Wordless Wednesday: The Frosty Treat

Combination Nutty Dip from the Frosty Treat in Kensington, PEI

iPhone photo, no filters

Cows Ice Cream: Take 2

While I was back home in PEI for my second trip this summer, I made a point to go back to Cows Creamery and try out some more great ice cream. While I was at the main location I got a chance to go on the factory tour with my brother and one of my cousins. I'd never been on the tour before so I was excited to see what it was all about. 

The tour started out with a short video to explain some of the history behind Cows, most of which I've covered here. First stop on the tour was a glimpse at the t-shirt printing presses. All of merchandise for all of the stores is made right here. Each arm of the machine puts a different color through the screens and onto the shirts. I thought that was pretty impressive. It looked too simple to be able to print as many items as they go through in a season.

 

Appropriately enough (for those who know me) they were printing the "Justin Beefer" shirt while we were there. 

 

There were huge prints of some of the most popular shirt designs hung on the walls. 

 

A reference to Anne of Green Gables for those not familiar.

I missed my opportunity to snap a picture of the room where the ice cream is actually made. I was sort of astounded to find out that all of the ice cream for all Cows locations for the entire season is made in this one (not very big) room over three days a week by three guys, one batch at a time.

Next stop on the tour was a view of the cheese room where they age their award winning cloth-bound cheddar for about 18 months at a very specific temperature and high humidity to replicate the environment in the caves where this kind of cheese is typically aged. The video also showed how they turn Island milk into thousands of pounds of delicious looking butter. Mmm...
 

On with the ice cream! Over the course of the trip we had four different combinations between us. Moo Crunch/Mocha Almond Fudge was my first cone. The Moo Crunch (chocolate ice cream with Cows-made "Skor" bits and peanut butter cups) was absolutely delicious. Soooooooooooo many peanut butter cups in this particular scoop. The Mocha Almond Fudge wasn't like I remembered it. It was one of my top three back in the day when I worked in Cavendish and was scoring the unofficial staff cones. However, I remember it having whole almonds and a more distinct mocha flavor than this scoop had. Could be a batch thing.  

Moo Crunch and Mocha Almond Fudge

Next up, my cousin had PEI Blueberry and Moo Crunch. She had nothing but good things to say about the blueberry. I also tried a sample and it was quite good. I'm not a huge fan of fruity ice cream but I think it would be really good if that's your thing. Sadly, she wasn't super impressed with her Moo Crunch. While the scoop I'd had a few days before was loaded with peanut butter cups, her scoop only had one. Sad. She had chosen that particular flavor because she wanted the peanut butter. 

PEI Blueberry and Moo Crunch

My brother chose Moo York Cheesecake (cheesecake base with Oreos) and mint chocolate. He really liked the mint with chocolate chunks. He also liked the cheesecake but he was expecting it to have a bit more of a distinctive cheesecakey flavor. 

Moo York Cheesecake and Mint Chocolate

For my second cone of the trip I went with Cookie Dough and Fluff 'n Udder (chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and peanut butter cups). The cookie dough was really good. I had tons of cookie dough chunks in my scoop and they had good flavor and texture. 
Sadly, my scoop of Fluff 'n Udder didn't live up to the deliciousness of the scoop I had last month. There was a good bit of marshmallow but only a single peanut butter cup.

Cookie Dough and Fluff 'n Udder

Overall, I think we were all happy with our selections. The only comment we all made was the inconsistency between scoops. Some were LOADED with mix-ins and some had none. I think it's a consequence of the way the ice cream is made. As we saw on the video during the tour, the ice cream and mix-ins are kind of layered in the container. I guess if I could make one suggestion to Cows it would be to find a way to mix things up a bit more. Nothing is worse than getting all excited for a scoop full of whatever and then finding you got none. Ice cream should be a happy experience! Regardless, I will certainly be back and I enjoyed introducing my cousin (from Boston) to a true Island experience.


What's your absolute favorite flavor of ice cream? 


*Thanks to Cows for providing me and my family with the Factory Tour and the delicious ice cream!

Wordless Wednesday: Vacation

Island Fare: Cows Ice Cream

When I am home in PEI I am lucky enough to be less than five minutes away from the Cows Ice Cream Creamery. For those who aren’t familiar, Cows is an Island staple. They started selling their ice cream out in Cavendish (home of Anne of Green Gables) in 1983. Since then they have expanded their offerings to include more than 32 flavors of ice cream. There are currently 5 locations in PEI, one in Halifax, one in Niagara, one in Banff, and one in Whistler.

I’ll be honest…I wasn’t a huge fan of Cows until I spent my first summer working at the Cavendish Boardwalk. Over the summer I managed to make friends with a few of the people working at Cows and took full advantage of my access to $1 staff cones. I think I tried just about every available flavour that summer. I also used to think it was prohibitively expensive but, in my old age, I realize it’s really not that bad. A single cone (two scoops and up to two flavors) in a freshly made waffle cone comes in just under $5. The flavors also change daily depending on what runs out and what else they've got in the freezer. 

Flavors and prices

Freshly made waffle cones. I love that smell.

