Last week we mentioned an impromptu showdown happening in the Turkey Hill Dairy break room on Friday afternoon. Three employees, each of whom was confident in their taste buds, faced off to see who could correctly identify Turkey Hill’s eight different varieties of vanilla ice cream in a blind taste test.

Well, it turned out to be a not-so-close competition. Our three contestants were blindfolded before sampling the eight different flavors of our vanilla ice cream. To recap, the field of flavors included Premium Vanilla, Premium Vanilla Bean, Vanilla Bean Frozen Yogurt, All Natural Vanilla Bean, Light Recipe Vanilla Bean, Premium French Vanilla, No Sugar Added Vanilla Bean, and our newest flavor for 2011, Premium Homemade Vanilla. We also threw in Dutch Chocolate as a surprise.

Colin’s tactic was to sample each flavor once and then go back and taste again before guessing. Jeff and Matt went for the “one-taste, one-guess” strategy. Maybe Jeff and Matt should have followed Colin’s lead, because he became our Vanilla Ice Cream Tasting Champion after correctly identifying six of the eight vanilla flavors correctly. Jeff identified four of the eight flavors and Matt correctly labeled one of the eight flavors. As a prize, Colin received an official winner’s crown, a lava lamp and, most importantly, bragging rights.

Congratulations to our readers who selected Colin as the winner of this contest. One of you lucky guessers will win a certificate for free Turkey Hill ice cream! We hope that this will settle the argument about whose palate can best distinguish between our flavors, but we have a feeling these contenders may want a rematch in the future.

The lineup has expanded recently with the addition of two new Limited Edition cakes: a six-inch round Moose Tracks cake and six-inch round Phillies cake! The Moose Tracks cake is made with vanilla flavored ice cream with chocolate peanut butter cups swirled with Moose Tracks Fudge. The Phillies cake (guaranteed to be a home run at any Phillies party), has cookies ‘n cream ice cream loaded with crushed cookies, topped with creamy vanilla icing, and red and blue candy star confetti.

The Phillies cake will be available year round and the Moose Tracks flavor will be available through December.

As for what occasions you might celebrate with one of these cakes, we’re open to suggestions. What events would you celebrate with a Moose Tracks or Phillies ice cream cake?

The Fan of the Month will be based on something written by a Turkey Hill iced tea fan on Facebook, Twitter, the Ice Cream Journal, or just about anywhere online.

This month’s Fan of the Month is Shana Zinn, who tells a harrowing tale of being stranded in Hawaii without access to Turkey Hill iced tea. Although if you’re going to be stranded somewhere, Hawaii isn’t so bad! Here’s what Shana said on Facebook:

We move around a lot due to the Army, couldn’t get turkey hill tea in Hawaii. I was going through 3 years of withdrawal. LOL. In NC we found a few places that sell it, and we get 5 gallons at a time to last us through the week. I need my tea!

Our May poll is an age old debate that was first discussed here on the Ice Cream Journal back in 2008. When you visit your local ice cream shop, are you more of a cup person or a cone person?

You’ll notice in our poll in the right hand sidebar that we broke down the “cone” category into the two main families of cones: sugar (or waffle) and wafer (sometimes referred to as a “cake” cone). Like we explained in our 2008 blog entry:

The sugar and waffle cones are a dense, brittle, crunchy cone. They’re almost always tall and pointy-ended, although some ice cream shops offer waffle bowls (technically not a “cone”), sometimes dipped in chocolate and other sweets.

The wafer cones, on the other hand, are much different. These are the light, airy, flat-bottomed ones you probably remember from your childhood. The flat bottom comes in handy when you want to take break and put your cone on a table or a leather car seat. Most soft serve ice cream is served up in a wafer cone. These are also the type of cone you’re most likely to see being sold in boxes at the grocery store.

So which is it: Cup or cone?

Our May prize is the strawberry gift pack on the right. It includes a strawberry-shaped colander (for rinsing and cleaning strawberries), a strawberry-shaped slicer (for slicing strawberries) and a strawberry huller (for hulling strawberries, of course). For those who aren’t sure – because many of us weren’t sure, either – hulling a strawberry is the act of removing the leaves and stem-part of the fruit. Sort of like coring an apple.

We’ll choose one comment at random from ALL the comments left on the blog this month to win this prize (along with a few containers of Turkey Hill ice cream, of course). What will you do with your freshly hulled, cleaned and sliced strawberries? Put them on top of a big bowl of Turkey Hill Ice Cream, of course! The only question is, which flavor of ice cream will receive the topping?

Good question, Kevin. I think you and a couple million other Phillies fans are wondering the same thing! I’m not what you’d call a “baseball expert,” but I know a thing or two about the game, so here goes.

The Phillies won 102 games during the regular season last year. That’s more than any other team in the Major Leagues and it sets the bar high for the 2012 season (not to mention it set an all time team record). Here’s the good news: I think they can do it again.

In order to repeat last year’s success and make a serious run at the World Championship, the Phils will have to step it up early in the season while their star first baseman, Ryan Howard, is out with an injury. Their new closer, Jonathan Papelbon, should also help throughout the year. A good year for him means a good year for the Phillies.

The rest of the season comes down to staying healthy. The Phillies are a team with a lot of stars. If they can remain strong and play to their fullest potential, I’d say a World Series win is definitely possible!

I hope this helps. I’m sorry I can’t give you a more definitive answer, but one thing I can tell you is that no matter what happens this season, you’ll always have Turkey Hill’s Phillies Graham Slam and Batter Up! flavors to help you root, root, root for the home team!

Last week we invited everyone to visit the Turkey Hill Experience to see the Phillie Phanatic, who took some time out of his busy schedule to visit our neck of the woods on Sunday.

The Phanatic’s stop at the Turkey Hill Experience was unforgettable for anyone who was lucky enough to be there during his visit. Above is a photo of the Phanatic with some members of the Experience team. While he was here, he took some time to make friends with one of our cows and even pitched in at the ice cream station to dish out some frosty treats to fans.

While the Phanatic was here, everyone had a great time. It’s no wonder why Forbes magazine named him “the best mascot in sports!”

1. WHAT WOULD YOU DO? – An ice cream parlor in Livingston, NJ was the setting for a segment on the ABC reality show, “What Would You Do?”, which uses actors to test peoples’ reactions to bad behavior. This particular segment featured actors who bullied and teased a person with a stutter (also an actor) and the ABC cameras captured customers’ reactions. Thankfully, more than a few people stepped in and put the bullies in their place during the course of the two-day taping.

2. GREAT COW, GREAT ICE CREAM – A prize-winning dairy cow from Kalispell, Montana isn’t taking her “best in the state” status lightly. The cow’s owners, who operate an ice cream shop using milk from their 500-cow dairy farm, have created a special ice cream flavor called “Blue Ribbon Bonanza” which is made with milk from the award-winning bovine. A single scoop of the top notch treat costs $5, nearly twice as much as a scoop of ice cream from a “regular” cow.

3. WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM – Parents in a trendy Brooklyn neighborhood have started a campaign to ban ice cream vendors from selling their sweet treats in a local park. This issue started after one mom wrote a blog entry about her frustrations when visiting the playground with her son and how her visit was ruined after an ice cream vendor showed up. Not everyone agrees with the ban and, for now, the issue remains unresolved.

4. A BATTLE FOR A GOOD CAUSE – Two ice cream trucks are locked in the second annual “Ice Cream Truck Battle” in Boston’s Harvard Square. The trucks will dish out free treats for two hours and will collect donations from customers. Money raised during the showdown will be donated to a local homeless organization. The truck that loses the competition will have to pull over and salute the winning truck whenever they pass each other on the street.

The idea of ice cream pudding might sound strange (is it just soft serve ice cream?), but it’s actually very good and – here’s the best part – it’s very simple to make! The only question is, what combo of instant pudding mix and ice cream will YOU use?

ICE CREAM PUDDING

INGREDIENTS

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant pudding mix (any flavor)
1 cup cold milk
2 cups softened ice cream (any flavor)
Whipped cream (optional)
Fresh fruit (optional)

DIRECTIONS

In a mixing bowl, beat pudding mix and milk on low for 1 minute. Fold in ice cream until smooth. Spoon into dishes. Chill for at least 1 hour. Garnish with whipped cream and fruit

If you miss out on this special mascot appearance, mark your calendars for this year’s Turkey Hill Country Classic (Saturday, May 5). This event will include a special “Mascot Race” featuring some of region’s best mascots. Skully from Millersville University and Enzo from Kline’s Services, Inc. will be among the costumed contenders who will put their speed to the test.

We’re still looking for other mascots to join us for the race, so if anyone has any ideas for mascots you’d like to see at the race, leave a comment!

One thing about Ernie is that he’s always up for a challenge. A while back, someone challenged him to turn Mexico’s delicious fried ice cream dessert into an ice cream flavor and he did! Legend has it, as a young boy, he was once challenged to a mooing contest by one of the more vocal cows on his family farm. He accepted the challenge … and won!

But not all of Ernie’s challenges are successful. In this picture, he attempted to milk one of Turkey Hill’s Giant Cows. Needless to say, his pail came up empty, but everyone had a good laugh nonetheless.

Turkey Hill has taken the best parts of this south-of-the-border favorite and incorporated them into our April Limited Edition flavor, Fried Ice Cream! (If it sounds familiar, that’s because Fried Ice Cream has also been a popular Limited Edition flavor in the past.)

The returning flavor is described as “cinnamon ice cream swirled with cinnamon sopapilla and sweet tostada pieces.”

Turkey Hill Fried Ice Cream isn’t fried, but traditional fried ice cream really is (or deep fried), but only for a few seconds. Here’s Ernie’s explanation in a 2009 blog entry:  “The ice cream, which is usually stored at lower-than-normal temperatures, is rolled in a coating of crushed corn flakes, which helps insulate the ice cream during the brief frying process.”

As with any Limited Edition flavor, you should be able to find Fried Ice Cream at your local grocery store. You might also find last month’s Limited Edition flavor, Pennsylvania Dutch Pretzel (which means Fried Ice Cream should arrive next). If you can’t track down either flavor, put in a request with your store’s frozen foods manager!

The Country Classic is really two events in one. The first part of the Country Classic consists of biking and running events. Those start early in the morning and run throughout the day. Cyclists and runners can sign up to participate in those events on the Country Classic page of our website (follow the links on the right).

The second part of the Country Classic is the fun stuff for families. There will be kids races, but we’ll also have inflatable rides and games for the kids as well as some music and entertainment. The Turkey Hill Giant Cow will be there and we’ll be giving away free Turkey Hill drinks, ice cream, Herr’s chips and Hatfield hot dogs.

Of course, the Baby Derby will also return. Babies 14 months and younger are invited to compete on the “Crawl Way” for a chance to win our grand prize – a Giant Cow Birthday party!

Proceeds from the Country Classic will benefit the Lancaster Farmland Trust, an organization that works hard to preserve farmland throughout Lancaster County. Over the last few years, the Turkey Hill Country Classic has raised close to $57,000 for the Trust!

If you plan to attend, you can find all the details about the day’s activities on the Country Classic page of our website. If you’re just coming to hang out and have fun, you should arrive around 10 am (or 9 am to register for the kids races). If you’re using MapQuest or GPS to find the location, the address is 387 Penn Street, Washington Boro, PA. See you there!

Many people like beer. Many people also like ice cream. It might make sense then, that many people would like beer ice cream, right? That’s what a company called The Brewer’s Cow is hoping.

The Brewer’s Cow has developed a line of four beer-infused ice cream flavors. Varieties include Black & Tan (Guinness beer blended with ice cream and a decadent Munson’s Chocolate Truffle Fudge weave) and Ten Penny Beer Nut Parfait (Ten Penny Ale blended with ice cream containing beer nuts, and a decadent Munsons Chocolate Truffle Fudge and Vanilla Caramel weave.

It should be noted that while the ice cream is made with real beer, the finished product contains no alcohol (it “cooks out” during the manufacturing process). A six-pack of flavors (six pints) costs $67 plus $12 shipping and handling.

We’ll admit, the flavors don’t sound half-bad. But never mind what we think, we want to know what you think. Would you eat it?

With that love in mind, we’ve decided to recognize some of our most loyal fans with our “Fan of the Month” award. Actually, there will be two awards, which we’ll announce on our Facebook page each month. We’ll recognize our iced tea Fan of the Month on the second Tuesday of the month and our ice cream Fan of the Month on the third Tuesday.

How do you become an iced tea or ice cream Fan of the Month? It’s pretty simple. All you have to do is post a message or a photo on the Turkey Hill Facebook wall and we’ll choose our two favorites each month. You can also post a message on Twitter and include the hashtag #THFOM. On the right are two examples of recent Facebook and Twitter posts from Turkey Hill fans.

Like we said earlier, Fans of the Month will be recognized on our Facebook page with a special photo. We’ll also announce them here on the Ice Cream Journal. Good luck, and stay tuned!

UPDATE: Good news! We’ve opened up the Fan of the Month award to include blog comments, too, so keep the comments coming! If you’d like to email us a photo, feel free to send it to icecreamjournal@gmail.com.

Just a quick entry to wish everyone a Happy Easter! Turkey Hill celebrated Easter with the “Easter Bunny EGGsperience” yesterday at the Turkey Hill Experience. The day included tours of the Turkey Hill Experience, a visit with the Easter Bunny, and all sorts of other fun family activities. Above is Hanna from Lancaster, PA and below is Kyle and Colton from Mahwah, NJ testing their cow-milking skills!

Two teams who hope to be in first place all year long (and probably will be!) are the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees. Turkey Hill makes the official ice cream flavors for both teams, and the teams and the ice cream flavors are expected to have fans cheering throughout the summer and into the fall.

The Phillies start the season on the road with a game in Pittsburgh tomorrow at 1:35 p.m. and the Yankees kick off the year in Tampa Bay on Friday at 3:10 p.m.  No matter which team you root for, we urge you to take some time this week (and throughout the season) to relax and watch a few games, either in person or on TV. Either one is fun; just don’t forget the ice cream!

Of course, many of you figured that out based on the April 1 timing of the entry and the somewhat wacky idea of mixing iced tea and ice cream.

To be honest, some of the Float-Tea flavors didn’t sound too bad! “Orange Cream,” (a mix of Orange Tea and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream) might taste pretty good. “Sweet Cookie Dough,” on the other hand (Sweet Tea and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream) is probably a bad idea.

If we ever do decide to make Float-Tea a reality, which combinations of Turkey Hill iced tea and Turkey Hill ice cream do you think would be the best?

Visit the tournament page of our Facebook page to cast your vote and sound off with a comment below with your thoughts on the final match-up. Speaking of sounding off, here’s Ernie’s expert analysis of this year’s historic final showdown:

Eagles Touchdown Sundae vs. Strawberries and Cream

ERNIE SAYS:

So this is what it comes down to: Eagles Touchdown Sundae versus Strawberries and Cream. I have to admit, I would have never predicted these two would be the finalists in this year’s tournament, but they’re both great flavors with lots of fans, so it makes perfect sense.

No doubt about it, these two are fighters. They each had to win four match-ups to get to the final round, and it wasn’t easy for either one. Eagles Touchdown Sundae took down heavy favorites like Fudge Ripple (round two) and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (round three). Meanwhile, Strawberries and Cream shocked us all with big wins against Black Cherry (round three) and Stuff’d Junior Mints (round four).

Of course, the big question is, which flavor has enough left in the tank for one more win? Per my final round tradition, I’ll refrain from making a prediction and instead leave the outcome up to you – the voters!

Last week, we told you about a new Turkey Hill product, and we’re finally ready to make the official announcement!

