Ice Cream Diaries - 24                                                                                                         June 26, 2007

'You create your own universe as you go along.'   - Winston Churchill

Hey there.   Bet you thought you'd seen the last of my dairy dogma.    As usual, it's not for lack of thinking about it.   I always miss writing the diaries during the summery months when it's too busy to go to the bathroom, never mind find a few hours of focused writing time.   As a biz owner, I certainly can't complain about being busy.  This spring turned out to be nothing short of spectacular in the weather department - hot, dry, and sunny straight through.  It's only fifty-nine degrees right now, and I've got my A-team on, so let me catch you up while I can.   Gotta work fast, because I know if I don't finish before the summer heat returns in twenty minutes or so, you may not hear from me until October.   Let me dig through my fourteen earlier attempts and see what I can come up with.   Ok, I'm ready.    Roll tape.

This spring, I wrote the big check and picked myself up a hot new Carpigiani  LB-502 batch freezer.   Check this baby out.   Sweet ride.   20 quarts, double the old batch for those box scoring at home.  It's got all the bells and whistles, including hot new patent-pending 'Hard-o-tronic' technology.   I know that sounds like Transformer meets adult film star, but what it really means is this machine is equipped with sensors that detect the consistency of the ice cream in the barrel and when it's 'ready', it beeps, flashes and the compressor shuts off automatically.  All you have to do is figure out the correct settings for the each flavor and type of frozen dessert, and the machine does the thinking from there.   This means a consistently creamy delicious batch every time.   Maybe I'll hire a caveman to make ice cream for me this summer.

This past week I made the ice cream for five different local events (Pepin School, Whitebrook, NDIC ice cream socials, Lions Club Golf Tournament, and the Relay for Life), a total of 46 tubs of vanilla, and that's on top of the usual ice cream making for the shop.   Don't know how I would have done it with the old batcher.   I must admit, as cool as it was to wheel the new Carpigiani into place, I felt a bit nostalgic decommissioning the old SaniMark.    You never forget your first batch freezer.   She may have been outdated and somewhat dull like an old lawn mower or David Hasselhoff, but she was a workhorse and never missed a day.  Which was pretty great considering SaniMark, the company, no longer exists, and if she had broke, I would have had to take her out back and shoot her.  That would have left me up the creek without a batch freezer big time.    Old Sani is now the Mike Mulligan in my kitchen, a 550 pound coffee table.   If anyone needs one, it's yours.   You just gotta have three-phase power and be able to hook it to water, unless you just want to make modern art out of it, Mo?, which would actually be a more romantic fate for it than its most likely next stop, the scrap heap.

Enough equipment talk, what kind of cool flavors have been coming out of that new freezer of mine, you ask.   Let's see...  How about peach mango sorbet, Lucky Charms, Green Monster - with Jay Johnson's help, shuttled 85 little cups over to the Brass Cat bar during Red Sox opening day festivities.  It didn't help with the outcome of that game, but got a good cheer from the crowd and hopefully not just because it was free.   Black Licorice was a sleeper hit.   Strawberry Rhubarb.  Strawberry Banana.    My own version of Rocky Road with mini-marshmallows, walnuts, and small dark M&;M's.   Peanut Butter Swirl.   Hazelnut is still a hot flavor.   Hazelnut Coffee Fudge especially.   Carrot Cake.   Purple Cow.    Chocolate Caramel Pretzel.   Take 5 - chocolate with chocolate pretzels, chocolate covered peanuts, caramel, sweet cream, and peanut butter.   Mexican chocolate (made one batch with cayenne pepper, but seems to sell better with just cinnamon).    Still on the list to try this summer... crème brulee, just gotta figure out how to make caramelized sugar, orange creamsicle, chocolate raspberry, vanilla honey lavender, and goji sorbet.

I recently put out a new suggestion box in the shop, and it's already started to provide a steady supply of flavor ideas.  Some write-ins from the box... Broccoli, Black Current, Salmon, Basil, hmm, a suggestion jar seemed like a good idea...

Times are tough on my street these days.   Goodlander Gallery, Crooked House Designs, and the quilt store have all recently gone the way of Sanjiah.   Cool shops they were, but a bit nichey, and unfortunately there isn't a huge amount of walking/strolling traffic here just yet.   What we need is a good restaurant or two to bring people downtown and provide customers for the interesting little shops.   Parking would only get more challenging with a successful restaurant on the block, but I'm still hopeful it'll happen soon and that it won't involve pirates.  I've got a few ideas of my own, but my inner restaurateur is still nose to the dipping cabinet.   Anyone tired of the corporate gig ready to jump ship?

I finally got my book published!   Well, self-published at least.  I still aspire to land a real publisher, but even though I actually scored a literary agent a few years ago, it's been nothing but publisher rejections to date.   After three years of ice cream making while it sat on a shelf, I got the bug this winter to dust it off, polish it up, and just get it out there myself - recruit that law of intention to help find me a real publisher.   I was also hoping for some closure on the project so I can look to new writing challenges like working all these Ice Cream Diary ramblings into something interesting.

