Finally, a chance to put my training and skills to the test!!!

Anyone who knows even remotely well knows I have a passion for the cool creamy treat, ice cream. I have eaten half gallons at a time, eaten my whole day's worth of calories in one sitting with my delicious friend Ben&Jerry's, taste tested pretty much every brand of ice cream, and even formally celebrated National Ice Cream Day (which if any of you wondered is THIS WEEK!!) complete with a party, games, and of course the eating of it. Well, the day of my dreams came to town last week. All of the best ice creameries in town came to one central location and for one small fee, you could have ALL the ice cream your heart desired!!!!!! This opportunity was not going to slip away from me!! I looked forward to this for WEEKS I tell you. And last Saturday I was able to pull out all the stops and let myself go to town eating all the ice cream I could manage to down in a couple of hours. It was GREAT!!

Don't let this picture fool you. The fact that Madelyn is in the picture does not mean I had any help whatsoever in emptying 10 cups of ice cream. My friend Kristin--who is pregnant mind you--did a pretty good job of keeping up with me. I knew I would probably scare her with my capabilities. I think she had about 9, but couldn't keep it down after she got home..... I didn't have that trouble. In fact what I really needed was a good steak--random I know-- and I could have even gone for more. It was just so much sugar all at once that I had a hankering for some excellent grilled red meat. When I got home I grilled some burgers and was really ready for more ice cream!! Next year, and I do think this will actually become an annual event, I will know to bring a few BBQ ribs in my purse to really prove what I can do.

So the breakdown, if anyone was curious of what this ice cream connoisseur's impressions were, is as follows:

#1 Reed's Dairy

You just can't beat the creamy-ness of their ice cream!! SO good. Now if they could offer their ice cream so you could personalize it with whatever you wanted, that would be a knockout!!

#2 Coldstone Creamery

This was a close second. The trouble here was that obviously they couldn't cart all possible creations to this event. They just had 3 of their flavor concoctions available. Cake batter ice cream was one of them, which is my personal favorite, but they also put about a pound of sprinkles in it along with the chocolate cake peices...I'm just not a fan of waxy sprinkles.....

#3 Sub Zero Ice Cream

Sub Zero is just so cool because of the way they make their ice cream. Plus you can cater it to how you like it with all the flavorings and toppings, but the creamy-ness factor was a little shy of its potential.

#4 Sarah's Candy Cottage

Actually an ice cream I was not familiar with before this event!! They only had two flavor offerings of their gelato: Pistachio and Coffee. I opted for Pistachio and it was surprisingly good. I think they only put milk and eggs in it and flavorings of course, but it was pretty creamy. They just needed a chocolate flavor or a strawberry cheesecake would have been delicious....

#5 Sundae's Eats and Treats (Leatherby's)

Now before you scoff at why they are so far down on the list, let me explain: if you have ever been here you know it is delicious!! But it is their sauces that make their ice cream soar. Their hot fudge and carmel sauce are to die for. But when they just served me a cup of their plain old ice cream, it was lacking.

#6 Farr's Ice Cream

They offered one of my favorite flavors--which I hadn't seen all day: mint cookie. It was pretty good. Farr's isn't near as creamy as Reed's. But they do serve this ice cream at the gas station on the way to Swan Valley, which when we visit, this stuff always hits the spot. Just put next to the big guys of ice cream......they don't quite make the cut.

All in all it was an awesome event with some great offerings. Now I can just focus my efforts on what I really LOVE next time. If anyone would like to go against me in an all-you-can-eat contest next year: BRING IT ON!! :)