It used to be that every once in a while I would go on a bender for a little bit. No, not a drinking bender- a baking or dessert bender, where I would make several different versions of a recipe or several different things in like a couple of days. It seems now that I’m on an ice cream binge. In less than two weeks, I’ve made orange popsicle, watermelon sorbetto, mint chocolate chip, maple and blueberry. I’ve got berries put away to make another batch of blueberry ice cream or perhaps pie. As soon as the chocolate flake I ordered arrives, I’ll make some more mint, with the chocolate mint on my deck. You know you have a problem when you need to buy more tupperware to contain your habit. (And ok, fine, maybe I’m also considering buying a second freezer bowl so I don’t have to wait 24 hours in between batches. I’m not ashamed to admit I might have a problem.) I’m thinking egg nog and rum raisin will be next. Make the rum raisin with local maple rum.
I also have to start working on a non-dairy chocolate mousse recipe, especially one that can be made a day or two ahead and will stay stable. I’m helping friends with a dessert reception they are having that must be all non-dairy and prepared in their home as they keep kosher. So it will be interesting working in someone else’s kitchen without my tools. First up on that list is my mother’s tried and true fruit cake with local blueberries. It’s seasonal and local, easy to make, and freezes like a dream plus we can do them with almost any fruit, so do a couple a week with whatever is in market. Then I have gluten free lemon bars and maple apple squares on the list to try!
Except the problem is that I still feel pretty craptastic. I was just at the doctor today with a new pain that seems to have us both stumped. We’ll see how I feel on Friday and take it from there. But we’re going to have to collectively figure out how much I can actually bake and how much I can just help/supervise, especially without a stand mixer! The mind is oh so eager to have a normal baking binge again, but the body, we are afraid, may have other ideas. And I hate that. With a vehemence and passion reserved for few things. Enough of my life, the things I can and cannot do, is already dictated or driven by my health and how my body feels and what it will allow me to do before the pain takes over without warning. Because then I am down and useless until it decides to let me not be. We’re planning a dessert buffet for nearly 100 people, something I’ve never had to do before, let alone need to execute it all in someone elses kitchen.
Another thing we’re just going to have to take one day at a time. But for today, there’s blueberry ice cream in the freezer and I have no idea what I’m making for dinner tonight. I’ll take the win.
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