We All Scream....

My daughter and I patronized a local street festival the other night. It was near enough to walk on over and we had a fun time just being out and about. There was music and entertainment, and, as usual, like the county fair from last month, there was a plentitude of requsite, expensive and greasy, fair-style food from which to select, though I honestly just wasn't personally particularly interested (though I admit I did have one small bite of my daughter's curley fries, and another from her Dippin' Dots). My only real food indulgence was an ear of sweet corn (it was a bit tough) -- plus a small glass of sweet tea my daughter and I shared (the only thing we could find to purchase to use up the one spare ticket we had leftover). Even then the glass held far more ice than actual tea, so....

In any case, for my birthday earlier this month (hello, 42!)? My family bought me an ice cream maker for my gift, as per my special request. I had an electric maker from years ago -- purchased second hand at a church rummage sale for a buck. It was old and quite crappy -- but we could still manage to make vegan ice cream in it from time to time, just for kicks. It pooped out on me though the last time I tried it some years back. And besides, it was always such a sloppy mess to deal with -- what with the ice and the salt, the dripping and sloshing all over the place. These newer models out today are such a radical improvement it isnt' even funny -- no ice nor salt required (just the insert that one keeps frozen in the freezer). And it can just sit on the kitchen counter top to do its thing (instead of on the driveway or garage floor in order to contain the mess). Anyway, my husband and kids really love frozen desserts - but it's expensive to buy the nondairy stuff very often. I thought having a working one of our own again would be a fun, family-oriented thing to have and do -- and so far so good. Using the book "Vice Cream" (non dairy recipes), we've whipped a few varieties in recent weeks -- in particular one last night that turned out pretty well. 'Pumpkin' Vice Cream, no less (turned out not too shabby!). The base of the vice creams is ground cashews, as opposed to dairy or soy -- so it's certainly not low fat here. Thanfully, I've never been a HUGE ice cream fan (not to the extreme anyway -- like some people can be. I mean, I like it and all -- but I've never been one to go crazy) -- dairy or otherwise, so it's really not a terrible temptation for me anyway, beyond just sampling modest amounts for the taste of it. Mostly it's fun just to have a new novelty around the house to experiment with ....