BEKO FROST FREE FRIDGE FREEZERS

The Colony, Texas
September 9, 2008

left to right:

1. Nuroll. A sentimental favorite – I swiped this from my parents, since it was the main ice cream scoop in our house when I was a kid, as far back as I can remember. It pains me to admit it doesn’t cut through hard ice cream as well as some of our other current ice cream scoops, but I can appreciate its solid metal, seamless construction. And it has lasted easily over forty years, so its design isn’t all bad.

2. OXO Good Grips. I married into this one. This has been the best-working, most reliable ice cream scoop in our house so far (but the latest one might well show it up). The pointed scoop really cuts through the ice cream… in fact, if this scoop is wielded clumsily enough, the tip of the scoop tends to poke through the walls of the cardboard ice cream carton! The dingy finish on the metal on this one (as on the previous one) comes purely through running this aluminum implement through the dishwasher, which you’re not supposed to do… but that’s the fate of just about every non-electric kitchen implement in our house.

3. Indeterminate brand. These mechanical-type scoops never seem to be up to the task: Not only are they hard to dig into the ice cream, but their scoop-clearing mechanisms as often as not simply jam up… at any rate, they never actually push the ice cream out of the scoop. Up until a few weeks ago we also had a Farberware scoop similar to this one (only with a plastic thumb-lever that was supposed to turn the gear) but it jammed up as always and I summarily threw it out in disgust. It seems that in ice cream scoops, the simpler the better.

4 and 5. Indeterminate brand. Probably some cheapo things I got hanging off the racks at some supermarket. These are NOT the kind with the antifreeze sealed inside (which I refuse to buy, since you REALLY have to hand wash those). Not too flimsy plastic, but they’re too light to really dig into the ice cream. I don’t know why I haven’t discarded these yet.

6. Good Cook. The newcomer: As of this writing, I bought this one less than twenty-four hours ago, after seeing over the past few months the supplies of these dwindle at Kroger, down to this last one. (They were actually racked-up INSIDE the ice cream freezer at the store, frost forming on their plastic packages and all.) Called the Twister, this agressively-shaped ice cream scoop (the word “auger” was actually used on the packaging!) is designed to cut through the hardest of ice cream. I thought the point on the OXO Good Grips scoop was impressive, but this one could actually jab you! (On the other end, the handle of this one looks to me like some sort of sex toy.) I’ve used this ice cream scoop once so far, and it worked well (albeit the ice cream was not particularly hard). Note the shiny new finish on the aluminum… its inevitable dishwashing hasn’t come to pass. “HAND WASH ONLY” it has inscribed right on the handle… Right! Not likely in our busy house!

This photograph is in the public domain.

This time, I was looking for some floral shots and spotted an area where these flowers grew in abundance. Looked around and liked this flower in particular 'coz for some reason this is the only one that seemed to be kissed by the morning frost.

Again, no crop during post processing, and yes I could've gotten a much closer shot, but prefered this one. Liked how the blue flowers stood out against the green background.

Anyhow, constructive criticism is always welcome and appreciated.

Have a great weeked.