Frozen Yogurt

You all know that I am the furthest thing away from a health food nazi you can find. Don't get me wrong, I like healthful food as long as it tastes good, but you can keep your cardboard rice cakes and no-fat, dairy free, sugar free, taste free brownies and chocolate chip cookies made with whole wheat flour, splenda, and I can't-believe-it's-not butter. (My children have all been forced to bake these at school. Fortunately, they had a good upbringing and they tasted them, sneered inwardly to themselves and then politely stated that they weren't hungry. My opinion of school "cooking classes" is, ahem, low.) I think you should eat fresh, freshly prepared unprocessed food and enjoy it.

So, normally, I don't eat frozen yogurt. It usually tastes like it was trying hard to be ice cream and not quite succeeding.

A year or two ago, as I was in the midst of some turmoil in my worklife, a friend decided to cheer me up by having a Cusinart Ice Cream Maker sent to me from Goodmans.net. It didn't help the work turmoil, but it sure helped to know someone cared and wanted me to have some happiness.
So I got to work making ice cream. We had some great successes. Plain vanilla ice cream takes on completely new dimensions when it is devoid of thickeners and artificial ingredients. Cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla combine into silky, creamy, decadence, especially when eaten with some fresh peach cobbler or strawberry shortcake. (Confession: I make shortcake the way my mother does, with Bisquick. the recipe is on the box. Yes, I know it is pretty much just a biscuit and easy to make without a mix, but I need it to taste like it did when I was a child. Which means bisquick. Besides, it's pretty easy)

One night, the kids were whining for dessert. (Not a terribly attractive quality, especially since they're not anywhere near being preschoolers anymore) They wanted to go down to the ice cream shop and get a cone. Not that I am opposed to that idea, but it was late, I was in my jammies and I didn't have any cash. I looked in the fridge for some cream to whip up  a batch of ice cream for them. Gasp! Can you imagine that I was out of cream? Pratically unthinkable. I did, however, happen to have a carton of plain yogurt. I suddenly had an ephiphany, and I dumped the yogurt into the ice cream maker along with some sugar, vanilla, and fresh peaches. Twenty minutes later, the kids were happy and smiling. And they had eaten something better for them than ice cream.

I have since also made frozen yogurt by using vanilla yogurt. It is really no different, you just don't need to add sugar and vanilla as these are, duh, already in it.

Today I discovered the first of the sour cherries are ripe on my trees. I picked as many as I could from the low-hanging branches. I am putting them in the ice cream maker along with a carton of yogurt and a squeeze of lemon juice to brighten the flavor. It will be amazing, Just get yourself an ice cream maker, you know you want to.