Good Excuse for Ice Cream

Sometimes you get gift cards you don’t want. You think, “Why did they give this to me?” I will never use it.

It’s likely you would have preferred they just gave you the cold hard cash. These gift cards randomly appear at strange times, sometimes years after you get them.

Earlier this week, my wife and I had a similar experience.

There we were in the middle of the afternoon walking through the food court at the mall contemplating life and looking at the baby.

Then, out of the clear blue, something magically romantic happened.

My wife in her infinite wisdom turned to me and said, “I have had a Haggen Daz gift card in my purse for months. Let’s get ice cream now, otherwise we will never use it.”

At first I was a little flabbergasted by the fact that she was suggesting we get ice cream at 1pm in the afternoon. Then after a few split seconds of thoughtful consideration I graciously shook my head in agreement and said, “Ya we better do that.”

I stroll up the counter, glancing around anxiously. It had been YEARS since I last visited Haggen Daz. Minutes go by…no employee behind the counter at all. We still look in the case, read over the menu and a special deal catches my eye.

Buy a Dulce Split Dazzler and get a free bottle of water.

Of course the Dazzler is huge, a much bigger portion than I needed in the middle of the afternoon, however the complimentary bottle of water seemed like a good excuse to “splurge”.

After I make my decision the surfer dude employee finally appears and is ready to take our order.

The Dulce Split Dazzler is served in a drink cup and it I watched in horror and awe as the surfer dude built my creation. First ice cream, then fresh banana, hot caramel, another layer of ice cream, more fresh banana, hot caramel. This layering process continues until he reaches the summit of the cup and then it’s finished off with fresh whipped cream.

Whoa. That thing was huge.

I took my free bottle of water and we found a table in the food court in an unpopulated area. (We didn't want to appear like lard butts who needed an ice cream fix just after lunch.)

This ice cream creation was truly sensational. Maybe it's because it was in a cup, maybe it's because it had bananas, or maybe it's because it was made with tender love and care or possibly it was just because it was running out over the top of my cup all over my hands. Whatever it was - it tasted like an ice cream dream.

The combination of hot caramel sauce, bananas, and the ice cream created a dessert party in my mouth. Hot caramel does an interesting thing - it gets cold and turns into glue. In a matter of minutes my face was stuck to the cup because the stringy, sticky caramel was all over the place. I didn't give a care in the world though because it was so good.

We slowly finished and made our way back towards Haagen Daz and as we walked by I had the pleasure of over-hearing a conversation:

I call it, the "Good Excuse for Ice Cream" conversation.

There were two women at the counter. Here are their excuses for getting expensive Haagen Daz ice cream:

"Well, I need something to walk around with while shopping."

"A little dessert can't hurt."

I think my excuse was the best though: I have a gift card......err and I had to order the biggest thing because...because I got a free bottle of water.

Excuses or not....it was freakin good.

What dessert do you make an excuse for? Tell me what dessert dazzles you and I'll include it in a short eBook that is sure to change the world. Send me an email by clicking here or...............here. No excuses.