Sometimes there are things in this life that you have to eat no matter what the consequences. You have to block out the nasty knowledge you have about fat and heart disease and go back to your childhood,
where, in my case, you could find print ads with doctors endorsing
cigarettes. Holy Smokes!
The other day, my husband took me to Williams Sonoma to buy the latest model Cuisinart. That’s for another article by the way because it is a cook’s wet dream.
What we hadn’t planned on was purchasing an ice cream maker; also made by Cuisinart. The little devil was $60 and there was a cute cookbook we bought, as well. The recipes went from labor intensive, (custard based gelato), to simple, (ice creams and sorbets). Of course, my daughter Hannah and I had to attack the custard one. I rationalized that it was about time my beautiful 15 year old learn basic custard. We chose a cinnamon and brown sugar ice cream because those were pantry staples.
The whisking and the tempering and the straining all went as planned, then Hannah lost interest and went into the living room to watch Family Guy because I’m Mother of The Year. The mixture had to sit in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight. Like a watched pot, I took the bowl out of the fridge after two hours exactly. Hannah had moved on to Gossip Girl because I’m a saint and should be writing parenting books.
Just recently my
mother asked me to pick up some vanilla ice cream she wanted to serve
with a pie she had made. I came home with a gallon of 'Pet' vanilla ice
cream. She asked me why, out of all the brands at the grocery store,
would I choose 'Pet?' I told her grocery store ice cream,whether it
be Ben and Jerry's, Hagen Daaz or Pet all tasted the same to me and
that Pet was the cheapest.
Mother Nature couldn’t have planned a better time to blast us with heat and humidity. After all, July is National Ice Cream Month. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan said so. He also claimed the third Sunday of July will always be National Ice Cream Day. Thank you very much, but I don’t need to wait for a specially designated month or day to enjoy ice cream. It’s one of my favorite indulgences — any day. Or, everyday! It doesn’t have to be a hot day to scoop up a big bowl of ice cream, but it is the perfect frozen treat to bring the body temperature down.
My husband Leo loves ice cream. I like it, but he loves it. For a
wedding present, we received a wooden ice cream maker that like the old
fashioned ones, needed to be filled with ice and rock salt, but unlike
the old fashioned ones, could be plugged in and churned the ice cream
without the 'elbow grease.' Once every few years, we'd pull it out and
impress ourselves by making a batch of lovely vanilla ice cream, but it
was always a big production for the results. About 6 or 7 years ago,
as a birthday gift for my ice cream loving husband who almost always
has a quart of vanilla in the freezer, I bought a double Cuisinart
automatic ice cream machine. It consists of a motorized bottom,
plastic churners and plastic covers with two metal containers which I
keep in the freezer at all times.
"We all scream for Ice Cream..." but what flavor and from what shop and why? National Ice Cream Month begs the eternal question, "What's YOUR favorite kind?" One for the Table asked some of our favorite scoop fans to reveal their guilty pleasures....
