Making Ice Cream

We have no water right now. There is a major repair needed, so they had told us the water would be shut off on Saturday. I guess a lot of people complained about it happening on the weekend, so they sent out word this morning that it would happen today, instead. Oliver called me at about 10:30 to tell me it was going off at noon, so I had to madly rush around doing dishes, laundry, and anything else water-related I could think about (including taking a shower).

I'm kind of bummed because I was supposed to run today. Yesterday was weight training, so this means two days without a run. Well, I guess I could still go, but that means an evening with my sweaty, stinky self. Nope, I'm not that dedicated to running!

Anyway, while in the midst of all this water frenzy, I filled a basin of wash water so we could wash off the ice cream maker when we were done. I bought one (with a little shipping assistance from my brother) with a credit I won from a store that won't ship here, and it arrived a couple days ago. I'd promised Wyatt we'd make our first batch today, and I didn't want to reneg on that. I had mixed up the chocolate base the night before, and when he came home for lunch we dumped it into the maker and turned it on.

The boys were very intrigued about this process. They sat there watching it the whole time.

The maker worked faster than I was expecting, and we had soft serve ice cream in about ten minutes. The boys helped me throw in some walnuts at the last minute, and then we dished it out:

Voila! Chocolate ice cream, flavored with a little mint and vanilla extract, with walnuts thrown in for good measure! We put the extras in the freezer for later. When mango season happens, I intend to buy some fresh ones and make mango ice cream.

I'm pretty excited about the ability to make ice cream. I've wanted a maker for years, but it has never been particularly high on our priority list. Here, though, it makes a lot of sense to finally buy one. There are no ice cream shops for us to frequent, and the store carries only a few brands. Ben & Jerry's is really the only brand I like (and I'm picky there, too) that they carry. Most of the rest have a lot of junk in it (like the ever-present, ever-yucky, high fructose corn syrup).

The other two problems are cost and the condition of it. It's expensive, like five bucks for a half gallon - or whatever size they come in now. And it often gets soft during transit. I have learned to avoid the misshapen boxes, but we still sometimes end up with ice crystals in our ice cream. Yuck.

Now we can make our own with honey or raw sugar instead of nasty stuff, and it will be frozen properly. I'm doing a happy dance inside right now, lack of water and all.