So Drew has had his heart set on making ice cream since I can remember. I've never met a guy more obsessed with ice cream than him. We got the Kitchen Aid mixer ice cream maker attachment as a wedding gift (though, in truth, we kind of took it in stealth before it could be wrapped). As soon as we got it home he was determined to make Guinness ice cream. He's Irish, he loves Guinness and the place we went on our first date used to have Guinness ice cream. They don't anymore. Therefore, he made it his mission to get some through other avenues. This led to an obsession culminating in a frenzy of ice cream making attempts these last few days. You can almost see the drool as he waits for the mixer...

For those of you considering getting a Kitchen Aid mixer ice cream attachment (say that 10 times) here are some things to know. 1) It's really slow. It takes longer than it says. 2) You can't put too much ice cream "batter" in at a time 3) It's really slow 4) After you make it you have to freeze it covered for a few hrs. It's not like an electric ice cream maker when after you churn it, it's done. You have to wait... again.

We learned this after many trials and errors. He made 2 batches that didn't work. One of Guinness, one of Caramel Pecan Cheesecake (yeah, we're broke but he wasn't scrimping on ingredients. He couldn't just do Vanilla or anything!). After he realized that if he put less in, it worked better and that freezing it after churning was necessary, the Caramel Pecan Cheesecake tasted very good. If you don't let it firm up in the freezer, it tastes like it has anti-freeze in it! Somehow that chemical taste dissipates in the freezer. So I'm expecting much more ice cream making in the future. Probably really weird flavors, too. Like Mango Almond Coconut or something. He has a thing for coconut... My quote of him for the day is "I make good ice cream, apparently." So it does work, it's just takes patience. A virtue few Pults have...

On a totally different note, my friend Laurel's baby shower was today! She's very close to her delivery date! Here are a few photos highlights:

We played find the safety pins in the bowl of rice w/your eyes closed (that's the photo of Laurel making the funny face). We painted baby clothes with glitter paint and played various other games. Plus, there was strawberry cheesecake for all, so you couldn't lose. I hadn't been to a baby shower in years, and this one was fun.