Many people enjoy Turkey Hill iced tea. Many people also enjoy Turkey Hill premium ice cream. Now, you can enjoy both, thanks to Turkey Hill Float-Tea. Like it says in the ad above, “When is an ice cream float more than an ice cream float? When it’s made with Turkey Hill Premium Ice Cream and Turkey Hill Iced Tea!”

Turkey Hill Float-Tea is available in four “floatastic” flavors: Orange Cream (Orange Tea and Vanilla Bean premium ice cream), Peachy Chocolate (Peach tea and Dutch Chocolate premium ice cream), Diet Green Ripple (Diet Green Tea and Fudge Ripple frozen yogurt), and Sweet Cookie Dough (Sweet Tea and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough premium ice cream).

Float-Tea was one of the most challenging products Turkey Hill has ever developed, but we were able to make it a reality thanks to the ingenuity of the Turkey Hill package design team. (On the right is an early sketch of a Float-Tea package prototype.)

Our team created an iced tea container in which a single scoop of ice cream rests in a separate compartment, until the customer is ready to enjoy his or her Float-Tea. The design (patent pending) includes a tab on the side of container, which the customer pulls to allow the ice cream to drop down into the iced tea! Some additional secret packaging technologies help the package remain leak-proof after the tab has been pulled out.

The biggest challenge was figuring out how to store Float-Tea without the ice cream melting or the iced tea freezing. Is it stored in the freezer or is it stored in the refrigerator? To keep the ice cream nice and frosty, Float-Tea is kept in the freezer. The iced tea doesn’t freeze, however, because the lower half of the container is specially insulated (sort of like a Thermos). In addition to keeping the iced tea from freezing, the insulation also helps keep the drink nice and cold while it’s being enjoyed on a hot summer day!

So there you have it! Turkey Hill Float-Tea will be available wherever Turkey Hill products are sold beginning in late May. The 14-ounce Float-Tea (12 ounces of tea and a two-ounce scoop of ice cream) will likely only be a Spring and Summertime product, but if enough people like iced tea floats, we might make a year-round treat!

Some people debate politics. Others debate sports. You and your friend debate ice cream, and that’s my kind of debate!

The answer to your question is a little tricky. Technically, the chocolate ice cream should melt faster because it’s darker in color, and darker-colored objects absorb more light (or heat) than lighter-colored objects. If you’ve ever worn a dark-colored shirt in the summer, you’ll know what I mean. If the chocolate ice cream absorbs more light (heat), that means it’ll melt faster. This is especially true outdoors in direct sunlight, but the same principle applies indoors.

The only problem with that theory is that other factors also determine how quickly certain ice cream flavors will melt. Fat destabilization, ice crystal size, and the consistency coefficient of the mix can also affect the melting rate of ice cream. Maybe I’m getting a little too technical and paying too much attention to the details, but as anyone who knows me will tell you, when it comes to ice cream, I always pay close attention to the details!

Instead of talking about it, let’s put it to the test, shall we? I took a container of Turkey Hill Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and a container of Turkey Hill Dutch Chocolate ice cream and stored them side-by-side in the same freezer. I then scooped a single scoop of each flavor onto a plate and placed the plates next to each other on a countertop. Then I stood back and let room temperature (about 72 degrees Fahrenheit) take over.

The results? Both flavors turned into sad little puddles within an hour and I forgot to check in to see which one melted first. Either way, my advice is this: If you eat your ice cream fast enough (like me), you never have to worry about it melting!

The Frosty Four means our flavor category champions have been crowned and they’ll now battle each other to see which two flavors advance to the final showdown. Cast your votes on our Facebook page!

The flavor category champions are:

VANILLA CONFERENCE: Eagles Touchdown Sundae

CHOCOLATE CONFERENCE: Light Recipe Chocolate Nutty Moosetracks

FRUIT CONFERENCE: Strawberries and Cream

“OTHER FLAVORS” CONFERENCE: Stuff’d Junior Mints

Once again, our “Einstein of Ice Cream,” Mr. Ernie Pinckney offers his thoughts about this week’s match-ups.

Eagles Touchdown Sundae vs. Light Recipe Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks

ERNIE SAYS:

Out of last week’s match-ups, only Eagles Touchdown Sundae won by a comfortable margin. As a result, maybe Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks is a little worn out or maybe it’s sharp and ready for a good fight this week. Either way, I think the Eagles flavor has the edge in this round and will win by a couple of field goals.

Strawberries and Cream vs. Stuff’d Junior Mints

ERNIE SAYS:

Stuff’d Junior Mints won one of the closest match-ups in Ultimate Flavor Tournament history last week, edging Yankees Pinstripe Brownie Blast by just two votes! The close call is proof that every vote counts in this tournament. Strawberries and Cream had its own nail biter, beating Black Cherry by just seven votes. The winner this week? I predict another close one for Junior Mints, but this time on the losing end.

We’ll make the official announcement in a week or two, as soon as the first advertisements are complete. For now, we can tell you that this product is a “new twist on an old favorite.” Stay tuned!

The old calendar was designed to help you keep track of your days, but the new giveaway is designed to help you keep track of your grocery shopping duties. It’s a pad of shopping lists (that’s it on the right) with a few must-have items already filled in.

Just like the calendar, the shopping list will include coupons for Turkey Hill ice cream and iced tea. Also like the calendar, the shopping list is free to everyone who signed up to receive it. The new list has been mailed to Turkey Hill fans, and you should have already received it (or will in the next few days).

If you were signed up to receive the calendar, you’ll already be signed up to get the shopping list, so there’s no need to sign up again!

If you’re not signed up to receive the list, the good news is that you use the list online. It’s easy to use, too. Just visit the shopping list page of our website, sign up to use the app, and then add whatever you like to your shopping list, including specific flavors and varieties of your favorite Turkey Hill products. You can check off items as you put them in your grocery cart, save your list and access it later, or delete your list and start a new one from scratch.

You can either use the Shopping List on our website and then access it from a mobile version on your iPhone (coming soon!) or Android while shopping. Or, you can create your list right from your mobile app.

This flavor is extra special for Turkey Hill because it pays tribute to a big part of who we are. Lancaster County and the surrounding region is home to a rich culture known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. The Pennsylvania Dutch culture has its roots in German settlers who arrived in the area in 17th and 18th centuries and it lives on today through Lancaster County’s Amish population.

But even if you’re not Amish, if you live in central Pennsylvania, you can definitely appreciate the impact that Pennsylvania Dutch culture has had on our lives, and especially on our food. One of those culinary contributions is – you guessed it! – the pretzel.

Some of you may be able to find Turkey Hill’s Pennsylvania Dutch Pretzel at your local grocery store. Others might still be able to find last month’s Limited Edition flavor, Salty Caramel (which means our March flavor should arrive next). If you can’t track down either flavor, put in a request with your store’s frozen foods manager. They’re usually more than happy to consider customer requests!

Ladies and gentlemen, spring has officially arrived. That’s great news for ice cream fans because it signals the start of warmer weather, and warmer weather means more ice cream!

We took an informal poll around the offices here at Turkey Hill to see what spring and summer activities we’re all looking forward to this year. Listed below are some of those activities (in no particular order). Leave a comment below with some thoughts about what warm weather activities you’re looking forward to.

SPRING MEANS…

Picnics in the park

Baseball games

Hiking the Appalachian Trail

Mountain biking

Golfing on Sunday afternoon

Eating lunch outside

T-shirts and shorts!

Fishing for trout with my dad

Camping with friends

Evening walks

Tending the garden

The Turkey Hill team was invited to present our third round match-ups this morning on our local FOX TV station, FOX 43. That video is included at the bottom of this entry.

Our “Edible Eight” match-ups are posted on Turkey Hill’s Facebook page, so feel free to pay a visit and cast your votes. Afterwards, leave a comment below with your thoughts about the remaining flavors. Once again, our “Einstein of Ice Cream,” Mr. Ernie Pinckney offers his expert analysis of this week’s frosty face offs:

VANILLA CONFERENCE

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough vs. Eagles Touchdown Sundae

ERNIE SAYS: It’s true that a sports flavor has never won the Ultimate Flavor Tournament, but that might change this year. Will Eagles Touchdown Sundae be the one to make history? I’m not so sure. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is the number one ranked flavor in the Vanilla Conference for a good reason: It’s a strong competitor and a fan favorite. I give the edge to Cookie Dough in this one.

CHOCOLATE CONFERENCE

Limited Edition Whoopie Pie vs. Light Recipe Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks

ERNIE SAYS: An important factor to consider in this match-up is the fact that Light Recipe Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks’s close cousin, Light Recipe Moose Tracks, won the Ultimate Flavor Tournament a few years ago. Will it capture another title for the Moose Tracks family? Maybe next year. I think Whoopie Pie will rally its local fan base for a win in this match-up.

FRUIT CONFERENCE

Strawberries ‘N Cream vs. Black Cherry

ERNIE SAYS: Strawberries ‘N Cream took down Cherry Vanilla last week, which gives it valuable experience against cherry flavors. It’s going to need that experience against Black Cherry, which is a powerhouse competitor ranked number one in the Fruit Conference. I think Black Cherry will capture the conference crown this week, but not without a fight.

“OTHER FLAVORS” CONFERENCE

Stuff’d Junior Mints vs. Yankees Pinstripe Brownie Blast

ERNIE SAYS: There’s nothing junior about Junior Mints. It beat Butter Pecan and Neapolitan to get here, and it’s hungry for another win this week. But Yankees Pinstripe Brownie Blast, just like its namesake team, is a fierce competitor. This is going to be a close one, but I predict a bottom of the ninth win for Junior Mints and then it’s on to the Frosty Four!

Click on the image below (or here) to view Turkey Hill’s appearance on FOX 43!

This week’s eight match-ups are posted on Turkey Hill’s Facebook page, so feel free to pay a visit and cast your votes. Afterwards, leave a comment below with your thoughts about the remaining flavors. As always, our “Einstein of Ice Cream,” Mr. Ernie Pinckney offers his take on this week’s showdowns:

VANILLA CONFERENCE

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough vs. Cookies ‘n Cream – This is a big match-up between two powerful flavors, but I’m going to have to give the edge to Cookies ‘n Cream in this one.

Eagles Touchdown Sundae vs. Fudge Ripple – TD Sundae beat Blitzburgh Crunch in the opening round and has a lot of momentum, but I think Fudge Ripple will score a few extra touchdowns and win this match-up by a comfortable margin.

CHOCOLATE CONFERENCE

Limited Edition Gertrude Hawk Box of Chocolates vs. Limited Edition Whoopie Pie – Don’t let the names fool you, there’s nothing “limited” about the potential of these two flavors. That said, Box of Chocolates is a much more experienced flavor, which is why I think it’ll win this week.

Light Recipe Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks vs. Double Dunker – Ultimate Flavor Tournament fans might remember that Double Dunker made it all the way to the final round last year. In other words, I predict an easy win for Double D in this round.

FRUIT CONFERENCE

Strawberries ‘N Cream vs. All Natural Cherry Vanilla – Cherry Vanilla took down Stuff’d Strawberry Cheesecake in the first round, so it clearly has no trouble with strawberry flavors. Based on that, I see a win for Cherry Vanilla in round two.

Fruit Rainbow Sherbet vs. Black Cherry – It’s not easy for a sherbet to make it past the second round, especially when you’re facing a classic like Black Cherry. Black Cherry will win this battle, which will set up an epic cherry showdown in next week’s round.

“OTHER FLAVORS” CONFERENCE

Butter Pecan vs. Stuff’d Junior Mints – The party ended last week for Party Cake, thanks to a convincing (but not surprising) win by Butter Pecan. It’s a strong contender in this year’s tournament, which is why I think Junior Mints’ delicious days are numbered.

Yankees Pinstripe Brownie Blast vs. Stuff’d Praline Pecan Paradise – Can a sports flavor win the Ultimate Flavor Tournament? It won’t be easy, that’s for sure, but Pinstripe Brownie Blast might have what it takes. I predict a home run for Blast in this round and then a tough match-up next week.

After this photo was taken, our photographer got a little too close to one of the cows. She proceeded to give the camera lens a nice slobbery kiss (below). Later, Ernie and the camera crew visited some of the newborn calves, one of which was still wet from being born less than 24 hours before!

Previously on the Ice Cream Journal, we wrote about competitive eater Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti and his world record of 1.75 gallons of ice cream eaten in eight minutes. Loyal Ice Cream Journal reader Karen requested (with a comment) a photo of what 1.75 gallons of ice cream looks like. It’s a good question, Karen, which is why we put together the graphic below.

Like we noted in the ingredients, you can substitute the Heath candy bars for any candy bar you’d like. The only question is, which candy bar would you choose?

ICE CREAM SANDWICH CAKE

INGREDIENTS

• 19 Turkey Hill ice cream sandwiches
• 1 jar (16 ounces) hot fudge ice cream topping
• 1-1/2 cups salted peanuts
• 3 Heath candy bars (or any other candy bar of your choice)
• 1 carton (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed

DIRECTIONS

• Cut one ice cream sandwich in half. Place one whole and one half sandwich along a short side of an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. dish. Arrange eight sandwiches in opposite direction in the dish. Remove lid from fudge topping. Microwave 15-30 seconds to warm; stir. Spread one-half of fudge topping over ice cream sandwiches.

• In a food processor, combine peanuts and candy bars. Cover and pulse until chopped. Sprinkle one-half of mixture over fudge layer. Repeat layer of ice cream sandwiches and fudge topping. Spread whipped topping over top of cake. Sprinkle with remaining peanut mixture.

• Cover and freeze for up to two months. Remove from the freezer 20 minutes before serving. Cut into squares.

Here’s how it works: Each Monday, we’ll feature a different series of one-on-one match-ups, all voted on by you on Turkey Hill’s Facebook page (you’ll need a Facebook account – or know someone who does – in order to vote).

We’ll start with 16 head-to-head contests (32 flavors). The winner of each contest will advance to next Monday’s round, until only two flavors remain standing. The winner of that final showdown will be declared the Ultimate Flavor Tournament champion.

Past Ultimate Flavor Tournament winners include Vanilla Bean (2008), Light Recipe Moose Tracks (2009), Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup (2010), and last year’s victor, Orange Cream Swirl. Once a flavor wins the tournament it’s retired from future tournaments, which means we’ll crown a new champ this year!

As always, there will be prizes. In addition to giving away a year’s supply of Turkey Hill ice cream to one person who’s able to correctly guess the final four flavors AND the winner (sorry the entry period for that prize is closed), we’ll also choose four comments at random to receive a one month supply of ice cream at the end of the tournament. And if no one wins the year’s supply of ice cream, we’ll give away 16 one month supplies!

Don’t forget to vote, starting with this week’s match-ups on our Facebook page, and don’t forget to leave a comment (or two, or 10) here on the blog!

The other day, Ernie cut into a container of Fudge Ripple and the result was a little unusual. The container passed the goodie test, but some people here at the Dairy think the ice cream, viewed from the right angle, looks just like Ernie. Others, including Ernie, disagree. They see the eyes and nose in the ice cream, but don’t see the resemblance to the man who cut it.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of the Fudge Ripple and our Einstein of Ice Cream. Do you see Ernie’s face in the ice cream, someone else’s face, or do you just see the inner workings of a tasty treat?

We’ll choose one comment at random from all the comments left on the blog this month to receive this sweet prize. Of course, you can’t enjoy the bowls without some ice cream, so we’ll throw in a few coupons for free Turkey Hill ice cream, too! Good luck!

REMINDER: If you haven’t entered our Ultimate Flavor Tournament “guess the winners” contest to win a year’s supply of Turkey Hill ice cream, you still have three days to submit your picks.

All you have to do is guess which flavors will win each of the four flavor categories AND which of those flavors will win the whole tournament. Check out the categories, flavors, and entry instructions here. If you’ve already submitted your picks, but forgot to submit your pick for which flavor will win the whole tournament, go ahead and submit your picks again!

