seriously, this was inspired by my sailboat. ok, not when it was sailing in beautiful aquamarine water, but when i was hanging upside down in the lazarette (cockpit storage locker) trying to align the new diesel engine. in 2004 we rebuilt our boat (thanks hurricane charlie!). it was hot, stinking hot. working on a boat isn’t like other renovations because everything you need to do must be done when you’re twisted up like a pretzel and hanging upside down. seriously, if you want to know what it’s like, crawl under your bathroom sink, close the vanity doors so that you have no light, then attempt to replace the elbow joint. oh so much fun. i love when people ask me, “what do you do all day, just sit around?”

back to the rebuild. we spent 10 hours a day twisting like pretzels in 33degrees. the worst job was the engine alignment, words cannot express how truly icky that job was. as the sweat ran down my back i would fantasize, ummmm…. chunky monkey….. cherry garcia…. vanilla caramel fudge… up until this point i was a so-so fan of ice cream. but now, when the sun set and the work day ended it may have been miller time for others, but me, i was headed for the supermarket for a pint of iced happiness.

one of my favourites continues to be butterscotch ripples, or pralines and creams, or caramel ribbons. delicious brown sweetness in a smooth milky base.