National Ice Cream Day

For me, any excuse to eat ice cream is a good excuse. In high school, one of my favorite chemistry classes was when our teacher made ice cream in the lab from sugar and cream cooled with liquid nitrogen.

Most ice cream isn't as extreme as that, but no matter the type, people are getting a big scoop across the country today in celebration of an offbeat holiday: National Ice Cream Day. I celebrated National Ice Cream Day with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, although my favorite is the lavender honey ice cream I tasted once in Columbia, Missouri.

This holiday has a strange history. Back in 1984, President Ronald Reagan established National Ice Cream Day by presidential decree as the third Sunday of every July. A wise choice of a date, in my opinion. National Ice Cream Day comes right when summer is starting to heat up in all seriousness, and everyone is craving a big ice cream cone.

You can celebrate National Ice Cream Day by hitting up your local ice cream parlor, or by serving yourself a scoop at home. Here are a couple ideas:

Soft serve ice cream is great when dipped in fudge or some other liquid candy that will harden into a shell. One example is the popular Bo's Ice Cream in Tampa, Florida, where half-foot tall vanilla swirls come enveloped in a thin cherry or blue raspberry flavored shell. You have to eat up quick, though. Soft serve ice cream is delicious, but melts quickly.

A banana split sundae is a classic, but you can change it up with other fruits as you desire. Summertime is prime time for fruit, and you have your pick of fresh pineapple, berries, grapes and other juicy toppings for your ice cream. Adding fruit with also make your ice cream less of a guilty pleasure: they're full of vitamins and other nutrients. Berries are an antioxidant-filled treat that will add zing to your ice cream.

Reminisce of your childhood days by getting a big scoop in a cake cone. My childhood was one filled with strawberry ice cream, so that flavor will always have a special place in my heart. But everyone's ice cream of choice is different. Still, the crisp cake cone will bring back memories of carefree days where the only worry was how to eat the ice cream before it melted away.

Those are a couple ideas for how to celebrate National Ice Cream Day. Yes, it's just an excuse to eat ice cream, but it's a darn good one.