Cows aren’t milked by hand these days, but they used to be, and visitors to the Turkey Hill Experience can test their cow-milking skills on a pair of the most patient bovines in all of Lancaster County.

The cows above are fitted with udders you can squeeze to extract “milk” into a pail. If you don’t have cow-milking experience, don’t worry. A sign on the wall offers instructions for a couple of different handy techniques you can use to get the most milk per squeeze. You can also invent your own technique – it’s completely up to you!

Patterned after college basketball’s annual “March Madness” playoffs, the Ultimate Flavor Tournament is a six-week competition pitting Turkey Hill’s finest flavors against each other, with your votes determining which one is the best.

This year’s Ultimate Flavor Tournament includes two twists. The first is that the voting will take place on Turkey Hill’s Facebook page. If you have a Facebook account (you’ll need one to vote), you don’t need to “like” Turkey Hill’s page, but we definitely recommend it!

The second twist is that if you can correctly predict the final four flavors and the winning flavor, you could win a one year supply of Turkey Hill ice cream! (If more than one person guesses the final four flavors and winning flavor, we’ll choose one name at random to win the prize.)

To enter, take a look at the match-ups below and tell us which flavors will win their respective conferences and which of those four conference winners will be the overall tournament winner. You can make your picks with a comment on this entry or email your picks to icecreamjournal@gmail.com. All picks must be received before the first round begins next Monday (March 5). Good luck, and may the best flavor win!

PICK THE WINNERS!

VANILLA CONFERENCE WINNER:
CHOCOLATE CONFERENCE WINNER:
FRUIT CONFERENCE WINNER:
“OTHER FLAVORS” CONFERENCE WINNER:
OVERALL WINNER:

THE VANILLA CONFERENCE

MATCH UP #1 – Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough vs. Tin Roof Sundae
MATCH UP #2 – Cookies ‘n Cream vs. Peanut Butter Ripple
MATCH UP #3 – Blitzburgh Crunch vs. Eagles Touchdown Sundae
MATCH UP #4 – Light Recipe Bavarian Espresso vs. Fudge Ripple

THE CHOCOLATE CONFERENCE

MATCH UP #1 – Chocolate Marshmallow vs. Limited Edition Gertrude Hawk Box of Chocolates
MATCH UP #2 – Light Recipe Extreme Cookies ‘n Cream vs. Limited Edition Whoopie Pie
MATCH UP #3 – Dutch Chocolate vs. Light Recipe Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks
MATCH UP #4 – Double Dunker vs. Rocky Road

THE FRUIT CONFERENCE

MATCH UP #1 – Strawberries ‘n Cream vs. Banana Split
MATCH UP #2 – All Natural Cherry Vanilla vs. Stuff’d Strawberry Cheesecake
MATCH UP #3 – Orange Grove Sherbet vs. Fruit Rainbow Sherbet
MATCH UP #4 – Rum Raisin vs. Black Cherry

THE “OTHER FLAVORS” CONFERENCE

MATCH UP #1 – Butter Pecan vs. Party Cake
MATCH UP #2 – Neapolitan vs. Stuff’d Junior Mints
MATCH UP #3 – Phillies Graham Slam vs. Yankees Pinstripe Brownie Blast
MATCH UP #4 – Stuff’d Praline Pecan Paradise vs. Colombian Coffee

That balance is the inspiration behind Turkey Hill’s new Limited Edition Salty Caramel premium ice cream (vanilla ice cream with a sea salt caramel swirl).

Like any Limited Edition flavor, availability will vary from store to store. If you don’t see it at your local grocery store, feel free to request it from the frozen foods manager. They’re usually happy to consider customer requests.

For more information on why salt brings out the best in sweet treats like our new Salty Caramel ice cream, check out the video below from the Food Network’s smartest foodie, Alton Brown.

Two Turkey Hill fans who are definitely football fans and DEFINTELY happy are Matthew Henry of Lewistown, PA and Sandy Giunta of West Pittston, PA. That’s because Matthew is the winner of our Eagles Touchdown Sundae Contest and Sandy is the winner of our Steelers Season Ticket Blitz Sweepstakes.

Matthew’s prize includes a fly-away road trip for himself and three guests to an Eagles away game complete with roundtrip airfare, hotel and gameday tickets. Matthew’s son, who loves Eagles Touchdown Sundae ice cream, will be one of his three guests. “We’ve never been to an Eagles game,” said Matthew. “We usually watch them on television because it’s so hard to get tickets—but we never miss a game!”

Sandy’s win includes a pair of 2012-2013 Steelers season tickets. Sandy couldn’t believe she won, but admitted that the Turkey Hill name must be lucky for her family. Last month, her cousin purchased a winning lottery ticket worth $69.5 million at a nearby Turkey Hill Minit Market.

“They say good luck comes in threes,” Sandy joked. “I’m waiting to see what the third piece will be for our family!”

Only 32 flavors can participate in the tournament (we’ll post more information about it next Monday), and we’re letting you – the voters – determine which flavors will earn the last spot in each of the tournament’s four flavor categories.

Cast your vote in the four polls in the right hand sidebar. The top vote-getter in each category will earn a spot in the final line-up, which will be announced next Monday along with some exciting new details about this year’s tournament!

The tempting image above is a bowl of Turkey Hill Philadelphia Style Vanilla Ice Cream topped with a crispy, fried, cinnamon-sugar tortilla. In other words, it’s what we wish we were eating right now! Does anyone agree?

Box of Chocolates is milk chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate raspberry cups, chocolate almonds and white chocolate chunks swirled with chocolate chips. For those keeping count, that’s five different chocolate things in a single flavor!

If you can’t find our romantic treat in your local freezer aisle, don’t panic. Just pick out your special someone’s favorite ice cream flavor and grab a card (guys: some flowers would be nice, too) and you’ll be okay!

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, which is one of the reasons why a recent article caught our eye. The story is about the romantic qualities of ice cream and, while we’ve never thought of ice cream in that way, apparently some people have. Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus, Ohio is one of those people.

“Ice cream is an extremely sensual experience,” said Bauer in an MSNBC.com article. “It’s cold when it first hits your lips — that sets everything off — then the sweetness comes out. After that, the flavor absorbed by the butterfat carries that scent to your nose.”

The article noted that Bauer’s store has served as the backdrop for several marriage proposals and one wedding. Some happy couples even used her ice cream at their wedding, “either by replacing the traditional cake with tasty scoops or incorporating it at the altar, holding ice cream cones and wrapping arms around each other to lick their significant other’s cone in an act of unification.”

Now that sounds like a wedding we’d like to be invited to!

Also high on our list is cute ice cream scoops like the one we’re giving away as this month’s prize. It’s the Boston Warehouse Frozen Friends penguin ice cream scoop and, as you can see above, it’s pretty darn adorable (that’s the back and front of it). The little guy is even weighted in the handle so you can stand him up instead of tossing him in the drawer with the rest of the not-cute kitchen utensils.

We’ll choose one comment at random from all the comment left on the blog this month to receive this frosty pal. Good luck!

We were a little stunned by the simple yet brilliant nature of the idea. After all, you’re the reason we write the blog and your comments are the best part of it, so why wouldn’t we ask you what stories should be covered more often?

With that question in mind, please take a few seconds to sound off in the poll in the right hand sidebar and offer some expanded input with a comment below. Your feedback will help shape the Ice Cream Journal in 2012 and beyond!

Previously, we wrote about a 91-year-old woman whose doctor remarked that he’d never in all his years of practicing medicine seen someone of her age with so much energy and liveliness. We also revealed that the super woman in question ate Turkey Hill ice cream every day.

We reached out to the ice cream lover the other day with a phone call and she was more than happy to talk to us. Her name is May, she sounds not a day over 60, and she lives in a retirement community in New Jersey. Early in our conversation, she wanted to set the record straight about her age: she’s not 91 years old, she’s 95 years old and healthier than ever!

When asked about her favorite ice cream flavor, May replied that good old fashioned Turkey Hill Vanilla & Chocolate (the combo flavor) is her go-to frozen treat. She also revealed that she eats three containers of Turkey Hill ice cream each week and that she’d never visited Lancaster County, which prompted an invitation from us to visit our neck of the woods and stop by the Dairy for a VIP tour. This week, May took us up on the offer and visited the Dairy with her son and granddaughter for a tour (that’s her above with Ernie).

Before we ended our conversation with May, we asked her to reveal her secret to a long, healthy life, to which she replied simply, “Think positive and eat ice cream.” Hard to argue with that!

We paid a visit to the Guinness Book of World Record website to see what the record books hold for ice cream feats, and the following is what we found. Which record do you think sounds the most extraordinary, and which one do you think Turkey Hill should take a shot at? We can’t say for sure if we’ll try it, but your input might inspire us to give it a shot!

1. “Most ice cream scoops thrown and caught in one minute by a team of two” — The record for most ice cream scoops thrown and caught in one minute by a team of two is 25, achieved by Gabriele Soravia (thrower) and Lorenzo Soravia (catcher) (both Germany), on the set of Guinness World Records – Die größten Weltrekorde in Cologne, Germany, on 1 September 2007.

2. “Most ice cream scoops balanced on a cone” — The most ice cream scoops balanced on a cone is 26 and was achieved by Terry Morris (New Zealand) on the set of Zheng Da Zong Yi – Guinness World Records Special in Beijing, China, on 20 May 2010.

3. “Most ice cream cones prepared in one minute” — The most ice cream cones prepared in one minute is 19 and is held by Mitch Cohen (USA) who broke the record on the Food Network TV show Paula’s Party on 28 June 2007.

4. “Most flavors of ice cream displayed together” –The most varieties of ice cream displayed together is 521 by the UPA Gelatieri Padova at the 500 tastes of solidarity event, Cavour Square, Padova, Italy on 28 March 2004.

5. “Longest ice cream dessert” — The longest ice cream dessert was a sundae measuring 39.77 m (130 ft 6 in) prepared by The Kids Club (USA) in Brunswick, Georgia, USA, on 12 November 2009.

6. “Longest chain of people licking ice cream” — The longest chain of people licking ice cream was achieved by 2,694 participants at an event organised by Augustana College (USA) in Rock Island, Illinois, USA, on 20 April 2010.

7. “Largest ice cream sculpture” — The world’s largest ice cream sculpture, shaped like an 18th century ship, weighed 925 kg (2,039.4 lb), used 1,715.54 litres (453.2 gal) of chocolate and vanilla ice cream and was created by Jacques Tokar, Antoine Tokar and Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream (all USA). The sculpture was unveiled at Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School, Burbank, California, USA on 14 November 2002.

8. “Largest (tallest) ice cream cone” — The largest ice cream cone measured 2.81 m (9 ft 2.63 in) in height and was achieved by Mirco Della Vecchia and Andrea Andrighetti (both Italy) during an event organised by Rimini Fiera and sponsored by Sigep, Fabbri, Incisoria Imar, Icam, Martellato (all Italy), at Rimini Fiera, in Rimini, Italy, on 22 January 2011.

For those of you who were less-than-appetized by Monday’s entry about mastic ice cream (mastic = piney fresh tree sap), we offer the photo above of a much more tempting scoop served in an sprinkle-encrusted cone. Unlike Monday’s entry, we don’t have to ask “would you eat it?” because we know almost everyone would!

As for the sprinkle cone, which uses a layer of chocolate to capture the sprinkles, we have just one question: Why don’t more ice cream shops use cones like that?!

By the way, the final two winners in our 12 Days of Ice Cream celebration finally claimed their prize. They are Yaritza R. of Nanticoke, PA (the ice cream pillow) and Valerie B. of Albrightsville, PA (the ice cream scoop). Congrats!

For those who aren’t familiar with it, mastic is a tree resin (like a sap). The earliest uses of hardened mastic were as a chewing gum. Today, mastic is used as an ingredient in various dishes in countries like Greece, Turkey, and Lebanon. So how does mastic ice cream taste? The Village Voice offers this input: “Naturally, piney flavors shine, plus the texture is slightly chewier than most ice creams.” That’s a picture of it above with a sour cherry sauce and chopped pistachios.

It doesn’t sound bad if you like your ice cream piney fresh, which leads us to the ultimate question — Would you eat it?

In the bottom photo, Brenda performs a test on some cream that has arrived at the Dairy to make sure it meets Turkey Hill’s standards. Employees who work in the mixing room communicate with the lab techs to make sure the cream has met our quality standards before it can be used to begin the ice cream making process.

Okay, here goes: Turkey Hill will not be creating the Turkey Hill wall calendar this year.

Trust us, it wasn’t an easy decision to make. We’d been making the free calendar for the last 12 years – as well as off and on throughout the 1940s and 50s – and we’ve enjoyed creating it as much as you enjoyed receiving it (sort of like our ice cream and iced tea). The calendar was a lot of fun and a wonderful way to build relationships and stay in touch with fans throughout the region, and we appreciated how they’d become fixtures in homes, offices, and all sorts of other places. But as the size of the mailing list grew, and as Turkey Hill evolved from a local ice cream maker to a national one, we needed to find more efficient ways to stay in touch with our fans.

Now for the good news. Turkey Hill’s marketing department is hard at work creating a new keepsake, which should be available for distribution in February. The new mailer is like the calendar in many ways: It’s free, it’s fun, it’s designed to be a year-round reminder of Turkey Hill, and it still has coupons for Turkey Hill ice cream and iced tea!

Those of you who were on the calendar mailing list will automatically receive the new keepsake, which we will offer a sneak peek of in a blog entry next week. (Hint: Like the calendar, it will help you remain organized and on task).

Stay tuned, and feel free to grab another bowl of ice cream – to celebrate the arrival of the new mailer, of course!

The Farm Show, hosted at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg each January, is one of the biggest shows of its kind in the nation, and a good time for anyone who enjoys animals, family fun and good food (Farm Show snacks are legendary!). This year’s Farm Show will kick off this Saturday, January 7 and will run through Saturday, January 14. Check out the Farm Show website for directions and more information.

As usual, Turkey Hill Dairy will be in attendance and our Giant Cow will be parked in front of the Farm Show Complex. We’ll have a booth inside the Main Hall  too, where we will be giving away free samples of a brand new flavor – Double Cookies n’ Cream. That’s right DOUBLE Cookies n’ Cream! (Vanilla flavored frozen dairy dessert stuffed with chocolate cookie pieces and crunchy chocolate cookie swirl)

As an added bonus this year for our blog readers, we’ll be giving away FREE full-sized containers of Turkey Hill ice cream (in the form of a coupon) to the first FIVE people who visit the Turkey Hill booth each day and mention the secret password “ERNIE.”

We hope to see you there!

Thanks to everyone who left a comment during the 12 Days of Ice Cream. If you’re a new commenter, we hope you decide to stick around after the New Year and become a regular commenter, because reading the blog comments is a daily highlight for many of us here at the Dairy (yes, we really do read every single comment).

There were definitely a lot of comments left on the blog during our 12 Days of Ice Cream celebration — 2,552 comments to be exact. From those 2,552 comments, 12 were chosen at random to receive each of our daily prizes. And those lucky winners are…

DAY 1 (ice cream pillow) – Still waiting to hear from the winner!

DAY 2 (ice cream crayons) – Catherine C. of Pine Hill, NJ

DAY 3 (ice cream magnet) – John L. of West Islip, NY

DAY 4 (ice cream greeting cards) – Kay B. of Fallentimber, PA

DAY 5 (ice cream ring) – Lesley H. of Columbia, PA

DAY 6 (ice cream pint cozy) – Kathleen W. of Catskill, NY

DAY 7 (baby ice cream sweater) – David G. of Avon, CT

DAY 8 (ice cream scoop) – Still waiting to hear from the winner!

