Ice Cream

One Word Wednesday:   “ice cream” is this week’s word.

Ice Cream has changed the shape of my life. Ice cream and water ice.

It’s  Bo’s favorite food group. Sometimes when I offer it to him, he understands and says yes, he’d like some. Occasionally now he may look for it himself, but it’s not often. Until a couple months ago, he foraged for it in the freezer, and I became very annoyed with him because he ate it out of the box with his hand. For some reason this simply set me off, but even while I was telling him not to do it, that people don’t eat with their hands, he would sort of laugh and keep on eating until I grabbed the box out of his hand. (This is one of the many times when I berate myself for lack of patience.)

Now, sometimes when I suggest ice cream for dessert, he doesn’t know what I’m talking about. “It’s cold and sweet and you really like it,” I say, and he says, “OK.” We try to make it extra appetizing with whipped cream and toppings, which he likes, and keep six half-gallons (well, 10 ounces or whatever the manufacturers think looks like a half gallon) in the freezer just for him.  Always.

Sometimes when he’s enjoying it, he’ll ask me where it came from or if it’s my “invention” (a joking way he’s had over the years of complimenting me when I served him something he liked.) If I say I bought it at the store, he says “Oh” but I wonder.  Does he know what that means?

Water ice has played a big role in my life in the past year because Jon* and his wife own a popular store not far from here. So, not only did I interview Jon in the party room of his store (our first meeting last August) but we go there often now for a treat. It’s a destination when I take Bo for a ride. They keep me in full supply of my favorite flavor, cherry Bordeaux water ice (it has real bing cherries in it) which Adriana also brings  when she comes home after closing in the evenings.

Adriana and I have had a lot of fun trying some recipes for her ice cream cakes, especially icing so she can decorate them more easily, and we look new ideas up online.  We’ve had some especially interesting  kitchen adventures and a lot of laughs.

Last week we had her sample ice cream cake in the freezer – a decadent layered creation that we all loved — and yesterday our freezer was filled with ice cream sandwiches; before that we had  new product flavors to sample.  (Jon creates all of his own recipes.)

So, not only have  our lives been enriched by Jon and his family living here, making life more joyful and active — more possible, but our waistlines are being enriched as well !!!!  How ironic,  this connection between Bo’s favorite food and Jon’s store!!

*(For those readers who haven’t followed our lives in the past year: after trying  unsuccessfully to place Bo in a memory facility last July, I brought him home and “found” Jon who is truly an amazing caregiver.  Jon’s home burned down so I invited the whole family to move in with us in November. Since then we’ve become a real family; they have decided to stay on another year and send their two children (whom I love) to our neighborhood school in the fall. All of this is such an amazing turn of events in my life. I can’t believe how fortunate I am.)