I read a recent lifehacker post with amusement when people were explaining how they heat up their ice cream scoops before using them, or pop their ice cream into the microwave for a few minutes. The reason I’m amused is because I remember trying similar tactics rather unsuccessfully. I would usually either bend the spoon or only be able to remove thin layers or chunks of hard ice cream.

I no longer wrestle with it after buying an ice cream spatula. It works so much better, even with extremely hard ice cream. They’re not very plentiful, but if you look long enough you can find them in the kitchen goods section of most stores (I would try Walmart, Target and similar stores in your area). It’s well worth the effort to find one.

There’s only one downside. It’s so easy to get ice cream, helpings can be a bit too generous and frequent.