DAY 9 (ice cream bowl) – Linda R. of Wharton, NJ

DAY 10 (ice cream spoon) – Randy F. of Marlton, NJ

DAY 11 (ice cream sandwich soap) – Val S. of Fairfield, CT

DAY 12 (ice cream lampshade ornaments) – Susan F. of Fuquay Varina, NC

We’ll be hosting some family-friendly fun which will include live music and outdoor activities like face painting, games, and more. Bo, Cylo, Turkey Hilda and more of Lancaster’s famous cast of strolling characters will be on hand as well as Turkey Hill’s Giant Cow.

Also, anyone who goes through the Experience on New Year’s Eve will get in for a special discount of $7 per person. The festivities will culminate with the first-ever dropping of Columbia’s giant ice cream cone (that’s it on the right) by the Columbia #1 Fire Department.

Visit the Turkey Hill Experience website for directions and more information. We hope to see you there!

Included in the hard work here at the Dairy are things like planning next year’s Limited Edition ice cream flavors (already done!), determining which events our Giant Cows will make appearances at, and working with new grocery stores who might want to stock Turkey Hill products in new cities and states.

Speaking of our 2012 Limited Edition ice cream flavors, we’ll be sharing those plans with you in an entry in January. Which leads us to our poll: Which of our 2011 Limited Edition flavors were your favorites? Sound off with your opinion in the poll in the right hand side bar. Because we know how hard it is to pick just one, you can choose up to three different flavors!

As we wrap up our 12 Days of Ice Cream festivities, we’d like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and thank you all for making this the best 12 Days celebration ever! Our final 12 Days of Ice Cream prize are glow-in-the-dark lampshade ornaments created by Etsy seller FFT & B, who describes the ornaments like this:

I really can’t get enough of glow in the dark clay and these ornaments are ten times better than night lights. You attach these to the brim of your lampshade with the lights on, wait a few minutes, turn them off…and Viola! You’ve got yourself your own light show.

We’ll choose one comment at random from all the comments left on this entry to receive this illuminating gift. In the spirit of Christmas, we’ll even throw in a one month supply of Turkey Hill Ice Cream. Good luck!

By a show of hands, who here has ever wished they could take a bath in ice cream? Okay, probably not that many of you, but it would be pretty neat to be able to wash your hands with ice cream, right?

Today’s prize will let you do that (sort of) because it’s soap in the shape of an ice cream sandwich! The soap sandwiches are even scented with chocolate for added realism! Love Lee Soaps, the Etsy seller who makes these cleansing treats, says the soaps “look good enough to eat.” That may be true, but we don’t recommend it.

We’ll choose one comment at random from all the comments left on this entry to receive not one but TWO bars of this squeaky clean gift. Good luck!

On Tuesday, the prize was an ice cream scoop and, on Wednesday, the prize was an ice cream bowl. On both days (and every day during our 12 Days of Ice Cream) we added some free Turkey Hill Ice Cream to the gift. So what’s left to complete our ice cream equation? That’s right, a spoon!

Today’s prize is a personalized upcycled vintage ice cream spoon from Sycamore Hill on Etsy. Sycamore Hill specializes in upcycled silverware, which is the practice of taking something old — like silverware, ice cream containers, or snack bags — and giving them a fresh new life or purpose. In this case, it’s purpose is similar to its original purpose, but an old Turkey Hill ice cream container could be upcycled into a bird feeder, for example.

Sycamore Hill has this to say about this spoon:

This listing is for one custom TABLESPOON, personalized any way you wish. These are a great gift to send off to college or for a unique and personal birthday gift ~ use your imagination, you are not limited to ice cream. All of my spoons are vintage silverplate is absolute pristine condition! I also use excellent quality pieces, rest assured your custom piece will be a work of art! Please let me know the style of the silver pattern you are interested, simple/plain, floral, art deco. I will choose an appropriate patterns based on your preferences.

So, yes, you will be able to choose which type of spoon your name will be placed on. And it doesn’t have to say “(YOUR NAME)’s ice cream“. It can say “Hands off my ice cream!” or “My sweet treat” or maybe even “I love my Turkey Hill!” (just throwin’ that last one out there as an idea).

We’ll choose one comment at random from all the comments left on this entry to win this prize (along with some free Turkey Hill Ice Cream, of course). Leave a comment below and let us know what message you’d have placed on this spoon if you won. for those who are wondering, we’ll choose the winners of all of our 12 Days of Ice Cream prizes on Monday of next week. Good luck!

Now that you’ve scooped your ice cream using yesterday’s prize, the bocote wood ice cream scoop, you’ll need a bowl to serve it in, right? That’s where today’s gift comes in. The “perfect little ice cream bowl” — as it’s called by the artist who created it — features a ruffled edge and a floating blue glaze. The Etsy seller offering the bowl, Wild Card Pottery, offers this description:

Perfect for a generous serving of ice cream when you deserve a treat, warm creamy soup when you are feeling the chill of winter or a comfortingly crunchy bowl of cereal when you need some help getting back to sleep at 2 am. The glaze on this little cutie is a rich earthy brown with powder blue crystals floating on the surface where the glaze is thickest.

We’ll choose one comment at random from all the comments left on this entry to receive this sweet ceramic present, along with some free Turkey Hill ice cream to put inside it. Good luck!

To recap the 12 Days of Ice Cream, so far our daily gifts have been an ice cream pillow, ice cream crayons, an ice cream magnet, ice cream greeting cards, an ice cream ring, a pint cozy, and a baby sweater with an ice cream cone on it. We’ll choose our daily winners at the end of the celebration, so if you’d like to put your name in the running for any of those prizes, feel free to revisit them and leave a comment.

Speaking of leaving a comment, you’ll definitely want to add yourself to the list of potential recipients for today’s 12 Days of Ice Cream gift — a hand-crafted bocote wood ice cream scoop. The Etsy seller who made this beautiful kitchen accessory, whose store is aptly named Craftiness, describes the scoop like this:

Scoop your ice cream with elegance and flair with this attractive and unusual scoop. Features attractive and durable Gold Titanium plating, gunmetal chrome accents, and a convenient thumb rest for easier scooping. Includes an attractive Gold TN plated end cap. With lathe-turned handle of exotic Bocote, this scoop that will last for years to come.

As you can see in the photo above (look closely, and you might be able to see the photographer), bocote is a beautiful wood, which is why it’s prized by woodworkers worldwide. More information about bocote wood can be found here. And if you’re wondering how to say the name of the wood, there are many variations, but the common pronunciation is “ba-KO-tay.”

We”ll choose one comment from all the comments left on this entry to receive this handy hand-me-down. And since an ice cream scoop is no fun without some ice cream, we’ll throw in some free Turkey Hill ice cream, too. Good luck!

We’re half way through our 12 Days of Ice Cream celebration (bummer, right?), but it’s okay because that means we’ve still got six great prizes to give away.

Today’s gift is one of those great prizes. It’s an adorable handmade baby sweater created by Hearthside Handworks. The crafty momma behind the cozy creation is from right here in Lancaster County and is, in fact, the mother of a member of the Turkey Hill marketing team.

The sweater (photo above) is a size 4, 100 percent cotton, and is machine washable. We’ll choose one comment from all the comments left on this entry to win this prize. As always, we’ll throw in some free Turkey Hill ice cream. Good luck!

FACT: Turkey Hill makes a wide variety of ice creams in pint sizes. FACT: Eating ice cream from a pint is fun, but often results in frozen fingers (which isn’t fun).

It’s true, Turkey Hill does make pint-sized ice cream and eating ice cream from a pint does result in a mild but totally worth it case of frostbite. Today’s prize — the ice cream pint cozy — is designed to eliminate the frosty fingers while also insulating your ice cream and keeping it nice and cold. The Etsy seller behind these little ice cream sweaters, A&B Originals, describes them like this:

Our sox are very different from others … they have a bottom. The entire ice cream pint is covered, and the crocheted cover will absorb any moisture from the container as the ice cream is eaten.

We’ll choose one comment from all the comments left on this entry to win this ice cream insulator (your choice of colors — check them out here). As always, we’ll throw in some free Turkey Hill ice cream. Good luck!

UPDATE: If you’re interested in purchasing one of these cozy’s (only $10!), the crafty lady behind A&B Originals had this to say in a comment on this entry: MENTION TURKEY HILL ICE CREAM in your message to seller while checking out and get a 20% discount refunded to you. Thanks again Turkey Hill for featuring my wild and crazy ice cream cozy, I have enjoyed reading all of the comments !!!

If you’ve ever tried to wear a scoop of ice cream as a piece of jewelry, you probably know that it melts pretty quickly and makes a big mess out of your fancy dinner dress. Etsy seller Art Wonders found a way around that dilemma by creating a ring with a tiny scoop of chocolate peanut butter ice cream made from polymer clay.

The ring, pictured above, is adjustable but not edible (sorry). We’ll choose one comment at random from all of the comments left on this entry to receive this realistic charm along with some free Turkey Hill ice cream. Good luck!

Does anyone send cards and letters anymore? Sadly, not many of us do, what with the invention of email and text messaging all but eliminating the need to drop a letter in the mailbox now and then.

We propose a return of this time-honored communication tactic and we’re going to give away three hand made ice cream greeting cards to help get the ball rolling. These stitched greeting cards (photo above) are made by Etsy seller Polka Dot Shop. The cards measure roughly 4 inches by 5 inches and come with envelopes, which means the only thing you need to add is a stamp (and probably some sort of message)!

We’ll choose one comment at random from all of the comments left on this entry to receive this postal present along with some free Turkey Hill ice cream. Good luck!

The refrigerator, in addition to being a place to store delicious food and ice cream, is a place to display all sorts of artwork, lists, photos and other mementos (on the outside of the fridge, not the inside). Today’s prize – a hand made ice cream magnet – is a contribution to that collection. The magnet is the green one featured in the photo above and is made by Etsy seller Yaelel 365, who notes in the magnet’s description that it’s approximately 7 cm tall (almost 3 inches).

We’ll choose one comment at random from all of the comments left on this entry to receive this magnetic memento along with some free Turkey Hill ice cream. Good luck!

Speaking of refrigerators (or, in this case, freezers), it’s a little known fact that hockey pucks are stored in a freezer prior to being used in a game. Using a warm “biscuit” would cause the puck to bounce on the ice, and that’s not good. The Hershey Bears professional hockey team chills their pucks in Turkey Hill freezer (see photo on the right and article here).

Turkey Hill and the Bears are teaming up this Sunday, December 18, for “Turkey Hill Experience Night” at the Giant Center. Tickets are available online or at the game. As part of the night’s festivities, the first 3,000 fans will receive a $10 gift card redeemable at the Turkey Hill Experience. We hope to see you there!

Remember coloring books and crayons? Of course you do! Today’s 12 Days of Ice Cream prize, pictured above, will help you relive that childhood memory (coloring book not included). The crayons are made from recycled crayons (i.e. those little broken bits that were doomed to get sucked up by the vacuum cleaner) and are described by Etsy seller Red Elm Designs:

I have handmade fun Ice Cream Cone shaped crayons. Each crayon is about 2.75 inches by 1.50 inches. Each crayon set will come in its own reclosable bag ready to be given as a gift. We only use high quality crayons so they all color great. For this order you will get a total of 14 Ice Cream Cone crayons in all different colors.

We’ll choose one comment at random from all of the comments left on this entry to receive this colorful keepsake along with some free Turkey Hill ice cream. Good luck!

They say ice cream is a “comfort food” – ranking right up there with macaroni & cheese and chicken noodle soup. With that in mind, we’d like to kick off our 12 Days of Ice Cream celebration with a prize that puts a literal spin on the comfort found in ice cream – the ice cream pillow.

The plush prize pictured above is made by Etsy seller Lollipop Pillows and is described thusly:

This pillow cover is made for a 14X14 pillow insert. Insert is included. The cover is made up of 100% burlap and each layer on the design is hand cut from Eco felt made from recycled plastic bottles. The back has an easy access envelope back. You have the option of choosing the white burlap (pictured above). If you don’t like burlap or felt, I can also make it from fleece for a softer feel.

We’ll choose one comment at random from all of the comments left on this entry to receive this comfy gift. And, with all of our daily prizes during our 12 Days of Ice Cream celebration, we’ll also throw in some free Turkey Hill ice cream. Good luck!

Our Rum Raisin Ice Cream, which used to be a Limited Edition seasonal flavor like Egg Nog but is now available year round, is also performing well.

Speaking of hot cakes (we’ll explain the reference later), we’d be remiss in our holiday cheer-spreading duties if we didn’t remind everyone that Turkey Hill’s Egg Nog beverage – in regular Egg Nog and Light Vanilla Nog – is also available in most stores where Turkey Hill milk is sold. Popular food blog Serious Eats recently published a positive review of our nog, commenting that it “tasted like the eggnog (we remember) from growing up.”

Now, about the hot cakes reference. If you don’t like drinking egg nog (we know there are some people out there who don’t), you might consider using it as an ingredient in all sort of holiday recipes posted on the Turkey Hill website. Our collection of nog-centric concoctions includes Egg Nog Cookies, Egg Nog Cheesecake and, for breakfast, some Egg Nog Pancakes.

We’ve even got some recipes for desserts using Turkey Hill Egg Nog Ice Cream. Word of advice, try the Crispy Egg Nog Crunch. You’ll never look at Rice Krispie Treats the same way again.

———————–

P.S. – If you tried to leave a comment on yesterday’s entry announcing the winner of our Ultimate Holiday Recipe Contest but were unable to, the entry has been fixed and comments are now enabled. Feel free to take a second look at the entry and let us know if you’ll be making the winning recipe. We’ll choose one comment from yesterday’s entry to receive some free Turkey Hill ice cream!

Have we stalled long enough for dramatic effect? Good. The winner of the 2011 Ultimate Holiday Recipe Contest (Chocolate Overload Edition) is…

Teressa C. of Dayton, NJ and her Fudge Merri-Mints ice cream sandwiches!

Congrats Teressa! Her Fudge Merri-Mints (recipe here and photo below) battled Hidemi’s Sweet Potato Ice Cream Chocolate Pie (recipe here), Connie’s Chocolate Strawberry Cherry Parfait (recipe here), and Mary’s Triple Chocolate Ice Cream Crepes (recipe here). Each finalist will receive a one month supply of Turkey Hill Ice Cream and, for her victory, Teressa gets a one year supply of Turkey Hill Ice Cream.

The celebration starts next Wednesday (December 14) and will feature a new blog entry posted each day in the 12 days leading up to Christmas. The fun part is that each entry will feature a different ice cream-related prize, which we’ll give away to one commenter chosen at random from each blog entry.

This year’s prizes include an ice cream pillow, ice cream Crayons, an ice cream ring and lots of other goodies. Of course, free Turkey Hill ice cream will also be included with each prize. To get everyone in the mood, we’re reprinting our very own version of the “12 Days of Ice Cream” song (sung to tune of “The 12 Days of Christmas”). Enjoy!

