Speaking of hot weather, my latest obsession is the one pint Donvier ice cream maker I found in perfect condition at Goodwill several days ago for $6.99. I've been eying the 1.5 quart Cuisinart ICE-20 for almost a year after seeing a recipe for olive oil ice cream in the local paper, but really don't have the space in my tiny freezer to store the bucket and they're kinda noisy. The Donvier turns out to be perfect: the pint bucket takes up way less space and the manual crank couldn't be quieter. You don't have to crank it continuously, either--just two or three times every five minutes for a span of about twenty minutes. The main thing is to keep the bucket really frozen solid and to get the ingredients as cold as possible before they go in. It's best to let the stuff sit in the freezer for at least a few hours after cranking, too.

I've made two sorbets so far which, to quote Aunt Sandy, turned out fabulous: lemon and lemon basil. This is the lemon basil sorbet I made yesterday, using turbinado sugar which is why it's that raw sewage color instead of a delicate yellow (admittedly the lighting could also be better). But it tastes really, really good. The recipe came from an ancient issue of Cooking Light that I saved for all this time (the recipe, not the whole magazine) because I'm a packrat. The lemon sorbet recipe was from olive and also quite tasty. I've yet to make a disappointing recipe from olive, by the way. Wish it wasn't $10 per issue.