November is drawing to a close and so is this month’s poll. Barring a last minute groundswell of support for chocolate or coconut, it looks like root beer is the fan favorite as the next potential Duetto flavor. Thanks to everyone who weighed in with your opinion this month. If you haven’t voted  yet, you’ve still got a few days left to do so.

The next poll will be posted on Monday, December 3. We’re having a little trouble deciding what next month’s poll question will be, so we thought we’d let you decide. After all, through your comments and emails you’ve already given us so many new ideas for blog entries and new ice cream flavors. So think for a little bit and feel free to leave a comment or email Ernie via the link on the right. And remember, no survey question is too goofy or obscure!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! If you were travelling, that means no major traffic jams and, whether you were hosting dinner or visiting someone else, hopefully everyone was on their best behavior (although sometimes a little drama can be entertaining…as long as you’re not in the middle of it).

It’s nice to be back from the break though. Now that turkey day is over, we can officially shift our attention to other holidays, including Christmas. We hope you find the perfect gift for the ice cream lover on your list this year. Personalized bowls, fancy spoons, an assortment of toppings…there are so many things you can wrap up and surprise them with. As an ice cream lover yourself, don’t be afraid to buy a little something for yourself too!

Speaking of the holidays, this year we’ll be celebrating them with something we’re calling the “12 Days of Ice Cream.” Starting on Friday, December 14 we’ll be posting a new entry every day (including weekends) through December 25. Each day will feature a different ice cream related gift, which we will give away to one of that entry’s commenters chosen at random. We’re excited about it and when you see some of these gifts, we think you will be too. The best part is, we’ll be giving away a year’s supply of ice cream to one lucky reader. If you remember our National Ice Cream Month giveaway in July, that’s a pretty cool prize no matter what season it is.

What can we say…people like to take pictures of our Giant Cow. Even while passing it on the highway or, in this case, while behind it. Just ask our drivers. They get a lot of smiles and waves on the open road. The Turkey Hill giant cows will be home for the holiday, but wherever your travels may take you this weekend, don’t be afraid to give a smile and wave to a truck driver or two!  

Last night in Lancaster County we got a dusting of wet snow. Not much, but enough to remind us that winter is fast approaching. Yes, winter is coming. It’s hard to believe isn’t it? Good thing ice cream tastes just as good on a cold December night as it does on a hot summer day!

But before we dive into winter, let’s not forget about Thanksgiving. In celebration of Thanksgiving, below are links to every ice cream-related recipe we’ve ever featured here on the Ice Cream Journal. Hopefully you can find one (or two) in there that you might want to feature at this week’s Thanksgiving feast!  

Mocha Frappe - This coffee/milkshake drink might be nice as a dessert after dessert! 

Fried Ice Cream - This will bring a little south-of-the-border flavor to your feast. And yes, it really is fried.  

Tin Can Ice Cream - It probably won’t wow the in-laws, but this recipe might help keep the kids busy!

Ice Cream Truffles - Unlike the tin can ice cream, this one is guaranteed to wow ‘em.

Dreamsicle Ice Cream Pie - This is easy to make, which makes it a nice recipe for when you’ve been too busy working on the rest of the menu.

Ice Cream Baked Potato - This is another one the kids will love. 

Ice Cream Loaf - It’s a loaf of ice cream…need we say more?

Peanut Ice Cream Squares - Aunt Edna’s apple pie doesn’t hold a candle to these heavenly little squares.

Hot Fudge Ice Cream Dessert - The name pretty much says it all.

Crunchy Ice Cream Dessert - This is a layered ice cream dessert using cereal for the “crunch.”

Holiday Ice Cream Snow Balls - These are a little bit like the ice cream truffles.

Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie - This one was posted last year around Thanksgiving and is guaranteed to give regular pumpkin pie an inferiority complex.

The following was orginally posted on May 15, 2007: 

After last week’s event featuring our Giant Cow, we got to thinking about whether she could be the largest cow in the world.

After a few minutes of research, we found out she’s not. The honor of “World’s Largest” goes to “Salem Sue” in New Salem, North Dakota (that’s her on the left). She stands 38 feet tall, 50 feet long and weighs six tons. To put it in perspective, our Giant Swirly Cow is a mere 13 feet tall and weighs two tons.

And then there’s “Chatty Belle” in Neillsville, Wisconsin, who takes the title as the world’s largest talking cow. She’s just a hair bigger than ours at 16 feet tall and 20 feet long. For 10 or 25 cents (the price varies from website to website), you can hear Chatty’s lecture, during which she’ll introduce you to her non-talking, life-sized son, Bullet, who stood next to her until 2003. Sadly, he was removed that year after falling over several times and becoming a victim of vandalism.

