There is nothing like a properly sour slice of sourdough dipped into warm, thick, smooth, homemade vegetable soup. Which is what I just had for lunch.

I am amazed that the loaf that I bought yesterday (from the supermarket bakery, of all places) was actually properly sour; so many times I've had something which has been called sourdough, which perhaps had a similar texture to real San Fransisco sourdough, but didn't have the taste. Once in a while, I'd come across a proper one, say, at a restaurant with their own baked rolls, or something like that, but I'd given up hope that one could actually buy a loaf of proper sourdough in this country.

Of course, what will happen is that it was a one-off sourdough special, and that they won't ever bake it again. But I shall enjoy it while I have it.

I just had some delicious home-made carrot,leek and tomato soup, which I made with my new Bamix (which I bought because my old stick-blender was a lemon, and I was sick of crappy stick-blenders, so I decided to hang the expense and go with the best, because I would be using it so much). I have never had such smoothly pureed home-made soup. Wow. So smooth and creamy. Yum.

Also, making Optifast milkshakes with boiling water is like having creamy hot cocoa (only in different flavours). Though adding cocoa and coffee to a vanilla one is the nicest. And it never quite mixes in properly, not completely. Well, I suppose it would if I used the Bamix, but I'm afraid that most of it would end up splashed on the bench if I tried that. Splat!

Another ice cream experiment! Not that I haven't been making ice cream, but it hasn't been that experimental, since I'm on a good thing with the fruit + skim milk powder recipe. Anyway, here's an experimental variation.
( Peachy Keen! )

More ice cream! Tonight, I thought I'd see what I could do with whipped milk on its own, without pureed fruit.
( the answer to life, the universe, and everything )

Okay, so how do my low-fat ice-creams compare in the calorie and fat department?
This is only a very rough comparison, comparing the major ingredients, that is, ricotta cheese, low-fat evaporated milk, and skim milk powder.
( Igor, the tables! No, the data tables, not the wooden tables! )
So, it looks like I won't be bothering with Ricotta ice cream any more. That's a kind of a relief, actually, because (a) only Pantalica Ricotta tasted any good (b) the whipped milk method seems to be more reliable (c) skim milk powder and evaporated milk last a LOT longer, and don't need to be refrigerated.

Another horribly hot day. So of course, there is ice cream!
( Igor, what did you do with the Maple Syrup? )

I got some more writing done yesterday!
Old Word Count: 5623
New Word Count: 5831
New Words: 208

Also, ice cream experiments from last week. I've had a lot of apples to use up (because they keep well, they get eaten last) so here are some more ventures with stewed apples.
( If the world were made of apple pie... )

Old wordcount: 5377
New wordcount: 5623
New words: 246

Though half those words were suggested by JB in our last brainstorming session. Still, they are now Proper Words rather than Notes.

I had two passionfruit (passionfruits?) as part of my dinner. Passionfruit is (are?) one of those kind of fruit (my grammar is confused) - I like them best fresh, by themselves without anything else. Passionfruit sprinkled on other things (such as pavlova or fruit salad) leaves me completely unmoved, and as for passionfruit flavour - bah! So I kind of surprised myself by actually enjoying the by-themself fruit, freshly chopped open and digging out the insides with a spoon.

I'm kind of like that with mango too; mango-flavoured things leave me unmoved, but the whole eating fresh mango experience is YUM. And the only reason I haven't made any mango sorbet yet is because my fresh-fruit-and-veg mixed-box delivery hasn't delivered me any mangos yet. Hmmm. Surely I have them listed as a fruit I like? Maybe they're too expensive to be included. After all, this isn't Queensland.

I have a couple more ice cream experiments to post, but I get the impression you're all bored with them. Problem is, I still want to post them so that I have them all in one place (under the "ice cream experiment" tag)
( here, have a poll )

A very hot day is a good day to make ice cream.
( No, Igor, I do not want a whip, pass me the electric egg beater )

Woke up this morning and found that there was no water coming out of the taps.
But I had chilled a sorbet mix overnight, so I made sorbet.
( The peasants are crying for water! Let them eat sorbet! )

As I was eating my beetroot at lunch today, I started wondering which vegetables might make good ice cream (yeah, look, when one has an ice-cream maker, one's thoughts do wander in that direction). Of course, some of them might do better as blends with other things, but here are a few that I thought of:
( the list )
Of course, technically speaking, a tomato is a fruit, but I don't count it as one. If one started doing that, then the only vegetables left would be leaf-vegetables and root-vegetables.