We have a hand-crank Donvier we got when we were married in 1995 that is almost constantly in use from about the 4th of July to mid-September. (The brand-name one is overpriced. Get a clone, which can be had for under $20 on sale.) DH wants an electric and I may get him one for his birthday (which is 2 days after Christmas LOL) if end-of-summer sales yield any REALLY good prices on reliable machines. Here's the base recipe we use, from the Ben & Jerry's book... I don't think you could GET any simpler, and it's surprisingly good. We pretty much never use a custard base because our kitchen is not air conditioned, and diddling around making custard in a 90-odd degree kitchen is officially Not Worth It in our book. For a 1 quart ice cream maker, combine 1 can sweetened, condensed milk (many of us remember it as "Eagle milk") with 2 cups light cream, a splash of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Do NOT leave out the salt! Stir well, chill at least 2 hours before putting in the ice cream maker. You can substitute full-fat ("cream top") vanilla yogurt for half the cream but it doesn't really save you much calorically, just does interesting things to the flavor and can make you feel a little virtuous LOL! Lower-fat yogurts give a strange chalky texture and unsweetened yogurt makes for very sour product. (Found from unpleasant experience that just chucking a quart of yogurt straight from the container into the ice cream maker, no matter how yummy it is normally, does not make nice frozen yogurt, oh no not at all!) There's a simple plain base, now start playing... A super easy way to get a delicious fruity flavor ice cream is to substitute 1 cup of a good strong jam for 1 cup of the cream. (I don't recommend doing both jam and yogurt and eliminating all the cream. The result came out... the only word I can find for it is "stretchy".) The jam concentrates the fruit's flavor; warm "seedy" jams like raspberry or blackberry until they're liquidy and push them through a strainer if you don't want to be picking seeds out of your teeth for days. If you want fruit pieces, line a cookie sheet with the nonstick foil or baking parchment (or a Silpat if you're blessed with one), spread out a layer of finely chopped fruit with the pieces not touching, or minimally touching, and freeze rock solid. Add the fruit pieces at the very end of churning. Toast any nuts you wish to add for a stronger, "nuttier" flavor; and grating frozen chocolate bars on the largest holes of a grater (use an oven mitt to hold the chocolate so your body heat doesn't melt it) gives a better result IMO than using chocolate chips, even the mini kind. If you want to use something like butterscotch chips, freeze them and break them up in small batches in a food processor on "pulse". Good use for one of those mini-chopper types. Remember that your liquid ice cream/sorbet/yogurt mixture has to be almost sickeningly-sweet in its unfrozen state to taste "normal" as a finished product - the cold numbs your taste buds so all the flavors have to be STRONG. Oh, and filling the churning chamber more than about 2/3 full, 3/4 at the most, can be a recipe for a Big Sticky Mess. So don't do it. Honey-sweetened ice cream does not store well more than 24 hours - it gets crumbly and weird-textured, so if you want to do something with honey, have enough people around to scarf it down within hours of curing. Alcohol will interfere in the solidifying process so if you really load it up even with an overnight cure you may not get more than a "soft serve" texture. We bought a whole slew of nice little (not quite 1/2 cup) lidded plastic containers into which we portion the ice cream while it's still in the "soft serve" state. Pop them in the freezer and in 4 hours it's solidified enough to have the proper ice cream "mouthfeel", although I like 8 hours' curing time. If we don't pre-portion it DH will go WAY overboard! Oh, and the famous Mark Bittman/New York Times "eggless ice cream" was IMNSHO utterly REVOLTING.

Well, I learned something in the preview of Jeni's book on Amazon (and ordered the book to thank her): Like the Sicilian gelato, she uses starch to stabilize the frozen yoghurt. I have tapioca starch! I'm going to try that. The book also has the best frozen yoghurt instructions I've seen. They're for a more commercial grade of frozen yoghurt, but might be worth the trouble if I want to make a serious effort for a lot of company. Being able to make ahead and store in the freezer would be a boon. Unlike Jeni, I'm trying to reduce the richness of the dessert, rather than boost it, and her ice cream flavors sound a bit muddy for me, but the depth she goes into on techniques for storing and serving should be very useful.

What a great gift Rachellen. I'm pretty boring when it comes to ice cream. I almost always order "plain" chocolate. But I have made Both the Espresso-Brownie Chunk and the Brown Sugar Pecan and both were a big hit. Here is what you do to get swirls of caramel or chocolate in your ice cream. When the ice cream is ready, place some of it in a container, drizzle in the chocolate sauce, and swirl it just a bit. Use the tip of a knife. Don't mix. Add more ice cream and swirl again. Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table 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 cream 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 canister 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 keep frozen until serving time. (Can freeze for several hours). Home Cookin Chapter: Thibeaults Table - Icecream Brown Sugar Pecan Ice Cream ============================ http://www.essetti.com/applncs/frznrecipes.htm#brsugar 1 cup milk 1 scant packed cup brown sugar 4 egg yolks 3 cups heavy cream 1 cup pecan pieces . Heat the cream. milk and sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is hot. place the egg yolks in a bowl and whisk briefly. Still whisking, slowly pour in about 1 cup of the hot liquid. When the mixture is blended, slowly pour it into the liquid in the saucepan, whisking constantly. Cook over heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon, about 8 minutes. Be sure not let the mixture boil at any time or will curdle. strain into a clean bowl and cool thoroughly. Stir in the nuts. Pour the mixture into the bowl of the machine and freeze. Makes 5 cups.

I have brought this up at least once before, but here it is again. I'm sure that all of the advise or recipes will be useful particularly if this relative is a Type A personality. But most of us would prefer to be a little more relaxed and not over-react and then burn out from minor or major failure to maintain a stiff diet. I am certainly not an expert, but I spent many years with the group that is currently known for study and naming of Syndrome X, a set of conditions that often lead to type 2 diabetes. In addition, my supervisor was a type 1 diabetic. I am sure that current ideas for good diets for diabetics, most specifically low glycemic index foods, is the best approach. But that doesn't mean that one is required to eat those foods all the time. Moderation In All Things! Low glycemic foods are those that are low in sugar and slower to turn any starch into its sugars. The point is to keep blood sugars from rocketing up from a quick sugar dose. Therefore, cake and ice cream are mostly Out. Even there, moderation is the point. My supervisor's wife was the best baker of cakes. I guess he would have a very small slice and leave the rest for some family and bring it to the lab the next day for the rest of us to finish off. Occasionally, he would forget to bring lunch. He would then put a regular Coke in an ice bath to keep it cold for hours as he consumed it over several hours. I note pillogs mention of chili without beans. I doubt that the beans would be a serious problem. A slightly greater issue might be the brown sugar. Even there, the real issue is not over eating of that chili. One can eat cake too, if it were consumed like the slow Coke. Everything in moderation; a little more activity; a little less food (unless underweight); snacking ok if total is the same.