Happy Belated Mother's Day

Happy belated mothers day to any of you who are fortunate enough to have little (or even possible now grown) people.

This mothers day was a two-in-one sort of holiday for my family here in OH. It was also my husbands grandmother's birthday. Which, admittedly we may not have known if not for months of hints dropped by the birthday-ma.

Columbus is fortunate enough to have a local ice-creamery that is so good I've considered never leaving the city. I have lived here for about three or four years now and it was only a few months ago that I tried out Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. The day of our first visit the boy and I noticed a flavour that seemed just up his grandmother's alley.

You see, among the things we know her to love are nuts. Yeah I'll say it, she's nuts about nuts. When we saw "Black Walnut Divinity" we decided right then and there that this was what we wanted for her for her birthday.

Neither the boy, or myself are from particularly small families. Most holidays here warrant a trip to grandma's house where a decent amount of us will congregate all day long. To insure that grandma would not have to share her birthday treat we decided to bring her to the ice cream rather than the other way around. We made a date with her for today around 1:30 to go out and get ice cream.

The Black Walnut Divinity is out of season right now so the only way for us to get it would have been to buy a pint. So grandma tried the many flavours and picked two out for herself. The boy and I tried a few of the new seasonal flavours and chose to go with a bowl with three half-scoops.

From left to right is grandma's bowl which has: Bourbon Pecan and Gravel Road.

My bowl which has: Wilberry Lavender (purple), Goat cheese with roasted red cherries (white/red), and Rhubarb Rosé (pink).

The Wildberry Lavender is my favourite, so much so that the purple ice cream in my tattoo is supposed to be this Jeni's flavour.

And then the boys bowl, which has: Buckeye State (tan), Strawberry Buttermilk (pink), and Honey Vanilla Bean (cream).

[The hat seen here is the trilobite pattern by Hannah Ingalls available for free here on Knitty.]

As always Jeni's was far from a disappointment. I didn't get a chance to taste grandma's (but I wasn't after hers anyway) but I did try the boys. The Buckeye State wasn't for me but that's because despite my love of dark chocolate, I am not usually a big peanut butter ice cream fan. The strawberry buttermilk lived up to it's description of fragrant Ohio strawberries with rich buttermilk impart a light, clean finish. Like a bowl of strawberries and cream. It was indeed like a bowl of strawberries and cream.

The Rhubarb Rosé which boasts that is is, creamy with a burst of sweet wine flavor and a hint of not-too-sweet rhubarb. Was dead on, I found a lot of pleasure in the wine finish.

In fact, wine flavouring is one of my favourite things you can be sure to find in their other flavours like Riesling Poached Pear and Cocoa Zin. I forgot to taste the new flavour, Cherry Lambic (lambic isn't a wine anyway), but hope to very soon (my own birthday is only about a month away now.)

What I didn't forget to taste was the [new] Mango Lassi. This was a fantastic idea. For those of you who are not familiar with it, Lassi is a traditional yogurt-based Indian drink. Ice cream was a great move. Mango flavouring had me at mango. I loved it!

Even my non-cheese-eating hubby was able to enjoy the goat cheese with roasted red cherries.

If any of this appeals to you on a scale where you find yourself cursing the fact that you don't live in the capitol city of the Buckeye nation. Have no fear. Not only can you order Jeni's over the internet and have it shipped to you but it has recently become available in Whole Foods (however, I cannot remember if that is only a local deal right now.)