Your eyes are closed in anticipation. Your mouth is ready. Your tongue is excited. Your heart still flutters, even after all this time. You don’t even care what you look like in that moment of anticipation. Then, it touches your lips. The sweetness drips down your throat. Pure joy radiates from you. You open your mouth again… I never met an ice cream cone I didn’t like. You can take the cake and crumble the cookies, let the baby keep the candy, and trash the trifle. All I really want is ICE CREAM.
This means summer is my season because there is no reason at all not to eat ice cream when it is only over 90 degrees. We live in Florida. What else are you going to eat that isn’t going to make you miserable while you’re sweating in crevices you didn’t know existed?
I can’t say no to Dreamette; Ben & Jerry are my soulmates, and even an M&M McFlurry will do the job. Cold Stone or Marble Slab with their mix-ins make ice cream more of a four-course meal, and multiple flavors of Mayday in a waffle cone with sprinkles brighten any rainy day. Have you figured out that I consider ice cream a food group yet?
I’ve decided certain ice creams work best at certain times in my life. Here’s a list:
- Kids driving you nuts and you finally got all of them to sleep? Ben & Jerry’s can be easily picked up at your neighborhood grocery. Publix even has BOGO on them sometimes. Get the Phish Food.
- Kids at home and you’re craving a treat? Klondike Bars are easy to hide in the freezer from prying little eyes and grubby hands and are easy to scarf in the pantry, especially the smaller 100-calorie ones.
- Camp pick-up run during my lunch break? Daily’s or Chick-fil-A chocolate milkshake for a quick lunch!
- Pregnant? Stay AWAY from those Snickers ice cream bars. I’m warning you. There’s a reason my son was over nine pounds.
- Wet and sandy and craving salt and sweet? A McDonald’s M&M McFlurry will keep everyone happy as you haul it back from the beach (as long as their ice cream machine is working. Which it probably isn’t.)
- Hot as heck and nothing to do? Need to get the kids out of the house and kill some time? Mayday, Marble Slab, or Cold Stone are there to save the day with their multiple fantastic flavors, sprinkles, or mix-ins!
- Sunday night and got the Monday morning blues already? Kids already bathed and in pajamas? Keep them (sort of) clean and strapped down in their seats while you hit Dreamette and enjoy the marvelousness in your car in the parking lot. Just stay away from the amazing dipped cones if you want to keep them in the same PJs.
You’re probably wondering what my favorite kind is. Really, despite all the amazing options available to us here in Jacksonville, both local and store-bought, it’s just plain old chocolate ice cream. Nothing mixed in it and nothing added to it. A chocolate Dreamette cone, upside down in a cup to staunch the melting on a blistering July day is all I need to be happy.
Hope you enjoyed Meg’s poetic ode to ice cream! Be sure to check out some of the best spots in Jax to grab a cool treat.
