My niece had her tonsils removed a few years ago, at age 25. She recovered fairly quickly, but discovered the oddest beneficial side effect from having her tonsillectomy. Many of her food allergies disappeared! She had numerous food allergies and was very limited as to what she could eat, particularly with regard to fruits and vegetables. She accidentally ate something with strawberries in it, and had no reaction, so she tried eating a half strawberry, and still no reaction. Long story short, she started sampling small amounts of the foods she hadn't been able to eat for more than 10 years, without breaking out in full body hives. (While her food allergies were multiple, they all only caused hives, with just peanuts and shrimp posing a life threatening allergy for her, so she of course didn't experiment with those ones!) Miraculously, she can now eat 9 of the 12 foods (excluding peanuts and shrimp) that caused her hives, prior to her tonsillectomy! Her allergy doctors confirmed this with new testing, and said it's not common, but he does have several patients who have experienced the same results, post tonsillectomy, and no one knows why this sometimes occurs. Just thought I'd mention it, in case your daughter has any food allergies that can be re-tested after she's recovered.

2Many, there are home ice cream freezers that do an adequate job of aeration. The frozen bowl with KA mixer and whip attachment might do too good a job. :) I'll never know. I do keep spacers in my freezers (bags and blocks of ice that get pulled out for use in coolers and replaced--and occasionally removed to make more room), but I'm not replacing them with a freezer bowl just to experiment with aeration. The gelato texture is phenomenal, and there are artisanal ice cream stores that deliver if anyone doesn't like it. ;) The one I'd like to try is what they use on TV cooking shows, where it does some kind of shaved thing instead of traditional churning. Makes quicker ice cream with no wandering into the butter zone. Congrats on the router!!! Yea!!! OTOH, I have not one iota of desire to play with liquid nitrogen to make ice cream. I mean, really not any, but I could see at some point doing some kind of weird Modernist thing with it, but only to get something you can't get any other way. I'm too chicken to even use my kitchen torch, not even outside on the tile where there's nothing to burn. BWAHCK!! Chicken I am. I have the long suede gloves and friction starter. For that matter, I could get my father's welding helmet and leather apron. I wasn't scared using his big acetylene torch for brazing brass armatures. My little Rosle butane torch, which is an overgrown cigar lighter, scares the heck out of me. I think I'll either light the kitchen on fire (the island is covered with soapstone for heaven's sake!) or touch it when it's hot (hence the gloves). Edie, when I was travelling many years ago, it was hot out and we stopped for evening beverages. I thought iced coffee would be perfect, rather than hot (I'm not really a coffee drinker) and I was totally embarrassed when it arrived to find it was a confection. I'm not a coffee drinker (it's not a flavor I dislike, but just would usually prefer something else), and I detest floats (or even drinking soda pop while eating ice cream), but what iced coffee meant to them was not the coffee alternative to iced tea, to which I was accustomed, but a kind of slushy where the pieces were big, like crushed ice, rather than foamy like a real slushy, topped with a huge scoop of very hard (i.e., slow melting) vanilla ice cream, ice cream float style. The ice cream served as the cream and sugar. The whole thing was in no way a thirst quencher, but it was absolutely fantastic. Do try the frozen shake. Be careful not to let it go hard, but a bit of icy crust is okay. :)

Previous home had laminate that was 10 years old and looked new...simple beige tone. We had 12 offers with 6 over asking but to be fair it was in the Boston area and homes sell insanely fast regardless of countertop type. Now I’m trying to decide on countertops for my small kitchen in my little salt box home. I’ve been given Silestone Suede Charcoal as a good option against creamy white shaker cabinets with a darker wood island. My stress is I’ve seen several complaints with this Silestone option but can’t seem to find anyone who has it and love it??? I’ve not found one granite slab I liked and husband wants a charcoal colored counter.

Lots of good info from Sleevendog. Not so much to add, Sooz, other than the tautological less water makes it less like frozen water. :) I add just enough actual water to make the blender go round. If I'm using a juicy kind of fruit, packed in right, and it doesn't need any. As S said, what I make is pretty much frozen thick smoothie. It still has a crystalline structure and an iciness, being that that's what a popsicle is, but it's not the frozen water you describe. Mine usually don't have any fat, but are high in fiber. Think of it as a continuum: There's the commercial popsicle of my childhood which we got once a week at camp after swim. You could suck on them and get all the flavor, color and sugar out, leaving white ice. Then there's the college girl put the "packed in juice" liquid from canned fruit (back when fruit was truly seasonal!) in a popsicle mold. That had the consistency of ice, but the fruit and water were inseparable. There are paletas made with fruit and milk. They're popsicles, just frozen, not churned or in any way ice creamed. They have a creamier texture than the prior versions, because of the milk, but they're more like frozen peaches and cream than frozen peach pudding/custard or ice cream. There's a crystalline structure, still, and an iciness. Next step would be the Fudgesicle, that once a Summer camp treat that everybody swooned for. Somewhere between ice cream and popsicle, it has a definite creaminess but also an obvious crystalline structure. It licks or sucks like ice cream, but bites like a popsicle, and has a more "frozen" feeling than an actual ice cream bar. The ne plus ultra of ice pops is the 50-50 bar (sometimes they showed up at camp and I was able to wangle one). Vanilla ice cream on the inside, covered in orange popsicle. The orange part was stage one icy and the middle was creamy ice cream without the iciness or crystalline texture. The combination of the two was delightful! After that, we're into full on ice cream bar territory. My veggie/fruit popsicles are mostly in the territory of the stage 2, juice popsicles. Add a little almond butter or yoghurt---or probably some banana or avocado--and it's the stage 3/paleta level of froziness. Sorbets turned popsicle can be at any of these levels, but add enough cream or maybe full fat Greek (drained) yoghurt and it might even get to the Fudgesicle stage. Given the continuum, however, frozen treats are based on the idea of freezing water. Using veggies and fruits just means the water is whacked out of them by the blender.