Chestnut Hill Cafe

Shop Name: Chestnut Hill Cafe

Location: West Chestnut Street, Lancaster

Boo's Rating: 3 1/2 Screams

This past weekend was the Fall Artwalk in Lancaster- it's a fun event, basically like a First Friday concept, but it's all weekend long. A lot of the galleries have special exhibits and tasty snacks as well. It was a perfect fall day to be walking around town and we decided to end our day at the DogStar book store and the Chestnut Hill Cafe. I had heard rumors that this new cafe serves ice cream and I was not disappointed. That is, until I found out that it's Coleman's Ice Cream. As you know (if you read my blog), Coleman's is one of my least favorites in town. Chestnut Hill had quite a few interesting flavors that I had not seen in Coleman's store including a Mango ice cream. I asked to taste just a sample of it and it was pretty bad. It had a really strange flavor and the texture was bizarre- it was kind of gritty, like sugar crystals that had not dissolved. Strange. Anyway, because the mango was kind of terrible, I opted for a safe flavor- mint chocolate chip. Once again, it was under-whelming. The flavor was so-so- nothing too amazing. For now, I'll keep Coleman's ice cream rating the same as last time- 3 1/2 screams.

Dairy Queen

Shop Name: Dairy Queen

Location: Columbia Ave, Lancaster

Boo's Rating: 3 1/2 Screams

On Monday evening, I met up with some friends of mine for an ice cream outing- Jill and her kids Noah and Neve. We had plans to go to Scoops Ice Cream in Mountville- it's close to where they live. Unfortunately, the only day of the week that Scoops is closed is MONDAY!!! Bummer! We were already in the car, so we decided to just drive until we found ice cream. I couldn't disappoint Noah and Neve! The first place we found was the Columbia Ave Dairy Queen, and I actually thought that was a great place because it's the time of year when their famous Pumpkin Pie Blizzard is available! Yay! Noah ordered a chocolate ice cream on a cone. Neve opted for the vanilla in a cup and Jill (their mom) ordered the vanilla ice cream on a cone with the chocolate dip. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the DQ invent the concept of the "dip?" Genius, don't you think?

I, of course, ordered the pumpkin pie blizzard. In my memory it was so deliciously pumpkin-y, but this time, it was a little disappointing. I remember lots of pumpkin flavor, but this fell short. It tasted mostly of vanilla, with bits of pumpkin pie filling & crust. Not the best pumpkin flavor I've ever tasted, to be honest. But the DQ will always have a special place in my heart, even if their pumpkin pie blizzard isn't the best. I upped their current rating to 3 1/2 screams just for having pumpkin flavor available. Neve and Noah seemed to enjoy their ice cream quite a bit, although I wonder how much made it into their mouths. Most of it seemed to end up on their faces.

Jill seemed to enjoy her ice cream, too, and was nice enough to share it with Neve and Noah who just weren't satisfied with just ONE serving! I guess those kids LOVE their ice cream. (Which is probably one reason why I like them so much! Any friend of ice cream is a friend of mine! lol)

Coleman's Ice Cream

Shop Name: Coleman's Ice Cream

Location: Rt. 340, Lancaster

Boo's Rating: 3 1/2 Screams

You may or may not remember, but Coleman's was one of the first ice cream establishments I reviewed for this blog and they did not receive a very high rating. Actually, they are currently the lowest rating in the history of this blog. On Tuesday, my company bought the entire production staff ice cream at Coleman's, so they had the opportunity to change their rating with me. And change they did. First of all, they have pumpkin ice cream right now, so that alone earned them an extra point. Second, the day we were there, they had a special sundae called the Apple Dumpling Sundae. I made the decision to replace the vanilla ice cream on the A.D.S. with their pumpkin ice cream. It was a perfect fall combination. Once again, the ice cream itself had a lot of ice crystals throughout, which as you all know is the biggest no-no for me, but the pumpkin flavor was really delicious, so I decided to ignore the ice crystals as much as I could. The apple dumpling was ENORMOUS, so the sundae was actually a little embarrassing to order, especially since almost everyone else got a small cone. I was the over-indulgent one with my giant sundae, but I don't care because it was a real treat. There was some sort of caramel sauce all over the dumpling that made it even more delicious, but I really can't stress enough how good the pairing of apple dumpling & pumpkin ice cream was. Seriously. Look into it.

