Hey! The ice cream (or gelato) in a bag thing works!

I just whipped up a batch of licorice gelato using the method I picked up from The Consumerist and wrote about last week. Spurred on by Kelly's rollicking success with vanilla ice cream last weekend, I adapted the recipe to make gelato in the best flavor there is --licorizia.

I mixed some cream and milk and set it on simmer until it frothed slightly. Then I took and egg yolk and a tablespoon of sugar and whipped it in a bowl. Once whipped, I poured the warmed milk and cream into the bowl and whisked everything it until it combined. Then it was back into the saucepan over medium heat. I stirred it as it heated up and started to gel. Once sufficiently gelled, I removed it from the heat and popped it into the fridge for a couple of hours to chill. Once chilled, I poured my now gelled egg, sugar, cream and milk combo into a quart sized zip lock bag. I added two teaspoons of licorice extract I brought back from Rome. Then I filled a gallon sized zip lock half way with ice and then added six tablespoons of rock salt to the ice. I set the smaller bag inside of the larger bag, zipped it up then commenced to shaking for the required five minutes.

I didn't believe it would work. However, after five minutes I stopped shaking and removed the smaller bag. I couldn't help but notice that it was noticeably larger than it was when the whole shaking thing started. I rinsed off the top of the bag and squeezed my plastic bag gelato into a bowl and tucked in.

The lights grew dim and I could hear the sound of a distant, lone mandolin. The taste of that gelato transported me to the Piazza Della Rotonda. I could hear the water spashing in the fountain and before me blazed the blue neon sign of the best gelateria in Rome. Ahhhh.

Then I opened my eyes and cleaned up the mess left behind from making gelato in a plastic bag.

This 'n that 'n bric 'n brac 'n things

The title of this post is a borrowed line shouted by the incomparable Jennifer Saunders as her character Edina Monsoon in the funniest sit-com ever, Absolutely Fabulous. Ab Fab has its own channel on YouTube if you'd like a refresher on all things Patsy and Edina.

Anyhow, in my meanderings through the Internet every day, I come across all kinds of things that I think are funny or interesting. Most of them have nothing to do with my niche and the ones that do wouldn't make good posts for whatever reason.

So let me empty out my bookmarks on this fine Sunday morning. Here goes.

OK, this video swept across the wide expanse of the web last week and on the off chance that you missed it, the is the wedding video that has everybody talking.

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At the beginning of summer, the great City of New York opened a new park and with it came a whole new definition of what a park is.

The High Line was a freight railway that ran on an elevated bed from the Meatpacking District to Hell's Kitchen on the West Side. It was built in the early 1900s and was officially de-activated in the 1980s. It was never torn down and was allowed to turn into an elevated grassland that was blocked off from the rest of the city. Fast forward about 20 years and it's now been cleaned up, replanted and turned into the world's first elevated, linear park. The High Line park has its own website and it tells the history and future of this great new resource for the people of New York. It's also one more thing to love about the de facto capital of the world.

Walking the High Line from dihard on Vimeo.

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Gary: Landlord of the Flies, is a blog written by a man named Gabe. Gabe is embroiled in a security deposit dispute with his landlord Gary. Gary's not the brightest of men, but he is one profane, racist homophobe. Because Gary has proved himself to be beyond reason, Gabe started a blog to document the carryings-on of his landlord Gary.

Gabe's posts have to be read to be believed. His blog is filled with obscenity laden voicemails and all other manner of ridiculousness exhibited by Gary. Read it and be grateful for your living arrangements.

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The girls at the Mogg Blog are where I turn when I need a design-related laugh. To wit:

Only the Mogg Blogg... And thank God for them.

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If you're looking for some timeless housekeeping and grocery tips, this is for you.

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Florida has an introduced iguana problem to go with its introduced python problem and its introduced water monitor problem. Not to mention its walking catfish problem, Brazilian Pepper problem or any other problem out of the thousands of problems caused by the wanton importation and release of non-native, invasive species.

Something else Florida has in great supply is men and women who are quick to exploit an opportunity to make a buck. Floridians' resourcefulness and general willingness to discard what's expected is one of the many reasons I love living here. Along those lines, a quick thinker in nearby Sarasota has stumbled upon what could be a goldmine. With it comes a bad pun I'm powerless not to use. I'm calling this video from the St. Petersburg Times, "Iguana eat an iguana."

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Finally, the Paint Quality Institute has an enormous amount of information on it on topics that range from the essentials of color theory to what are the hot paint colors right now. It is well worth reading and smart people will bookmark it for later reference.

