Welcome to this week's wonderfully wild and wooly writings with well wishes for world wide well being this Wednesday. Bringing you your weekly allotment of alliteration...

We've settled into a nice little stretch at the store. The weather has been consistently good, and traffic has been steady. Our 'rookie' serving team members are just about not rookies anymore, as they all seem to be beyond the learning stage, and are now taking normal shifts. (Earlier in the year, I spend a lot of my time trying to schedule the "rookies" to work alongside a "veteran".) Still, there are "interesting" shifts on those nights when I've got all first-year kids on the schedule -- makes me realize what a great job the vets do in keeping the place running without my help when they're there!

Our college kids are pretty much gone for the year, as team leader Janelle worked her last shift of the year on Monday, and the rest of my team have assured me that they'll be working until the end of the season in September. Janelle is scheduled to have her tonsils removed, before heading back to Westfield State, where she's entering her senior year studying Criminal Justice. She has aspirations to be a parole officer (!), of all things, so hopefully her three seasons on our team have given her some experience in dealing with the criminally insane...

Shifting Balance of Power

As our rookies grow into their roles, and the college kids start heading off to school, I was musing the other day about how funny the "balance of power" around the store changes each year as the season progresses.

Early in the spring, I'm the big cheese, as I've got my returning veterans calling up looking to reclaim their spots on the team, and a never ending line of fresh new applicants pleading for me to hire them. I kid with my friends that I know what a Hollywood movie director must feel like, trying to put together the right mix who will make a great cast.

When I give an order in the spring, the kids jump, knowing that those who do things correctly are the ones who get the good shifts and all of the hours they want.

As the summer starts and the college kids come back, they pretty much take over the store, running the serving shifts and keeping the younger kids on task. I get delegated to a fill in role at this point -- I keep in the back of the store, cranking out batches of ice cream and jumping up front to help serve only those times when we get an unexpected rush or are caught shorthanded. Usually I can still scare the new kids enough to keep them in line, but they're starting to figure me out by then.

By this time of year, I'm pretty much treated like a goofy uncle at Thanksgiving dinner -- they put up with me. The college kids know that they're headed off to school in a week or so, so they tease me as much as I tease them now. And the younger kids have been around me long enough to know that I'm not as tough as I look, and that so long as the work gets done and the customers get served quickly, they'll get home alive each night. The crew is pretty much on autopilot by this point, and they take care of business each night without a lot of guidance from me. Good thing, because I'm getting too old to keep on top of them every night!

People's Choice Ice Cream Show

A little advanced warning: As I've written about in the past, the Pat Whitley Restaurant Show, which airs every Sunday morning from 10am until 1pm on WRKO (680), devotes its entire show on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends to callers nominating their favorite ice cream stores.

The store getting the most mentions receives an award for "The People's Choice Ice Cream" at the fall meeting of the New England Ice Cream Restaurant Association.

While I always listen to parts of the show, this upcoming one is more important to us, as we supposedly are in the running to receive this award. I didn't hear the entire show this spring, but apparently we got enough mentions to put us in the running for the award.

Far be it for me to unduly influence the voting, but I'm gonna do it anyway: If you are the type to phone in to one of these shows, I sure hope you'll take the time to do so on Sunday, September 3rd. We really could use the publicity, so mark your calendar now, and keep your fingers crossed for us!

(I'll try to send the next newsletter late that week as a reminder.)

Flavor News

I learned a lesson last year, that waiting until September 1st to start selling our "fall flavors" was a mistake, since the traffic is slower and they don't get the exposure we'd like.

So this year, I started some of our fall flavors early.

• Pumpkin Gingersnap: This is a flavor I started making last year, and is truely one of my personal favorites. A friend shared his recipes with me for this, but I just didn't like the taste, so I adapted it to use the same spices and proportions as my mom's wonderful Pumpkin Pie recipe, and doing so makes it a very tasty ice cream. The contrast of the pumpkin ice cream with the sweetness of the gingersnaps is perfect! Even if you don't think you like Pumpkin ice cream, give it a try, it may surprise you!
• Apple Pie: This flavor was so popular last year that I had to start selling it in July! I originally tried making apple ice cream from fresh apples, but I just can't make anything better than the apple base I get pre-made from one of my suppliers, so we use that. It has a wonderful flavor, with a thick, gooey cinnamon syrup. Close your eyes as you bite into it, and you'll swear you're enjoying a piece of fresh apple pie with a huge scoop of our great Vanilla ice cream on top!
• Guinness: I made a few batches of this last year, and am still experimenting with getting the flavor strong enough. Brilliant!
• Chili-Chocolate: I mentioned this one in the last newsletter, it's a flavor that a friend of mine in Chicago makes. It is made with our dark chocolate, and some pureed Habanero peppers. It's a very interesting flavor: You taste the chocolate in the front of your mouth, then a few seconds later, get the hot, spicy sensation in the back of your mouth. It's definitely draw some funny stories around the store over the past week -- see the story below.

