Plenty to scream for

My dad got me an ice cream maker for my birthday this year. It's so awesome! I've tried to make a new flavor every couple of weeks since. The great thing about making your own ice cream is the flexibility. Of all the flavors I've made, very few of them are available at your standard supermarket. Here's what I've been up to:

• My first ice cream, which I made on my birthday itself, was Hokey-Pokey Ice Cream. Hokey Pokey is practically the national ice cream of New Zealand. In fact, it's so good, many New Zealanders eat no ice cream but Hokey-Pokey, and are thus unable to have any ice cream at all when they're abroad. I contrived to eat as much Hokey-Pokey ice cream as possible when we visited our mom in New Zealand way back when. I've longed for it these past 7.5 years, and was delighted for the opportunity to make some. Unfortunately, it was probably the least successful ice cream I've made. First, I should have reduced the sugar in the vanilla ice cream that I added the hokey-pokey to, seeing as hokey-pokey is pretty much just caramelized sugar. The main problem, however, was the weather. It was crazy hot on my birthday, and the ice cream had no chance at becoming anything more than slush and was kind of gritty after being stored in the freezer.
• Next I made Mint Brownie Ice Cream using a recipe from the instruction booklet that came with the ice cream maker. We were going through a cold spell at the time, and it came out perfectly!
• Heartened by this success, I tried Peach with some peaches my dad picked up on the way to visit me from Yosemite, also following directions that came with the maker. Yummm.
  
• This was followed by Decadent Chocolate, yet again from a recipe in the instruction book. Oh, this was trouble. It was one of those custard ice creams that require you to cook milk and eggs. I have since made other custard ice creams that have recipes that make more sense, but unfortunately, this was my first and I didn't know enough to mistrust the recipe. For some reason, it has you simmer the milk for half an hour. It was crazy! My ice cream was pudding before churning it in the ice cream maker. All the ice cream maker did to it was make it cold pudding! It tasted great, don't get me wrong, but it was very gooey. I have not made any recipes that came with the ice cream maker since. :)
  
• Ahhhh, Blueberry Ice Cream. I come from a family of blueberry fiends, so it's no surprise that I loved this one!
• Then I moved to Davis, and bonded with my new roommate over Avocado Gelato. It was super. I know most of you are planning on saying "ewwww", but I want you to stop right there. In Asian cultures, the avocado is considered to be a sweet, dessert fruit. None of this guacamole stuff! Before you pooh-pooh avocado ice cream, I want you to go out and try it. Ok, that will be difficult, but you can try an avocado smoothie pretty easily. If you can't find one at a local Pho (Vietnamese) restaurant, you can make one! Just puree 1 avocado, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 cup milk, and 1/4 cup sugar (or something like that). Nummy num num!
• Next up was Rhubarb Sorbet. I love rhubarb. And since it's a sorbet, it's actually relatively healthy!
• After months of having an ice cream maker, I finally made Green Tea Ice Cream. I'd been wanting this one for ages, but couldn't find it at my grocery store (and I actually shop at a pretty nice one). Making it kept getting delayed, however, because I had to get the matcha tea powder at the local asian store, and I kept putting that off. I'm so glad that I finally got it, though. Green Tea Ice Cream was everything and more!
• We're getting pretty close to up-to-date now. Last week featured Pear and Cardamom Sorbet. Pear was my favorite flavor of gelato when I wandered the ice cream shops of southern France. This sorbet was good, but I think the consistency needs work. Next time I'll probably follow the tip from the Rhubarb Sorbet: that subsituting corn syrup for some of the sugar makes sorbet less icy.
• And finally, this week's ice cream adventure is Basil Ice Cream. Mmmmmmm. This one is as little deserving as your scoffing as the avocado.

As you can see, I've been keeping the ice cream maker busy in the 3 months since I got it! Perhaps it needs a name? Anything receiving so much lovin' is certainly deserving of one! (That's the logic that led to my fan being dubbed "JoJo".) Got any suggestions?

Ben (the new roomy) is eager to test all kinds of bizarre ice creams. Given the scrumdiddlyumptiousness of Basil Ice Cream, he's suggested Garlic as the next frontier. Good old google provides quite a few recipe options, so I'm sure we'll give it a shot before too long. He also jokes around with the idea of Trout Ice Cream (actually, that's my fault since I initially suggested it), but I don't like fish, so he's on his own there. I think (and this is not a bad thing) that this ice cream maker might turn into some kind of standing dare. Let's see who can come up with the craziest idea (that recipes actually exist for) that I'll actually consider trying. And let's see what amazing ice creams we're introduced to as a result! The mic is open; I want your suggestions!