Today is National Eggnog Day (12/24)

With today being National Eggnog Day, I thought it would be fitting to point out a wonderful local farm making some of the most incredible milk products around.  If you haven't heard of Danzeisen Dairy, then you are missing out.  They make a wide variety of flavors: 2%, 1%, skim, chocolate, strawberry, orange, root beer, and cold brew coffee.  They recently made their last batch of seasonal eggnog for the season so supplies are surely limited.

P.S. If you are wondering whether to buy the Orange Cream milk...

Find a store near you that carries their products:  http://www.danzeisendairy.com/#stores

Dairy Queen's Orange Julius Opens in Peoria

Coming on the heels of their opening in Tempe, Orange Julius has opened another location at 10100 W. Lake Pleasant Parkway #1320, Peoria, AZ 85383.  If you've never been to an Orange Julius, you can check out the menu focusing on fruit beverages and smoothies here, but also of note, from the press release: 

The DQ Orange Julius store in Peoria features DQ favorites, such as the iconic Blizzard Treats, MooLatte frozen coffee-flavored beverages, Blizzard Cakes and a wide variety of other soft-serve items, as well as the full line of Orange Julius premium fruit smoothies and fruit-blended beverages.

While known for their original Orange Julius, currently, the smoothie of the month is the Strawberry Delight Light Smoothie, which is made of strawberry and banana, a nonfat dairy blend and Splenda brand sweetener.

The location is open Sunday - Thursday from 10:30am to 10:30pm and 10:30am to 11:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Arizona is Part of Taco Bell's Breakfast Roll Out

While Tucson has been a part of Taco Bell's breakfast testing for some time now, yesterday, Taco Bell formally introduced their "First Meal" menu at 750 stores in 10 western states, including Arizona.  The breakfast items are listed in Taco Bell's press release:

The full FirstMeal menu, in order of price, includes: sausage or bacon and egg burrito, hash browns, Seattle’s Best Coffee ($1.49); Cinnabon Delights ($1.49), Tropicana orange juice ($1.49), Johnsonville sausage and egg wrap ($1.79), Seattle’s Best Coffee Premium Vanilla or Mocha Iced Coffee ($1.99), steak and egg burrito ($1.99), and Grande Skillet Burrito ($2.79). Three combos will be offered, all for $3.99. They all include a drink and hash brown.

All 11 items will be available between the hours 8am or 9am until 11am.

Dairy Queen's Orange Julius Opens in Tempe

Yesterday at the Arizona Mills Mall at 5000 S. Arizona Mills Cir. Tempe, AZ 85282, Dairy Queen's Orange Julius opened their 14th location in the state.  If you've never been to an Orange Julius, you can check out the menu focusing on fruit beverages and smoothies here, but also of note, from the press release:

The location offers all of the amazing Dairy Queen soft-serve treats and cakes as well as Orange Julius products including an array of fruit beverages and smoothies. In addition, the store also will serve Dairy Queen signature Iron Grilled Sandwiches as well as hot dogs.

While known for their original Orange Julius, currently, the smoothie of the month is the Strawberry Delight Light Smoothie, which is made of strawberry and banana, a nonfat dairy blend and Splenda brand sweetener.

The location is open Monday - Saturday from 10am to 9:30pm and 11am to 7pm on Sundays.

Pinkberry Coming to Arizona?

For sometime now, I have wondered aloud why Pinkberry refused to cross the California border into Arizona while managing to make it to 19 other states and 15 other countries.  You can imagine my fury then yesterday when I read this press release referring to Pinkberry expanding into the Las Vegas area.  Not that I won't want a good cup of Pinkberry yogurt when I find myself in Sin City, but I thought once again, Arizona was being gipped.

