Some of you may remember the 4th of July debacle of a few years ago when I tried to make red, white and blue ice cream? I thought I was so crafty; I made vanilla ice cream, picked all of the red and blue mini M&M's out of a bag and threw them into the machine. At the end I had purple ice cream with chocolate chips...at least it still tasted good!
We have decided to have a 4th of July barbecue and I will make ice cream. I won't be getting so involved as to try the red, white and blue again because this time my dilemma is a lot more basic: to make ice cream, one needs a key ingredient- ice. I think the American culture is the only one in which ice is sold in such accessible quantities. How many of you will stop at the C-store or gas station, or while at the grocery store pick up a bag or two of ice this weekend? But if you don't, you can rest assured that if you do run out you can just go down the street and get more, right? I don't have that luxury, so a few days ago I started farming ice. I searched all of my drawers and cupboards to find any and every container that could make a cube big enough to be worth it, but small enough to fit in the drum of my ice cream maker, I cleared out as much of the freezer as I could, and started stock-piling ice.
If she didn't before, my Ayi truly thinks I am nuts now! I can just see her shaking her head: "crazy Americans". My next concern is that my maker works alright plugged into the voltage converter. I don't have a lot of rock salt either...Wish me luck- I'll let you know how the ice cream turns out. Stop by and have some if you're in the neighborhood. Happy 4th everyone!
