Ice Cream 101

"Rubber bands come in different sizes and different colors and different shapes, but they all worked on the same principle: they must be stretched to be effective. Like rubber bands, our personalities, talents, and gifts are different; we're also not effective unless we are stretched." - John C. Maxwell

STRESSED? How does one respond to stress? Some will go into the "I SCREAM" mood. Me, I go into my SING mood. One song I like is "Hey Jude!" by the Beattles. It goes like this, Hey Jude, don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better. Remember to let her under your skin. Then you begin to make it better, better, better, Better, Better, BETTER, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...! Written by Paul McCartney, it was originally written to comfort John Lennon's son during his parents' divorce (source: wikipedia).

..

But if you want to know how Americans cope with stress, try spelling "stressed" backward. Yes, it reads, DESSERTS. Most Americans like their desserts, especially chocolates, cakes, cookies, and of course, ice-cream! Last month, my wife took an Ice Cream 101 course conducted by the Penn State Creamery. The introductory course is designed to provide anyone interested in ice cream with the basics of ice cream composition, formulation and processing. The course focuses on the small-scale manufacturing of frozen desserts.

Participants of the course include ice cream lovers, entrepreneurs, and small-business owners with little or no ice cream manufacturing experience. Many of the participants have interest in starting their own ice cream parlor. The two-day course, which costs US$ 580, includes a combination of both lecture and demonstrations plus a number of tasting sessions. However, my wife thought the course would have been more beneficial if hands-on sessions were incorporated.

Penn State has the largest university creamery in the US. Started in 1889, it has a long list of alumni - the most well known would be Ben and Jerry, who learnt how to make ice cream through its correspondence course in 1978, months before they opened their first Ben & Jerry's ice cream parlor in Vermont.