty space on the shelves, and sigh. I’d head over to another ice cream brand section, look for a reasonable alternative to my favorite – Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip – and sigh again. There is no ice cream I’ve had yet that can compare with Blue Bell (no I’m not getting paid to write this 😉 ). I tried many other brands, only to be disappointed each and every time. For me, it’s almost not even worth spending the money on another flavor…if Blue Bell isn’t available, I look for another dessert option altogether.
That first time we saw Blue Bell back on the shelves after the recall was over, my children and I let out audible “whoo-hoos!” in the store. Of course it wasn’t on sale, but that was not going to deter me. We hadn’t had a really good dish of ice cream in months and months, and honestly I was so glad the company had not gone under during their efforts to fix the problem. I didn’t mind spending full price (usually I wait for it to be on sale, but this was an emergency…haha.)
I turned to an older couple on the same aisle, who were also looking at the Blue Bell, and said, “Aren’t you glad Blue Bell is back?!” The older man grinned and nodded, and the older woman with him made a sour face (I guess she was one of the few people on the planet who doesn’t like Blue Bell ice cream?).
Anyway, since it’s back (and since we’re not in the midst of Lent 😉 ) here’s a fun way to enjoy Blue Bell that my in-laws told me about. You need a flavor of chocolate Blue Bell (we like to use the Milk Chocolate flavor for this, but I would imagine that the Dutch Chocolate would work well too) and a bottle of club soda (I know, I know, yuk…but wait, you’ll see!). Grab a glass (the taller and wider the better) and spoon some ice cream inside until it’s maybe 2/3 full. Pour chilled club soda on top until the ice cream is just about to be covered, and watch it work. Mix well with a spoon. The result is something like a Wendy’s chocolate frosty, but way (way, way, way) better. Mmm!
What are some of your favorite summer desserts?
The featured image is from this site.