“THE 12 DAYS OF ICE CREAM”

On the first day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

On the second day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
two waffle cones,
and a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

On the third day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
three hot fudge sundaes,
two waffle cones,
and a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

On the fourth day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
four ice cream cakes,
three hot fudge sundaes,
two waffle cones,
and a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

On the fifth day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
five golden spoons!
Four ice cream cakes,
three hot fudge sundaes,
two waffle cones,
and a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

On the sixth day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
six pints of Moose Tracks,
five golden spoons!
Four ice cream cakes,
three hot fudge sundaes,
two waffle cones,
and a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

On the seventh day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
seven banana splits,
six pints of Moose Tracks,
five golden spoons!
Four ice cream cakes,
three hot fudge sundaes,
two waffle cones,
and a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

On the eighth day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
eight bowls of sherbet,
seven banana splits,
six pints of Moose Tracks,
five golden spoons!
Four ice cream cakes,
three hot fudge sundaes,
two waffle cones,
and a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

On the ninth day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
nine ice cream sandwiches,
eight bowls of sherbet,
seven banana splits,
six pints of Moose Tracks,
five golden spoons!
Four ice cream cakes,
three hot fudge sundaes,
two waffle cones,
and a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

On the tenth day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
10 cones a-melting,
nine ice cream sandwiches,
eight bowls of sherbet,
seven banana splits,
six pints of Moose Tracks,
five golden spoons!
Four ice cream cakes,
three hot fudge sundaes,
two waffle cones,
and a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

On the eleventh day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
11 chocolate milkshakes,
10 cones a-melting,
nine ice cream sandwiches,
eight bowls of sherbet,
seven banana splits,
six pints of Moose Tracks,
five golden spoons!
Four ice cream cakes,
three hot fudge sundaes,
two waffle cones,
and a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

On the twelfth day of ice cream,
my true love gave to me,
12 bites of Rocky Road,
11 chocolate milkshakes,
10 cones a-melting,
nine ice cream sandwiches,
eight bowls of sherbet,
seven banana splits,
six pints of Moose Tracks,
five golden spoons!
Four ice cream cakes,
three hot fudge sundaes,
two waffle cones,
and a scoop of Turkey Hill ice cream!

We also knew that you can’t have a birthday party without ice cream, so we created a Limited Edition ice cream flavor in honor of Millersville’s anniversary. The flavor – Swan Swirl – is available only at the Turkey Hill Experience Café & Creamery and is described as premium vanilla ice cream swirled with chocolate and marshmallow.

The flavor was unveiled at the Millersville 250th anniversary Grand Finale event, held at the Turkey Hill Experience on November 27, and was named after the famous swans which make their home in the Millersville University pond. One article about the Grand Finale party noted the special relationship between Turkey Hill and Millersville’s founding family:

“There has always been a unique connection between the Millersville Borough and Turkey Hill.  The Millers purchased their land at the same time the Frey family, the founders of Turkey Hill, bought theirs.  This would make them Millersville’s first neighbors.”

If you missed the event, you can still get a taste of Swan Swirl for yourself at the Turkey Hill Experience Café & Creamery throughout December and into the New Year!

After you vote, leave a comment below to let us know which recipe you liked best…or maybe even what you’d change about any of the recipes. To help refresh your taste buds, each of the four finalist recipes are posted below. As always, try not to drool on your keyboard!

FINALIST #1 – Fudge Merri-Mints (Teressa C. of Dayton, NJ)

FINALIST #2 – Sweet Potato Ice Cream Chocolate Pie (Hidemi W. of Plainfield, IN)

FINALIST #3 – Chocolate Strawberry Cherry Parfait (Connie M. of Monroeville, PA)

FINALIST #4 – Triple Chocolate Ice Cream Crepes (Mary L. of Columbia, SC)

Triple Chocolate Ice Cream Crepes

DESCRIPTION: Cocoa crepes filled with your choice of Turkey Hill ice cream and topped with a buttery chocolate drizzle.

SUBMITTED BY: Mary L. of Columbia, SC

INGREDIENTS

CREPES

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons melted butter
• Vegetable cooking spray

FILLING AND TOPPINGS

• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons crème de cacao
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 quart Turkey Hill Premium Chocolate Ice Cream (or choice of ice cream)
• 1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds

DIRECTIONS

To make crepes, combine flour, cocoa, sugar and salt. Add milk and almond extract, and beat on low until smooth. Add egg and beat well and stir in melted butter. Refrigerate batter for two hours or longer.

When ready to cook crepes, spray the bottom of a 6-inch crepe pan or heavy skillet with cooking spray. Heat until just hot, add two tablespoons batter to the pan. Quickly tilt pan in all directions so batter covers pan evenly. Cook one minute or until lightly browned. When the crepe can be shaken loose from the pan, flip the crepe and cook about 30 seconds on the other side. Place crepes on a towel to cool. Repeat until all batter is used. Makes 10 6-inch crepes.

To make topping sauce, place chocolate chips and butter in a large microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 45 seconds or until melted. Stir until smooth. Add powdered sugar, corn syrup, crème de cacao, water and vanilla and stir until smooth.

In the center of a crepe, spoon about 3 tablespoons of ice cream down the center. Fold sides over and place on serving plate seam side down (2 crepes per serving). Spoon warm chocolate sauce over each crepe and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Strawberry Cherry Parfait

DESCRIPTION: Turkey Hill Vanilla and Chocolate Ice Cream blended with cherry and strawberry Jell-O flavoring and layered with whipped cream and crushed chocolate cookies.

SUBMITTED BY: Connie M. of Monroeville, PA

INGREDIENTS

• 1 small box of Cherry Jell-O
• 1 small box of Strawberry Jell-O dissolved in3/4 cup boiling water
• 1 1/2 cups Turkey Hill Chocolate  ice cream.
• 1 1/2 cups French Vanilla Turkey Hill ice cream
• large container of cool whip
• 10-12 crushed Oreo cookies
• Maraschino cherries
• Hot fudge topping

DIRECTIONS

Dissolve cherry Jell-O in 3/4 cup of boiling water. Cool to luke warm. Stir the chocolate ice cream in to the Jell-O. With an electric mixer, beat until very fluffy. Set aside.

Dissolve strawberry Jell-O in 3/4 cup of boiling water. Cool to luke warm. Stir the vanilla ice cream in to the Jell-O. With mixer, beat until very fluffy. Set aside.

Using eight parfait glasses, place thin layer of crushed cookies at bottom. Then add a thick layer of cherry/chocolate mixture, then a layer Cool Whip, a thin layer of cookies, followed by a thick layer of strawberry/vanilla mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Before serving, top with dollop of whipped cream and a cherry. Sprinkle lightly with finely crushed cookie and drizzle with hot fudge.

Sweet Potato Ice Cream Chocolate Pie

DESCRIPTION: A sweet potato pie blended with honey and ice cream in a chocolate crust and topped with whipped cream and shaved dark chocolate.

SUBMITTED BY: Hidemi W. of Plainfield, IN

INGREDIENTS

• 1 ready-made chocolate pie crust
• 1 lb sweet potato
• 3/4  cup Turkey Hill Vanilla Ice Cream, melted
• 2 tablespoons Butter
• 1 tablespoon Honey
• Whipped cream
• 1/3 cup Shaved Dark Chocolate

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Peel and cut sweet potato into half-inch cubes. Boil water in a sauce pan, add sweet potatoes and cook until tender. Drain and transfer to a bowl. Add ice cream, honey and melted butter to the sweet potato. Blend well by hand or with blender until creamy. Pour the filling into the pie crust and bake for 30-35 minutes. Let cool completely then served topped with whipped cream and shaved chocolate.

FUDGE MERRI-MINTS

DESCRIPTION: Turkey Hill Skinny Minty Ice Cream sandwiched between two chocolatey cookies and rolled in crushed mint chocolate candy cane.

SUBMITTED BY: Teressa C. of Dayton, NJ

INGREDIENTS

• 1 package of chocolate chips
• 2 oz of unsweetened chocolate
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 chocolate mint candy canes (regular candy canes work, too)

DIRECTIONS

In a heavy medium saucepan, melt half the chocolate chips, the unsweetened chocolate and the butter. Stir. Remove pot from the stove and mix in the eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla and baking powder. Next, stir in the rest of the chocolate chips. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spoon the batter onto a non-stick cookie sheet (batter should yield 10-14 cookies). Bake cookies for nine minutes. Remove cookies from oven and allow to cool completely before removing from cookie sheet. Once cooled, place a generous amount of Skinny Minty Ice Cream between two cookies. Roll the outer edge of the ice cream in crushed chocolate mint candy cane. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving is a day for many things. It’s a day for getting together with friends and family. It’s a day for enjoying great food (followed by a nap). It’s a day for sharing. It’s a day for football. But most of all, it’s a day for giving thanks for all of the wonderful things in our lives. What are you thankful for on this special day?

And before you ask – no, the “Turkey Day Triple Fudge” featured above is not our next Limited Edition offering. Some of our readers might remember the phony flavor from our April Fool’s entry in 2010, which described the treat as packed with “morsels of real turkey covered in dark chocolate swirled with sweet potato, chocolate fudge and cranberry sauce.”

The fact that this isn’t a real ice cream flavor is one more thing you can be thankful for!

NAME: Craig S.

HOMETOWN: Dover, PA

POSITION AT TURKEY HILL DAIRY: Research and Development Coordinator

FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR: Fried Ice Cream

HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED AT TURKEY HILL? 16 years

WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AT TURKEY HILL?

I work on developing new ice cream flavors in our test kitchen. For example, I created our Double Dunker flavor by combining cookie dough pieces, chocolate cookie swirl, and mocha ice cream. Our team also works with vendors to come up with new ingredients to mix into our ice cream. R & D also organizes taste panels, so that other people can test and evaluate what we come up with.

WHAT HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR FLAVORS THAT YOU HAVE DEVELOPED?

I created Party Cake ice cream in 2000 (vanilla flavored ice cream swirled with buttercream frosting and multi-colored cake pieces). It started out as an ice cream for the millennium, originally called “Y 2 Cake.” This flavor was only going to be a Limited Edition, but we had so many requests to keep the flavor that we changed the name to Party Cake and kept it on permanently.

WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON?

Family, friends, and a freezer full of Turkey Hill ice cream!

• THE FAKE NEWS STORY IS… – Last Monday’s “Spot the Fake Ice Cream News” entry didn’t fool many of you, as most of you correctly guessed story #1 (about a man who survived by eating ice cream after getting trapped in a walk-in freezer for three days) as the bogus news item. That incident never happened but, like we said before, aside from the sub-zero temperatures of the freezer, being trapped with hundreds of gallons of ice cream isn’t so bad, is it?

• SEND US YOUR CHOCOLATEY RECIPE! – The deadline for this year’s Ultimate Holiday Recipe Contest (Chocolate Overload Edition) is November 25th, so you’ve got less than a week to send your best recipe to icecreamjournal@gmail.com. The only requirements: The recipe has to use Turkey Hill ice cream and it has be a chocolate lover’s dream come true (more details here). One recipe will win the grand prize: A year’s supply of Turkey Hill ice cream!

• SPEAKING OF RECIPE CONTESTS… – We don’t spend much time talking about milkshakes here on the Ice Cream Journal, which is a shame because milkshakes are delicious. We’ll talk more about shakes in the future (starting with the image above), but we wanted to poll our readers to see what you think about having a milkshake recipe contest here on the blog in the near future (probably in the Spring). Do you think it’s a good idea? Would you enter a recipe or two of your own?

It’s sort of become a running joke that nothing soothes personal heartache like curling up on the couch in your pajamas while drowning your sorrows in a pint of your favorite ice cream. This is usually the remedy for women recovering from the end of a relationship, but ice cream is the ultimate comfort food, so it probably applies to men, too.

Saturday Night Live took this advice to comical levels in a skit this weekend which featured a few pints of Turkey Hill ice cream. A screen shot of the skit can be seen above and you can check out the episode of SNL on Hulu (the Turkey Hill skit is toward the end, just after the 52 minute mark).

1. A NIGHTMARE … OR A DREAM COME TRUE? – When Tacoma, Washington grocery clerk Alex Krieder found himself locked inside walk-in freezer for nearly 48 hours while the grocery warehouse was closed for a three-day weekend, he did what any of us would have done in order to survive: He ate ice cream. “I probably didn’t need to eat as much ice cream as I did, but after the first 24 hours, I started getting pretty hungry,” said Krieder, who prevented himself from freezing by disabling the freezer’s temperature control system.

2. NOW YOU CAN EAT YOUR VEGGIES FOR DESSERT! — San Francisco-based trend foreceasters Andrew Freeman & Co. have announced that parents will soon have a new way to get their kids to eat their veggies thanks to an increase in vegetable-flavored ice cream. Examples of the trend can be seen at many upscale restaurants, including Mario Batali’s New York eatery Del Posto, where they offer a sorbet flavored with celery and fig.

3. WHAT, NO ICE CREAM CAMP FOR ADULTS? — Michigan ice cream shop Treat Dreams has created a three-hour “Kids Winter Break Ice Cream Camp” which, the store says, gives parents the perfect opportunity to get some holiday shopping done.  The $35 half-day camp lets kids design and make their own ice cream flavors and compete in teams. Each team’s flavor will be served at the store the following day.

4. THE FASTEST ICE CREAM MAN ON THE PLANET — In 2010, Brett Simala began selling ice cream at Arizona’s Cocapah Speedway. His love of ice cream was eclipsed only by his love of auto racing, which explains why he’d stop selling ice cream during the race track’s short events in order to watch each race.  “I should be out there; I can beat those guys,” thought Simala. So he got himself a race car and did just that, driving off with a win in a division heat race before winning the feature event soon thereafter.

This cocoa-laden image should serve as a reminder of our Ultimate Holiday Recipe Contest (Chocolate Overload Edition). In case you haven’t heard, we’re giving away a year’s supply of ice cream the top recipe. All recipes should contain Turkey Hill ice cream and, like the contest’s name implies, should also contain plenty of chocolate. To enter, just send your best recipe to icecreamjournal@gmail.com before November 25. It can be a “family recipe” or just something you found 10 minutes ago online…it’s up to you!

Speaking of chocolate, there are seven flavors in the Turkey Hill Premium Ice Cream line that contain the word “chocolate” in the name (not counting the Light Recipe or All Natural Recipe lines). Chocolate and Dutch Chocolate are two of the flavors. Limited Edition German Chocolate Cake is another. Can anyone name the other four chocolate-named flavors?

In the Dairy laboratory – where our tea, ice cream and milk are tested for quality, freshness and other factors – is a small room known as the shelf life cooler. In it, you’ll find a wide variety of Turkey Hill products all meticulously labeled by our laboratory staff.

The products are stored until after their expiration date (and sometimes well beyond), at which point they are tested to make sure they are capable of standing the test of time and living up to Turkey Hill’s high standards of freshness and quality. And yes, our lab techs perform actual taste tests on all of the products. Above is Cindy checking the date of a tea.

More than 1,400 students submitted responses in an effort to claim the $5,000 prize given to the middle school and high school students with the best stories. After reading all 1,400 stories (yes, we read each and every one of them), one thing is for certain: Our nation’s students are smart, articulate and full of hope about our nation and its future.

Every story submitted was outstanding, which made our job of choosing one from each age group that much more difficult. But, after a considerable amount of discussion and debate, we were finally able to identify the winners of the $5,000 in scholarship money. And the winners are…

ETHAN L.

HOMETOWN: Seaford, DE

SCHOOL: Homeschooled (Grade 12)

FUTURE PLANS: After he graduates from high school, Ethan plans to continue his education in religious studies.

ESSAY TITLE: “Liberty and Justice for All”

EXCERPT: America is the nation that she is because of the fact that her people are strong believers in freedom, hope, responsibility, dedication, and hard work. The character of America’s people is what makes me proud to be identified with our great nation. America’s people are the industrious, free, kind people that they are, because liberty isn’t only printed on our coins, it’s engraved on our hearts. That’s what liberty means to me, and that’s why I am, and always will be, proud to be an American.

JULIA H.

HOMETOWN: Clinton, CT

SCHOOL: Jared Eliot Middle School (Grade 7)

FUTURE PLANS: When she graduates in 2017, Julia plans to attend college. To her, “the future is fun to think about” because she’s interested in so many areas, including music, law and medicine.

