Independence Day is just around the corner, but while we’re planning that backyard barbeque or watching that baseball game, we should take a moment to think about the brave men and women in our Armed Forces who are deployed overseas in harm’s way.

The Pennsylvania National Guard is represented by about 6,000 men and women that are currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of these brave soldiers have strong ties to those of that work here; they are our coworkers, our friends, relatives, and our neighbors. In support of those individuals, Turkey Hill Dairy and Turkey Hill Minit Markets have teamed up for something we are calling “Operation Hometown Hello.”

The operation is pretty simple: There’s a box at each of the 250 Turkey Hill Minit Markets throughout eastern, central and southern Pennsylvania. The purpose of the box is to collect donated items to be sent to the soldiers overseas. They can be items you purchase in the store or items you bring from home. When the box is filled (hopefully often), Turkey Hill Dairy and Turkey Hill Minit Markets will ship it 6,000 miles around the world to those Pennsylvania National Guard members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Unfortunately we can’t send Turkey Hill ice cream or iced tea to the soldiers (trust us, we tried to think of a way to do it), but below is a list of the top 10 most requested items by the troops. Next time you’re in a Turkey Hill Minit Market, why not send a Hometown Hello by purchasing one of these items for the box?

1. Individual size peanut packets
2. Single-serve beef jerky products
3. Packs of gum
4. Non-chocolate candies
5. Pens and pencils
6. Pocket-sized notebooks
7. Single-serve bags of flavored sunflower seeds
8. Individual packs of pretzel rods
9. Protein and energy bars
10. Granola bars

For more information about Operation Hometown Hello and other Turkey Hill outreach efforts, visit TurkeyHillCares.com. And, for a good laugh, check out Stephen Colbert and Tom Hanks attempting to put together a care package for the troops (which includes ice cream and puppies).

Have you ever had a craving for Cotton Candy Habanero ice cream with cheddar cheese bits? How ‘bout Saffron Stout ice cream with a caramel swirl? Maybe not, but with the e-Creamery, you can make those flavors and many other custom concoctions and have them sent directly to your home!

We should tell you right from the get go that custom made ice cream isn’t cheap. A half gallon (shipped in four pint-sized containers) costs $49.99 plus $30 shipping and handling. At that price, you’re probably better off with some Turkey Hill at the grocery store, but e-Creamery does let you name your flavor and choose from three different styles of packaging.

The e-Creamery process allows you to choose your base ice cream base (8%, 12% or 14%) before moving on to your choice of two different flavors. Options include traditional varieties like chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. Not-so-traditional flavors like lemon, blueberry and honey. And unusual flavors like the aforementioned habanero, stout, chocolate merlot (infused with wine), lavender and ginger.

Then the fun begins. Next, you select your mix-ins (60 to choose from). You can go with almonds, chocolate-covered raisins or granola, but for $79.99, you might as well get a little crazy, right? In that case, try the candied ginger, cheddar cheese pieces, hickory smoked bacon, parmesan cheese or dill weed (yes, dill weed). We’re not sure if some of those would taste good in ice cream, but it’s worth a shot!

Regular readers know that National Ice Cream Month (July) is an exciting time here on the Ice Cream Journal and this year will be no exception. Here’s what we have planned for the coming month:

Eating lots of ice cream

Posting a new Ice Cream Journal entry EVERY DAY (including weekends)

An ice cream trivia challenge every Monday

Giving away an ice cream prize each Monday (to the winner of the trivia challenge)

Eating lots of ice cream

A new recipe each Saturday

A new Ice Cream Journal tasting party at the end of the month

Eating lots of ice cream

Giving away TWO free containers of Turkey Hill ice cream EVERY DAY to one commenter chosen at random

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? We hope you’ll join us each day as we celebrate all things ice cream. The trivia/prize Mondays are going to be a blast (feel free to use the Internet to find the answers, but it won’t always be easy). We’re also looking forward to eating lots of ice cream.

Janice S. of Baltimore, MD asks: “I’ve never tried fried ice cream, but I’ve always wondered…is fried ice cream really fried? If so, how do they do that without the ice cream melting?”

Ahh yes, the south-of-the-border dessert favorite known as fried ice cream. It does seem like a recipe for disaster to actually fry ice cream, doesn’t it? But the truth is, it really is fried. Or at least deep fried (which might seem even more bizarre).

Though it’s often thought of as a Mexican dish, fried ice cream is also popular in Japanese and Chinese cuisine, where it’s referred to as “ice cream tempura.” It should be noted that ice cream tempura is not a traditional Asian dish, but one that was added to Western menus to suit American tastes.

As for how it’s made without turning the ice cream into a puddle of goo, that’s easy (sort of). The ice cream, which is usually stored at lower-than-normal temperatures, is rolled in a coating of crushed corn flakes, which helps insulate the ice cream during the brief frying process. Here’s a traditional fried ice cream recipe. To get an idea of just how quickly the ice cream is fried, check out this video:

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Snowballs in June? Why not! These are fun to make and probably the easiest recipe we’ve ever featured here on the Ice Cream Journal. Ready? Here it is:

DIRECTIONS

1. Scoop 1 to 1 1/2 inch balls of ice cream, using your favorite flavor

2. Roll ice cream ball in your choice of topping, place in a mini-muffin wrapper and place in freezer.

That’s it! Easy, right? Feel free to use any of the following toppings to roll your ice cream balls in. If anyone has any other ideas for toppings, let us know with a comment.

