Thursday night patrollin'

One of the most fun things I do at work in the summer is go to Sheetz after work with my Igloo friends (I know, I lead an unbelievably exciting life). So, that's exactly what we did this past Thursday. Two of them worked earlier in the day & I was working 4-close. They showed up around 10 & we all carpooled to our favorite Sheetz of the 5 in our town (I know, Chambersburg is sort of pathetic).

After spending about 2 hours at Sheetz, during which my one friend J.1 had to be that customer (becuase J.2's pub burger was ROCK hard), we headed back to The 'loo parking lot to get our cars. (Usually we don't have bad experiences with Sheetz food because it is Sheetz & it's the most awesome gas station food ever... Wawa's got nothing on Sheetz).

Earlier on our drive to Sheetz we saw about 3 police cars (& it's like a 5 min. drive). We saw about 2 more cars pulled over on the way back. This was really strange. Cops all over the place!! About 16 seconds after pulling into the parking lot at work, a cop car pulled in. GREAAATTT. We all have this weird fear of the police. We have no reason to be, it's just a little scary that they carry guns, those weird sticks for beating people, bright flashlights, etc. So both doors of the police car proceed to open while we stare half blinded into the frickin' high beams (Was it really necessary to open BOTH doors? Are we that much of a threat, a couple 19 & 20 year olds? NO).

The one cop asks, "What are you all up to?"
"We work here and, oh, we just went to Sheetz for some food and decided to carpool," says J.2 (the one we decided should do most of the talking).
"You work HERE & decided to go to Sheetz?!"
"Well, yes. They are open later than we are," I said. I wasn't having any of this man's annoying humor.
"Oh, I see... well, we just wanted to make sure you weren't going to break in."
"Alright. Bye," J.2 said.

If only they would've been there earlier when we WITHOUT FORCE "broke into" The Igloo (I forgot my iPod & one of the signs wasn't flipped to "Closed"). One of us has a key! HAHAHAHAHA. Joke is on you policeman.

Also, did he really think I'd rob a place & proceed to speed away in my truck?! That wouldn't go so well... HAHA.

Well, what do you know. Time for me to get ready for work. Wonder what tonight will hold... always interesting at The 'loo.

Grapenut?

Yes, grapenut ice cream. It is a real flavor and it is delicious. It is pretty much my favorite flavor. Grapenut ice cream is made by folding grapenut cereal into vanilla ice cream. I’m not sure if everyone who makes this kind of ice cream does it this way, but we soak the cereal in a litle bit of the ice cream mix. This softens the cereal so that it isn’t too crunchy.



I think grapenut cereal is yummy, but it is pretty different from grapenut ice cream. When eaten as just a cereal it’s obvious that it’s healthier for you, because it’s not nearly as sweet as its ice cream cousin.

Fairly often I have customers who tell me that The Igloo grapenut ice cream is the best grapenut they’ve had. I thank them each time, because it is something in which I have a little self pride. I make that grapenut ice cream; it’s a compliment that customers come back again and again just for that delicious grapenut ice cream.

“Would you like that on a sugar cone, regular cone or waffle cone?”

This is a question, as a customer, one may face when ordering ice cream. You all are probably aware of what these types of cones are, but there are some other types of crazier cones that the ice cream world has to offer.

The Pretzel Cone



Before I started working at The Igloo, we had pretzel cones, but no longer sell them. I’m not really sure why; I don’t think they were very popular.

Personally, I think it’d be a great combination: ice cream & a salty pretzel cone. Back when my grandparents made homemade ice cream and my family all went over to their house, we would always eat pretzels with our ice cream. It’s a good balance of salty and sweet. A pretzel cone is a functional way to enjoy these two opposite but yummy tastes.

The Not-So-Popular Soda Fizz

I think that my favorite thing to make at work is the infamous soda fizz. It is just so delicious :)

How to make a soda fizz (The Igloo version, at least)
First put a milkshake rim on the size of cup needed
Fill cup about one-third full of carbonated water
Add 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
Add topping/flavor (strawberry, pineapple, chocolate, etc.)
Mix on milkshake machine on LOW.
If needed top off with a little more carbonated water

A soda fizz is pretty much a milkshake with zing, as like to say. It is blended so you can drink it through a straw just like a shake, however mixing it on low is key. Mixing a fizz is done on a low setting and in pulses, so that the soda doesn’t go flat. If it goes flat, simply adding more carbonated water on top will fix the problem.

Strawberry soda fizz


Yummy!

Custard versus Ice Cream

A lot of people have a common misconception about “ice cream.” From my experiences at work, it seems like some people think that just because ice cream is soft it is automatically frozen custard and NOT ice cream. At The Igloo this is not true.

According to my boss, what we serve is “soft, hand-dipped ice cream.” This means we make our ice cream, it comes out of the machine soft and falls into a bin. We then hand-dip the ice cream. It is not soft-serve, it is not custard. It’s just soft ice cream.

While trying to find some information about the differences between frozen custard and ice cream I ran across a type of machine used to make frozen custard, which looks similar to what The Igloo has.



However, I still think it is a little different. Our machines are stainless steel churns from the 1950s (the original ones used when The Igloo opened). From what I’ve gathered, the way our machines push out the frozen product is very similiar to how these older custard machines operated. The very important difference is that the mix we use does not contain any eggs. It is strictly ice cream mix.

For more about ice cream history!

http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/IceCream/IceCreamHistory.htm
http://inventors.about.com/od/foodrelatedinventions/a/ice_cream.htm

An Introduction of Sorts

Hey, I’m Blair, a sophomore at Shippensburg University, and I am a Comm/Journ major and German minor. I live on a beef farm, and have been helping out around our family farm for as long as I can remember.

About three years ago I decided I needed to find a regular summer job in addition to just doing farm work. Before I knew it, I found myself spending many summer evenings at a local ice cream shop called The Igloo.



Working at The Igloo can be really fun, but at other times completely insane. Imagine having 1 cash register, 3 people working, 2 ice cream churns runnning (which requires keeping a close watch), sandwich orders, and a line that practically reaches the road. Despite these crazy times, I love making ice cream.

Current flavors:
Vanilla
Chocolate
Cookies & Cream
Grapenut
Raspberry
Peanut Butter

You may be wondering what Grapenut ice cream is. From my understanding it is a somewhat local (South Central Pennsylvania) flavor that not too many people are familiar with. Next time look for further explanation on how we make our ice cream and the nearly extinct soda fizz.