The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Yes, Dearest Readers, you read that correctly. I got the opportunity to go to SALT AND STRAW. After my California fieldwork I hung out in LA for a couple of days with my friends Katy and Kylie. Our plan for day 1 was to wander around Venice Beach and then get ice cream. My friend Kylie has a whole LA bucket list, but didn't have Salt and Straw on it. After checking the Venice Beach ice cream offerings and seeing that Salt and Straw was in the area, we put it on her list and immediately got to check it off. Salt and Straw (for all you ice cream n00bs) is THE original hipster ice cream spot, doing wacky flavors way before it was cool. No surprise, Salt and Straw started in Portland, OR and now has a handful of locations in Portland and LA. Lots of ice cream bloggers have gotten on the Salt and Straw train and ordered their pints, but I'm still a broke graduate student and don't always have $65 + shipping to drop on 5 pints. So I was super excited for this opportunity to...

Leave it to Tim and Tom's to bring another amazing and rare Ben and Jerry's flavor to my attention.  I swear, every time I go in there, there is another Ben and Jerry's flavor I never see anywhere else.  On my most recent trip to T&T's I found a pint of Boston Cream Pie.  This ice cream is described as Boston Cream Pie ice cream with yellow cake pieces, fudge flakes & swirls of pastry cream. Oh, and enjoy I did!  I've had this flavor before, never reviewed it, and forgot how completely awesome it was.  If you've never had Boston Cream Pie, you might be confused when you google it, and think to yourself, "Oh my, this is a cake, not a pie!"  Yes.  It is basically a custard doughnut blown up to full cake size, aka, heaven. I think it's a bit weird to describe the base as 'Boston Cream Pie ice cream.' I mean the pie is made of several elements including custard, chocolate, and cake, but the base ice cream only involves the cus...

Bread pudding is not a dessert Madeline and I grew up eating a lot of. And to be honest, the name of the dessert still does not sound appetizing to me. The first time I'd heard of it I was quite confused as to what it was. Was it pudding with chunks of bread in it, like rice pudding? Bread flavored pudding? Bread with pudding on top? When bread pudding was described to me, bread with milk, butter, eggs, cinnamon, sugar, etc. poured on top and baked, the reality of the dessert didn't sound much more appetizing than any of the possibilities I had imagined. Luckily, I tried it anyway. Bread pudding is delicious, and I don't know of any other ice cream company making a bread pudding ice cream! This flavor is described as Our Version of a New Orleans Classic Dessert has Chunks of White Chocolate Bread Pudding That Hints of Custard and Bourbon Sauce.  Upon first glance at this pint, I didn't see much of a bourbon sauce swirl, but upon eating the ice cream, I definit...