The Scooper Bowl has a whole new meaning for me on this World Kidney Cancer Day #partner

This year, one of my favorite events of the year has extra special meaning to me. The Scooper Bowl, an event held in downtown Boston where you can eat as much ice cream as you want, is held the first week in June and benefits the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and The Jimmy Fund. Today is World Kidney Cancer Day and has special meaning to me as my family has been affected by the disease, so I wanted to help raise awareness.

I have worked in downtown Boston for the past two decades; I learned about The Scooper Bowl one day walking through Boston and have made it a mission to go every year since and let as many people know as I can.

I had a great time and got to try some delicious ice cream from favorites like HP Hood, New England Ice Cream, Friendly's, Haagen Dazs, Bliss, Edy's, Alec's and Brigham's, as well as some brands new to me like Holy Cow Ice Cream Cafe, Jonny Pops, Melona, and Philadelphia Water Ice.

My favorite ice cream by far was pretty much every flavor from Holy Cow and HOLY COW their cereal milk as soooooo good as well as their award-winning Ritzy AF flavor - Salted Butter Cracker ice cream loaded with house-made Ritz Cracker Toffee Bark. Yum.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2021, they even had a Scooper Bowl-in-a-box at home version where you picked up kits at various places around Massachusetts and would hold your own event at your house! The team at DFCI was so creative to pivot so quickly and put together such an event.

If you're wondering why it has extra special meaning to me, that's because late last year, during my regular physical, my doctor ordered an ultrasound of my abdomen. Well, one thing led to another, and they found something on my left kidney, but they just weren't sure if it was cancer or not. Either way, it had to come out.

I had part of my kidney removed through a procedure called a Robotic Partial Nephrectomy. I'm super thankful for all of the surgeons, oncologists, doctors, nurses, medical staff, pathologists, anesthesiologists, and everyone on my care team at Mass General Brigham and Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

I am also grateful and blessed to live in the Boston area where we have world-class healthcare facilities, and educational institutions.

Raising a spoon to fight cancer with the Scooper Bowl-in-a-box kit at your house! #partner @danafarber @scooperbowl

A sample Scooper Bowl in a box kit. Image courtesy of 

This year, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute is taking the Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl® to your house! Enjoy all the sweet scoops of Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl with your own Scooper Bowl in a box kit! Pick up a kit from one of four convenient locations between August 19-22 and receive plenty to share, with nearly 200 ounces of ice cream, toppings, and all the fun that comes with it!

There are two types of kits, a standard kit for $50 and a premium kit for $75. Each kit has plenty of ice cream and frozen desserts for 4-6 people, plus treats from sponsors. If you upgrade to the premium kit, you get a Scooper Bowl hat and sunglasses, plus extra ice cream from Brigham’s, special hot fudge, and a guaranteed prize!

You can also sponsor a kit for a health care hero at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute! Purchase a standard kit for $50 to share some sprinkles, smiles, and thanks with a Dana-Farber first responder.

NOTE: We were provided with some fun Jimmy Fun hats and sprinkles along with a few coupons to share this joy with you!

Vice Cream: A new ice cream that is decadent, delicious and worth it. Live life, dig in!

I'm SUPER excited to tell you about Vice Cream, a new ice cream that is decadent and delicious. Recently, I joined the inaugural Creamy Crew for Vice Cream, where I get to try all of their flavors and help spread the word.

Vice Cream is locally headquartered in downtown Boston and was started a year ago by Dan Schorr. Dan has run marathons, half-marathons, created energy drinks, and didn't always follow the indulgent  track of things. In 2014, he was diagnosed with cancer, despite being the healthiest guy his doctor knew, and decided to do what it took and as of August 2016 is cancer free.

Vice Cream has really indulgent and rich flavors. So far we've tried Minted, Afternoon Delight, Bourbon Mash and Higher Grounds. My favorite is Higher Grounds, which has dark roast coffee ice cream interlaced with swirls of mocha fudge, crunchy chocolate cookie crumbles and pillows of sweet espresso.

As they say on their website: "At Vice Cream, we take our business and our ice cream very seriously. But never ourselves. Because life is funny. Maybe not always ha-ha funny, but still funny. The important thing is to indulge in it while you can."

I agree.

NOTE: I was provided with some pints of Vice Cream in exchange for this post. No other compensation was provided.

Yasso: A great new frozen (greek) yogurt treat!

We had the great chance to have Yasso at our summer family gathering this year. In our extended family, we have many people with different dietary needs and some picky eaters, but we all have one thing in common and that's enjoying a good frozen dessert. After our meal, we told everyone that we had a surprise for dessert and started handing out Yasso bars for everyone to try - strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, vanilla and coconut. As it turns out coconut is my favorite type of ice cream so I was really excited when I learned they had it as a flavor. There's also a mango flavor if you happen to like that as well.  The Yasso bars were a big hit at the party. We even had a few people ask for seconds!  My wife loved the blueberry. It was hard to figure out the "best" flavor.  Everyone seemed to like them all!  People really loved that they didn't have to feel guilty having a frozen treat.

As our luck would have it, the nice folks at Yasso gave us some coupons to send to a lucky reader so we're going to host a giveaway until next Thursday 10/17. Be sure to tell your friends!

Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway