Long, long time ago (in August) when my kids were not scheduled to be all over town for activities I visited one of my favorite food bloggers Joanne.  Joanne is a medical student in NYC who has time to make amazing vegetarian dishes, blog, train for marathons and somehow pass all her classes.  I don’t know how she does it but I am glad she does since her posts are witty and fun and at moments closely resemble episodes of Sex and the City, well without the first part.

This time her blog was visited my The Fairy Hobmother who granted her a wish and offered to grant another, all you needed to do is write a comment about an appliance you may want in your kitchen.

I wrote this:

“Really how cool? I would love an ice cream machine. I want one but can not justify buying one for myself. Every summer I see blog upon blog doing their own amazing ice cream and I want one, then I go and buy a pint or two or three and am happy with no work involved. However IF I had one I am certain Amazing ice cream would magically appear, thanks to FairyHobmother no doubt”

You should have seen my surprise when I got an email regarding my new kitchen appliance and when I received it a few weeks back.  Of course I got into cooking.  Maybe the ice cream maker was not such a great idea for my waist line, but it is so worth it for seasonal ice cream like this Pumpkin Pie recipe, taken from Cuisinart instruction booklet.  I am learning and soon I will be making my own, promise, after I join a gym or sign up for a marathon.

You will need: 1 1/2 cups whole milk, 1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar, 2 tbs molasses or dark corn syrup, 1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree (1 can, 15 oz), 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, 2 1/2 cups heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 cup gingersnaps/vanilla butter cookies/graham crackers.

Note: I used light brown sugar, only 1 tbs molasses since I am not a big molasses fan and gingersnaps.

In a mixing bowl combine milk, brown sugar and molasses until dissolved.

Add pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg

Pour in 2 1/2 cups heavy cream

and 1 tsp pure vanilla, mix well

Pour into your ice maker and mix until thicken about 20 minutes (depending on your ice maker)

In the meantime place the gingersnaps in the bag and give your son the power to crush them, he will love you forever

After 20 minutes add the crumbs and mix for 5 minutes.  I was running out of space in my ice maker so I added more by hand later.

Since the recipe was not much of a creative process I decided to crave a mini pumpkin and serve the ice cream inside.  The pumpkins are a great inexpensive way to decorate and serve small side dishes or desserts at your Thanksgiving table, and since we are talking about being thankful.. THANK YOU FAIRY HOBMOTHER !!!

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I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour conducted by Clever Girls on behalf of Dannon. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program but my opinions are my own. For more information and recipe ideas, visit www.oikosyogurt.com or www.Facebook.com/oikos. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls [...]

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