State of the Freezer Address Snowmaggadon 2013 Edition

Greetings from the snow covered northeast!

This shot deceptively unimpressive because this storm has only just begun

Let's start with the upstairs freezer. Notice anything funny in this picture? look closely....  yeah, there's no ice cream in this picture. Between the year end purge, the weekly eating, and the impending blizzard, there is almost nothing going on at the moment upstairs except for the healthy choice greek froyo who's review should be up shortly (I just tried it last night). We better head downstairs.

Well, what can I say, apparently 2013 is going to be a very efficient year as there's not a ton going on down here either (unless you recognize what might be in that box in the top middle of the picture). One of the goals for this year is to really balance things out in terms of brands, flavors, styles, everything. I want everyone to feel like their favorites are getting the attention they deserve.

Now I wasn't really sure what to post today for a review but then I realized I could do my store brand cookie dough showdown as part of this post. See, I've been keeping my family at bay with random brands of cookie dough and cookies and cream, but that doesn't always make for the most exciting posts... so, we'll keep this short and sweet.

Hannaford ( Food Lion ) has their own line of Frozen Dairy Dessert and it takes a page from the old Breyers and Edy's moniker of "OVERLOAD". This line isn't new, it's just the first time I ever noticed that Hannaford's had different styles of ice cream from premium to regular to overloaded (frozen dairy dessert). What can I say, I don't shop there often.

So here's the patient and while it looks ok (complete with giant frozen dairy dessert air ripples), it was just so-so in my book. Edible, cheap, but nothing to write home about. I mean, I just had this last week and I've already completely spaced on how it tasted. I remember being bored, oh so bored. I thought Target did a nice job with their in house cookie dough so I thought maybe lightning would strike twice. Not so much. It's got a soft frozen dairy dessert texture but it wasn't real gummy. No, it was the base flavor that was boring me.....  and the boring chips.... maybe even boring cookie dough.... but, I shouldn't give up.

The other store brand we have is some Stop & Shop Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. Now some of you might be going "Ummm, Dubba, Why doesn't it say Stop & Shop?" but then there's another group of you going "Ummm, Dubba, that's not S&S, that's Giant brand". Well, both groups are right. Both grocery stores are owned by Ahold. Wait, you don't care do you? Ahhh, that's ok, but I feel better knowing why there's no S&S branding on this itty bitty 48 fluid ounce treat (What happened to 56 oz??)

I grab a giant bite that has four cookie dough bits in it (because I'm crazy) and my gut reaction is "wow, that's some cheap, dry cookie dough", but let's not panic. Let see if the base is really cookie dough flavored... hmmm, hard to tell actually.

There are plenty of cookie dough bites, but like I said, they have this funky dry texture to them. The cookie dough flavor is alright, but it's not nearly as fun as many other cookie dough bits that might be sweeter or have better texture. The tiny chocolate chips are a giant non-factor. They are too small to add serious crunch or add any flavor. I'd almost rather have them not here at all.

You know what I do like? The texture. It almost reminds me of some nice old school Breyer's, plus there is something sweet about the base. I can't say I taste cookie dough, but it just has this subtle swagger that blends well with the texture of the base. It's mild, but it's that bit of effort that says "hey, I'm trying here".

So, not a total loss, especially at $3.19 a container. It's definitely a positive experience for my first Stop & Shop purchase. I've got some of their greek froyo to try next, so watch out for that.

On Second Scoop: Just a quick note to down a couple of cookie dough bits before having a bowl of this one. It will trick your taste buds into thinking the base is more flavored than it is

(un)official 2013 Snowmageddon Sundae

Update: Well, the sun is out, and I need a little fuel before I go power through two feet of snow. First we've got a fresh from the over "supreme" brownie, you know, the one with cookie dough mixed in. Then we've got the Stop & Shop cookie dough ice cream slowly melting on top of that. A sundae isn't a sundae without some (all natural) whip cream. Now, you need to sprinkle on some kind of final visual element if you really want to win people over, so in this case it's brownie brittle crumbs and I gotta say I love how it looks. Actually, maybe I should say it tastes even better then it looks.