The Cows website claims there are three factors that make their ice cream so good:

1.    High (16%) butterfat content

2.    Minimum air creates a high density, slow to melt in your mouth ice cream

3.    Good ingredients like fresh cream, real eggs, sugar, pure natural vanilla, fresh PEI berries, and cocoa imported from Holland

Cows is also well known for their parody t-shirts and merchandise. These shirts were all the rage when I was in elementary school. I remember they were a very popular gift to give at birthday parties. They’ve evolved from generally funny word play to cowifying pop culture phenomena. Some of them are quite clever.

This is my current favorite. I think I want the mug.

This past visit had me trying out one new flavour and two that were definitely around last summer. Moo Henry (the new one reminiscent of an Oh Henry bar) is vanilla ice cream with gooey caramel swirl, brown sugar fudge, peanuts, and chocolate pieces. It was quite tasty. The caramel was a perfect consistency and the peanuts were a nice surprise. I didn’t come across them until I got into the second scoop. 

On my second trip I decided to maximize my scoopage and get two flavors in my single cone. Fluff ‘n Udder (fluffer nutter) is chocolate ice cream with marshmallow swirl and mini peanut butter cups. I had been disappointed by this one last year but, in this scoop, it redeemed itself. My second scoop was Peanut Butter Cup Cup - peanut butter ice cream with peanut butter swirl and mini peanut butter cups. Delicious! This scoop was also way better than I remembered it being.

Peanut Butter Cup Cup on top and Fluff 'n Udder on the bottom

All in all, if you find yourself in PEI, you should definitely track down a scoop of Cows. Even if you don’t like ice cream, the stores are fun to browse through and there's usually a large cow statue outside to take a picture with.

Do you have a favorite brand or flavor of ice cream that makes you think of home?

An Island Wedding

This past weekend I was lucky to get to attend the long awaited wedding of my friends, Janelle and Vince. Everyone had a great time celebrating with the lovely couple and it was a great chance to expose some friends to their first taste of PEI. I always love when friends come to visit for the first time. Watching other people experience what I grew up with (and grew to take for granted) is always fun. You don’t always appreciate it while you live there but it really is a special place.

After a lovely ceremony we headed out to Stanhope for the reception. During the break in between my friends and I headed to Richard’s for a lobster roll to tide us over (featured yesterday). The reception was held at the Stanhope Beach Resort right on the point overlooking Covehead Bay and harbour. Unfortunately, due to the less than ideal weather, I don’t have any pictures of the view but it really is beautiful. The area is probably one of my favourite places on the Island but I may be biased. This is where my family and my dad’s siblings have had cottages for years and I spent many a summer out there growing up.

The decorations were beautiful. I had been listening to Janelle’s ideas for well over a year and I was so glad to see everything turned out exactly as she had envisioned. The food at the reception was amazing. Sorry to my other married friends but I think this was possibly the best wedding food I’ve ever had - salads, rolls (the hidden pretzel rolls were especially popular), pickled beets, bread and butter pickles, roasted baby red potatoes, mixed veggies (that didn’t look like they were from the freezer), barbecued chicken, and carved roast beef. Delicious. The dessert buffet was none too shabby either – peanut butter cup cheesecake, apple cinnamon cheesecake, chocolate torte, white chocolate dipped cookies, berry trifle, and white cake with lemon curd. I’m sure I’m missing something. I didn’t try all of it but, sadly, I did try most of it and I’d have to say the peanut butter cup cheesecake and lemon curd cake were my favorites. 

After all this there was still more to eat! In lieu of a full wedding cake the happy couple chose a few tiers of mixed mini cupcakes with a small cake on top. 

The cupcakes were made by Jennifer Prinz of City View Bakehouse in Charlottetown. They looked great and tasted even better. My first visit was conservative. I tried a chocolate cupcake topped with dulce de leche and espresso buttercream. It was really tasty. Nice moist cake and flavourful buttercream. Around 1 am, when the party was winding down and the entire supply of cupcake was still sitting in the corner, a few of us basically attacked the display and tried each flavour one after another. We felt we were doing our duty as friends of the bride and groom. We couldn’t let these delicious cupcakes go to waste! I ended up trying vanilla with lemon curd, double chocolate mint, and carrot with cream cheese frosting. For some reason we were all especially excited to find the carrot cupcakes hiding at the back. The cream cheese frosting was to die for. I wish I had taken a picture of the aftermath. A big pile of abandoned cupcake liners were left behind.

I really enjoyed these cupcakes and that’s a big thing for me to say. I’m usually especially hard on cupcakes from professional bakeries but these truly were delicious. They weren’t dry. You could tell the frosting wasn’t made with shortening. The texture was great. I think I’m going to have to hit up the Charlottetown Farmer’s Market when I’m home next month and try out some of Jennifer’s other treats.

All in all, it was a great weekend with great food and even greater friends. I’m so happy I was able to be a part of it all!

What’s the best wedding food you’ve ever had?

Wordless Wednesday: Lobster Roll

Perfect lobster roll from Richard's Fresh Seafood at Covehead Wharf, PEI

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Home

I've been inspired by Kristen to put up a second post today. This is where we're both headed later today. In fact, this picture is of the resort where the wedding reception we're attending will take place. It's also the bay my parent's cottage is on. I cannot wait to smell that salt air. PEI, here we come.