You're my favorite.

No, really - you are.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Creamy frozen deliciousness

My sister is a brilliant, brilliant woman.

I always knew she was pretty bright – she got straight As (or close) in high school, graduated from college summa cum laude (I think. Maybe magna.) (Ha! I typed magma the first time! They should totally make that a type of honors – for people who are so smart that they are like molten rock!), and is currently busy getting her PhD in neuroscience. Clever, right? You'd assume someone like that would be pretty quick, and you'd be right.

But on Friday, I learned just how smart she is.

When I got home on Friday, I had a box sitting on the porch. I'd ordered some stuff from Crate & Barrel a few days previously and thought it had just come really quickly, even though I hadn't gotten a shipping notice. So I pulled the box inside and puttered around the house, putting my coat away, checking mail, playing with the dog. Finally I went to open the box and noticed a note on the packing slip that it was a birthday present from my sister. Ooh, I thought, a present. Fun! Little did I know how MUCH fun it would be.

After digging through some packing peanuts, I came to a white Cuisinart box. The picture on it kind of looked like a blender. Okay, a blender. Great. I don't have one. I started to pull the Cuisinart box out of the shipping box and realized that it was not a blender at all – it was 10 million times better than a blender. She sent me something I've often considered getting but never had. It's something that will do good things for my mental state but probably not my diet.

Amy sent me an ice cream maker.

I am almost unbelievably excited about this. I am an ice cream addict – one summer, Ben and I were at the local ice cream shop like twice a week. That was not a good summer for my pants fitting well, but it was a very delicious time in my life. And now I can make my own Jack Daniels Chocolate Chocolate Chip, my own Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, my own Pumpkin...life will be fattening but happy.

I'm making my first batch today – pomegranate sorbet to bring to a LUPEC meeting to which I am bringing a pomegranate-based cocktail (though not the POMtini). Unfortunately, the high today is only supposed to be 25, which some might consider too cold for sorbet. To them I say, well then, more for me! And since yesterday the high was only 12 and the low was -13, this is like a breezy spring day in comparison.

I told you my sister is brilliant. Possibly diabolical in her quest to make me eat my own body weight in ice cream this year, but brilliant. So, Amy, thank you. And next time you come to visit, you just let me know what flavor(s) of ice cream you'd like me to whip up. And I'm on it.