Today is National Ice Cream Day! (So Go Ahead, Treat Yourself)

If the hot summer days are not enough excuse to slurp on some ice cream, here is a more official reason - Today, July 18th is National Ice Cream Day, a holiday declared in 1984 by none other President Reagan, who probably topped his, with jelly beans!

To celebrate this holiday, here are some fun facts about this universally favorite desert:

The first ice cream-like concoction was served in the 4th century by Roman Emperor Nero, who sent his servants scurrying up the mountains to get some fresh snow, which was then mixed in with fruits, honey or wine and served as a one-of-a-kind treat to his guests.

The term 'Ice Cream' was coined by American colonists in 1776, from the phase 'Iced Cream'.

Immigrants at Ellis Island were served Vanilla Ice Cream as part of their first welcome meal.

Americans are the biggest consumer of ice cream in the world, chowing down an average of 48 pints per person every year!

While we may pride ourselves on creating unusual (translate yucky) flavors like artichoke and garlic, people were as imaginative in the 1700's - A cookbook penned in 1790 had recipes for parmesan, ginger and brown bread flavored ice cream!

One of the most important ingredients in ice cream is . . . . Air! Without that the treat would be as hard as rock.

The World's biggest ice cream sundae created in 1988, weighed a whopping 55,000 lbs, while the world's biggest Ice Cream Scoop comprising of 28,000 scoops of strawberry ice cream tipped the scales at 7,800 lbs.

And finally, it apparently takes fifty licks to eat a single scoop of ice cream - something I need to verify right away!

Missed your chance to have ice Cream today? - No worries, President Reagan also declared the entire month of July - Ice Cream month - one that should be celebrated with appropriate ceremonies and activities - slurp!

sources: www.icecream.com,drspock.com