Ice Cream Sodas for a heat wave!

What a week!  I pretty much scrapped my plans for blog post this week for two reasons.  First of all, we are having a garage sale this week and as anyone who has ever had a garage sale knows, it kinda sucks.  Which leads me into my second reason: its HOT!!  Really really hot.  Put those two together and you have a really uncomfortable, long, stressful, troublesome couple of days.

So the recipes I was originally going to share here will have to wait.  Instead, I thought this longtime family favorite should make an appearance instead.  Its cold and refreshing, quick and simple.  All things that are on my list of requirements this week.  All right.  They are the ONLY things on my list this week.  If they don’t hit those marks, I ain’t eatin’ it.  Which means I have been living on salads, iced tea, and these ice cream sodas.

What I love love love about making these is that they are just a different enough to be kinda fun and unexpected, but they aren’t a big deal to do.  Root beer floats are an obvious classic and these are the same concept but not so sweet and much more original.  Kind of like old time soda fountain action going on in your kitchen.  Or on your deck.  Or your patio.  Or with your toes in the grass.  A fun straw doesn’t hurt either.
One Year Ago: Super Creamy Strawberry Ice Cream & Fried Rice Scramble
Two Years Ago: Oatmeal Raisin Snack Bars, Cornmeal Pancakes W/Blueberry Sauce, Grilled Pizza

Ice Cream Sodas
Inspired by Ina Garten and soda fountains everywhere!
I like to use sparkling water in these because unlike club soda or tonic water, it doesn’t have added salt.

flavoring: chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, strawberry sauce, butterscotch sauce
ice cream: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coffee
milk
sparkling water

In a large glass, add about 2 T of your flavoring, or feel free to skip it entirely.  If you use the syrup, add a splash (about 1/4 c or so) of milk and stir.  This allows the flavoring to mix into the sparkling water without just sitting on the bottom of the glass.  Add your desired ice cream in whatever combo you like and fill the glass with sparkling water. Enjoy!

Note:  I have discovered through extensive trial and error 🙂 that mint chocolate chip ice cream, or any type with lots of little chunks of chocolate or nuts, are kind of lost in this recipe.  Save it for a bowl and go with the smooth stuff here.  Strawberry seems to be the exception.  Our most favorite combo is chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream, but chocolate sauce with coffee ice cream is a close second!