So, my mum has bought an icecream maker. Whilst I have no doubt we'll be able to make stuff up (neither she nor I is big on following recipes), I was wondering whether any old hands at icecream making might happen to have favourite recipes?

I'm thinking of making something with chocolate and chunks of candied ginger. Or perhap coconut milk and almonds, or maybe...hmm...I'm a total texture slut, and what I like best in icecream is a balance of sweet and salt, and swirls of gooey caramel balanced against something crunchy and salty...

Any thoughts?

I was wondering whether any old hands at icecream making might happen to have favourite recipes?

I have a notion that Jessica has made a lot of tasty ice creams, but I could be making that up.

The chocolate and ginger combo sounds good though. My favorite gelato place does something lovely with a butter pecan and Jack Daniels combo. Of course you need a light hand while adding liquor since it resists freezing. Oh yeah, and that fantastic sorbet with pink grapefruit and campari. Mmmmm. Betsy's husband has a recipe for that.

Mmmm ice cream. I like to toss berries into the mix.

I've always found that making vanilla ice cream and tosssing in whatever other flavors were on hand or sounded appealing worked well enough. In that the result was inevitably ice cream.

I am extremely easy to please when it comes to ice cream, though.

Oh, one note - whole berries tend to become rock hard when they freeze.

Celebrities. Joe DiMaggio brought a grand-nephew or somesuch relative to a movie theater I was working at once. He mostly seemed ancient, but we were all awestruck. I believe someone raced home and got a baseball card for him to sign, but I don't think I even spoke to him.

Also, the guy who played the doctor on Melrose Place came to another theater I worked at at a different time while he was in town shooting a TV movie about Ruby Ridge. I sold him his ticket but didn't recognize him. Someone told me who he was after he was in the show.

I did mention that the Days of Our Lives actor who played Tony DiMera was at our hotel in Luxor the other week, didn't I? And again in the Valley of the Kings?

t /scraping the bottom of celebrity sightings

Mmmmm icecream!

Hi folks! Woot, all caught up in here for the first time in forevah. Even missed the June birthday season (which is also my season), so ... sad about that. Retroactive hippos to all.

I occasionally see random celebs around TO, and I'm on and off fannish so I've been to a fair number of cons and seen/met actors and writers and so on. The encounters that stick are the one where I've gotten to chat and they were really nice. Rode an elevator with Jack Lemmon once and he was really friendly and genuine. My sister was travelling through Montreal with her baby daughter and met Jane Krakowski in an airport lounge. Sis was a major Ally McBeal fan, so was a little freaked out, but Jane just chatted with her and played with the baby, and made a fan for life there.

Leisurely Sunday here, with a holiday Monday to come tomorrow -- Canada Day [observed-ish, since the whole fireworks thing went down yesterday]. It's quiet, but that's nice. Peaceful. I think I'll take a wander over to Starbucks.

JohnS! Hey!

Oh, yeah, I was an extra for a TV movie starring Alec Baldwim and Eddie Arnold, so I saw them. Thought: "My GOD that man has a lot of chest hair!"

I am bumming because I forgot again that I can't order from Sephora. I shopped for an hour and found everything I wanted and then damn.

Fay, this is Barbara Tropp's recipe for Fresh Ginger Ice Cream. It's verra good. (I guess I should say "the late" Barbara Tropp, as someone told me she's died, which makes me sad). [link] It's wonderful with Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce:

2.25 cups bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bits
1 cup whole milk (or extra-rich milk, if you can get it)
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

Place chocolate bits in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring milk to a scalding near-simmer over moderate heat. Remove pan from heat and whisk in cocoa. Pour the cocoa-milk through a fine mesh sieve into the chocolate. Press any cocoa lumps through. Whisk the mixture to a smooth consistency. Leave uncovered at room temp for several hours; it will thicken a bit.

Ginger Ice Cream

bookmarked! yum!

I have Dr. Who 2x12 ahemmed now, but Andi is at work for another 2-1/2 hours.

I, however will exercise manly restraint and not even "check quality" or some such. Nope. Wont. Not me.

t repeats it to himself to bolster his fortitude.

Meanwhile, I'm doing dishes and generally napping on my one day off.

Hmmm. I have an ice cream maker. I wonder if I shouldn't just go get some yogurt and whip some frozen yogurt into existance...

The problem with napping between batches of dishes is that the fresh batch of water you ran for, say, washing all the bowls including those dusty in the cupboard, ends up being cold.