Friday, July 18, 2008

Day 98 / Day 6 - Oh, Basil-Lime Sorbet, Why Do You Mock Me?

So, our local Linens N Things is closing, so everything is 30% off. I got an amazing deal on a KitchenAid 10-piece cookware set, saving about $100 off the original price.

Before you get too impressed with me, I'm embarrased to say I got caught up in the moment and used most of my "winnings" to buy myself...a very expensive pillow. I figured, a pillow is one of those things you use every day, so why not get the very best? But as I stood on the checkout line and they rang up my non-returnable order, I felt like one of those cartoon characters who turns into a big lollipop with the word "sucker" written on the wrapper.

Anyway, back to indoor gardening stuff. I also picked myself up a nice Cuisinart blender. And you know that that means. All of a sudden, I can make a ton of recipes I haven't been able to make before.

So first on my list was "basil-lime sorbet", one of two recipes they give you in the Aerogarden manual. The recipe was pretty straightforward...take a cup of basil leaves...

...and after you take a picture of it with your Canon camcorder camera with the freakishly bright flash, blanch it in boiling water for 10 seconds. Then, throw it into your blender along with 3/4 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice. Puree for 30 seconds:

And then throw into your ice cream maker.


Here's where things started to go wrong. I use a KitchenAid mixer with an ice cream attachment, and after 30 minutes of whirr-whirr-whirr-whirr-whirring, I ended up with...exactly what I started with.

There are a couple possibilities here. My theory is that because my kitchen was about 85 degrees at the time (we're going through a heat wave here in New York), plus the fact that I didn't chill the basil-lime mixture, it never got a chance to freeze.

So, I poured the mixture into a measuring up and put it in the fridge. I cleaned the KitchenAid bowl and put it back into the freezer. Check back again tomorrow and catch the rest of the exciting saga!

(Oh, and P, Linens N Things had SoundSpas, but not the one you were looking for)

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