Here’s a website that lists several oversized bovines across the USA. Who knew there were so many? Perhaps someday the Turkey Hill Giant Cow will take a road trip and visit each one to show off her status as the World’s Largest Traveling Cow.

Pictured below is a thing of beauty. Strawberry ice cream smooshed between two soft chocolate cookies. Thanks to Superape for letting us use his mouth-watering photo here.

Also, congrats to the first four winners of this month’s prize (in celebration of the Ice Cream Journal’s one-year anniversary, we’re choosing one comment from EVERY entry this month to receive a pair of coupons for free Turkey Hill ice cream. Winners so far include Pat D. from Pomona, NY; Lee C. from Philadelphia, PA; Allan E. from Freehold, NJ; and Karen S. from Westfield, NJ.

Every so often we do focus groups – complete with two-way mirrors and video cameras – to determine what people think of our products and what we can do to improve them. Our last round of focus groups took place in Philadelphia and New York. In each location, we sat down with about 10 people and talked about Duetto and our All Natural flavor line-up.

For some companies, finding people willing to sacrifice three hours of their time to talk about a product can be difficult. But not for us. When it comes to sampling ice cream and chatting about it, there’s usually no shortage of willing volunteers.

Specifically, the goal of the focus groups was to learn more about our customers’ purchase and consumption habits, how aware people are of Duetto, what their general opinion of Duetto is and what they thought about the packaging.

Overall, the focus groups liked Duetto (most of them were familiar with the product before joining the focus group). They used words like “refreshing” and “soothing” to describe it and overwhelmingly agreed that it was better than a gelati at you-know-who’s seasonal ice cream stand. The fact that Duetto costs less and is available year-round helped win that battle.

That’s just a small sampling of what we learned. The rest will be put to good use by our research and development team to make Duetto better than it already is.

By the time we ended the session and went our separate ways, we sort of all forgot we were in a focus group. A few hours of eating ice cream will do that to you. It sort of brings you together in ways other focus groups can’t.

A few of you asked when our annual Turkey Hill calendar will be available and how you can get on the mailing list to receive one (they’re free!). The first mailing will go out in early December. If you’ve received calendars in the past, you’ll automatically get one this year. If you’re not on the list and would like to sign up to get a calendar, call our customer service department at 1-800-MY-DAIRY. 

The calendars include a handy schedule of all the monthly Limited Edition flavors in 2008. But make sure you get your name in soon because, as they say, supplies are limited!

Since we’re on the topic of new Duetto flavors (two people suggested peach and watermelon — both great ideas!), we thought we’d take a look at the place where unusual ice cream is pretty much the norm. Of course, we’re talking about Japan. To be fair, Japan has many, many very tasty varieties of ice cream, but some are, well, you can judge for yourself.

We found a website that has a short list of odd-ball flavors and some descriptions of each, which we’ve shared below. A few sound potentially tasty. Others…not so much.

CACTUS ICE CREAM - “It is smooth and refreshing with a taste that must be like drawing water from a cactus after being parched in a desert for days.”

CHICKEN WING ICE CREAM - “Nagoya is famous for its poultry, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the taste of this ice cream is best described as foul. It actually tastes like a fried chicken wing.”

CRAB ICE CREAM - “Though not everybody’s preferred ice cream flavour, this is a dish worth getting the claws into.”

EEL ICE CREAM - “Surprisingly, the smooth taste is quite palatable, even if the thought of what’s being eaten is not quite as tasty.”

OCTOPUS ICE CREAM - “Want to tantalize the taste buds with a tentacle? If so, Octopus Ice Cream is the go.”

WASABI ICE CREAM - “While its tingling taste makes a delightful addition to raw fish, wasabi’s tangy flavor also makes for a surprisingly edible ice cream.”

Today is the Ice Cream Journal’s one year anniversary. It’s hard to believe it’s been one year already. It seems like only yesterday we were sitting around on our lunch breaks discussing what we’d write about if we had a blog. Later we made long lists of topics when we finally agreed to start the Ice Cream Journal. (It was a really long list.)

Twelve months into our very first blogging effort, we’re all very pleased with how well the Ice Cream Journal is doing and how engaged and vocal all of our readers are. We’re so happy to hear from everyone, whether you’re a regular reader and commenter or whether you just check in now and then. 

To show our thanks, we’re giving away some ice cream this month (of course, right?). They say the one year anniversary is the paper anniversary. That’s why we’re celebrating by giving away two coupons for free Turkey Hill ice cream to a reader comment chosen at random from EACH entry we post in November — starting with this one. Too bad we don’t have an anniversary every month!