Belinda, funny you should ask. My girls got me one of those little Cuisinart ice cream freezers for Christmas. My first batch of anything was a couple of cups of frozen strawberries, a quart of my homemade yogurt and enough Equal to sweeten it to taste. I put everything into the food processor to chop up the frozen berries, then into the freezer, it was very, very yummy and my Dad, who is diabetic, loved it. I liked it better with sweet cherries and some grated dark chocolate, same "recipe" but different fruit. It does freeze very hard, because of the ingredients, but I just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds like Bejay does, and it scoops right out nicely. I also made my very favorite ice cream, it's just amazing for those coffee lovers among us, like me. It's another recipe I got from the Cooking Forum. Espresso-Brownie Chunk Ice Cream ================================ Fatlester - Gardenweb 1/2 pound brownies cut in 1/4 inch chunks 1 cup whole Espresso, French or vienna roast coffee beans 2 1/4 cups half and half cream 3/4 cup sugar 3 egg yolks 1 cup whipping cream . Wrap and firmly freeze the brownie chunks. Put the coffee beans on a jell-roll pan and over them with a dish towel. Using a veal pounder or the bottom of a heavy sauce pan, press to crush the beans thoroughly. (Do not substitute ground coffee) Transfer the crushed coffee beans to a medium saucepan. Add the half and half and heat it to simmering. Cover and simmer 10 minutes , then set the pan aside, off heat, for 15 minutes longer. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve into another saucepan, pressing to remove all liquid from the coffee beans; discard the solids. Stir the sugar into the strained coffee liquid and heat it to simmering. Put the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl and slowly whisk in the coffee liquid (or put the egg yolks in a food processor fitted with the metal blade and process, pouring in the coffee liquid). Cool the mixture slightly by stirring in the whipping cream. Set the bowl over ice or refrigerate until the custard is thoroughly chilled. (Can cover and refrigerate overnight). Transfer the custard to the cnaister of an ice-cream machine. Follow manufacturer's directions and churn until the ice cream is half frozen. Add frozen brownie pieces and continue churning until frozen. Serve immediately, or transfer ice cream to an airtight freezer container, seal and kep frozen until serving time. (Can freeze for several hours). Annie

"kframe - By my calculations you need about 2.25 cups of HC to make 1.5 quarts of ice cream." Yes, it's generally more expensive to make your own ice cream. But have I said, anywhere, that the overall cost is what I object to? No. And besides, NO ONE makes my signature flavor of ice cream... cinnamon nutmeg. "To reiterate the point that I cannot seem to get through:... ice cream is a luxury." So what? The status of an item in a family's grocery order is NOT the issue. The issue is how the company is conducting its purchasing interaction with the consumer -- above board, or underhanded and sneaky. I know you've been tossing out the fact that ice cream is a "luxury" item. I've not addressed it because it's not germane for the reason I've stated above. The milk comparison is even less valid as I'll got months without purchasing milk. To me, milk isn't even a necessity, but again, its importance on my overall shopping list isn't the issue.

yes we had one on main street in the small town I grew up in, called the Busy Bee. It was the morning spot for coffee, deserts and good food too, they had the blue plate lunches where were awesome home made meals for just a couple of bucks. There are still a lot of plate lunch places down in South Louisiana, in fact I saw a tv show recently about them, it sure brought back memories. we had one that was a drive in too, you would walk up to the little window and give your order and sit in the car till they flagged you to come get it, I remember so well 5 hamburgers for $1 and these were giant fully loaded too, so good and their shakes and floats were awesome. They had the best shrimp burgers and crab burgers, I so miss those. The name of it was The Comey(ko-may) there was an inside sit down area too that was the hang out for the school crowd.

plllog - what a wonderful thread! Have been a collector of kitchen tools and gadgets for the past 50 years and was a caterer for 10 of those years. My drawers and cupboards have many of the tools that have been mentioned here. Living on an island most of the year assures that shellfish and fish are staples. The single use gadgets we use the most are lobster crackers and picks, a fish poacher and a fish grilling basket. (I will confess that I have used a lobster cracker to open a tight bottle of club soda!) My grandmother gave me her apple corer and slicer. It is round with a circle in the middle to core the apple and perfectly spaced blades to slice it. Very handy here in New England during the apple season. I agree with the others about the microplanes. They are my newest toys - have several. The cheese grater has replaced my antique Mouli grater. My oldest toy is a wooden mushroom that is used to peel and crush garlic. It is also good looking. My DH enjoys a well made gin and tonic. The essential gadget is the lime/citrus squeezer that I think was mentioned earlier. Again OXO makes a good one. The best one is no longer made....Cannot even find it at the Vermont Country Store which has many oldies but goodies. Have enjoyed reading all of the above and am inspired to "weed" out the drawers and cupboards to make room for some of those lovely new goodies at Joseph Joseph. After all - acquiring new tools is in a TKO's DNA!!!