During my convalescing after surgery in January, I gave 'Hand-me-downs: 51 Tips on Life for my Little Brother' a major rewrite and made it all pretty, with the help of www.blurb.com software.  After a couple proof copy purchases, I launched my first 'run' of twenty (not thousand, just twenty).   I set up a little display on my ice cream counter with a now ice cream-stained copy for people to peruse with their sundae.   I'm happy to report the first batch sold out in four days.  I'm now halfway though my third batch of 25 copies.   Not bad, especially considering I have to sell them for $16.95 each (I actually take a little bit of a loss at that price, but hey, sometimes intention ain't free.)  People seem to really enjoy reading it and looking at the photographs, so that in itself is satisfying.   Someone even called me 'enlightened'.   That's probably an overstatement, but in any event, getting that first batch of books from Fed Ex was a cool moment for me.  The book selling thing has provided quite a few other cool moments, like the time I overheard a woman reading a story aloud to her friend, followed by quiet little sighs and head nods, or watching people checking out my show on the wall.   I had a mini-release party during the last ArtWalk.  Sorry for the no invite.  I had every intention of launching a Diaries episode just before that Saturday, but my time that week was consumed by printing and framing, along with all the other usual ice cream shop activities.   It will be hanging in the shop for a few more weeks, so if you're in the neighborhood, stop by.   No pressure, but if you're interested in purchasing a book, just drop me a line.   Here's a little blurb about it, just in case you haven't already heard me talk about it fourteen hundred times.   Nineteen bucks will get one right to your mailbox.    And if you happen to have an Aunt or bridge partner in the publishing business, free ice cream for life if you can help me get a copy into the right hands...

So what else is new?

Angela, the newest scooper extraordinaire.

Michael Joseph, my third nephew.   Gets to hang out in a FenwayPark luxury box at three months.   I'm 39ish and still haven't done that, sheesh.   Check out the big screen on the field, back right in the photo, pretty sweet...

The awesome new Mt.Tom's website.  www.mttoms.com Thanks to Bronwen Hodgkinson for designing, building and launching it.   Check it out.   A huge upgrade from the hokey old site I did myself with a godaddy.com template.   Bronwen definitely gets free ice cream and coffee and Swedish fish for life.   Thanks too to Briana for the tech assist on the launch. If anyone needs web design work, Bronwen totally rocks.   Not just because she did my site on her own free time, but because she's really, really good at it.   http://www.bronwen.net/

A few new photos.   Thought you might enjoy a glance or two of some Whoville scenery...

Made my first batch of Gelato this week.   This stuff is good.   Really good.   I'm sure you've heard of Italian ice cream called Gelato, but in case you haven't, it's really dense (low overrun for you Diaries  tech savvy readers), rich and bold in flavor.   Since it's low overrun (somewhere around 10%), it's fairly expensive to make, but since it's so rich it's served in kids' size cups or cones.  It's priced quite a bit higher than regular ice cream.   I'm anticipating it will take a little education to help customers understand why less costs more, but once they try its crazy strong, dense and delicious flavor, they'll be totally down with it.   If they're European or well-traveled, they'll already get it.

Chris Farley top 10 http://www.uber.com/farley   Nothing new here, just thought they were funny.

I must miss passing around those crazy links and funny emails back when I was cubicle-locked.   If the air-conditioning is giving you the chills, this one will warm you up? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u6k-99qcCE

Did you know the average American consumes 23 quarts of ice cream per year?   I hope you're doing your part.   Don't worry, I'll make more.

Where would an episode be without me going off on some existential tangent about life, so grab a coffee warm-up and buckle up, because here we go.   Before the extended summer hours kicked in, I was able to watch movies.   Pan's Labyrinth, The Illusionist, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Rocky Balboa were some of the good ones.   One movie that intrigued me and was all the buzz earlier this year was The Secret.   Maybe you've seen it or read the book?   The movie is interesting in spots, certainly not a big budget thrill ride, but I stuck with it because I dig the concept.   Throw the movie onto your Netflix queue if you feel like it, but I can save you 152 minutes of your life now if you'd like.   If you don't want me to spoil the secret in the Secret, skip down to Rudy and Reej a few paragraphs away.

The thesis is based on the much written about 'law of attraction' -  what you think about is what you attract into your life.  Dwell on the negative and that's what you get.   On the upside, live like an optimist, self-assured that all you desire will eventually find its way into your cup, then that cupeth will runeth over.   The Secret takes the law of attraction one step further by proposing that thinking positively isn't quite good enough.  You have to feel it.  By keeping yourself in a state of feeling good about your life and by living as if what you desire is already in your possession, you actually attract those things like fruit flies to a banana peel.

On a quantum physical level, positive 'feelings' set your frequency or energy level at 'good', and this puts your vibrations in tune with all the good energy around you.   As a result, good things are drawn to you like paper clips to a magnet.   The movie weaves together an interesting collection of subject experts from John Gray (Men are from Mars) to new age guru Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith to quantum physicist Dr. John Hagelin.

