What Flavor Are You?

 

Matt and I were discussing creating our signature ice cream flavors the other day. My obsession with tailor made ice cream flavors stems from two sources: the acquisition of an ice cream attachment for our Kitchen Aide, and a children's book I read in elementary school. I can't remember the title, but the story was set in an elementary school classroom. One student was obsessed with ice cream and was always shoving ice cream cones into his or her desk and making a mess. Based on this student's fixation with ice cream, the teacher of the class made ice cream for everyone in the class. Not everyone got the same flavor, though-- she matched the flavors to the students. The flavors were, in essence, meant to capture something about the personality of the students. Some students were satisfied with their custom flavors, others envied and tried to steal other student's flavors.

I'm not sure if I was reading the intended message into the story, but I was struck by how some kids wanted other people's ice creams even though they had their own tailor-made flavors designed to suit them. There was something about the dissonance between having something made with you in mind but not wanting that thing that stuck with me. How could you not like something designed to complement you?

I know what my signature ice cream flavor is: a custard based ice cream flavored with green tea, lavender and honey. It is to die for. I may call it "Shannon's Morning Tea Ice Cream" since it's pretty similar to the tea I drink most mornings. Matt hasn't figured out his signature ice cream flavor yet, in part because I've been reluctant to make ice cream with sugar instead of honey, and Matt is avowedly a traditionalist in terms of his ice cream sweeteners. He complains that you can taste the honey when it's used to sweeten ice cream instead of sugar, as if that were a bad thing.

We also discussed what ice cream flavors would suit our cats. We've got pretty good ones for Pete and Petunia figured out. Petunia's would be Bumblebee Ice Cream: lemon ice cream with real vanilla bean sweetened with honey. The inspiration came from her backyard visits. A few days ago Matt spied her chasing bumblebees in the overgrown grass, after which I imagined she sipped tea while playing mahjong with her unicorn friends (update: Petunia has also taken to chasing lighting bugs. Which makes her the Cutest Cat Ever.). Pete's ice cream would be solidly traditional in its conception but still delicious. Pete's Hot Fudge Sundae Ice Cream: vanilla ice cream (made with sugar, no honey) with fudge swirls and toasted nuts and bits of cherries.

Roscoe's ice cream flavor was harder to come up with. I think it's in part because he just doesn't seem like he would eat ice cream. He's more the type of cat that has black coffee and two aspirin for breakfast, and finishes off his day sipping scotch. Right now we're thinking of something along the lines of Roscoe's Bread Pudding Ice Cream. Roscoe loves bread and grains (he gets aggressive when you eat rice cakes in his presence and will try to smack them out of your hand) as well as fruit, and the creaminess of bread pudding seems to suit him somehow. Chicken Bridge Bakery at the farmers' market uses fresh berries in their serving size bread puddings, and that is my favorite way to have them, rather than with raisins. Perhaps a buttermilk custard ice cream with berries, cinnamon and swirls of maple syrup could work. We're still working on the details.

Here are pictures of Petunia playing outside. She did, in fact, spend some time admiring a bumblebee on this particular outing, which I got in the first picture, but I don't think you can see the bee. I took some video of her playing, but our little camera saves movie files in some strange format so I haven't figured out how to view it or post it. I will do that as soon as I figure it out, provided I don't have to buy some fancy software.