Showing posts with label ice cream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ice cream. Show all posts

July 8 - Birth of the Ice Cream Sundae?

 Posted on July 8, 2021

This is an update of my post published on July 8, 2010:




The story goes that on this day in 1881, a man named George Hallauer came into Edward Berner's drug store in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. He sat down at the soda-fountain counter, wanting a chocolate soda (a glass with ice cream, chocolate flavoring, and soda water). But it was Sunday, and by the laws of that place and time, the customer couldn't have soda water. Berner poured chocolate syrup over ice cream in a dish as a substitute, and he called it a Sunday.

Apparently Hallauer liked his Sunday. Soon Berner began to sell the ice cream treat every Sunday (when he couldn't sell sodas), and it eventually became so popular that he began to sell it every day of the week (and with different flavors as well). At that point, Berner changed the spelling from Sunday to sundae.


That's a nice story that tells about the invention and naming of the ice cream sundae—and I found several different sources that recount this story. One article states that there is even a monument commemorating this event in Two Rivers Central Memorial Park.

The story is on an official plaque. So...that means it's
true...right?

Still, some ice-cream historians say that the story isn't accurate. Another history of the first sundae (and the name Sunday or sundae) has more evidence backing it up, and the Official Website of the Ice Cream Sundae has thrown its weight behind the latter story, which occurred in New York in April of 1892.

How can we know which story is true?


Well, Wikipedia states that two high school students have computed that Edward Berner would have only been 16 or 17 in 1881, and they judged it unlikely that he would have owned a drug store at that time. I did something much easier: I checked the internet to see what day of the week July 8, 1881, was—and it wasn't a Sunday, it was a Friday!

My guess is, if the date is wrong, maybe the whole thing is wrong! I guess I will go along with ice cream historians on this one.


So...today isn't the birthday of the ice cream sundae???

Oh well! Celebrate anyway!

You know what to do: make and eat a gigantic ice cream sundae. Here are some recipe ideas.



If you want to REALLY celebrate, play some ice cream games. (Scroll down to find the games.)


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September 22 - Ice Cream Cone Day


 Posted on September 22, 2020

I have a bit of a sweet tooth, and it doesn't take much to get me feeling munchy for cookies, cereal, chocolate-laden trail mix... yummm. 

But somehow I just haven't been as tempted to eat ice cream, especially not in cones.

Don't get me wrong - I think ice cream is delicious! - but the sight of a dollop of, say, strawberry or chocolate ice cream in a cone hasn't (in the past) had all that much power over me. The kind of power that makes me a sort of must-have-must-eat zombie.


But recently my teeny grandchild ran out of room in his teeny tummy and handed me a really messy, half-eaten waffle cone with vanilla ice cream, and I had nowhere I could put it! Except, of course, "down the hatch." So I gobbled it up and then found a diaper wipe to clean up my hand and the entirety of my grandchild.



And, oh DEAR, was it ever good! The ice cream was sooooo flavorful, even though it was "just" vanilla and looked so boring. And the cone was super tasty, too! Not the kind of almost flavorless "cake cone" I grew up with.

So, darn, another absolutely delicious dessert I must try hard to resist!

But not today! Today we ALL have an excuse to eat ice cream cones!



Also on this date:









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August 21 – National Spumoni Day in the U.S.A.

Posted on August 21, 2019

Italian food! What would the world do without it?


Pizza and pasta and polenta and risotto...marinara and carbonara and alfredo and bolognese...focaccia and all sorts of other Italian breads and garlic breads...Ahh! I love it; don't you?

But how to end a delicious Italian meal?

A classic Italian dessert is gelato. This frozen treat is like ice cream, but it has a lot less butterfat. (About 4 - 8 % in gelato, about 14% in ice cream.) Gelato also has less air and water than most ice cream. Because of the low-fat content, gelato is served at a slightly less-cold temperature - and that means that the flavor is stronger; of course, the flavor isn't diluted with so much air and water, as well.

Gelato often comes in a BUNCH of different flavors.
Fruit flavors, obviously - everything from lemon and
raspberry to mango and pineapple.
But gelato can also be found in alcohol-infused
flavors, coffee flavors, chocolatey or vanilla-ish
flavors, and combo flavors with nuts or other
tasty tidbits (like caramels, marshmallows, cookie
chunks, coconut, etc.) stirred in.

BUT did you know that gelato can even come in
savory flavors? How about balsamic, basil and
tomato, olive oil and parmesan cheese?


Gelato has a more velvety texture than ice cream. It melts in your mouth more quickly (remember, it's served a bit less cold), and it isn't meant to be stored long term, so it's fresher, as well.

Another amazing thing about gelato is all the flavors! Today we celebrate molded gelato with multiple flavors! Spumoni is traditionally made with three flavors: cherry, pistachio, and either chocolate or vanilla. One or more flavors may contain bits of fruit and nuts - such as cherry bits in the cherry gelato, and chopped pistachio nuts in the pistachio gelato - or the desert may be topped with fruit and nuts. The traditional color combination is pink and green and brown (or pink, green, and off-white).



As soon as I started writing about Spumoni, I started wondering about another multiple-layers, multiple-colors frozen Italian treat: Neapolitan ice cream. Sure enough, according to my sources, Neapolitan (named for the Italian city of Naples) is considered a form of Spumoni. The ice cream found here in the U.S. has been tweaked to match up with typical American flavor preferences: strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. 

Uh, no! I'm pretty typical "American," but I think I like the traditional Italian flavors of Spumoni way more!










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