Thanksgiving With An Ice Cream Treat

25 November this year is a day for celebrating the good things in life - it's Thanksgiving.

Every Thanksgiving is something to look forward to and for many families it as important as the celebration of Christmas. If you are celebrating Thanksgiving this year you may be looking for some new ideas to feed your family and friends.

Here's my tip for a super Thanksgiving dessert .... make some homemade real vanilla ice cream - like the ice cream in the photograph showing the dark brown little vanilla pod seeds. Serve it on top of hot, homemade apple pie!

On the other hand, if you think no-one will want pie because they've eaten too much turkey, then just make a batch of homemade ice cream to enjoy on its own. My Thanksgiving ice cream page list a couple of delicious ice cream recipes ideal for the occasion - one involving pecan nuts and the other white chocolate.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Glaces Maison Mangue - Mango Ice Cream

Here is another wonderfully colorful French ice cream - mango (glace mangue).

It was on display alongside many, many other wonderful homemade ice creams (glaces maison) at an ice cream parlor I visited in France.

What's nice about French ice cream parlors is that they all make a big point about wanting to catch your eye with their ice cream displays.

I will dig out a few photos to share with you and you'll see what I mean. Can't wait to go back!

Poppy Day - Lest We Forget

My last post about poppy ice cream was possibly more appropriate in its timing that I had realised, for this Sunday is Remembrance Day - a day when people in Commonwealth countries take time to remember and honour those who have made sacrifices in times of war and military conflict.

Remembrance Day is symbolised by the red poppy, paper copies of which are sold on street corners in most towns and cities by the Poppy Appeal charity in exchange for a small donation. I have had my little red poppy for about 10 days now and wear it with .... well, how can I put it ....I suppose it's a sense of gratitude. We owe so much to others who have willingly given their lives in the name of freedom and the search for peace.

A close friend has just published a wonderful blog post entitled 'Lest We Forget', the last paragraph of which sums up beautifully why the red poppy is such a powerful symbol:

"Is it too fanciful to imagine that, with each poppy sold, there is sold a seed? A poppy seed of love, compassion, reconciliation, forgiveness and hope. A seed that will germinate and take root, and whose flowers that will never know the crushing boots of greed and aggression. Will these poppies flourish? For the sake of those who died, and for the sake of those who mourn . . . we must ensure that they do."

Glaces Maison - Pink Poppy Ice Cream

Today I can reveal 2 more amazing flavors of glaces maison that I came across in France.

The pale, delicately pink ice cream is pink poppy ice cream or as they say in France glace rose coquelicot.

The rich, almost salmon pink looking ice cream is guava, grapefruit and ylang-ylang or as it was labelled in the ice cream cabinet goyave pamplemousse ylang ylang.

What imagination the French have for ice cream making. Wonderful!

Anyone For Smurf Ice Cream?

Now that Halloween's over I can get back to my daydreaming about France and the wonderful French ice cream that I and my family encountered back in September.

Do you recall my blog post on 1 November? Well, it featured a photograph of some rather unusual ice creams. I challenged you to guess the flavors and promised to reveal all in due course.

Well, here is one of the answers. The flourescent blue ice cream is called Schtroumpf.

When I first saw this ice cream I was puzzled -what on earth was that? Some kind of fruit or vegetable? Nope! It's Smurf ice cream!

"Schtroumpf" is the word used in France for "The Smurfs" a series of cartoon characters made popular some years ago. They were little creatures all of a fluorescent blue color.

Don't ask me what it tastes like because I didn't have any - there were simply too many other tempting choices at that particular ice cream parlour. An excuse for going back there if ever there was one :-)

Ice Cream Good Enough For Johnny Depp Perhaps

French ice cream is a real treat - as you will have gathered from my enthusiasm in previous ice cream blog posts!

One of the things that stuck me most about the glaces maison I came across in France was the sheer variety of flavors. I have made a lot of ice cream in my life and tried many unusual ice cream recipes but there were several ice creams in France that I never imagined I would see! French ice cream makers (glace fabricants) are certainly not shy when it comes to being daring with ice cream recipes.

Here is a photograph I took of an ice cream parlour display cabinet on the Île de Ré (a beautiful little island off the coast of La Rochelle where even Johnny Depp has been spotted according to Wikipedia). You never know, he might just have tried one of these ice creams!

So ... can you guess the ice cream flavors?

All will be revealed in forthcoming ice cream blog posts - stay tuned!