At the risk of being indelicate, I need to gush about a product I just discovered

As I mention all the time, I've been going to an isolated island in The Bahamas for the last couple of years, and I'm headed back there in a couple of weeks.

I'm fortunate in many ways, and one of them is my great friend JD. JD's who got me hooked on Cat Island in the first place and I owe my recently acquired love of flying to him too.

This is JD's plane. It's a single prop, four-seater. It's stable and powerful and handles like a sedan. It's a great plane and one of my life's great joys is to buzz around in it. This is also the plane we fly to Cat Island.

We fly directly from here and it's a two-and-a-half to three hour flight. Here's where the indelicacy comes in. Either I have the most efficient kidneys on the planet or I have a bladder the size of a peanut. Or both. Four-seater airplanes don't come equipped with heads and when the urge strikes and I'm 10,000 feet above the open Atlantic, I have no option but to hold it until we land. Few things unsettle me more than a full bladder and no way to relieve it. Before too long, water bottles and travel mugs start to look like viable means of alleviation.

We've been back often enough that Mr. Gilbert, the kind soul who works in the immigration trailer at the airfield in Cat Island, knows to let me rush past him to get to the bathroom before he stamps my passport.

Anyhow, when JD and I flew over there a month ago, we were equipped with a new tool that I lack enough superlatives to describe. It's called the Travel John and here's a video that describes how it works.

Oh how they work and thank God for it. After one use I became their biggest fan. These things are fantastic and I can now say without hesitation that I will never set foot on a small plane without a supply of Travel Johns again.

Where the Sweet Olive Grows

My former next door neighbor Brandon moved to New Orleans a year-and-a-half ago. In leaving, he managed to leave both my neighborhood and my life noticeably impoverished. The man can cook like no one I've ever met and if that weren't enough, inside of him lurks a the best story teller I've ever known. The man can spin a yarn out of thin air while whipping up a batch of Hoppin' John so good it will bring tears to your eyes. In New Orleans he's found a home to say the least. If nothing else, New Orleans is a city where fine cookery and fine story telling are still held in high esteem and he fits right in.

In Brandon's mind and in his words, a mundane task like grocery shopping becomes an epic story of the triumph over hardship. A cab ride through Faubourg Tremé becomes a myth to rival those of the Ancient Greeks. Two days without air conditioning in the stifling heat of a Louisiana July becomes an opportunity to share a recipe for the wild bananas that grow in the Delta.

I've been begging him for years to please write down his stories and at long last he's started a blog. I get lost in his posts, really. Brandon's a gifted, natural writer of rare talent and New Orleans is a richer place with him there.

And now, thanks to his blog Where the Sweet Olive Grows, the world can be a richer place at the same time. Give him a read if you're looking for a chance to daydream about city that exists on the fringes of myth to begin with.

See what Delta can do

In January of '09 a couple of people started a conversation in my comments section about pull out sprayers. In the course of that exchange, the great Laurie Burke from Kitchen Design Notes brought up Delta's new MagnaTite™ docking system for pull outs. That little pearl of wisdom led to my post on 16 January, MagnaTite Docking from Delta. I pride myself on being up on the latest and greatest innovations in my industry, but I have to say that the MagnaTite™ system caught me by surprise.

I dug around a bit and as I was writing that original post everything I read and learned led me to the conclusion that Delta was really onto something. I was impressed then and I remain impressed now. It's a great idea and I can't believe no one's ever thought of this before. Kudos to Delta for being the first.

One of Delta's models, the Pilar, is a particularly well-designed faucet and it features the MagnaTite™ system. The Pilar also features Delta's Touch2O™ technology, and that's another triumph for Delta. I'll write more about Delta's Touch2O™ on Monday.

For now though, the Pilar is all I want to write about. I'm really struck by this faucet. I mean, look at it. It's really beautiful and elegant. Ordinarily, I'm all about Kohler if I'm in this price point, but the Pilar is making me re-think that single handedly

Clearly, I'm not alone in this appreciation of Delta's Pilar. In the last month and a half, Delta has won two industry awards for it and the Pilar deserves every accolade it gets.

The first is an MVP from Building Products Magazine. Delta's MVP was one of 21 products honored across eight categories relating to home construction and renovation. The second award is a 2009 Stevie^® in the “New Product or Service of the Year – Manufacturing” category at the 7th annual American Business Awards^sm, held in June 22. These awards add two more voices who have joined the chorus of praise for the Pilar. Keep it up Delta, keep up the good work.

By now, I'm sure you've seen this new TV spot from Delta introducing their Touch2O™ technology. Tune in Monday and I'll explain what it is, how it works and why it's so cool. Oh and by the way, that's a Pilar in action in this ad.