ESSAY TITLE: “Liberty is Power”

EXCERPT: Liberty is freedom, and in America, freedom is abundant. Everywhere we turn there are examples of the everyday liberties scattered within our lives. To name them all would be impossible, and having those freedoms – independence and control over ourselves – is something many of us may take for granted, but in reality, it is special, and it is a gift. What Lady Liberty symbolizes is the philosophy of the United States, and how special and privileged all of her citizens are. Lady Liberty symbolizes the gift of freedom, and the individual power it grants us.

We also chose 10 essays as honorable mentions, and each of those students will receive a one-month supply of Turkey Hill ice cream. Congratulations to Ethan and Julia, and thank you again to all of the students who took time to enter the Lady Liberty Essay Contest. You’re all winners in our book!

We’re posting the photo of the delicious looking chocolate ice cream cake above for two reasons. The first is because it looks absolutely incredible. (If you agree, check it out on Milly and Tilly’s website.) The second reason is to remind everyone to send in your recipes for our Ultimate Holiday Recipe Contest (Chocolate Overload Edition) before November 25. Like we said before, your recipe can be a drink, a pie, a cake, or something entirely different! The only requirements are that it includes Turkey Hill ice cream – preferably as a main ingredient – and lots of chocolate.

The best part is, it doesn’t even have to be a recipe that you’ve made before. It can be a recipe you just discovered! You check out all the details about the contest here, but we should remind everyone that the prize is a ONE YEAR SUPPLY OF TURKEY HILL ICE CREAM. We put that in all caps because it’s a great prize, isn’t it?

The Ice Cream Journal is all grown up now, but we remember that day fondly. At the time, we weren’t sure if there’d be enough stuff to write about to keep an ice cream blog going for five months, much less five whole years! But here we are, 754 blog entries and 50,995 comments later, and we’re showing no signs of slowing.

So grab a bowl of your favorite ice cream and join us in looking forward to another five years of ice cream blogging fun and excitement. In the words of Turkey Hill President Quintin Frey on our  very first blog entry, “This blog is meant to be fun. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy writing it. And, just like ice cream, feel free to share it with friends!”

The Turkey Hill team is with the Statue of Liberty today, where they’re giving away free samples of her namesake ice cream flavor. On the right is a photo of one of the Turkey Hill staffers with Lady Liberty in the background. If you “just happen to be in the area,” stop by and say hello!

According to an MSNBC.com article about today’s festivities, there’s a lot going on to celebrate the big day: “A total of 125 immigrants from 46 countries have been sworn in as United States citizens at a ceremony marking the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. Lady Liberty is (also) getting a high-tech uplift for her birthday. Five webcams attached to the torch held high in New York harbor will offer views not seen by the public in nearly a century.”

The views from the video cameras can be seen online (here). Feel free to check them out…perhaps while enjoying some Lady Liberty Mint Premium Ice Cream!

(UPDATE: This month’s Find that Experience has already been found. Stay tuned for another Find that Experience opportunity in December!)

P.S. – Not sure how many of you noticed, but our new “autumn” blog header has been installed, replacing the old “farm and field” image we used throughout the summer. Before long, we’ll update it again with a wintery image. Until then, enjoy the changing fall colors!

This year’s Yankees Sweepstakes winner was Patrick Jacob of Syosset, NY. Patrick, his wife Jane and kids were treated to dinner with Yankees legend Mickey Rivers. That’s the Jacobs — minus Patrick, who served as photographer – with Rivers on the right.

Fans know Rivers best as the speedy leadoff-hitting centerfielder for the Yanks when they won back-to-back world championships in 1977 and 1978.

The Jacobs, who describe themselves as “the world’s biggest Yankees fans,” had a great time with “Mick the Quick.” In addition to a few priceless memories, Patrick and his family took home some autographs signed by the man many historians call “the fastest Yankee of all time.”

The Yankees Sweepstakes will return next year. Although we don’t yet know which Yankees legend will dine with our winner, one thing’s for sure – it’ll be an unforgettable experience!

Tweet ups are typically open to Twitter users, but we wanted to let our blog readers know about a tweet up that’s open to all fans of Turkey Hill and fans of free ice cream. That’s right, we said free ice cream. Anyone who orders one of our café’s delicious sandwiches during the tweet up will get a free large cone of our Limited Edition pumpkin soft serve ice cream. In addition to the free frozen goodies, we might also give away free Turkey Hill ice cream in the form of drawings held throughout the 90 minute event.

If you’re in the area on Tuesday evening and looking for a quick bite to eat and a chance to meet some fellow Turkey Hill fans, this is the place to be. Feel free to RSVP on the invite page or just show up with a friend or two. Either way, we hope to see you there!

In past Ultimate Holiday Recipe Contests, we asked you to use our holiday-themed Limited Edition flavors, but this year’s recipe contest is even simpler (and tastier):

You can use any Turkey Hill ice cream flavor you’d like, but the recipe has to include one key ingredient – chocolate.

Your recipe can be a drink, a pie, a cake, or something entirely different! The only requirements are that it includes Turkey Hill ice cream – preferably as a main ingredient – and lots of chocolate. If you have allergies to chocolate (first of all, you have our deepest sympathies), feel free to submit a recipe anyhow … but have a friend serve as your taste-tester!

E-mail your entries, along with your name and address, to icecreamjournal@gmail.com before midnight on Friday, November 25 to be entered to win the grand prize – a one year supply of Turkey Hill ice cream. At that time, we’ll choose our four favorite recipes (each of whom will receive a one month supply of ice cream) which will be posted here on the Ice Cream Journal. Blog readers will then vote to determine the winner.

As always, you can submit as many recipes as you’d like. And remember: There’s no such thing as “too much chocolate.”

Ever wonder what’s happening at Turkey Hill Dairy on any given day? With the “dairy cam” at the Turkey Hill Experience, you don’t have to wonder because you can watch what’s happening at that very moment at our Dairy headquarters just a few miles from the Experience.

On a series of monitors, you can see the raw receiving room (where shipments of milk and cream arrive every day), the quality assurance lab (where Turkey Hill food scientists test each batch of ice cream and iced tea to make sure it’s as good as it can be), the liquid processing room, the batching room , the warehouse and the heart of the Dairy, the ice cream production room. If you look closely, you might even see Ernie hard at work!

NAME: Melissa H.

HOMETOWN: Wrightsville, PA

POSITION AT TURKEY HILL: Tea Filler on Production Line

FAVORITE ICE CREAM AND ICED TEA FLAVOR: My favorite ice cream flavor is Peanut Butter Ripple and my favorite iced tea flavor is Diet Green Tea Mango.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED AT TURKEY HILL: 11 years (since 2000)

WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AT TURKEY HILL?

I make sure that everyone takes their breaks off of the tea production line when they need one. I help oversee the filling of all our tea bottles. My team and I also make sure that all of the tea labels are being placed on the bottles in the correct way.

HOW MANY TEA BOTTLES DOES YOUR TEAM FILL PER DAY?

On average, we can run up to 250,000 gallons of tea in a 24 hour period. During our busy season, that number can go well above 300,000 gallons! Tea production has three shifts working a six day rotation, but sometimes we need to have production seven days per week.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT WORKING FOR TURKEY HILL?

My favorite thing is that I enjoy the people I work with, and the people I work for. I believe that Turkey Hill really cares about its employees, and they will listen to our feedback about how to make things even better.

GOT ANY GOOD STORIES ABOUT WORKING HERE?

I love the Turkey Hill Olympics! Every other year, our Wellness Committee puts together an Olympics for employees. We get in small teams and compete for first place. I am on the committee, so it’s fun for me to plan this event and then see it all come together. Our next one is February of 2012!

At the Creamery & Café, you can enjoy café-style light meals, including freshly prepared hot and cold sandwiches and paninis, soups and salads, and a fully stocked selection of your favorite Turkey Hill iced teas and drinks. And that’s just the “Café” part. On the “Creamery” side is an assortment of 32 different Turkey Hill Ice Cream flavors, including special selections available only at the Creamery & Café (that’s how our new Limited Edition Whoopie Pie flavor came about).

The nice part about the Creamery & Café is that you can eat there whether you tour the Turkey Hill Experience or not. Of course, the Creamery & Café is a likely stop for people on the tour, but its separate entrance means anyone can visit for lunch, dinner or for a double scoop of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream with the family.

Speaking of lunch, our daily specials are $6.95 each, served from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.:

• MONDAY: Half sandwich (or wrap) and soup

• TUESDAY: “Tuna Tuesday” (tuna sandwich, melt, salad or wrap)

• WEDNESDAY: The Rachel Sandwich

• THURSDAY: Create Your Own Sandwich (choose sandwich or wrap, bread, two meats, cheese, and toppings)

The Creamery & Café even has a “happy hour” – 4 p.m.-7 p.m. Friday through Sunday – when you get a free scoop of ice cream with every meal! And when you’re done eating, you can visit the Turkey Hill Experience gift shop, located just a few steps away.

The Creamery & Café is open Monday-Thursday 11 a.m.-2 p.m. for lunch and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. for ice cream; Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.-8 p.m. for lunch, dinner and ice cream; and Sunday from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. for lunch, dinner and ice cream. For a full menu visit the Creamery & Café section of the Turkey Hill Experience website!

No, this isn’t a picture of milk someone neglected to clean up. Those who tour the Dairy may notice this white, sudsy substance inside the doorway of each working space. The foam is sprayed periodically from a nozzle just inside the door. It’s intended to disinfect the soles of your shoes to avoid tracking things throughout the premises. So, if you’re ever lucky enough to take a tour, make sure you step in the foam, not over it!

To help celebrate the Phillies’ winning ways, Turkey Hill has created a new Phillies Ice Cream Cake. The six-inch cake is made with Cookies ‘n Cream Premium Ice Cream and loaded with crushed cookies, topped with creamy vanilla icing, and candy star confetti.

The cake will be available throughout the Philadelphia region. For a listing of stores that carry Turkey Hill Ice Cream Cakes, visit our store locator. If you can’t find it, don’t worry. There’s plenty of Phillies Graham Slam and Phillies Batter Up! Ice Cream in stores to help you celebrate the Phils’ pursuit of a World Series title.

The Yankees kick off their playoff run tonight against the Detroit Tigers (at 8:37 p.m. on TBS) and the Phillies’ postseason gets underway tomorrow with a game against the St. Louis Cardinals (5:07 p.m. on TBS).

If you’re a fan of either team, you can stock up on the official flavors while you watch the Yankees and Phillies battle it out in the playoffs for a chance to play in the World Series later in October. For Phillies fans, that means Phillies Graham Slam or Phillies Batter Up. For Yanks fans, you’ll want plenty of Yankees Bronx Bombers Sundae or Yankees Pinstripe Brownie Blast.

Of course, you can also root for both teams with a bowl of each team flavor. There’s nothing wrong with that. It might get a little tricky if both teams face each other in the World Series (which happened two years ago), but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there!

The breakthrough was made by Elizabeth Fenner (above), a food science graduate student at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture. According to articles about the creation, the two-for-one flavor is made possible thanks to “micro-encapsulation techniques that coat the second flavor (molecule), but break down almost immediately in the mouth, releasing additional flavor compounds.”

In other words, at first you’ll taste vanilla bean, and then a blast of dutch chocolate — all in the same bite!

The technology is still years away from being used in real ice cream, but it’s nice to know that it’s possible, just in case Turkey Hill ever decides to create a Black Raspberry + Banana Split flavor. Those are just two of the many different flavor combination possibilities. If anyone has any suggestions for two Turkey Hill flavors that might be good for this new concept, let us know with a comment. (Check out the ice cream page of our website for inspiration.)

WARNING: The following video may cause extreme cravings for ice cream sandwiches which could result in sudden trips to the grocery store. Viewers are advised to watch the video only if their freezer is properly stocked with ice cream.

Legend has it there’s a place in Annapolis, Maryland called Chick & Ruth’s Deli that offers a towering six pound milkshake. If you finish the $17 behemoth, you get your photo taken and placed on the deli’s website. Many have attempted the challenge, some with a little help from a friend, but most have failed.

Pictured above is a gentleman who not only completed the milkshake in the photo, he tackled the deli’s “Man vs. Food Challenge” by also downing a one pound cheeseburger (that’s it on the table in front of him) in under an hour! Knowing that the Ice Cream Journal has some of the biggest ice cream fans in the world as its readers, we were curious to know how many of you think you could tackle Chick and Ruth’s jumbo shake. The burger, of course, is optional!

Football fans, of course, already know this. Here in Lancaster County most are either an Eagles fan or a Steelers fan. That’s why we’re proud once again to reintroduce our football-themed ice cream flavors – Blitzburgh Crunch and Eagles Touchdown Sundae. To refresh everyone’s memory, below are the player bios for each of these hard-hitting gridiron stars.

PLAYER BIO: BLITZBURGH CRUNCH

NICKNAME: “The Crunch,” “Crunch Time,” “The Frozen Curtain”

DEBUT: July 15, 2010

SIGNATURE TOUCHDOWN DANCE: “The Blitzburgh Boogie”

DESCRIPTION: Sweet cream vanilla ice cream with chocolate cake crunchies and crunchy chocolate cookie swirl.

BACKGROUND: Blitzburgh Crunch is a relative newcomer to the Turkey Hill roster, but it’s wasted no time in establishing itself as a dominant player in the frozen foods aisle. Before joining the lineup full time in 2010, The Crunch got into playing shape by tackling three-gallon containers of Rocky Road and Strawberry Cheesecake in the scoop shop section of the Turkey Hill warehouse. Said a confident Blitzburgh Crunch during a preseason practice: “What time is it? It’s Crunch Time. It’s crunch o’clock. It’s crunch thirty. Bottom line: It’s always time for me. Sweet cream vanilla ice cream, chocolate cake crunchies, crunchy chocolate cookie swirl. What’s not to love?”

PLAYER BIO: EAGLES TOUCHDOWN SUNDAE

NICKNAME: “The Sundae Special,” “The Good Stuff,” “E.T.S.”

DEBUT: July 25, 2003

SIGNATURE TOUCHDOWN DANCE: “The Regal Eagle”

DESCRIPTION: Vanilla flavored ice cream spiked with peanut butter choco footballs and swirls of peanut butter and chocolatey fudge.

BACKGROUND: A veteran of the frosty gridiron, Eagles Touchdown Sundae has been a force to be reckoned with in freezers throughout Pennsylvania for eight seasons, and is showing no signs of slowing. “The Official Ice Cream of the Philadelphia Eagles” has been called a sure fire Frosty Hall of Fame candidate by many ice cream experts, but E.T.S. dismisses the praise. “I don’t play for awards,” said the Eagles flavor. “I play for taste … and maybe some chocolate fudge and sprinkles on top.”

For those unfamiliar with the signature touchdown dances of both flavors, we’ll post an entry in the near future offering step-by-step instructions for each. We might even post a video … if we can convince some members of the Turkey Hill team to show off their dancing skills.

Is there any dessert better than a warm brownie topped with ice cream? We don’t think so. Enjoy today’s featured photo and, as always, try not to drool on your keyboard!

This past weekend was certainly a time to reflect and remember the things that have made us the proud nation we are today. One of things that makes us proud is the Statue of Liberty. Ten years ago, Lady Liberty stood tall on Liberty Island in New York Harbor and watched as our nation was transformed and emerged stronger than ever.

As many of you know by now, this year marks the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty’s arrival as symbol of American freedom and liberty. It’s an occasion we’re marking with our Limited Edition Lady Liberty Mint Ice Cream (mint ice cream with chocolate cake crunchies and crunchy chocolate cookie swirl).

Part of that celebration is our Lady Liberty Essay Contest, which asks middle school and high school students a simple question: What does liberty mean to you? To enter, students should fill out the entry form located on the contest web page by October 21, 2011. The best middle school essay and the best high school essay will each receive $5,000 in scholarship money!

