Sorbet

See this?

This is my ice cream maker. It was the first gift that my husband ever bought me. I received it for my 23rd birthday, almost ten years ago. (yikes!!!) That first year I had it, I made ice cream all the time. My very favorite was vanilla with pecans and maraschino cherries, and then I'd swirl in some chocolate syrup. So, so good.

The problem with it was that I'm not very patient. After you cook your custard base for the ice cream you have to let it cool to room temperature and that takes forever! Also, you have to keep the base in the freezer and that takes up a lot of room. Well, maybe just slightly more than a carton of ice cream, but still.

As a result, the ice cream maker (the same model Alton Brown used in his ice cream episodes of Good Eats, by the way) got relegated to the far depths of my cupboards.

When we started working toward eating more whole foods and cooking more at home, it occurred to me that I could also start making ice cream again. While it can't really be considered healthy by anyone (unless you really really work that calcium angle), homemade ice cream doesn't have a lot of the chemical additives that you find in the store bought kind. Sure, there are some premium brands out there that boast only a few ingredients and are marketed as being all natural, but they're way spendy too. As you know, I'm on a budget here. How else am I going to be able to afford my vintage toast rack???

Also, I have one little man here who loves to eat whatever it is he sees us eating. If I'm going to feed the boy junk food, I want it to be the best junk food I can. With the exception of our Hostess Donettes, of course. Coincidentally, after I decided this, Pioneer Woman posted a recipe for blackberry ice cream. It was a SIGN!!! I gathered up my ingredients, made my base, went to get out the ice cream maker and... the paddle was missing.

You know, the paddle? The part that stirs it? It's very important, and it was very missing. I wanted to cry. Blackberries aren't cheap either, so it's not like I could just toss out my base. I had almost $20 of ingredients in there!!! I ended up pouring it into the base, sticking it into my freezer, and then just stirring it with a big fork every 5-10 minutes. It was really good, don't get me wrong, but so not worth the hassle in the end. It was definitely not economical!

So now, if I wanted to make ice cream, I could go buy a new ice cream maker or I could try to hunt down this part for my now nine year old machine. Amazon to the rescue! Best part - it was less than $10. Way cheaper than a new machine. I ordered it a few weeks ago and finally took it out for a spin today.

Strawberry sorbet doesn't really photograph well, but take my word for it - it's DE-LISH! I found the recipe on Chloe's blog and have had it book marked for a while. It's fresh strawberries, fresh orange juice (given to me by a neighbor who has a friend with a tree, so local! and hand squeezed by yours truly on her new citrus reamer) sugar, and filtered water. Nothing funky, no chemicals, no preservatives. Just real food.

On a totally unrelated note:

I had the machine running and was catching up on my Google Reader when I realized that the boy was being very quiet. I did a quick sweep of the kitchen and living room, but no Bubba. I peeked my head into the bedroom, and there he was. He had climbed into our bed and was pulling the decorative pillows away from our regular pillows and tucking himself in for a nap.

Pardon the dark photo, but I didn't want to use the flash or turn on the light for obvious reasons.

How cute is he? He didn't get fussy at me like he usually does when he needs a nap, he just went and took care of business. He's done this a few times before, but this was the first time he's gotten into our bed. Usually he'll get in his crib (we have it converted to a toddler bed) or he'll nap on the couch. He's just had a really good day today. He woke up happy and chatty, he did his business (#2) in the potty for the first time in months, and he's been just generally in a good mood.

Gotta love days like this!