The quintessential summer snack

Cookie Doughn't You Want Some - ice cream that is? Last week's high temperatures had Lincoln residents scrambling to find ways to cool off.Inevitably, one of the options is to ingest something cold and ice cream certainly fits that bill. Not to mention that July is National Ice Cream Month, although most consumers don't seem to care much about that. "Ice cream is just good," said Victoria Porter, 5, while licking her scoop of chocolate mixed in with M & Ms at Cold Stone Creamery. Boston-native-turned-Lincolnite Deborah Christie agreed. "I eat ice cream all year long," she said while purchasing a Rocky Road hand-dipped cone from Morning Glory's in Downtown Lincoln. "And this ice cream is the best. It's hard to find good ice cream in California."Krista Geske, owner of Morning Glory's, agrees that finding good ice cream is hard to do. "We get our ice cream from Gunther's," she said. "It's made in Sacramento and has a really high quality and consistency because the ice cream has less air in the mix." Ice cream scoopers at Cold Stone take great pride in the ice cream they serve as well - after all, they make it right there in the store. "It's made fresh daily from a sweet cream base mixture in a giant ice cream maker we have in the back," said shift leader Kayla Kopel. The result is 17 tubs of ice cream flavors like cheesecake and cake mix. Patrons at Cold Stone generally order an ice cream flavor and then add one or more of one of the 30 "mix-ins" available. Mixers can be anything from Twix candy bars to gummy worms. Tantalizing combinations like "Peanut Buttercup Perfection", "Cookie Doughn't You Want Some" "Strawberry Blond" and "Birthday Cake Remix" tempt consumers' creativity when selecting their treat. However, others can't be swayed from the tried and true. Last week, Lincoln resident Heather Gregory was on mission to pick up an order of vanilla and cookies for her husband. "He loves it," she said. The creativity genes in the Gregory family are stronger with the children. McKenna, 6, whose favorite flavor changes with each visit, decided on mint chocolate chip with gummy bears. Richie, 3, picked cookies and cream with cake batter. Whatever flavor you choose, and Geske said many of her regular customers at Morning Glory's favor the Gladding McBean shake, July's a good time for a cool treat. But if the calories and fat content of ice cream scare you away from indulging in one of summer's pleasures, TCBY on G Street in the Lincoln Brand Feeds Building offers frozen yogurts and sorbets that are between 96 and 100 percent fat-free, said owner Cindy Hagen. "Also, most people who are lactose intolerate can eat frozen yogurt and sorbet," she said of the eight hand-dipped options and six soft-serve choices on the menu.