If you have school-aged children of your own, you should definitely take a shot at the prize by entering this contest. If you don’t have kids, but know someone who does, please forward them a link to this blog entry and encourage them to take part. $5,000 might not go as far as it used to when many of us were younger, but it can certainly still buy a lot of liberty and freedom for today’s college-bound students.

Last week, we posted four celebrity ice cream news stories and asked readers to spot the fake story. All four stories received votes as the phony scoop, but the first and second stories received the most votes. In the interest of setting the record straight, here’s the truth behind our four stories:

1. JUSTIN BIEBER PERFUME INSPIRES SUNDAE - London-based luxury department store Harrod’s sells a $32 ice cream sundae to launch teen pop idol Justin Bieber’s new perfume.

THE TRUTH: This story received the most votes as the fake, but it’s true! Proceeds from the sale of the sundae were donated to the Make-A-Wish-Foundation. (Story here)

2. IT’S A NECKLACE AND A SNACK! - Superstar lady rapper Nicki Manaj, wore a necklace featuring a full-sized replica of a soft serve ice cream cone.

THIS TRUTH: Our runner-up vote getter for the fake story was this one, but like the first story, this tall tale is also true. Those who know Nicki Minaj might not be surprised by her outrageous neckwear considering her track record for sporting attention-grabbing outfits. You can buy your own Minaj ice cream necklace (above) for $79.99.

3. PAPPY, PAX AND ZAHARA GRAB A SCOOP - Angelina Jolie’s father, actor Jon Voight, was photographed in a London park while taking a stroll and enjoying ice cream with grandkids Pax and Zahara.

THE TRUTH: Many of you cried foul on this story because of the well-publicized rift between Angelina Jolie and her father, but we’re happy to report that the pair have patched things up and this story is 100 percent true. (Story here)

4. WHO WANTS A NUTTY BUDDY? - Will Ferrell prepares for an upcoming movie role about dueling  ice cream truck drivers by hitting the streets of LA as the driver and operator of a real-life ice cream truck.

THE TRUTH: Last but not least is this hilarious Will Ferrell comedy. Unfortunately, this story is the fake. It’s too bad, because it sounded like a great idea for a funny movie, didn’t it?

Pretty much everyone has a computer these days. And if you have a computer, you might have a need for this month’s prize: The chocolate ice cream bar flash drive (above and right). Just plug this tasty little treat into your computer’s USB port and it’s ready to store or transfer up to 4 GB of files. That’s enough gigabytes to store just about anything you’d need it to, with room to spare!

We’ll choose one comment from all the comment left on the blog this month to receive this sweet gadget. Good luck!

Once the ice cream has been palletized, it is stored in Turkey Hill’s freezer warehouse (one of the aisles shown above) until it is ready to be shipped to a grocery store near you. The warehouse holds more than 4,000 pallets of ice cream. That’s approximately 3,000,000 packages of ice cream! To put that in perspective, if you were to eat one package of ice cream every day, it would take you 8,220 years to finish it all (never mind the expiration date on that last container of Cookies ‘n Cream).

1. JUSTIN BIEBER PERFUME INSPIRES SUNDAE - London-based luxury department store Harrod’s launched teen pop idol Justin Bieber’s new perfume “Someday” by creating a $32 ice cream sundae available to Bieber fans and hungry shoppers. The sundae, inspired by the fragrance notes of the perfume, includes a mix of wild berry, fresh pear and vanilla ice cream, accented with lavender sprinkles and edible glitter.

2. IT’S A NECKLACE AND A SNACK! - Superstar lady rapper Nicki Manaj, who has mentioned Turkey Hill in her songs in the past, made ice cream a central part of her outfit at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards when she showed up sporting a necklace featuring a full-sized replica of a soft serve ice cream cone. The sweet jewelry was actually the least unusual part of her ensemble, which included a multicolored surgical mask and with a stuffed animal hanging from her waist.

3. PAPPY, PAX AND ZAHARA GRAB A SCOOP - Angelina Jolie’s father, actor Jon Voight, is a proud grandpa, and was recently pictured going what every proud grandpa likes to do — treat his grandkids to some ice cream. Voight was photographed in a London park while taking a stroll with two members of the Jolie-Pitt crew, seven-year-old Pax and six-year-old Zahara, while the duo enjoyed some tasty ice cream treats.

4. WHO WANTS A NUTTY BUDDY? - To prepare for his role in an upcoming movie, funny man Will Ferrell has been hitting the streets of suburban Los Angeles, selling frosty treats to kids as the driver and operator of a real-life ice cream truck. Ferrell’s film, about a pair of dueling ice cream truck drivers locked in a head-to-head battle to determine the city’s best ice cream man, features Hangover star  Zach Galifianakis as Ferrell’s sundae-selling nemesis.

But don’t worry, you can still have ice cream even though the temperature outside is on a downward decline. Speaking of a downward decline (as in a downward decline in the number of people who might try this ice cream flavor), today’s “Would you eat it?” flavor comes from Max & Mina’s Ice Cream in New York City.

M&M’s is known for their wacky flavors, but one of their wackiest is lox ice cream. For those who aren’t familiar with it, lox is thinly sliced smoked salmon (commonly combined with cream cheese and spread on bagels). Max & Mina’s mixes the smoky fish with vanilla ice cream to create an flavor that’s received plenty of positive reviews from adventurous customers.

Since we’ve never tried it, we can’t testify to how good the flavor is, but we’re dying to know…would you eat it?

Ice cream and childhood memories go hand-in-hand, which is why we asked some of our reader-writers to write an entry about their earliest or fondest childhood ice cream memory. Evelyn R. of Pittsburgh, PA offering the following story about her local ice cream stand. Enjoy!

My earliest recollection of ice cream was when I was a very little girl, probably about 10 years old. We lived in what was a rural area then. It was mostly farm land, and my friends and I could take long walks, even drink water from a free flowing spring. Of course there were no big grocery stores but about a mile from my home was a little store, owned by a family. The ice cream counter was just inside the window of the store.

The father of the family that owned the store was old, or so he seemed then, and made small ice cream cones. The son, who was younger, made big ice cream cones. My brother was ten years older than me and had a car, so he would take me to the store. We would sit in the car, and when we saw that the father was busy with a customer, we would rush in and buy ice cream cones from the son. Ice cream cones were probably a quarter, so we wanted to get the most for our money, but we also loved ice cream!

The favorite flavors then were chocolate and vanilla. There weren’t wonderful flavors like Turkey Hill has now. The expression that my father taught us then was “You Scream, I Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream!” The store is long gone, replaced by an intersection, but it is still remembered.

Not long ago, we mentioned our involvement with the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association’s “VIP Dairy Farm Experience Contest.” To recap, the V.I.P. Dairy Farm Experience is a contest that will give six winners a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a V.I.P. guest on a working dairy farm. Winners will also receive a basket full of dairy-themed goodies, including a one month supply of Turkey Hill ice cream.

The purpose of today’s entry is to remind you that there’s still time to enter the contest before the August 31 deadline! To enter, all you have to do is describe, in 50 words or less, why you should be chosen as a dairy farm V.I.P.

Entries can be submitted via the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association’s Facebook page. The contest is open to entrants 18 years and older and those living within the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association region (which includes Maryland, Delaware, most of Pennsylvania, and southern NJ).

SIX WINNERS will be whisked away, with a friend, to a local restaurant to be treated to dinner, including an overnight stay at a local bed and breakfast or luxury hotel. The following morning, they’ll receive a behind-the-scenes tour of a dairy farm and enjoy an afternoon of fun activities.

Although the specific afternoon activities vary depending on the farm, one thing is for sure — the six lucky people who win this contest will have a V.I.P. experience they’ll never forget!

Here’s what she had to say in response to the entry’s question about which ice cream you’d eat for the rest of your life if you could only choose two flavors:

Only two flavors for the rest of my life??? Luckily, I’ve lived half of my life already but no question, I’d chose Black Raspberry and Choco Mint Chip for my second half.

Congrats again to Regina and huge thanks to all of our readers who helped us achieve such an amazing milestone. Your comments are the very best part of this blog and everyone here at the Turkey Hill offices — from the summer interns to Turkey Hill President Quintin Frey himself — loves reading them!

We started five weeks ago with 16 movies that showcased the immigrant experience. The reason: To celebrate the Statue of Liberty’s 125th birthday and our new Lady Liberty Mint Premium Ice Cream. Your votes eventually narrowed the list to just two movies — Eddie Murphy’s hilarious 80s hit “Coming to America” versus Will Smith’s 90s blockbuster “Men in Black” (aliens are immigrants too!). And the winner, with 56 percent of the vote in the final round is Coming to America!

As promised, we’ll choose four comments from all the comments left on our movie tournament entries to receivethe Ultimate Movie Prize Package, which consists of DVD copies of four movies from the Movie Showdown Extravaganza (G-rated so the whole family can enjoy them!) and a one-month supply of Turkey Hill ice cream!

This is John. He works in the palletizing room (10 degrees) where he loads ice cream on to pallets. On an average day, John and his co-workers handle approximately 30,000 containers of ice cream, which allows them stay in shape for their nightly snack. Wonder what that might be?

It’s also why everyone here at in the Turkey Hill offices is excited about an Ice Cream Journal milestone we’re going to reach in the very near future — our 50,000th comment! We’re not there yet, but we should pass the magical 50,000 mark some time next week. To celebrate the occasion, we’ll give away a month’s supply of Turkey Hill ice cream to the person who leaves the 50,000th comment!

To help us get there — possibly with this blog entry! — feel free to answer this question: If you could only eat two flavors of ice cream for the rest of your life (scary thought, right?), which two flavors would you choose?

Which one will win The Lady Liberty Super Spectacular Movie Showdown Extravaganza? That’s for you to decide in the poll on the right. We’ll announce the winner next Monday.

Don’t forget, we’ll choose four comments from all the comments left on the tournament’s weekly entries to win the Ultimate Movie Prize Package, which consists of DVD copies of four movies from the Movie Showdown Extravaganza (G-rated so the whole family can enjoy them!) and a one-month supply of Turkey Hill ice cream.

The Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association is an organization that represents more than 7,200 family-owned dairy farms throughout the mid-Atlantic region. The V.I.P. Dairy Farm Experience is a contest that will give six winners a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a V.I.P. guest on a working dairy farm. Winners will also receive a basket full of dairy-themed goodies, including a one month supply of Turkey Hill ice cream.

The contest is part of the Association’s “Your Milk Comes From a Good Place” campaign, which is designed to shed some light on the hard work of the region’s many dairy farmers.

Farming buffs can enter the V.I.P. Dairy Farm Experience contest by describing, in 50 words or less, why they should be chosen as a dairy farm V.I.P. Entries can be submitted via the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association’s Facebook page. The deadline for applications is August 31. The contest is open to entrants 18 years and older and those living within the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association region.

The winner will be whisked away, with a friend, to a local restaurant to be treated to dinner, including an overnight stay at a local bed and breakfast or luxury hotel. The following morning, they’ll receive a behind-the-scenes tour of a dairy farm and have an opportunity to perform a variety of hands-on farming tasks.

If a V.I.P. farm tour – plus the free Turkey Hill ice cream! – sounds like fun, feel free to submit your 50-words-or-less essay on the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association Facebook page. How much is 50 words, you ask? It’s the length of this paragraph! Pretty simple, huh?

Here it is: The coldest room in the entire Dairy. After the ice cream is packaged, it is still relatively soft (roughly the same consistency as soft serve ice cream). To make it firmer, the containers spend six to 10 hours in the quick-harden room, where the temperature is a frigid minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit below zero with a minus 70 degree Fahrenheit wind chill factor! After the ice cream reaches minus 20 degrees, it is moved to the frozen warehouse, which is kept at a temperature of minus 20 degrees.

Needless to say, a person cannot spend much time in the quick-harden room. Our photographers were only able to stay for about 60 seconds before they had to retreat to warmer temperatures. Even then, it took about 20 minutes before their cameras could warm back up so they could get on with the rest of the tour.

Don’t forget, we’ll choose four comments from all the comments left on the tournament’s weekly entries to win the Ultimate Movie Prize Package, which consists of DVD copies of four movies from the Movie Showdown Extravaganza (G-rated so the whole family can enjoy them!) and a one-month supply of Turkey Hill ice cream.

This week’s match-ups are below along with some commentary from Turkey Hill’s “Movie Master.” Vote for your favorite movies in the polls on the right.

Sophie’s Choice (1982) vs. Coming to America (1988)

Far and Away (1992) vs. Men in Black (1997)THE MOVIE MASTER SAYS: Both showdowns this week feature a drama versus a comedy. You might think pitting the dramas against each other and the comedies against each other would have made more sense, but I think it works better this way. By the way, fans of the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” — which asserts that any actor or actress can be linked to a Kevin Bacon movie in six or fewer steps — might be interested to know that Mr. Bacon can be linked to each of our four finalist movies in only one step! Here’s how:

- Sophie’s Choice leading actress Meryl Streep starred alongside Kevin Bacon in “The River Wild” (1994)

- Coming to America featured Cuba Gooding Jr. (in a tiny role as “boy getting haircut”), who eventually starred with Kevin Bacon in a “A Few Good Men” (1992)

- Far and Away’s Tom Cruise also starred with Kevin Bacon in “A Few Good Men”

- Men in Black featured Tommy Lee Jones, who performed with Kevin Bacon in “JFK” (1991)

July and National Ice Cream Month both come to close today, and although we’ve definitely had some fun here on the Ice Cream Journal over the past 31 days, we can assure you that the fun will continue through the rest of the summer and the entire year. We’ve got some fun activities planned for the near future, so stay tuned! And now, today’s ice cream fact:

In the 1930s, the Great Depression made a serious dent in the sales of ice cream nationally. Ice cream manufacturers tried all sorts of things to get people to buy ice cream again, including suggesting ice cream as a breakfast ingredient. One ad by the Hydrox Corporation exclaimed, “Ice Cream for Breakfast! Well, why not?” along with a suggestion for topping cereal with a scoop of your favorite ice cream flavor. Said the ad, “It is cream, you know.”

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

Can you believe we’re down to our last two days in National Ice Cream Month? Where did July go? We’re going to file a motion with whoever decides these national food months to have August and September declared National Ice Cream Month as well so we can continue the fun we’ve had so far! Here’s today’s ice cream fact:

One out of every five ice cream eaters have been known to binge on ice cream in the middle of the night. These late-night freezer raiders are typically in the 18-24 year old age group with men are more likely to exhibit this behavior than women.

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

The top three cities in America that purchase the most ice cream on a per capita basis aren’t in Hawaii or other warm weather locations, they’re in Portland, Oregon; St. Louis, Missouri; and Seattle, Washington. Why do you suppose that is?

If you’re following along at home, you’re probably wondering about the answer to Wednesday’s question — What percentage of women admit to licking the bowl clean after finishing their ice cream? The answer is 8 percent. And the answer to the question before that — What percentage of the world’s vanilla beans are grown in Madagascar — is 80 percent!

In honor of the Statue of Liberty’s 125th anniversary, Turkey Hill Dairy has created a Limited Edition Lady Liberty Mint Premium Ice Cream flavor, on sale throughout the year wherever Turkey Hill ice cream is sold. We’re also posting a different Lady Liberty fact every day for 125 days on our Twitter feed. Today’s featured fact is:

Following a fundraiser to raise money to build Lady Liberty’s pedestal, “The World” newspaper printed the name of every contributor, no matter how small the amount.

Today’s fan photo is an example of a clever way to reuse an empty Turkey Hill ice cream container. It was sent to us by Delores K., who noted that she loves Turkey Hill ice cream, “and so do our feathered friends.”

Ready for another multiple choice question? Of course you are. Guess the answer to the following question by leaving a comment below.

