Saturday, May 30, 2009

Back in business

The ice cream machine is up and running again. Although we used to crank out an average of two flavors a week, production had come to an abrupt halt when my pregnancy introduced a sudden aversion to various foods--including ice cream. Despite my encouragement for Forest to continue churning without me, he insisted that it seemed like a pointless activity to do alone. Thus began the dry spell for ice cream making in our home, and the machine did nothing but gather dust for the next few months while Forest settled on store-bought ice cream--eaten straight out of the container like in his bachelor days.

With the birth of our baby and the return of warmer weather came a renewed interest in our forsaken hobby, and we are back in the ice cream making business. So far we have made strawberry, blueberry, banana, and orange cardamom. Of the four, blueberry turned out the best.
We followed the Daziano's Blueberry Gelato recipe from Italialicious. The only adjustment we made was adding a pinch of guar gum to the half cup of sugar going into the egg yolks. This helps prevent an icy consistency after the batch goes into the freezer.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Forest and Ivy plus One

Two years ago today marks the beginning of Forest and Ivy Dixon.
One month ago today marks the beginning of Forest and Ivy Dixon plus one.
We've all grown in so many different ways.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Hear no evil

So far Ramona has agreed to let me tote her around in a couple of different "babywearing" devices. Here she is below in a sling crafted by my friend Aubrey.
Perhaps she consents to riding in them because it provides a sort of respite from the outside world--and helps to block out any disturbance or distraction that might interrupt her innocent slumber. She looks so peaceful sometimes, it almost makes me want to climb into a sling and take a nap, myself.