Junk Food Nation, there’s just too much to talk about from yesterday and today, so let’s get right to it, non-chronological, stream-of-consciousness style:

1) Turkey for Thanksgiving, great.  Turkey leftovers, awesome.  Turkey leftovers for breakfast at 7:30am…it’s a bit much.  Ooof.

2) Ndamukong Suh of the Detroit Lions kicked another player while he was down yesterday, and then vehemently denied it even happened after the game.  I like Suh, but stop acting pretend-delusional. This isn’t one of those situations where you can keep pretending it didn’t happen and then eventually someone will believe you, like that time in grade school where you pissed yourself and everyone saw but you keep hoping people would forget by 11th grade: “Dude, did you just piss yourself?” “No.” “Yes, yes you did.” “No, I didn’t!” “Dude, you DID!” “NO, I DIDN’T!” “DUDE, YES YOU DID, I AM LOOKING RIGHT AT Y*” “I SPILLED SOMETHING! I SPILLED SOMETHING ALL OVER MY PANTS LA LA LA LA I HATE YOU!”

3) Nickelback at halftime during the Lions-Packers game?? How is it that I felt just as uncomfortable as the fans in the stadium, and I was at home?

4) Using the field during the halftime show like a green screen?  Would’ve been cool if they actually showed the effects more than three split seconds during the performance.  Brilliant job, FOX, as usual.

More after the jump.  Today’s Junk Food: Turkey Hill Limited Edition Baked Apple Dumpling Ice Cream!

The Money Shot

Turkey Hill is a Lancaster County, PA dairy company, specializing in drinks, baked goods, and ice creams. These products come straight from the heart of Amish Dutch country, where the locals “are famous for home cooking with homegrown ingredients.”  Yummy yummy.  I hope.

I found this ice cream concoction at my local Fresh & Greens grocery.  Limited Edition Baked Apple Dumpling Ice Cream is described as “cinnamon ice cream with a caramel apple swirl and apple dumpling pieces.”  Sounds delightfully Amish!  Or something like that.

Tubalicious

Turkey Hill has a number of Limited Edition flavors, and I hope to try and report on all of them. PomBerry Chocolate Truffle? You kiddin’ me???

Incidentally, I love the big LIMITED EDITION wrapping on the lid.  Way to sock me in the face with it!  No, but seriously, thank you – I hate it when companies HIDE the Limited Edition message.  It’s like, you want me to want you, don’t you? Then this is no time for subtlety.

All the way from Lancaster, PA

Love the apple imagery.  But is this ice cream really “Imported from Lancaster County?” I mean, if we’re being technical, did this ice cream arrive into a port somewhere? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

So THAT's what an apple dumpling looks like

The Baked Apple Dumpling Ice Cream does look mega-appealing on the cover of this ice cream.  And floating above it – an actual baked apple dumpling.  I didn’t know what this was until I had this ice cream; apparently an apple dumpling is just a pastry filled with apple and cinnamon.  Who knew?  Besides everyone but me.

How...non-descriptive.

I thought this was gonna be some sappy description…and then discovered it wasn’t a description of this particular ice cream at all. Ooo…..k.

How...non-descript

Peel back

The ice cream was soft and easy to scoop, which was nice.  As I peeled back the top layer, I could immediately see the caramel swirl, and you could see the cinnamon that was laced into the ice cream itself.  Little chunks of dough and apple littered the surface.

Pieces of apple

Caramel swirl

The taste: REALLY sweet.  The cinnamon infused vanilla-ish ice cream was really creamy and almost TOO sweet – but I liked it.  The bits of apple dumpling dough broke up the sweetness nicely; the doughy taste provided a good context for me as I tried to visualize the flavor as an apple dumpling a-la-mode. Plenty of caramel apple syrupy swirl in the ice cream itself, which added to the sweetness.  The were only slight bits of apple; I wish there were more… all in all a good ice cream, but not a very complex flavor.

I understood what the flavor profile was supposed to be, but it didn’t quite get there for me.  The sweetness of the non apple parts drowned out any strong apple flavor.  I mean, I *liked* the ice cream, because I LIKE ICE CREAM.  But was it anything that wow-ed me?  Unfort., no.  Sorry, Turkey Hill – probably wouldn’t buy it again.

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More thoughts:

5) American Idol winner Scotty McCreary (who? exactly) sang during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the runner up, some random blonde girl, screwed up the National Anthem before the Lions game.  I think this was a lose-lose.  Can we just end American Idol now please?

6) Today is Black Friday, and the internet memes are covering this to death.  I’ll just say this: with stores opening at midnight this year, were people just shopping through the night?  Like at 3:37am???? Target, Best Buy, Walmart…you’re the reason I weep for America.

7) Saddest moment ever: when you wait in line all night for Black Friday, get into the store, and your item is gone.  Then you just spend another hour wandering the stores thinking, “Wow, this is a great deal on gloves.” Then you think, “Wow, do I really need to be buying gloves at 2:30am?  This couldn’t wait til tomorrow? I’m a horrible person.”

Thoughts?  Tell me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy