Ice Cream and other things

We bought the ice cream attachment for our mixer back in July, but with our fridge breaking down twice within the week we bought it, my attempts to make ice cream were thwarted. But last week I finally gave up my superstition that the fridge broke because I wanted to make ice cream (plus we got a new timer put in), and I eventually settled on David Lebovitz' Mexican Chocolate ice cream from Ready For Dessert for the first batch.

This attempt turned out to be fantastic, and this was certainly the smoothest, richest and most decadent ice cream either of us had ever tried. The cinnamon provided the perfect warmth as did the little bit of cayenne I decided to add at the end. And both spices complemented the chocolates that I ended up using - a Venezuelan and a Madagascar, both from Valrhona. We've almost cleaned out the container, so hopefully I can find some time to whip up a new batch for the upcoming week.

Speaking of time, I'm pretty overwhelmed right now - school is crazy. It's my last year I'm pushing as hard as I can to finish for June. Unlike last semester where I had the Anthro of Food class to throw myself into with some more general classes on the side, this Fall is proving to be more specific and more difficult - Lower Palaeolithic Prehistory, Medical Anthro, Reading Class and Ideology, Linguistic Anthro, and finally, the most abstract, fun and challenging one - Imagining Society: Places, Things and Stories... what is the social imaginary? Can it be defined? How do we get at it? How do we interact with place? How do we sense it? What is sense? What is feeling? Is it tangible?...

All these things are swimming around in my head, and I've had by nose stuck in books and articles non-stop for the past couple weeks. All this is a round about way of saying posts will be few and far between this year, and I'm thinking of stopping the blog all together for a while. I 'feel' like it needs a new direction... maybe it will come to me in Lower Palaeolithic class as we discuss the most recent Acheulean hand axe find - you never know.

But before the possible break, I still have two posts left from Québec (I know...): Panache and our final lunch at L'Échaudé. Also, we made it to MRKT last Friday for dinner, so a post is in the works for that too. Then I'll see where I'm at.

Anyhow, I wanted to mention that we made it to Symphony Under the Sky again this year. As per usual, it was the perfect way to end the Festival season, and it's always nice to head out and be a patron - no responsibilities but to enjoy the show. Also, last Fat Franks and Mini Donuts of the year.

I still go for the veggie with dijon and regular mustard, sauerkraut and pickles; Charles is Italian or Honey Ham with mustard, pickles and hot peppers