My husband and I have this daily dessert tradition: a serving of Haagen-Daz vanilla ice cream after the dinner meal. Quite naturally, my sweet tooth is over the moon about it. My taste buds, on the other hand, have proven to be a bit harder to please. According to them, I need to "liven" the ice cream up a bit. In other words, increase the flavor of the ice cream. Apparently vanilla ice cream in itself isn't interesting enough.
I knew what would resolve this issue: salted caramel syrup. Let me be more specific: Organic salted caramel syrup. Ah, the sugary lap of luxury my taste buds would be basking in. They all nodded their sensors in agreement. Yes, this was surely the flavor-enhancing addition that would take the vanilla ice cream to the next level.
My sweet tooth was on board as well but, of late, it's become overwhelmed with too much luxury. It could be a sign of my age. Maybe my body has become skeptical. The organic salted caramel syrup is one to those "smooth talkers" that lays it on thick and one has to wonder just how "honest" it's being when it leaves behind an overload of gooey sweetness.
Due to my distrust, I decided to find something else to replace the salted caramel syrup. A memory surfaced of seeing a jar of blueberry jam in the pantry many moons ago. To see if my memory was serving me correctly, I rummaged in the pantry and sure enough, tucked away in the back behind some jars filled with questionable food content, I discovered that, yes, there was a jar of blueberry jam. Once again, let me be more specific: Wild blueberry jam.
Whether or not the jam was still good remained to be seen. But I was in luck. The jar hadn't been opened and it was still within the recommended date of use. After breaking the seal on the jar, I scooped out a spoonful of that indigo-hued fruitiness, and spread it on the ice cream. I took a bite and, as I savored it, I waited for the reaction. Which wasn't long in coming: my sweet tooth shivered in delight and my taste buds practically swooned.
There's just something refreshing about blueberries. Despite going through a jam preservation process where the pressure of heat is applied and then having to be sealed up in a jar, those slightly tart, reasonably sweet wild blueberries still retain their nutritious integrity. Blueberry jam does, indeed, liven up vanilla ice cream. In a flavorful, melt-in-your-mouth way. My sweet tooth, my taste buds, and myself can all attest to it.