First watermelon of the season from hubby’s garden. He is one proud papa!

Soon it will be picnic time.

I love Sample Days. Little bits of chips and locally-made salsa, strawberry shortcake, herbal tea, breads, muffins and other such goodies available in little white paper cups, ready to sip and nibble on in a drive-by fashion. A quick “Thanks!” and “Um, so yummy!” and I’m on to the next sample station, in the guise of grocery shopping. Usually I manage to keep myself honest and visit any given station only once. It has happened, however, that I return to a station for an encore. Very yummy. (Ahem.)

I’ve found myself circling a store more than once to return to the Vitamix sample and demonstration station. Oh, boy, this is fun! Not only do I get to taste the goodies, but I get to see them created right before my eyes. It’s magic in the making in literally a few minutes. Soups. Sauces. Ice cream. Yes, ice cream. Even a vegetarian version of ice cream. And if I leave out the dry milk, I can have a vegan version of ice cream.

The Vitamix sample that day? Chocolate ice cream. So creamy, so yummy, so chocolate-y. I wanted to make some. (I already have a Vitamix blender, having been ensnared by its tractor beam on Sample Day a few years back.) I asked the demonstrator if the ice cream was from the recipe in the Vitamix cookbook. “Almost,” he said, “I’ve made just a few changes of my own. My recipe is posted here on the side. Feel free to take a photo.”

And take a photo of the recipe I did! I circled around the store yet one more time, looking at the camera display and gathering up the ingredients for my vegan Vitamix ice cream. I get home, put away the groceries and then set up my Vitamix.

I had made one of the Vitamix ice cream recipes before and was amazed at how almost-frozen it was after just a few minutes. It was thick and creamy and yummy. I must have done something wrong with this chocolate vegan ice cream recipe because it wasn’t almost-frozen and it wasn’t so creamy. I put in more ice cubes and gave it another whirl. That made it colder, but still not what I was expecting. Now it was like a pudding. There’s only so much you can do to fiddle with a recipe like this when trying to get it to turn out . I decided my best bet was to take what I had and hope for better luck next time.

So I pour the chocolate almost ice cream out of the blender and taste it. Pretty good, but not as good as what the demonstrator made in the store. (Which is, by the way, normal for me. My versions are usually noticeably different.) I dole some out in a bowl and have it for dessert, my very own sort of chocolate pudding ice cream. There was quite a bit left over, as the recipe sure made a lot. It was probably the full recipe for the store samples. I put it in the freezer.

After I get home from work the next day, I decided I wanted more chocolate pudding ice cream. I take it out of the freezer. It is as hard as a rock. What was I expecting? I was expecting it to be ice cream, only it’s not ice cream and it never was ice cream and now I’m realizing it will not behave like ice cream. Thunk, thunk was the sound my spoon made when I tapped the not-ice cream.

I thaw it out, turning it into a watery substance because what little texture it previously had came from the ice cubes which then froze hard in the freezer and are now melted. This chocolate concoction has gone from almost ice cream to pudding to soup. And there’s so much of it, I’m hardly making a dent in the quantity with what little I’ve eaten with two meals.

I put the remainder in the refrigerator. The following day I discover the ingredients have separated and it’s not even chocolate soup anymore. I decided it was time to set it free, as in dump it out. I’ll hope for better luck next time.