Dairy Lodge Diet

Why hello there, readers. Are you enjoying the National Cherry Festival? Have you had a cherry sundae yet this season? I’ve yet to partake in any of the festivities or fair food finds, but I will get there. Soon. Really.

In the meantime, I just remembered that I forgot to post a flurry from a while back. Such a long time ago that I can’t even remember when, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even officially summer yet. So that’s my big “oops.”

And our flurry choice was also a big “oops.” This spring, we were really into pretzels. Every night for a while, we’d sit on the porch and eat pretzels. And chat, people-watch and eat more pretzels. So when we went to the Dairy Lodge and saw the sign that proclaimed that they were offering a new flurry flavor, pretzel (!), I jumped. I think I even squealed on the inside. But we kind of had a hankering for chocolate too so we decided to order a half Take Five, half pretzel flurry. But Take Five already has pretzel in it! Yes. Did I mention we were on a pretzel kick?

So… it was terrible. Ice cream and pretzels, which are two of my favorite foods, really should not be combined. So I picked around the pretzel bits and scooped up the melty ice cream and was happy with that. Bits of the chocolate goodness from the Take Five bar were just OK too, but they tasted a bit stale… Sigh.

Onward and upward. Really hoping they have a fresh cherry sundae on the menu this week since fresh local sweet cherries are everywhere. Stay tuned!

It’s strawberry season in northern Michigan and I am thrilled to share that the Dairy Lodge has FRESH strawberry sundaes and shakes! Being a locavore doesn’t get much better than this, does it?

I ordered a small strawberry sundae made with vanilla ice cream and I was not disappointed. What a difference fresh fruit makes. Agree? I don’t like they syrupy sweet fruit toppings most sundaes drown in. The Dairy Lodge got it right with this one! Lovely.

Cherry Festival begins in four days. Do you think they might have a fresh cherry sundae at the Dairy Lodge next week? I’ll make it my official job to check and report back…

I almost never order anything made with chocolate ice cream. It just doesn’t occur to me. So I’m not sure what I was thinking when I decided to order a black raspberry sundae made with chocolate ice cream. Whatever it was that made me choose chocolate ought to lurk around in my brain more often. Great choice! Raspberry and chocolate? Delicious combination, but you probably already knew that… After consuming several disappointing frozen confections recently, the Lodge redeemed itself with this one. Lovely!

Remember when ‘chocolate chip cookie dough’ flavor was all the rage? When it was new, fun, interesting and kind of scary? Raw dough, what?! Well, of course, those bugs (err, eggs) were worked out and it became a hit! Supposedly, it originated in 1987 at the Ben and Jerry’s Burlington Scoop Shop from an anonymous suggestion on their flavor suggestion board. Brilliant!

And I hadn’t had it in a long time so I thought I’d try it in a flurry. Result? Boring. Too much ice cream, not enough cookie dough chunks this time. I know, I know. Last time I had a flurry, I mentioned that I don’t like all the candy bar chunks, but cookie dough is a different story. Disappointed!

I had forgotten how much I loved caramel sundaes until I was forced to make a decision about what to order and it jumped out at me from the long list of sundae flavors. It made me so happy to enjoy something so simple and extra creamy as vanilla soft serve ice cream topped with caramel sauce. It wasn’t the best caramel sauce I’ve ever had, but it wasn’t too sticky or over-powering either. Light, creamy, sweet. Scrumptious! AND it was just the right ratio of sauce to ice cream; caramel goodness through to the end of the sundae.

Highly recommended!

My quest to try everything on the menu got a big tasty boost last night. Turns out, it helps to have partners in crime. Especially for the waistline… So four (five, if you count the babe) of us split three different items last night: a small chocolate sundae with marshmallow topping, a small turtle sundae and a small Heath Bar flurry.

So, yeah, I guess by the looks of it we liked them all! The surprise favorite of mine, however, was the chocolate sundae with marshmallow. Who knew?! It was really (really) sweet, but the chocolate ice cream helped to give it a flavor boost. And the turtle sundae had a nice balance of sweet and salty (thank you, pecans!). Classic. And the flurry? It was just OK. The ratio of ice cream to Heath Bar was a little too heavy on the ice cream, but yes, we ate it and enjoyed it. I like to let the Flurry sit a little bit and get softer. How ’bout you? It’s tough to accomplish that when you’re sharing, but I did eat a few spoonfuls, which had good Melt. New ice cream descriptive term, what do you think?

A big shout out to Jon and Judy (the one in the “Chris” jacket) for helping to subsidize the Dairy Lodge Diet last night! Especially since it was in the 40s and a bit on the windy side…