Ice Cream For Dinner

Baskin Robbins Ice cream for .31 cents a scoop?

Oh yeah baby, we are all over it.

When I was a kid, we didn't eat out that often. When I was a kid, a trip to McDonald's, Bob's Big Boy, or In and Out, was a very special treat. When I was a kid, dinners were in most every night. In my early years, we sat around the plaid Formica table in my parents kitchen and ate home cooked meals like pinto beans, that my mom would stew all day long, garnished with sour cream and cheese, why that image comes to mind so strongly baffles me. I didn't particularly care for the beans, but I often think about them and connect them to the kitchen of my childhood. I remember coming home on a winters evening and smelling the beans and walking into the dimly lit kitchen and seeing my grandma's huge aluminum pot shining under the hood light like a museum exhibit. I can see the placard placed next to it, it would read: Here in lies Judy's beans, she got the recipe from a Relief Society weekday meeting about nutrition. She serves them often.

"We are having beans again?" I would say in a flat tone.

"They are so good for you!" My mom would say with a smile. I don't remember complaining about them, but I do remember forcing them down. I think it was at this early age that I made the discovery that if it was good for you it didn't necessarily taste good. But she cooked other things too. Other very tasty things like Chicken enchiladas, stuffed cabbages, flank steak, shishkabobs, tacos, the ground beef kind with a Dr. Pepper on the side.
"I want some Dr. Pepper!"

"Your too young." my mom would say. I surveyed the table and saw that my older brother and sister, who are nine and ten years older than me have one.

"What about them?" I said complaining.

"It isn't good for your teeth." I did have a lot of cavities as a kids but it wasn't because of soda because I never got it.

"When you get older you can have one." she says laying down the law. Why is that? Do your teeth all of a sudden get stronger when you are older. Do our bodies do a better job metabolising caffeine when we are older? Isn't it just as important to take care of your bodies as an adult as it is as a kid. I don't know but I now use the same logic with my kids. The point is, we never ate out so when we did it was really memorable.

I remember one particular time we were able to eat out and have dessert out on the same day. I don't remember why, but I remember being told while we stood at the counter at Baskin Robbins that I could get three scoops. Three whole scoops. I remember bouncing up and down and traversing the counter looking at all the ice cream that they had to offer. What to choose? I am sure I chose the standby chocolate chip, chocolate mint and some other fail proof choice that would guarantee yummy goodness. My brother, the yidda guy, on the other hand was an adventurer when it came to trying new things. He still is. I remember one time in particular, we had an Italian family over for Christmas Eve dinner. In Italy, it is customary to have fish on Christmas Eve, so our Christmas Eve meal was spaghetti with crab marinara, and oysters, the raw kind. I barely had the courage to eat the crab marinara( crabs were like big water bugs to me, not very appetizing) But my brother was sucking those raw oysters down like there was no tomorrow. When Rob chose his three scoops, he chose, and I remember exactly: licorice, pumpkin pie and bubble gum.

What an event. Three whole scoops of ice cream of our very own, each scoop piled up one on top of the other like the leaning tower of Pisa.

So Wednesday, after the primary activity, I offered the Baskin Robbins deal to my kids: "So, what do you say, do you want ice cream for dinner?"

"What? "Lily says, incredulously, "Are you serious?" she doesn't believe me because I am notorious for making the kids finish their dinner before they get dessert, and she is usually one that is negotiating how many bites she has to eat before she can have some.

"Yes, I am serious. Shall we do it? Shall we have ice cream for dinner?"

"YES!" all three cheer. "Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream," through the open windows.

When we got there the line was out the door. I wanted to get there as soon I could, thinking that the line would only get longer as the evening progressed. It only took about 30 min before we were served.

What was every ones dinner choice?
Emma: chocolate chip, bubble gum, chocolate mint.
Lily: Strawberry cheesecake, chocolate mint, chocolate chip.
Owen: two scoops of cotton candy.
And for me, the old standby, chocolate chip with chocolate peanut butter, and cookie dough. Mitchell got the same as me as he was not there to choose himself. All five dinners for only $ 4. 89. The deal of the year.

A new tradition.

I can't help but notice that Lily and Emma are both eating their ice cream by tilting their spoon upside down. My father and my sister and I do the same thing. I find it curious. Is it because our tongues can't wait for the ice cream so we subconsciously plant it on our tongues first so we can get that taste asap. Is it because we want to scrape every last drip off the spoon before going in for another bite, or is it some type of genetic trait like being able to do a taco tongue or having our ear lobes attached as opposed to detached. Really, curious minds want to know.

Whether we ate our ice cream with our spoons up or down, I am confident we were all satisfied.