Proof In the Pudding

Custard is like pudding, right?

The homemade ice cream turned out to be hit and miss. The "Rocky Road With Crème de Cacao" is a hit. I sweetened the pot a bit...in addition to a half cup each of marshmallows, walnut pieces and semisweet chocolate chips, I added a like amount of white chocolate chips...mmmm, coco butter...

The "Ginger With Dark Rum" was a disappointment. The recipe said "fresh ginger gives this ice cream a fierce bite..." I guess the authors I and have a different measurement for fierce. When I was chilling the custard for this one, licking the spoon held no bite...fierce or otherwise. I had some crystallized ginger from last year in the pantry, so I chopped up a third of a cup and added it at the end of the churn. It did provide the bite, but I'd prefer the bite came from the ice cream itself.

This was a very creamy treat, the crunchy ginger bits took away from the luxurious mouth feel. The recipe called for 2oz of fresh ginger root, I used 2.5oz. I dunno if my ginger had been in the reefer too long (a little over two weeks), or if the blanching water stole all the gingerey hotness. I'm going to do some experiments...first up? Get out the Juicer and juice up a foot of ginger root and play with that first.

On the bright side, I breezed through the scalding, tempering, gelatin blooming and ice crushing with a kitchen towel, cutting board and a 22oz waffle head framing hammer.

Bigger Picture Calling:
After today's delightful Giants game, I got an email from Friend of CorduroyPlanet, BajaBabe, subject line: Calling:

"...you on your cell and all I get is a busy signal? Several other numbers are doing that also? Wonder if the solar flare has knocked out some signals? Still looking for the Rhubarb recipe."

I grabbed the phone and gave her a ring. "It seems to work goin' uphill" I said when she answered. We bantered for 20 minutes before we said goodbye. I told her that our garage door opener mysteriously opened during the first magnetic storm this week.

I got to thinking, and yes my phone has been acting a little strange over the last few days. Friday (after the garage door opener event) my phone was very garbled, no matter if I was in the DaveCave Cellular Sweet Spot or not. At the time I chalked it up to heavy traffic at my local cell tower. There were tons of skiers and boarders in town, and upon the mountain enjoying the fresh powder. It just may have been that solar flare and it's geomagnetic storm, not the Prefect Storm of powder and smartphones. We've unplugged the garage door opener until the eStorms pass...
 
Our old friend, sunspot AR1429 kicked out another CME Saturday., this one a M8 Class flare. Could be more aurora ahead...er, overhead...through Tuesday/Wednesday.