Food Talk--an Ice Cream Treat

This is what I was hoping for.

For several days, I had been thinking about ice cream--specifically mint flavored Klondike bars. I love them but don't get them very often for all of the obvious reasons like they're a high calorie, expensive treat that we don't really need. However, several days in a row with temperatures in the 90's had me spending more time than I needed thinking about the cool mint, creamy ice cream of a Klondike. So one evening when my will power was waning, Ward and I jumped in the car in search of my obsession.

However when we got to the store, I was feeling a little guilty, so I decided to compromise. We got a box of vanilla ice cream instead and a bottle of fudge topping--the kind than forms a hard shell.  Also something I like but rarely get for the same reasons as Klondikes.

No one ended up with chocolate on their ice cream.

When we got home, I immediately began to dip the ice cream. It had started to soften from the warm ride home and was the perfect consistency--easy to dip, but not melted. This was looking like a good idea and I had almost forgotten about the Klondike bars. While Ward dug into his bowl, I started to prepare my fudge topping. Hard shell topping needs a lot of shaking to mix it up before pouring. I shook for a while and not much seemed to be happening, so I thought maybe a little zap in the microwave would help. And then it happened. I took the lid and seal off and saw it. What the topping was really made of. Staring at me was something that looked like Crisco with no chocolate to be found. (Obviously, it was below the fats, but was out of sight all the same.) That sight changed my mind about wanting to put it on my ice cream. In fact, I wanted nothing to do with it. So, I had a bowl of unadorned ice cream. Good but not very exciting.

Then the next day, I made one of the hardest decisions of my life. (Okay, that's an exaggeration, but it was hard.) I threw out both bottles of the fudge topping. Did I forget to mention, I bought two bottles of the stuff because I was hungry when I went to the store? Once again I proved the rule of don't go into the grocery store when you're hungry. But, I digress. At first I thought I should keep them and they would seem more appealing another day. Then I thought, I should offer to them to someone else who might like them, but I rationalized that they wouldn't be good for anyone else if they weren't good for me.

So I plopped both of them into the trash can. I threw away perfectly good "food". I felt guilty because I didn't even try to save the bottles. I didn't like looking at what was in them that much. So while trying to save a little money, I caused myself several days of distress.

It's hard to beat homemade ice cream. It's even better than
Klondike bars.

Now, as I recount this story, I sound a little ridiculous to myself. Putting so much time and emotion in on a simple treat. But it is what it is. Sometimes I sweat the small stuff.

So what did I learn from this? Nothing I didn't already know. Homemade food is usually the best because you know what's in it and usually it's cheaper. It' okay to treat yourself sometimes. And if you're going to eat junk food, it's better to not know what it's in it :)