By Lee Scott
My freezer has taken on its own summertime look now. Instead of frozen banana bread and pumpkin pie, it is filled with assorted summer desserts.
There are boxes of popsicles and ice cream sandwiches sitting waiting to be opened. The vanilla ice cream is ready to be scooped out into the newly purchased cones. There is also some chocolate syrup sitting in the refrigerator, along with a can of whipped cream for ice cream sundaes.
Of course, as with everything, I have my own personal favorite: coffee ice cream in a traditional cake cone. But I always keep some of the sugar cones available for visitors with different tastes.
This change in desserts makes sense considering the heat and humidity around us. It begs the need for cold treats.
In the winter, the apple pies and cakes are popular. But in the summertime, it is normal to migrate to the frozen section in the grocery store and look for those long plastic strips of frozen juice, the ones where you cut off the end and start sucking on the frozen juice.
It was different when I was little. My mother would pour orange juice or red Kool-Aid into ice-cube trays and put them in the freezer. Presto, homemade flavored ice cubes. They were a great summer treat. It seems that this frozen art seems to have disappeared along with ice-cube trays. She also had Tupperware molds to make homemade popsicles.
Of course, it would not officially be summertime unless one started it out with an ice cream headache or brain freeze as we used to call them. They occur when you have that first Firecracker Ice Pop or hot fudge sundae of the summer and devour it too fast. All of a sudden you feel your head wanting to explode. My mother would always have us press our fist hard against our forehead. I am not sure if there is any science to this method or whether it just got our mind off of the pain. But once it happens, you suddenly remember to NOT eat anything cold too fast for the rest of the summer (although you will most likely do the same thing next year).
So enjoy your summer desserts and remember to slow down when you eat. That first bite of banana split can really hurt!
