we all scream for ice cream

Here's Kaleigh, in her cuisinart ice cream maker hat, to which she attached a leaf clip (from Hawaii!). Kaleigh's been wearing this hat a lot. Our ice cream maker is our one pointless consumer splurge from our tax refund. Actually, it's not quite pointless, but I have been getting out of the habit of buying things with cords attached.

The ice cream maker is quite useful, naturally! Kaleigh is lactose-intolerant, and also cannot handle sugar. Where else can you find dairy-free, sugar-free, chemical-free ice cream? Nowhere that I have found. So we make our own. This is based on Aunt Marie's recipe. We start with a base of coconut milk, and a dropperful of stevia, and go from there. You can add fruit (berries, bananas, etc.), or chocolate, or probably a lot of things we haven't tried yet. You can add tofu also, to thicken it and add some protein. Blend it all in the food processor until smooth, then put it into the ice cream maker to harden. The only problem we have is that it gets awfully hard in the freezer, so hard we can't scoop it. We have solved that problem by letting it freeze, then placing it in the very coldest spot in our refrigerator, which seems to keep it somewhat firm, at least for a few days. Kaleigh really likes the ice cream, and has been eating it with cones.

We have also been using the ice cream maker to make sugary creamy ice cream for ourselves. It is a treat! Since our food stamps increased, we can afford to buy things like cream, that we wouldn't normally eat. But I am enjoying myself after a winter of beans and bread.