Happy Christmas!

We were awoken by a chorus of "Ho ho ho's."

"It's Santa!" M cried. He put on his glasses and ran down the stairs. I decided to sleep in a while longer because well... waking up early really isn't my cup of tea. But I had a lot to do before we headed downstate, so I slowly made my way downstairs, hoping M started a pot of coffee.

No coffee, but there was a package by the fireplace with my name on it. What could it be?

A five quart Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer! So. Stoked.

I have plans. Big, big, big plans for this baby. I took a quick look through the accompanying manual/cook book and made a mental note of all the things that I'd want to try out. Onion mushroom tartlets? Hell yeah! Oh and milk bread... which would put all that milk in the fridge to good use (why I have so much milk in the fridge, I can't tell you... maybe I just knew).

I asked M what we should name it. His response?

"Mark."

Welcome to the family.

Improvise

When all else fails, a pan can also double as a lid.

Some Good News

The ice cream maker is working again! I dug it out of my parent's basement and had visions of frozen creamy goodness. Mind you I didn't purchase any ingredients, nor did I even search out on recipes or methods in which to make the creamy goodness. Just dreams.

As I washed off the 10+ years of dust that accumulated on the machine, I debated what my first batch would be. Vanilla? No... too boring. Ube? Maybe, but I'm not really an ube fan. Oooh... what about a pear sorbet? I think the pears are ready to be picked!

So there you have it- my first creation would be a sorbet. I dried off all the parts, re-assembled the machine, plugged it into the outlet and hit the switch.

Nothing. Switch off, switch on. Nothing. Take the top parts off and shake the base, something must be loose. Nada. Seeing my dreams fall apart, I do the next logical thing- "Daaaaaaad! Why isn't this working?!"

I swear I'm really not that helpless. The thing was working, there was the hum... just no movement. And I don't have tools to open that base up to check on the motor. Turns out it needed a little cleaning, little nudge to get going, and a spritz of WD-40. Hooray!

I've completely changed my mind on the sorbet. I was thinking maybe a yogurt based ice cream to start. Avocado perhaps? It'll have to wait until tomorrow... still need to buy ingredients.