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Ice cream maker

Amanda is allergic to dairy, which is a problem for buying ice cream.  It doesn't interfere with finding delicious ice cream---that is readily available in all sorts of flavors (Amanda likes Salted Caramel made with coconut milk, for example).  But dairy free ice cream is really tremendously expensive, especially in comparison with the regular ice cream we only buy if it is on a "buy 2 get 3 free" sale.  So Amanda's ice cream is about 3 times as expensive as the dairy ice cream, and comes in little tiny containers that have only 3 servings in them to start.  Very inconvenient.

This means that Michael and I were talking about buying an ice cream maker, to cut down on expense, make more flavors, and increase convenience.  After discussing the relative merits of compressor vs. freezer chilled makers, we decided to put off the purchase.

A while later we were chatting in the car about liquid nitrogen. Michael explained about the container for carrying liquid nitrogen, how it worked, and what we could do with it.  I asked him how much the container would cost and it turned out to cost about the same as the high quality ice cream maker we were looking at.  My mind immediately jumped to the idea of making ice cream for Amanda with liquid nitrogen: it's supposed to be very creamy, very fast ice cream.  Much better either than a crank machine or buying tiny but expensive containers every week or two.

The main problem with this liquid nitrogen ice cream scheme: it wouldn't actually be more convenient than buying little containers.  But it would definitely be more awesome.  And it says something about our family, I think, that the advantages of buying a regular supply of liquid nitrogen compare favorably with the advantages of owning an ice cream maker.

We haven't decided yet.  I'll let you know...

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