The twenty year anniversary of my father’s death came and went a couple of weeks ago. He has come to my mind at least once a day for the last twenty years but marking the date caused me to talk about him more than usual. In telling my sons a few fun facts about the grandfather they will never meet (in this life) the subject of ice cream came up. My youngest son, Nathaniel, upon hearing my dad’s favorite ice cream was rum raisin, became fascinated with this fact. He also knows I never saw my father take a drink of alcohol so Nathaniel was a little perplexed about the rum raisin situation. I tried to reassure him the amount of alcohol in rum raisin ice cream is pretty negligible but it made for an interesting conversation.
The recent dairy-free Pineapple Coconut Ice Cream recipe went over well (surprise!) so I thought taking on homemade rum raisin ice cream might be a possibility. This time I’m using milk and cream in an effort to recreate my father’s favorite ice cream flavor. It is sweetened only with raisins and maple syrup and has lots of nutritious egg yolks. The taste is exceptionally creamy and our family loved it. We even fought over the ice cream a little but I took that as a positive sign of a delicious result!
This post should probably be titled “Pineapple Coconut Ice Cream and Perfectionism.” It’s been a while since my last post and I’ve been pondering why I have been so slack. It IS summer and we DO have a lot going on. But I realize the other major reason is I am letting my tendency to perfectionism take over. This is not a good thing.
Perfectionism does not mean everything one does is perfect. Far from it! Having a streak of “perfectionism” means, among other things, the tendency to be highly critical of oneself and to set standards impossibly high. I want my posts to be relevant and useful in some way. But recently I have gotten into a mode of avoiding making a post if I not able to do it “perfectly”.
It can become a crippling habit!
Take this recipe of Pineapple Coconut Ice Cream for example.
I have tested it a few times and each time it has turned out delicious – as verified by my ice cream connoisseur husband, G. I have wanted to share the recipe with all of you because it is a great dairy-free, lower sugar alternative to “normal” ice cream. But I have delayed in posting it. Why? Because I have been doubting my ability to photograph it properly!
How silly is that?!
I could lay some of the blame at the feet of Pinterest with all its amazing food photography. But the truth is it is my own issue born out of a tendency to be perfectionistic when I have high expectations of myself.
Making recipes is fun and so is taking photos and I want to keep it that way. I plan to continue working on my photography and let my perfectionism drive me to improve. But I am resolving to chill out a bit more, stop comparing myself to others and be happy with the best I am able to do right now.
Enough with my personal angst. Now on with the recipe. 🙂