A Cooking Life

Insanely Great Chocolate Ice Cream

We had a confab last week with my husband's family – his mom and two sisters, all of their kids and three of ours – at his sister's place in New Jersey. We've done it for several years now, descending on Carolyn's house for a few summer days of hanging out by the pool, cooking, eating, doing a lot of nothing. I'm not sure who it was dubbed the joint “Rancho Relaxo”, but that pretty much covers it. The house is big enough that everyone can cooexist without driving one another apeshit, and that includes 8 cousins ranging in age from 6 to 16 – all playing happily together. I managed to forget my camera, so no pictures of the food. The photo above is from 2 years ago: all of the cousins plus a few friends.

In Defense of Kitchen Gadgetry

I don't go in for kitchen gadgets much, not the frivolous ones that pretend to make life in the kitchen easier. I've been given scads of them over time, and most have ended up as tag sale inventory or at the dump. You know the ones – the hamburger press, the screw-worm garlic mincer, the avocado slicer, the egg separator. Maybe I'm just weird, or not lazy enough; I like futzing, I care enough to be precise, and it pleases me greatly to get my hands dirty. That said, I will pay dearly for the right tool for the job (Exhibit A: this massive copper jam pan that I sprang for after spending an entire afternoon cooking off several gallons of hot pepper jam...2 quarts at a time).