Monday, January 5, 2015
Around the time I was eight or nine, the first McDonalds opened up in my town. It was a smash hit, and my family, especially my mom, brother, sister, and I, went there constantly. It was the treat meal after church. It was the fast meal when my mom was too tired to cook. It was the enticement to get us up and out of bed in the morning, and, best of all, it was the place where I could get a giant, creamy ice cream cone for only a quarter.
I fully blame McDonalds for my obsession with ice cream. After my first cone, I became a demon. I would throw raging temper tantrums if we didn’t stop by after school. I would beg for a pint of ice cream when I had even the slightest cold. I would walk the two miles along the highway to the convenience store to get some Blue Bell. I started watching the street in the summer and would streak outside the second I heard the ice cream man’s jingle. During the two summers I worked at Sonic, I ate ice cream at least twice a shift. I have spent $10 on a single pint of ice cream and can have a thirty minute conversation on which flavors are better for which brand. What I’m saying is that I really, really love ice cream.
I’ve wanted an ice cream maker since at least the fourth grade (which coincides nicely with the first time I ate a McDonalds ice cream cone). I remember being at a friend’s sleepover and seeing her father remove the wooden ice cream bucket from the pantry. The whole process was a somewhat religious experience for me as I vibrated slightly at his elbow and watched open-mouthed while he packed the canister with ice and hand-cranked the top. That first mouthful of homemade ice cream ruined me for life and made my parents’ lives hell for weeks.
And, because my sister really loves me, I finally have my own ice cream maker.
Meet Javier, my Nostalgia Electrics Vintage Collection Old-Fashioned 4-Quart Electric Ice Cream Maker. She’s a bit silly with her bright teal plastic bucket, but I love her and am happy with the way she works (I may have already made my first recipe…). The electric motor up top turns the metal canister in the bucket, which is packed tightly with salt and ice. Inside the canister is a plastic dasher that stirs the ice cream mixture, making sure that it churns, creams, and freezes evenly. It takes her at least 30 minutes to make a batch, and she’s moderately quiet.
I have so many ideas for the kinds of ice cream I can make – bacon, margarita, eggnog, lavender, and basil in ice cream, gelato, and sorbet – and I want to make as many as I can. Screw New Year’s resolutions and eating right – I’d rather have some homemade ice cream.
So this year I’m going to make 52 flavors of ice cream – approximately one a week. I will post a recipe every Monday and notes on how I can improve, what went right and wrong, and how it tasted. There will be pictures. I will also make every effort to properly credit the original sources for my recipes (As of right now, I have no desire to make my own recipes – I just don’t know enough! But I plan on changing that in a few months.), so if you see me not posting credit, let me know.
I plan on having a lot of fun and eating a LOT of delicious ice cream, and I may even include extra posts on different brands I like and other ice cream-related info. Suggestions and comments are not only welcomed but encouraged. Now let’s get started.
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