Overall, the sundae and the pumpkin ice cream boosted Coleman's rating to a solid 3 1/2 screams, which is much more impressive than their previous rating. Good job, Coleman's! I'm pretty sure that everyone really enjoyed their ice cream that day and I even saw some other interesting flavors including a carrot cake flavor that looked pretty tasty. And even more exciting are the hilarious pictures I captured of the crazy staff I work with. Enjoy!

DOVE

Shop Name: Dove Ice Cream

Location: Your local supermarket

Boo's Rating: 5 Screams

Now that I have managed to visit MOST of the ice cream establishments in the Lancaster area, I figured it wouldn't hurt to survey some of the ice cream available in your basic supermarket and/or convenience store. First up: Dove Ice Cream. I was craving chocolate in a BIG way one night, so I drove to the Giant Supermarket and bought a pint of Dove's "Unconditional Chocolate" ice cream. I had never tried Dove ice cream before, so I figured, "Why not?" I took it home, popped open the pint and just about DIED. Did you know that Dove covers the top of their ice cream pints with a layer of CHOCOLATE GANACHE?!?!?!?! I have one word to describe that idea: GENIUS. The ganache is so smooth and velvety- I literally ate all of it before feasting on the actual ice cream. Let's talk about the ice cream now. It was some seriously RICH chocolate ice cream. It had swirls of dark chocolate as well as chocolate chunks throughout. And much like Ben & Jerry's standard, every bite had a bit of the mix-in. And that, my friends is what has earned Dove's Unconditional Chocolate 5 Boo Screams. Congrats, Dove. You rocked it. I would even go so far as to say that this flavor rivals my long-standing favorite chocolate-y chocolate ice cream: Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie. I would not go so far as to say that it's better, but I would say that they are on an equal standing. And that's saying a LOT.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I'm starting to expand the topic of this blog beyond ice cream & gelato to anything worth screaming about. I've already covered an amazing pumpkin lasagna recipe, and I'll probably stick with pumpkin-related items for a little while, but I'm always open to suggestions. What do you scream for? What fabulous food should I try? Please leave suggestions in the comments section and I'll do my best to accomodate. Thanks for reading!

Pumpkin Sausage Lasagna

Shop Name: Betsy's Kitchen

Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Boo's Rating: 5 Screams

Since this blog is called "I Scream You Scream" I figured it didn't HAVE to be all about ice cream. Although I will try to keep it in that area as much as possible, I thought it just wasn't fair that there were so many other delicious eats that I wasn't covering simply because they didn't fall into the ice cream category. Since fall is here, I'm constantly reminded of one of my favorite flavors of all time- Pumpkin. Let me tell you this: I scream for Pumpkin and you'd better, too! I love pumpkin bread, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin whoopie pies, pumpkin chili, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin ice cream (of course), and now I love pumpkin lasagna.

I recently drove across the state to visit my friend Betsy in Pittsburgh. Betsy shares my love of all things pumpkin and for the occasion, she conjured up the most delicious lasagna I have had in a good, long time. It does not have a tomato sauce, the sauce is what contains the pumpkin and it's actually made with milk. Click on the title of this blog and you'll be directed to the recipe, courtesy of the Rachel Ray show. I'm usually not a big fan of Rachel Ray. Her voice drives me bonkers. It didn't bother me quite so much when she was just a host of "30-Minute Meals" on the Food Network, but now she has that terrible talk show where she's just AWFUL! Stick to cooking, Rach!

Ok, so despite my issues with the queen of tight-shirts, she's got a winner with this pumpkin sausage lasagna. It has that perfect fall flavor that you want at this time of year and the pumpkin pairs beautifully with the sausage. Betsy actually opted for turkey sausage and I have to wonder how a pork sausage would have done. The turkey sausage was so mild and of course not nearly as fatty as a pork sausage would have been, but overall I feel her choice of sausage was flawless.

What I'm trying to get at is that this could quite possibly be life-changing lasagna. I don't know if I'll ever want a traditional lasagna again- this one was THAT delicious! Congrats, Betsy on your amazing culinary accomplishment. The recipe earned 4 Boo Screams! Why not 5? Well, I think the fault actually lies with Rachel Ray. I think the recipe could use some more veggies. So really, the recipe is what got 4 screams. Betsy, you earned 5 screams for your stellar execution.