I also made a final run of Blueberry, Blueberry Cheesecake, and Strawberry Cheesecake this past weekend, and that'll likely be the final batch of those for the summer, so come on by and get them, otherwise you won't see them again until next June!

Hot Stuff!

Regarding the Chili-Chocolate: Habaneros are supposedly 30 to 50 times hotter than Jalapenos, so my friend Jim warned me to wear gloves when cutting them, and to toss away the seeds and ribs of the peppers, as that's where the major heat is found. I carefully cleaned these and pureed them and added them the batch. As I was cleaning up, my curiosity got the better of me: "How hot could these things really be?", I wondered.

I took a single seed, and with no one else around, touched it quickly to the tip of my tongue -- literally, I touched it for no more than a fraction of a second. Now I'm no wimp when it comes to enjoying spicy foods, I love a good hot bowl of spicy chili, or plate of some nice Thai food, or some hot Buffalo wings. Still, that tiny touch of one Habanero seed caused my mouth to burn. After trying to tough it out for a minute, I guzzled a full bottle of water. No good.

Remembering that the Wiki-pedia page about Habaneros had recommended drinking dairy to cleanse the taste, I drew myself a large softserve cone and started licking it. Still no good, my mouth was on fire, and I felt like I had a mouthful of bees stinging me. The back of my throat was swelling up. It was a hot day out, and I felt the sweat breaking out on my brow. I finished the cone, and drew another, larger one. Finished that. Drew a third one. Licked that one down, and my mouth was still stinging. I started getting a little worried, wondering if maybe I had to start thinking of getting to the emergency room.

Finally, after my fourth cone of soft serve, I could feel the heat starting to fade. Still, it took about an hour before I wasn't focusing on the burning in my mouth.

Next time, I think I'll avoid the seeds. And I'll listen to Jim a little better as well.

Don't Start

This blonde man came up to the window this week, holding a pair of jumper cables. He looked like trouble to me, so I warned him: You can order an ice cream, but don't try to start anything...

Staff Profile

This week's profile is of team member Rachel. When I was thinking of whom to feature this week, I originally planned to pick one of our rookies, then I realized that Rachel was one of the few from last season's team whom I didn't get a chance to mention last year.

Rachel joined our team almost exactly one year ago, being added at that time to help pick up the slack from the college kids who were heading back to school. I can remember Rachel jumping right in, as we got an unexpected rush during her first training shift, and I knew right away that she was going to be a great addition to the team.

Rachel is one of the quieter members of our team -- I like to kid her about being the store "troublemaker", as she's about the furthest thing from that as one could be. Being quiet doesn't mean she's timid though, as I've heard her give it right back to any of the boys on the team teasing her about her quietness. She is about the most pleasant person on the team, as I've never heard a bad word either from her nor directed to her, and everyone is happy to work alongside her. When Rachel's on the schedule, I know I've got no worries about the customers being well served and of everything being cleaned and put away correctly, as she's extremely diligent about keeping busy.

Rachel lives in North Reading, and is entering her Senior year at North Reading High. By coincidence, she happens to live in the very same neighborhood where I grew up as a kid -- I even used to deliver newspapers on the same street she lives on -- and it's funny for me to hear that the same neighborhood characters are still doing the same kooky things as when I was a kid there.

Here's a link to a shot of Rachel from earlier this year alongside her partner-in-crime, Katie (Rachel is on the right):

I like to kid her that between her and Janelle, we could make some great toothpaste commercials, as the two of them seem to be naturally photogenic -- I don't think I've ever seen a bad photo of either of them.

We're extremely fortunate to have Rachel on our team, she's a perfect example of the type of "good kids" we look for in our hiring process. So make sure to say hi to her if you find her waiting on you. Tell her you read about her in the newsletter, and I'm sure you'll get one of her great smiles.

Newsletter Coupon

The year's best coupon: Print this out, bring it to the store, and we'll give you a FREE pint of any take home flavor, with any other purchase. I only do one or four of these each year, so take advantage of my generosity by redeeming this today!

OK, enough of me for this week! Thanks for reading, and make sure to say hi if you're at the store.