Pseudo Shamrock Shake

One of the first people I met when I moved to Massachusetts was my friend Jenny. My daughter was about 3 weeks old, and Jenny was about 5 months pregnant with her first child. We became fast friends and discovered that, even beyond new parenthood, we had a lot in common. We both taught Spanish, we both loved the movie The Wizard of Oz, and we looked forward each year to the "limited time only" Shamrock Shakes at McDonald's. We started going together every year to get our treat, but discovered that some stores didn't have them, or perhaps we waited too long, and they were no longer available. A few years ago, rather than risk not getting our special dessert, we decided instead to go to a local dairy,and ice cream stand, Peaceful Meadows, who will make a shake out of any flavor of ice cream they have. So we each ordered a mint chocolate chip shake, which was made with actual ice cream, rather than an ice-cream-like substance. This year was especially busy for us and we could only find about an hour of time that we were both free, which was not enough time to get to Peaceful Meadows and back in time for Jenny to pick up her daughter from dance lessons, so I bought some mint chocolate chip ice cream and we made them ourselves. A pretty simple recipe with all measurements "eyeballed" - about 6 scoops of ice cream, and a glug and a half of milk, and a few drops of green food dye (the ice cream was "all natural" and therefore had not been pre-greened). Into the blender it all went, and mixed until smooth. Yum. I think Jenny and I have found a new twist on our old tradition.