February 07, 2007

Isn't It Like This Where You Live?

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Today’s post will be an educational one regarding Canadian winters and ice cream. One of the great things about the temperature being -17C plus a windchill is that the outdoors make a great place to chill things like people and pots. It’s such a pain when you’re trying to make ice cream and you have to chill the ingredients that you’ve just spent the last 10 minutes heating up, before you can pour them into the ice cream maker. Chilling takes a long time and all that waiting around is such a waste, especially when Mother Nature provides a rapid cool option. When I want ice cream, I want it now! And like I said, when it’s -17C it doesn’t take long to chill things so today, after boiling my ice cream ingredients I headed outside with the pot. In the interest of keeping me warm and making the ice cream cold, I bundled up before heading outside. Of course, in the time it took me to put all of my winter gear on, the pot probably cooled off on its own, but we’ll ignore that. So off I trudged, to deposit my ice cream pot in a snowbank. Then I had some time on my hands and I was wondering what my pot was feeling like. Only moments before he’d been warm, toasty and inside and now he was rapidly dropping in temperature, being lashed by wind and snowflakes. I plopped myself down into the snowbank beside him so that I could feel his pain. Hm, this cold thing wasn’t very much fun. To keep warm I flailed my arms and legs around and made a snow angel.


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It’s too bad for my pot of ice cream that he didn’t have arms and legs to flail. Being surrounded by all that icy snow he got cold really quickly and it was soon time to take him inside. At first my pot was excited that we were going back to the kitchen because he was eager to warm up. But then he saw me taking out the ice cream machine and realized that I was going to steal his precious precious cargo. He would have put up a fight if he were on the stove, forcing me back by boiling over or throwing hot sugar at me. Since he was practically frozen though, I had the upper hand. I poured the ice cream mixture into my machine and started to churn. In no time at all I had some delightful chocolate-coffee-cappuccino-marshmallow ice cream. I had originally intended on this being a chance for me to tweak my Hot Chocolate with Baileys ice cream, but I was suspiciously all out of Baileys. Drat! Now, I realize that some people think ice cream is a dish best served during the heat of summer, but they’re wrong. There’s just no two ways about it. Ice cream is a year round affair, I’m right and you’re wrong and there’s nothing you can do about it.


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In conclusion, we’ve learned two very important lessons today: The first is that Canadian winters are cold, but they serve the very important purpose of rapidly chilling ice cream. The second is that ice cream consumption should not stop when the mercury drops. Long live winter! Long live ice cream!


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17 comments:

Anne said...

OMG Snow! Honestly, I've never seen snow ever in my whole existence here on earth. Wish someday I could actually see and touch one. Lucky You!

Marce said...

hahahaha great post. That does look veeeeeeeery chilly and the photo of you laying in the snow was hilarious.

That flavor combination sounds awesome... it´s days like this that I wish I had an ice cream maker. But I´m not thaaaat jealous because I just had ice cream with some friends a few hours ago (dulce de leche with nuts and brownies and Italian chocolate) yum! definitely good in summer... for winter it is fine as long as you are very warm indoors, I´d never eat ice cream in a park or sitting outside the ice-cream shop like we did today!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

I needed an ice bath for broth today that snow would have been just the thing.
Bring it on, I think I could enjoy chocolate-coffee-cappuccino-marshmallow ice cream.

Gattina Cheung said...

The photos are totally hilarious!!!!! *LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL*
I know your ice-cream must be superb!

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

Great post! I'm laughing out loud! Yesterday during a cooking class we put all manner of pots and pans outside on the porch to rapid-cool the food we were making (doesn't everyone do this???). We've got only half an inch of snow on the ground here in Rhode Island, but we've got plenty of cold.

Lis said...

Excellent post, you lil snow bunny you! Love the flavor combo of the ice cream and I couldn't agree more about ice cream in the winter - that's when I crave it the most. Go figger. ;)

Anonymous said...

oh wow, what a snowy wonderland you libve in. i love the pics, theyr really pretty. brrrrrrrrr! what flavor did ya make?

Freya said...

Fun Post! I love the snow angels! We don't have those here in slushy England although it did snow today. It's all gone, already.
Bet the ice cream was great!

Rachel said...

So funny! Once I put a cake outside in the snow to cool and the dog licked it!

leslie @ definitely not martha said...

Ack. Stupid blogger erased my first comment.

I love your snow angel. It rocks.....now I want to make one!!!!!!!

Also glad you found a real purpose for that lovely fluffy snow....it's been so cold lately that you might was well make the best of it, eh? (I'm in Ottawa).

I'm proud to say that I used my bbq yesterday, even though my fingers kinda froze to the tongs.....

Anonymous said...

That is a lot of snow! Brrrrrrr...
My husband, like you, can eat ice cream anytime of year. I cannot do it when it is cold.

By the way...thanks to your comment on my blog this morning I now have the Growing Pains theme song running through my head :)

Anonymous said...

Ha, ha....move to Winterpeg...now that's cold.

Anonymous said...

I wish it were merely -17C plus windchill... Saskatchewan is not so lucky (hello -30! - Why is Saskatchewan so windy? 'Cause Alberta sucks and Manitoba blows! Very funny to a Vancouverite like myself)
I do love how cold it is outside... I like being able to make a giant costco run and then keep all the frozen foods IN MY TRUNK FOR 4 MONTHS STRAIGHT! I also chill my ice cream maker bowls in the car.

Elizabeth said...

Don't be envious, Anne, it's highly over-rated....

Stop making me laugh out loud, Brilynn. Icecream in winter? Even in the summer time, icecream is too cold....

But you're right that snowbanks are exceedingly handy for cooling things down quickly. It's particularly great for cooling down jelly so that it sets faster.

-Elizabeth, in Toronto now but I grew up in Edmonton

P.S. Funny how that happens with Baileys.... (Have you made your own Baileys yet? It is killer good but has a bad tendency to evaporate even more quickly than the commercial version.

Irish Cream recipe)

Paul said...

Fabulous!!

Its summer here and its 38c in the shade. Not easy trying to churn the ice cream mixture in this temperature!! I think your idea is ingeniuous and alot of fun. Why work against nature when you can work with it. Ps love the pictures, gave me a good giggle!

Anonymous said...

We have a local ice cream place that drops their prices as the mercury drops which encourages more people to eat ice cream.

I'm with you, being in the northern climes is no excuse to quit eating ice cream.

Jeanne said...

Good grief - how much snow there is in those picures!! We had 2 inches in London and every form of public transport ground to a halt - what woudl they do with Canadian snow?!? But I do love the rapid chill idea - as they say, if life gives you ice, make ice cream!!