by Valerie Beck – “The Chocolate Queen”

The number three is a magical number in realms such as literature, the physical world, and popular culture.

Think of The Three Musketeers, the three dimensions, and the three members of groups ranging from The Supremes, to The Beastie Boys, to Destiny’s Child. And how about the trios of Facebook, twitter and Instagram, or the Three Tenors, or the Red White and Blue!

Here’s a delicious trio for you: ice cream, cookies, and pie – with an overriding chocolate theme, of course!

I attended a wonderful “ice cream social” event to celebrate three first-class brands: Big Gay Ice Cream of New York and Philadelphia, Hot Chocolate restaurant and dessert bar owned by award-winning chef Mindy Segal, and beloved Chicago pie shop Bang Bang Pie, held in Bang Bang Pie’s back yard in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. The event hashtag combined the names of the businesses into #bighotbang, naturally!

The event featured luscious ice cream sandwiches made with Big Gay Ice Cream and Mindy Segal’s cookies – peppermint ice cream with “Black Sabbath” chocolate cookies, and dulce de leche ice cream between ‘nilla wafer cookies (that combo is the “Bea Arthur,” named for the late actress, who was a distant cousin of mine, but that’s a story for another day).

Also at the party: Bang Bang Pie a la mode including lovely chocolate pecan pie with vanilla Big Gay Ice Cream. (There was a blackberry sage pie too, which was certainly delicious though you may know I believe that dessert without chocolate isn’t dessert at all but is salad. : )

Mindy Segal’s enticing new “Cookie Love” cookbook and the charmingly chatty new “Big Gay Ice Cream Book” were available onsite from Read It And Eat bookstore, and 3 Floyds Brewing Co. (three!) was there pouring their new milk stout.

A Bang Bang Pie book would have made a trio of books; coming soon?

In any case, the book signing table was a party within a party.

The trio of ice cream, cookies, and pie made quite a magical party – a chocolatey party!

Your friend in chocolate,

Valerie

Valerie Beck

Chocolate Expert, Chocolate Consultant, Sweet Speaker

www.valeriebeckchocolateuplift.com

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