We all scream for ice cream!

Jay at Tasty Appetite is hosting a “Let’s Relish Ice Cream” event for bloggers to link up their homemade ice cream. With my brand new plum-colored Cuisinart ice cream maker, I made my first pint of homemade ice cream this weekend! Actually, two pints, but we’ll get to that in a second.

In my excitement, I asked several people what flavor I should make first, and no joke, my friend (Codename: Candelabra) replied, “Maybe you should just start off with vanilla for now.” Uh! Don’t get me wrong. I like vanilla ice cream, but Candelabra’s tone indicated a lack of faith in my yet proven ice cream making skills. Shame on her! Ha! Granted, I might have been jumping the gun a bit in wanting to make ube (Filipino purple yam) straight out of the gate, but that was because my sister (Codename: Chunklet’s mom) had just given me a bottle of ube extract. I mean, how fun is that? Plus, ube is purple, and I’ve extolled my affinity towards purple plenty of times on this blog.

So, I was stumped as to what my first flavor should be. I did settle on a vanilla base, but I needed a bit more flare. I mean, if this initial ice cream making experience was a bust, then my ice cream maker might sit unused for the rest of the summer. And how does that get me homemade ice cream? You’re right; it doesn’t. My other sister (Codename: Gamer Psychologist) suggested I make lavender vanilla ice cream. Now that has flare! A quick search uncovered a David Lebowitz recipe for lavender vanilla ice cream. Score!The recipe called for a custard base with egg yolks which required several hours to cool. Okay, no problem. But, I wanted some ice cream a bit sooner. You know, for “comparison” (read: NOW). But, again, the flavor needed a bit of flare. Vanilla ice cream, no eggs, but still some flare. Got it! Grand Marnier chocolate chip ice cream! This was perfect because I always have Grand Marnier chilling on hand and all the other ingredients in the refrigerator. However, I couldn’t find a segmented chocolate orange to chop into the ice cream, so I did the next best thing and chopped up a Godiva bar with mango, blueberry and tangerine.Okay, I can’t even describe how fun it was to check on the ice cream while it was churning (both times!) The lavender vanilla ice cream was so creamy, delicious and had a smooth mouth feel. The Grand Marnier ice cream had a lighter almost airy mouth feel and the cream immediately melted on the tongue. Both were such great successes that I’m definitely making plenty of ice cream this summer. However, I’m on the lookout for homemade sorbets as well because of all the ripe summer fruit in season. I think I’ll start with strawberry…