- Crushed cereal (Fruity Pebbles or Fruit Loops make a colorful snowball)

- Mini-chocolate chips

- Chopped walnuts, peanuts or any other kind of nuts

- Shredded coconut

- Sprinkles (aka “jimmies”)

- Crushed candies (toffee bars and Butterfinger bars are good)

- Brown sugar

- Shredded white chocolate

- Melted chocolate

Meet Gracee the pig on her 10 week birthday. She clearly loves her ice cream. That’s evident by the huge smile on her face. That’s right, a smiling pig! This has to be the cutest picture we’ve ever featured here on the Ice Cream Journal. The saying “Happier than a pig in slop” should be changed to “Happier than a pig in vanilla ice cream.”

By the way, the answer to the “Which news story is false” question posed in our previous entry is #5. Sadly, there’s no such thing as ice cream-making nuns. At least not yet.

It’s time for another edition of ice cream news from around the world. Like last time, all of these stories are true, except for one. Try to guess which one by leaving a comment!

1. NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU DON’T - An ice cream man in Flint, Michigan was just driving along, on his way to his next stop when he felt his truck rocking from side to side. Looking over, he noticed a man had entered through the passenger side door. Armed with a gun, the stowaway attempted to rob the ice cream man. Thinking quickly, the driver hit the gas pedal and the thug fell out of the truck without even a bomb pop to show for his lawlessness.

2. ONE VOTE FOR ICE CREAM! - The Rockland County District Attorney is investigating charges that voters in Ramapo, NY were enticed to vote in a 2005 primary election after officials offered free ice cream making machines to the first 2,000 voters. According to New York state election law, it is a felony to induce a voter with “any money or other valuable consideration.”

3. MONEY HUNGRY MOMMY – When a 12-year-old placed her $20 bill on the counter of a Deerfield, Illinois ice cream shop while considering her many choices, a woman, described in her 40’s with three children, grabbed the 20 bucks, gathered her own ice cream order and left the store. The girl was in tears, but after the security video was shown publicly, the thieving woman was turned in to police by…her husband! The woman and her husband claim the money grab was an accident and police are not filing charges.

4. WHEN MOST KIDS ARE BUYING IT, THEY’RE SELLING IT! - Two Midland, Michigan teenage brothers who bought a run-down ice cream truck four years ago and began selling ice cream during their summers have finally paid off their initial investment and have begun making a profit. The brothers, Ryan (now 19) and Chris (now 15) purchased the truck for $900, fixed it up and have been canvassing the town each summer since, adding live entertainment with guitars, harmonicas and props to their selection of candy, ice cream and pops.

5. HEAVENLY DESSERTS - Nuns at the Sisters of the Covenant in El Paso, Texas have turned to ice cream as a way to raise money for charity and other holy purposes. Thanks to the donation of an industrial-sized ice cream machine from a local ice cream manufacturer, the savvy Sisters are churning out five flavors of frosty treats –  including “Holy Moses” and “Heaven on Earth” — and have begun selling them at church functions and through area convenience stores.

June is National Dairy Month. Like National Ice Cream Month (July), which gives you the freedom to eat as much ice cream as you want and call it “celebrating,” National Dairy Month means you get to indulge in all your favorite dairy products without worrying about what people might think. The good news is, that includes ice cream, which really means you get to eat lots of ice cream in June AND July!

To celebrate National Dairy Month, the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association built a giant ice cream sundae on the steps of Pennsylvania’s Capitol yesterday. Like last year, the Dairy Association asked Turkey Hill to donate the 90 gallons of vanilla ice cream that was used to make the sundae and we happily obliged.

Below are a few photos of the action. Enjoy!

The Turkey Hill Giant Cow was on hand to help draw some attention. She’s good at that.

Members of the sundae-making team built the giant sundae from 30 three-gallon containers of Turkey Hill ice cream. It wasn’t easy to get that ice cream out in one piece. Good thing it was a hot day! (Actually, is that a good thing for a giant ice cream sundae?)

A giant ball of cherries was created to adorn the top of the sundae.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff and the Pennsylvania Dairy Princesses placed the cherries on the sundae before it was topped with all sorts of other goodies.

Secretary Wolff and the team give the sundae its finishing touches. The sundae was topped with 10 gallons of chocolate fudge, 10 gallons of strawberries and 30 pounds of chopped pecans. Afterwards, the crowd lined up for a taste. Each person got a nice-sized bowl of ice cream and there was still plenty left over for seconds!

For awhile now, the Ice Cream Journal has been creeping up on 20,000 total comments since it was created in November 2006. That’s a lot of comments. When we first started the blog, we never dreamed we’d get 1,000, much less 20,000.

In all the excitement of the spring, we forget to keep checking to see when the magical number was reached. We usually read the comments the same way you do (on each individual entry), but when we looked at the comment log today, we realized number 20,000 had arrived almost a month ago! It was posted by Lorraine P. on the entry about visiting your local ice cream shop. Here’s what Lorraine had to say:

“We do have many local ice cream shops. In fact we just visited one this past weekend. Water ices and Cream ices are a big thing on Long Island. Lots of ice cream in the freezer. Always a staple in our house. Thanks Turkey Hill for making a “great” product.”

Thanks for helping us reach our milestone, Lorraine! In honor of your place in ice cream blogging history, we’ll send you coupons for a one month supply of Turkey Hill ice cream! Thanks also to those of you who left the other 19,999 comments. We read every single one of them and appreciate them all!

There hasn’t been many books written about the history of ice cream, so when a new one comes along, we’re usually among the first to read it. The most recent writing comes to us from Jeri Quinzio, and is called Of Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making.

In “Of Sugar and Snow,” Quinzio takes a well-researched look at the early days of ice cream making and exposes the truth about its origins (including debunking some common myths about who was the first to make it). All in all, it’s a good read and we’ve bough two copies to give away here on the Ice Cream Journal to two commenters chosen at random from ALL the comments on the blog this month. Good luck!