On a more metaphysical level, The Secret says you don't necessarily need to know how you will get what you want, just know what it is you want then go ahead and ask the universe for it.   Visualize what you want and get yourself into a state of how you will feel when you get it.   Then, according to The Secret, the universe will respond.   The movie also discusses gratitude.   In a nutshell, be grateful.   The movie is full of new age mumbo, but the concept still is pretty cool.   Lisa Nichols says, 'When you celebrate good feelings, you'll get more of the same vibration.'   I think the not-so-secret Secret is about having faith that you deserve and will receive what you desire.   That faith needs to be real down to your core not just in the form of some affirmations Post-it note onto your fridge.   And be grateful for all that comes your way along the way.     As Buddha likes to say, 'All that we are is a result of what we have thought.'

Speaking of gurus, it's been a long time since we've heard from our buddies Root Beer Rudy and his probation-prone younger brother Reej.   Reej is finally free and clear from last year's run-ins with the law and has been cautiously reintroducing himself to society.   He took a shine to our newest scooper Angela and has become a regular again.   In fact, he recently purchased a case of Mt.Tom's root beer for his own private stock, which I hold for him in the walk-in box.   On most days, he saunters in on his way home from school, and I make sure there's a frosty root beer in front of his parlor stool before he even gets his backpack off.   On days his dream scooper is working, he'll linger, weaving for her tales of the latest rumble between his and rival street gangs, expound his latest money-making scheme, or matter-of-factly explain why he thinks Paris Hilton is simply misunderstood.

During his last visit, he crafted a story about the time he and his buddies, jacked up on Red Bull and candy buttons, boat-jacked my neighbor's rowboat.  At the top of their lungs, they howled at the moon and paddled frantically to the other end of the pond.   Once safely aground on the east shore, they proceeded to line the boat with old Gazette newspapers, orphaned issues from Reej's old paper route days.   On top of the papers, they filled the doomed watercraft with the emptied contents of 43 bags of Cool Ranch Dorito's.  (Reej wasn't very specific about where those came from).   Finally, like a cherry on top of a sundae, 53 sparklers were strategically stabbed into the chip compost.  You might guess what came next.   The sparkers were lit, one by one, and with a hearty push, she was launched, unmanned, toward the middle of the pond.

Caught in a bit of a 'Lord of the Flies' moment, the boys could only watch as the small green rowboat floated majestically away from the shore and toward its destiny.  It looked like the Four of July barge in BostonHarbor.    That is until the sparklers reached the Dorito's laced with a hint of not lime, but lighter fluid.  In seconds, the little green rowboat transformed from sparkly barge o' fun to a smoldering mass of melted processed cheese and stale chips.   The smell from the boat-sized cooking experiment gone bad was horrific.  The youtube.com video being shot by the boys on the shore just couldn't capture the tangled olfactory train wreck of melted cheese, ranch dressing, Doritos, plastic rowboat and old sneakers (I have a feeling those were brother Rudy's).   Our fair town woke up to a smell so foul people were reaching for dirty socks to breathe into for relief.   Cats stayed in their litter boxes.   Suffice to say, I don't think cool ranch Dorito's were a big seller at Big E's supermarket that week.

As for Rudy, well, I spot him walking by the shop from time to time, and Reej occasionally mentions his name, but he's always enjoyed being a bit mysterious, so perhaps he's best meant to be imagined walking off into the sunset, sporting a black tattered Scram Lumpy t-shirt, pretty, albeit thin, young lady by his side and one big old 22 ounce root beer float in hand.               Godspeed, young Rudy.   Stay cool.

As you have figured out by my extended absence from your email in-box, it's been pretty tough to find time to spend with my ICD.   I really enjoy it, but it has gotten tougher to keep it fresh, especially considering I'm in my fourth year now, hard to believe, and well past startup mode.  My baby isn't quite grown-up yet, but she's putting together full sentences now, has a personality, and feels quite comfortable in a tight-fitting fourzy.  Things in general have settled into a nice, familiar pace, with the exception of the occasional crisis or special event.   Add that to the scarcity of quiet moments this time of year and the Diaries has become much more of an effort for me.   I still enjoy being able to share my experiences with y'all, but like anything in life, when it starts to feel like work, perhaps it's time to try something else.  So I've decided to switch the Diaries back to a blog format.   I'm not sure how often I'll get to post, but I can guarantee it'll be more frequently than the regular ICD of late.   With more photos.   Perhaps a top 10 here and there.   And lots of quick updates on new flavors, art shows, book release parties, what I had for dinner that night, and the color of my new shoes from www.zappos.com .

Here's the link...   http://icecreamdiaries.blogspot.com/

Not to be confused with http://icecreamdiary.blogspot.com/   who does he think he is?

On that note, time for me to get back to it, and definitely time for you to get back to work.   As always, I thank you for listening.   Have a wicked great summa.

And for gosh, darn sake, don't forget, life is short.  Eat ice cream.

Hope to see you soon.

Your bud,

Jim