Approximately 13 percent of men admit to licking the bowl clean after finishing their ice cream. What percentage of women admit to the same indulgent behavior?

A. 3 percent
B. 8 percent
C. 13 percent
D. 26 percent

Today’s fan photo is a shot of Turkey Hill super fan Luke D, who, as you can see in the picture below, loves our Light Recipe line-up!

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

As a reminder, we’ll choose four comments from all the comments left on the tournament’s weekly entries to win the Ultimate Movie Prize Package, which consists of DVD copies of four movies from the Movie Showdown Extravaganza (G-rated so the whole family can enjoy them!) and a one-month supply of Turkey Hill ice cream.

Below are our round two match-ups along with some commentary from a member of the Turkey Hill team who, for the purposes of this tournament, prefers to be known as “The Movie Master.” Which movies will win and represent their category in the final four? That’s up to you to decide. Feel free to cast your vote in the polls on the right and leave a comment or two with your thoughts about the remaining flicks.

CLASSICS CATEGORY

The Immigrant (1917) vs. Sophie’s Choice (1982)

THE MOVIE MASTER SAYS: These are definitely some powerhouse cinema classics, which is what makes this match-up hard to predict. Sophie’s Choice is a pretty weighty movie about the Holocaust and it’s hailed as Meryl Streep’s best performance (she ended up winning the “Best Actress” Oscar for the role) which is saying a lot considering she’s had so many amazing performances. On the other hand, it’s hard not to love Charlie Chaplin, especially in a movie like this, which was selected for preservation by the United States Library of Congress because it was “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

COMEDY CATEGORY

Born in East L.A. (1987) vs. Coming to America (1988)

THE MOVIE MASTER SAYS: These comedy classics are two of the funniest movies made in the past 30 years, so I’m not surprised to see them facing off in round two. In one corner, you’ve got Cheech Marin — half of the Cheech & Chong comedy duo — and in the other corner you’ve got Eddie Murphy, whose comedic qualifications are well known. Which one will win? I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be watching both of these movies this weekend to relive some of the laughs from my younger years.

DRAMA CATEGORY

Far and Away (1992) vs. The Terminal (2004)

THE MOVIE MASTER SAYS: Is Far and Away the best Tom Cruise movie? No. In fact, it’s not even the best movie Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were in together . Same thing with the The Terminal. There are at least a half a dozen films on Tom Hanks’ impressive resume that are better than this one, but The Terminal is still a good movie and definitely a strong contender in this tournament. Which one will win this battle of the Toms? That’s for you to decide!

EXTRATERRESTRIAL CATEGORY

Coneheads (1993) vs. Men in Black (1997)THE MOVIE MASTER SAYS: This might be the “Extraterrestrial” category, but you may as well call it the “More Hilarious Comedy” category, because that’s exactly what you’ve got with this funny pair. Coneheads, of course, is a spin-off of a classic Saturday Night Live skit and stars two great SNL alums (Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin). And Men in Black is a easily one of the best action-comedies of all time and spawned Men in Black II and a third M.I.B. movie due out in 2012.

The polls in the first round of our Lady Liberty Super Spectacular Movie Showdown Extravaganza will remain open for one more day and round two will kick off tomorrow. If you haven’t voted in the polls on the right, now’s your chance to do it!

TODAY’S FACT: The top five most popular ice cream flavors are: vanilla, chocolate, neapolitan, strawberry and cookies n’ cream, in that order, with vanilla comprising about 25 percent of all ice cream sales!

For all you inquiring minds out there, the answer to Saturday’s trivia question – What percentage of the world’s vanilla bean used to make ice cream is grown in the island country of Madagascar? – is 80 percent.

And finally, today’s fan photo comes from Diane, who describes the picture like this: “My two-year-old granddaughter, Lila, sneaked into the freezer and, armed with a measuring spoon, helped herself to Turkey Hill vanilla. Too cute to punish her!

TODAY’S FACT: Ice cream novelties such as ice cream on sticks and ice cream bars were introduced in the 1920′s. Adults consume nearly one-half of all ice cream novelties.

Our Turkey Hill fan photo for today was submitted by Kim Z. of Brooklyn, NY. Way back in December 2008, Kim was the winner of a one year supply of Turkey Hill ice cream for her and a friend during our 12 Days of Ice Cream holiday celebration here on the Ice Cream Journal. Below is a photo of Kim’s freezer and what Kim had to say about how she spent her winnings:

Greetings to all the sweet folks at Turkey Hill!

I have been meaning to send this photo & email for some time now and finally got around to it when I saw the blog post about the photo contest.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to everyone at Turkey Hill for supplying my family with 2 wonderful years of free ice cream! In January of 2009, I was the winner of the “Year’s Supply of Ice Cream for You and a Friend” contest. I used half of the vouchers myself and gave the other half to my brother (and his family).  Since the vouchers didn’t expire until December of 2010, instead of a year’s supply, we ended up with two!  Turkey Hill has always been my favorite brand of ice cream (seriously!) and now of course you will have my loyalty for life.

The contest allowed me to try every flavor, and never have a bare freezer… which brings me to the photo.  On a super hot day in the summer of 2009, I decided to share my wealth of ice cream with my friends and have an old-fashioned ice cream social.  Everyone brought their favorite topping – pot-luck style, and I provided a huge variety of ice cream.  Sadly, somehow, the photos I took at the party were lost (sob!), but one picture survived that I took the night before of my packed-to-the-gills freezer (see attachment).

Please express my thanks to the folks who were involved in the contest, and I would like to thank EVERYONE at Turkey Hill for making the best ice cream on earth!

Your eternal fan,
Kim Z.

Here’s another multiple choice question. Take a shot at the answer by leaving a comment below. By the way, the answer to our last multiple choice question – What percentage of American households purchase ice cream? – is 98 percent. And now, on to today’s question:

What percentage of the world’s vanilla bean used to make ice cream is grown in the island country of Madagascar?

A. 80 percent

B. 87 percent

C. 95 percent

D. 100 percent

Today’s fan photo was submitted by Erin K. of Lakehurst, NJ. Erin took the picture during her recent trip to the Turkey Hill Experience.

Children ages two through 12, and adults age 45 plus, eat the most ice cream per person.

Today’s fan photo was sent to us by Joann P. of Belleville, PA who describes herself as a “proud mother-in-law.” Joann described her photo with this story:

When our son-in-law asked my husband for permission to marry our daughter, he tried “bribes” of money, credit cards, his car, but finally “won” a “YES” with my husband’s favorite ice cream: Turkey Hill Chocolate Marshmallow.

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

In honor of the Statue of Liberty’s 125th anniversary, Turkey Hill Dairy has created a Limited Edition Lady Liberty Mint Premium Ice Cream flavor, on sale throughout the year wherever Turkey Hill ice cream is sold. We’re also posting a different Lady Liberty fact every day for 125 days on our Twitter feed. Today’s featured fact is:

Liberty and Ellis Islands remain New York territory despite being on the New Jersey side of the river.  

Today’s fan photo was sent in by Tom F. of Chambersburg, PA. It’s a picture of Mickey the Yorkie. Mickie might only weigh five pounds, but he’s not going to let anyone near his beloved Chunky Peanut Butter ice cream.

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

The two factors that contributed to ice cream’s meteoric rise in availability in the mid 19th century was the invention of machines to make ice and the lower cost of sugar. Prior to this period, ice was harvested from natural sources and sugar was a costly luxury item. Thankfully, we found a way to make both factors more readily available and affordable. Otherwise, we’d all be paying $45 for an ice cream cone today.

Today’s fan photo is a picture of Tom D. looking very small in front of our Giant Cow during a recent trip to our new Turkey Hill Experience.

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

Some of you may have noticed that there was an error with Sunday’s entry which prevented readers from leaving a comment. The error has been fixed, but if you want to comment on the entry’s trivia question — What percentage of American households purchase ice cream? A. 65%, B. 88%, C. 90%, or D. 98% — feel free to leave a comment on this entry. And now, today’s fact…

In 1843, New England housewife Nancy Johnson invented the hand-cranked ice cream churn. She patented her invention but lacked the resources to make and market the churn herself. Mrs. Johnson sold the patent for $200 to a Philadelphia kitchen wholesaler who, by 1847, made enough freezers to satisfy the high demand. From 1847 to 1877, more than 70 improvements to ice cream churns were patented.

More specifically, we’re on a mission to determine the greatest movie of all time involving the immigration experience. And in this case, that immigration experience includes immigrants arriving from outer space!

To do that, we’ve created The Lady Liberty Super Spectacular Movie Showdown Extravaganza. It works sort of like our annual Ultimate Flavor Tournament. In round one, 16 movies will face off in head-to-head match-ups and your votes will determine which ones win and advance to the next round. The field will eventually be narrowed down to two movies and one will be named the Movie Showdown Extravaganza champion.

Of course, there will be prizes. We’ll choose four comments from all the comments left on the tournament’s weekly entries to win the Ultimate Movie Prize Package, which consists of DVD copies of four movies from the Movie Showdown Extravaganza (G-rated so the whole family can enjoy them!) and a one-month supply of Turkey Hill ice cream.

And now, on with our round one match-ups. Sound off with a comment to be eligible for the prizes and vote for your favorite movies by casting votes in the polls on the right.

CLASSICS CATEGORY

The Immigrant (1917) vs. Popi (1969)

• The Immigrant (1917) – Charlie Chaplin stars in this silent picture as an immigrant who comes to the U.S. at the beginning of the 1900s.
• Popi (1969) – A Puerto Rican widower (Alan Arkin) living in Harlem puts his children aboard a raft off of Florida’s coast in hopes that the cute “asylum-seekers from Cuba” will win hearts in America.

Scarface (1983) vs. Sophie’s Choice (1982)

• Scarface (1983) – A determined Cuban immigrant (Al Pacino) takes over a Miami crime empire but is eventually brought down by greed.
• Sophie’s Choice (1982) – Sophie (Meryl Streep) is a Polish Catholic survivor of the holocaust who makes her way to the U.S. after the war.

COMEDY CATEGORY

Moscow on the Hudson (1984) vs. Coming to America (1988)

• Moscow on the Hudson (1984) – Touring the U.S. with a band during the cold war, a Soviet saxophone player (Robin Williams) defects to the U.S. while in Bloomingdale’s.
• Coming to America (1988) – On his 21st birthday, the Prince of Zamunda (Eddie Murphy) is to marry a woman he has never met. Breaking with tradition, he chooses to come to America, in search of the love of his life.

Spanglish (2004) vs. Born in East L.A. (1987)

• Spanglish (2004) – A woman and her daughter emigrate from Mexico for a better life in America, where they start working for a family where the patriarch (Adam Sandler) is a newly celebrated chef with an insecure wife.
• Born in East L.A. (1987) – When Rudy (Cheech Marin) is unable to convince authorities that he is American, he ends up deported to Mexico with no knowledge of Spanish and no idea how to get back home.

DRAMA CATEGORY

Far and Away (1992) vs. The Joy Luck Club (1993)

• Far and Away (1992) – Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman star in a film about the story of both poor and wealthy immigrants from Ireland and their quest for the American dream.
• The Joy Luck Club (1993) – The story of four Chinese women who immigrated to the U.S. When one of the women dies, her daughter plays Mahjong with the older women and begins to really learn what her mother endured in China.

The Terminal (2004) vs. Avalon (1990)

• The Terminal (2004) – An eastern European man (Tom Hanks) is stranded at New York’s JFK Airport without a passport when his homeland is overthrown in a coup.
• Avalon (1990) – A Jewish family immigrates to the United States from Poland in pursuit of the American dream.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL CATEGORY

Superman (1978) vs. Men in Black (1997)

• Superman (1978) – An alien orphan (Christopher Reeve) is sent from his dying planet to Earth, where he grows up to become his adoptive home’s first and greatest super-hero.
• Men in Black (1997) – Two men (Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones) who keep an eye on aliens in New York City must try to save the world after the aliens threaten to blow it up.

Coneheads (1993) vs. District 9 (2009)

• Coneheads (1993) – While waiting to be recalled to their mother planet, an alien couple (Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtain) start a family and try to blend into middle class suburbia.
• District 9 (2009) – An extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly finds an ally in a government agent who is exposed to their biotechnology.

Today’s fact is a multiple choice question. Guess the right answer by leaving a comment below.

What percentage of American households purchase ice cream?

A.      65 percent

B.      88 percent

C.     90 percent

D.    98 percent

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

Roman emperor Nero is credited with creating the first frozen desserts. Back in the first century A.D., the emperor sent his servants into the mountains to retrieve snow which was then mixed with nectar, fruit and honey to make something similar to the modern sorbet. Later, in 1295, Marco Polo returned to Italy with a Chinese recipe that mixed yak milk with snow. The creamy frozen treat soon became very popular throughout Europe.

Our Turkey Hill fan photo for today was sent in by Karen S. of Westfield, NJ. It’s fitting that Twin Mint is the flavor featured in the photo because, according to Karen, “the kids eating the Dynamic Duo are my very own Dynamic Duo, Rachel and Justin (twins).”

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

In honor of the Statue of Liberty’s 125th anniversary, Turkey Hill Dairy has created a Limited Edition Lady Liberty Mint Premium Ice Cream flavor, on sale throughout the year wherever Turkey Hill ice cream is sold. We’re also posting a different Lady Liberty fact every day for 125 days on our Twitter feed, so be sure to follow us for more daily facts. Today’s featured Lady Liberty fact is:

The interior of the statue within reach of visitors is coated with a special plastic so that graffiti can be washed away.

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

According to DumbLaws.com (and several other websites), in Newark, New Jersey it is illegal to sell ice cream after 6pm unless the customer has a note from his or her doctor.

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

During World War I, ice cream became a source of American pride after a German officer was quoted as saying, “We do not fear that nation of ice cream eaters!”

By the way, the answer to Monday’s question – What is the most popular ice cream topping? – is chocolate syrup!

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

Some of the most popular flavors of ice cream were invented only a few decades ago. Take Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough for instance. That heavenly concoction was invented in 1991. Or Cookies ‘n Cream. In 1983, that flavor was invented using real Oreo cookies and quickly climbed to number five on the list of best-selling ice cream flavors. Its meteoric rise in popularity makes Cookies ‘n Cream the fastest growing new flavor in ice cream history!

Today’s Turkey Hill fan photo comes from Ivette M., who grabbed this picture of a very young Double Dunker fan!

It’s time for another multiple choice question. Post your answer below with a comment along with your favorite ice cream topping.

What is the most popular ice cream topping? (We’ll take a sundae with A, B, C, D, and extra E please!)

A. Chocolate syrup
B. Whipped cream
C. Caramel
D. Chopped nuts
E. Sprinkles

Ice cream headaches are caused by the dilation of blood vessels in the head when cold substances contact the nerves in the roof of the mouth. The best way to avoid the headache is to eat slower, which allows the nerves to warm up between bites, and prevent the cold stuff from touching the roof of your mouth.

Today’s fan photo was sent to us by Job T. of Little Rock, Arkansas. Job never knew the joys of Turkey Hill ice cream until his fiancee, who’s from gool ol’ Lancaster, Pennsylvania, introduced him to it. In his email to us he said, “Look how happy I am to have Turkey Hill ice cream!” Remember Job, don’t eat the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup too fast or you’ll get brain freeze!

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!

It takes about 50 licks to eat a single scoop of ice cream. We’re not sure how scientific the test to determine that fact was. For instance, are we talking about soft serve ice cream or hard ice cream? It seems like soft serve ice cream would disappear a lot quicker. Then again, just about any ice cream you put in front of an ice cream fanatic will disappear quickly!

Don’t forget, we’re celebrating National Ice Cream Month by giving away a free container of Turkey Hill ice cream every day to one commenter chosen at random, so feel free to comment as often as you’d like!