After calming myself and doing some digging however, I've found some great news, a watershed moment for those of us in the Grand Canyon State.  Pinkberry will be opening their first Arizona location at the University of Arizona's Student Union Memorial Center in Tucson.  Slated to open on February 14, 2012, the 100th anniversary of Arizona becoming a state, (yeah, and Valentine's Day), at 10am, Pinkberry will be offering six unique flavors:

...the signature flavor, a sweet and tangy yogurt; pomegranate, a bold and tangy flavor made with 100 percent California-grown pure pomegranate juice; salted caramel, a blend of salty and sweet; a rich, indulgent chocolate; mango, a fruity and light flavor made with authentic Alphonso mango puree; and blood orange, a fresh and tangy featured flavor that rotates seasonally.

Now, I haven't been to a Pinkberry in sometime and unless they have changed, the one major difference they have to other froyo shops is that they serve and top the yogurt for you since they do not charge by weight.

Whatever the case, my fury has abated for now.  If this is a peace offering from Pinkberry, I will accept for the time being, but let's hope this is the beginning of many more openings in the state, including the Phoenix metro area.  

UofA Student Union Memorial Center - 1303 E. University Blvd. Tucson, AZ 85719

A Quick Sweet Treat - Orange Cream Slush

Summer officially starts today, even though our hands have been burning on the steering wheel and seat belt for weeks. Looking for a quick and easy sweet drink to cool down? I know I was last night so I did a quick look online and found a recipe from the convenient allrecipes.com website. The Easy Orange Cream Slush turned out to be a very simple, cool drink that hit the spot, albeit with a few alterations.

Some of the commenters on the recipe stated that you could use some more orange juice and the amount of ice depends on the size of your cubes, too many could water the drink down. You can find the original recipe here and tinker with it how you would like, but here is my altered version. Combine all the following ingredients in a blender:

• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 6 half oval shaped ice cubes

While it is called a slush, when I think of slush, I think of that very fine icy and flavored drink I used to have back in grade school. This came across as more of an orange cream drink. Perhaps I blended too much? Oh well, I would make it again because it's quick, easy and good.

Note: The above photo is not mine, it is from the allrecipes website. Unfortunately, I drank my version way too fast before I thought to take a photo. Why don't I just make another one? Today is the day my milk expires, I have never been brave enough to use milk on the day it expires.

Cinnabon's New Summer Treats

Until September 3rd, you will be able to get the new Creamy ReTreat at Cinnabon. The Creamy ReTreat is composed of "Oreo cookies, a hint of vanilla and ribbons of Ghirardelli chocolate sauce." The Creamy ReTreat is also being described as a "cream-based vanilla drink with the lighter texture of a shake...more like a smoothie."

Along with this, new at Cinnabon are three flavors of cream cheese frosting. The flavors are raspberry, orange and strawberry and they are recommended for many of Cinnabon's snack options.

The Creamy ReTreat and frosting flavors come in addition to Cinnabon's Tangy ReTreats and Fruity ReTreats which are described by NRN this way:

The Tangy ReTreat is a low-fat, dairy-free frozen blended lemonade, which is available in lemon, raspberry and orange-mango flavors and served with Cinnabon-flavored syrup swirls. The Fruity ReTreat is an existing line of fruit-puree blended beverages in strawberry, strawberry-banana and tropical blast flavors.

You can find your nearest Cinnabon here.

Jamba Juice Launches Three New Beverages

Last week, Jamba Juice rolled out three new drinks using coconut water. Jamba Juice describes the three new drinks this way:

"Purely Pineapple is a thirst quenching blend of pineapple juice, pineapple sherbet, coconut water, peaches and ice. Strawberry Lemonade is a tart and fruity blend of strawberries, lemonade, coconut water, lime sherbet, sorbet and ice. Tropical Mango is an icy-cold, refreshing blend of mangos, passion-mango juice, coconut water, pineapple sherbet, orange sherbet and ice."  Jamba Juice will provide a special trial offer on Sixteen size Fruit Refreshers for just $2 at participating Jamba Juice locations (coupon required)

Also of note, through Wednesday, June 8th, Jamba Juice will be offering any of the above mentioned Fruit Refreshers in their Sixteen size for $2 with this printable coupon. To find your nearest Jamba Juice, check here.