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Posts Tagged ‘ice cream’

Mist and Moonlight 

Posted in Food and..., Science!, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The moon shines bright tonight, my friends. 

  • We have a full moon.
  • We have a harvest supermoon.
  • And if you (like me) are in North America, South America, Africa or Europe, we have a partial lunar eclipse.
  • We even have a bonus sort of moon related item at the end!

First, the what, when, where of tonight’s eclipse.

What to know about Tuesday’s lunar eclipse and harvest supermoon – NPR

The best times to view the event will depend on your location, but the lunar eclipse will peak at 10:44 p.m. ET, according to NASA. All of North and South America will have a chance to see the partial lunar eclipse and harvest supermoon depending on the weather. Europe and Africa will also have an opportunity to see the eclipse.

The Next Full Moon is a Partial Lunar Eclipse; a Supermoon; the Corn Moon; and the Harvest Moon – NASA

As the full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox, this is the Harvest Moon. The first known written use of this name in the English language (per the Oxford English Dictionary) was in 1706. During the fall harvest season farmers sometimes need to work late into the night by moonlight. On average moonrise is about 50 minutes later each night. Around the Harvest Moon this time is shorter, about 25 minutes for the latitude of Washington, DC, and only 10 to 20 minutes farther north in Canada and Europe.

(Note from the future: NASA has a great Astronomy Photograph of the Day showing a time lapse of the eclipse.)

Here is some general info on eclipses and a fun video from NASA.

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And as for that more-or-less moon related bonus item? It’s a tasty one.

Mr Man and I went for a lovely if hot hike down by the river, and decided that the best way to cap it off would be with ice cream. We found ourselves at Chris’s Ice Cream Ottawa.

This fun little shop had a number of interesting and creative flavors, including blood orange, chili chocolate, strawberry crunch, and… hang on, what’s this?

Moon mist.

Ysh.cabana, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Interesting. Never heard of it. (That’s because we’re not Out East and I have apparently not been shopping in the right ice cream stores.)

Wait, it’s a combination of bubble gum, grape, and banana?! 

Here’s a quick intro to this regional delight: Written in the stars: The legendary tale of Atlantic Canada ice cream favourite Moon Mist.

I did not think I would like it. I did not think the flavors would work. In fact, they did more than work, as all three flavors combined into a new, better flavor.

I don’t quite know how to describe this “improbable” combination except as a structural shift. Imagine three individual flavors, normally experienced as if they were sequential, or side by side. When eaten together, however, the flavors stack together to create a singular new experience.

Readers, I loved it.

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Photo by Shot by Cerqueira on Unsplash

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Cone Day

Posted in Food and..., tagged , , , on April 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

If you happen to have a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream store near you, you should know that today is Free Cone Day!

Which shops are participating? This map knows.

Not near a B&J? Maybe patronize a local ice cream parlor instead? Because we all deserve a treat now and then, and that goes double on Tuesdays.

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Photo by James Trenda on Unsplash

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Coffee Ice Cream

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on August 20, 2021| 1 Comment »

I’ve loved coffee ice cream since before I drank coffee, but it’s one of those flavors that doesn’t appeal to everyone. We don’t buy a lot of ice cream and when we do, something like vanilla is more flexible.*

I’m still experimenting with our borrowed Kitchenaid ice cream maker and coffee sounded good. I modified Mark Bittman’s egg-free recipe again, and it worked for me. Perfect for a hot and sticky summer day!

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Coffee Ice Cream
Makes ~1 quart

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 C. milk (2% worked)
  • 1 C. heavy cream (35%)
  • 1/2 C. coffee
  • 1/2 C. sugar
  • 2 T. cornstarch 
  • 1/4 t. salt
  • 1/2 t. vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Stir the cornstarch with 2 T. of the milk make a smooth slurry.

2. Put the remaining milk, cream, coffee, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan and whisk to combine. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture nearly comes to a simmer. Whisk in the cornstarch slurry and vanilla and continue to stir until the mixture thickens a bit, 2 or 3 minutes.

3. Strain the mixture into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until completely cool, at least 2 hours and preferably overnight. Transfer to an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s directions.

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* Alone, with pie, with grape juice, with orange concentrate and chocolate shavings, with caramel, with peanut butter and chocolate, with bananas and pecans, with pomegranate seeds, with lemon curd, with… you get the idea.

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Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash

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