My Ice cream maker

Of course I’m an Ice cream maniac! My family knows that only too well! Hence, when my sister came down from USA she carried a huge parcel for me as a belated birthday gift. When I unwrapped it, guess what popped out? Cuisinart’s Ice cream and Frozen Yogurt Maker! Wow, was I thrilled? Yes and yes. (This ice cream maker is not available here in India.)From now on, no more store bought unhealthy ice creams - only nourishing and wholesome frozen yogurts with fresh fruits and frozen sorbets will do for me! I made Vanilla Frozen Yogurt and Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt the very next day I unpacked my Ice cream Maker.

Here is the simple refreshing tangy fresh frozen yoghurt I made :

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt Recipe

Frozen yoghurt with Bilberry topping

2 cups strained Yogurt or Greek-style yogurt or Hung curd
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Churning away

Pinch of salt
Mix together the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla essence and salt. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Pour it in your ice cream maker and run the machine. In 20 minutes your frozen yoghurt is ready!Yum!

Tip:
If you do not have an ice cream maker..no problem! You can freeze it in a tray in the fridge. For softer consistency, when partly frozen, take it out of the freezer, beat it well with a wooden spoon and freeze again. Done!

How to make 1 cup of strained yogurt :
You need-
2 cups - good quality plain whole milk yogurt.

Strained Yoghurt

Take a strainer with very fine mesh, and balance it on the rim of a bowl. Put the yoghurt in the strainer, cover and let it sit in the fridge overnight. The next morning, the liquid from the yoghurt would have drained on to the bowl and the curd in the strainer is thick and creamy. Your strained yogurt is ready for use in any recipe of your choice.

Vanilla Frozen Yoghurt

With Strawberry topping

Suggested toppings-

I love to have my frozen yoghurt with :

· Homemade Strawberry Preserve ,

· Homemade Bilberry Preserve

· Chopped fresh fruits particularly bananas.

Enjoy! :)

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My yummy sugar caramel canape ice cream in Malaysia

'I scream, you scream

We all scream for Ice cream.'

As a kid, I considered that as the most perfect, ultimate rhyming poem. As a teenager, I reflected that Wordsworth, Shelly and Shakespeare's verses in all their glory, were not a patch on this Ice cream rhyme. The very word ‘Ice-cream’ sends a chilly tingling sensation through me! It was love at first taste for me, when the first dollop of ice cream hit my taste bud and did I experience a symphony of ecstasy? Most certainly yes and I was hopelessly hooked!

My ice cream bucket planter

I still remember vividly, standing impatiently in my mom’s kitchen as she churned ice cream in a manual wooden ice cream bucket .That wooden ice cream bucket, the source of a great deal of icy raptures and bliss, is still with me, but then, the wooden bucket coordinated perfectly with my living room decor , that the poor ice cream churner now serves as a container for my plant ! It really does look so very cute though!

Once, while sitting through a very boring sermon half asleep, I heard the word ‘ice cream’ My ears pricked up and I was all attention personified. The preacher was saying that our Maker is like an ice cream maker – he creates us in different flavors. Awesome! What a delightful thought! God, an Ice cream maker? Well, this concept impresses me. I think I would like to be the minty choc chip flavored ice cream, with maybe just a little hint of Kahlua liqueur for added flavor? Done, that’s decided.

A birthday sundae I had at Singapore

Back then, while growing up, Vanilla, Strawberry, Pista, Chocolate and Mango were the only flavors available here, while there were about a couple of exotic deserts like peach Melba and Banana split and a sundae containing two or three scoops of assorted ice creams with chocolate sauce and nuts topping. That’s it!That’s about all ! Surely the present generation will shake their heads in utter disbelief at this measly choice, but we were quite happy, after all, icecream is icecream. Then came along another slogan -‘Monday, Tuesday, we want Sundae.’ Sounds adorable! Now the market is flooded with unimaginable amazing flavors of ice creams and gelatos!

I don’t know if the following story is true or a myth. It seems, an ice cream vendor at a fair, did not have enough vessels to serve ice cream, so he took the help of a waffle maker and rolled up the ice cream in waffles and served . Thus, waffles and ice cream were invented. A real innovative genius, in the category of Edison and Newton!

Thro’ my life’s journey, I’ve learnt the following frosty icicles of wisdom-

“Ice-cream transcends all ages... Ice-cream never lets you outgrow it.’ How very true!

The internet is also cashing in on the icecream passion where e-cards sites call July 13^th as the Ice cream month! Ice cream cone day is supposed to be on July 23^rd , Soft Icecream Day on August 19^th, Banana Split day on Aug22nd , Icecream sundae Day on Aug 2^nd and so on and so forth. Well, well.. what can one say?

And finally, in conclusion I’d like to add, a teeny weeny twirl to the Bards famous words:

”Age cannot wither the fascination for ice creams nor custom stale its
infinite flavors”