OPINION | FRONT BURNER: Milky Way Ice Cream reminder of grandmother

My birthday is coming up in a few days and for much of my life the celebration has included two special foods:

My Buba's peppermint cake and my Granny Tommie's Milky Way ice cream.

Buba, my paternal grandmother, was a peppermint fiend — keeping a handful of the candies with her at all times. (She also loved butterscotch candies.) For my birthday she always baked a peppermint cake — a basic white or yellow cake with crushed peppermints stirred into the batter before baking — and frosted with bright pink peppermint buttercream and sprinkled with crushed peppermints.

Granny Tommie, on my mom's side, would make Milky Way ice cream. Technically, she made the ice cream for our family's Fourth of July gathering, but like the holiday's fireworks, in my child mind it was just for me.

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