When you are given Lemons...Make Limoncello Ice Cream!

My refrigerator was stocked with all the necessary ingredients. My first batch of ice cream would be basic vanilla.

After a few "suggestions" from my son, I was off and running.  We exchanged recipes, discussed revisions to existing recipes, and compared notes.  Each time the flavors got better and better.

I needed a taster.  You know like a Wine Sommelier only an Ice Cream Sampelier.  Someone with a discriminating palate.  Someone who would tell me the truth.  Someone who wasn't afraid of gaining thirty pounds. I needed a man!

Dr. John, a retired rheumatologist devoted his life to helping people.  His wife was a great cook and his palate was as good as Pierre Herme's (The Macaron king of Paris).

Not wanting to clog is arteries I doled out my precious ice cream in 2 oz. servings.  I had just churned a quart of fresh peach and another of Expresso Mocha Chip.  It was ready to be tested.

"It tastes like vanilla ice cream with chunks of frozen peach in it.  And the chocolate in the Expresso Mocha is too big.  Someone could break a tooth.  It's pretty hard," he said.

I could hear the swisssshhhhh of my ego being deflated.  That's not what I was expecting.  I had chosen the right person for the right job.  It was back to the kitchen for more research and testing.  After weeks of adjustments and dozens of 2 oz. samples, Dr. John had a happy face. I had perfected several flavors and my freezer was over packed with ice cream.

I thought about Covid and how it had changed everyone's lives.  People had lost their jobs. Employers had to close their doors.  Folks couldn't afford to feed their families, let alone their...dogs...THAT'S IT!  I had my cause. I would start Twoee's Howlin' Good Ice Cream!

All the flavors would be named after dogs.  There was Petunia Peach, named after my friend's French bulldog.  Molly B's Mint Chip, for John and Kay's silky terrier,  and Lola's Limoncello, for my nieces dog.  There was no end to these names and flavors.  I drew cartoon characters of each dog and made labels for the containers. With the money from the sale of the ice cream I purchased five-pound bags of dog food. The dog food is being distributed through St. James by the Sea church and their food bank at St. Marks in San Diego.

This is a win, win situation.  I loved to make ice cream, my friends liked to eat it and families could feed their dogs.

There's always something to wag a tail about...even in a worldwide pandemic.