Last week, two good friends of mine had a baby each, a girl and a boy. With such amazing parents as I have come to know them, these new creatures can’t not be primed for great things. They will have amazing taste in music, will be educated in great literature, and will both be progressive feminists.

So I am eating Snapea Crisps and drinking rose perhaps a little too early in the day and my mind is swirling around thoughts of having babies and getting married and being one of the few who remains of the Old Guard. And by ‘Old Guard’, I mean single and childless, but more importantly, very happy to be single and childless with no inclination to change either of those things anytime soon. I see everyone I know gradually pairing off and then eventually getting pregnant and conversations soon drift towards and stay unswervingly on kid-related matters and couples start only scheduling events and activities with other couples or play dates with the kids. All around you, people are changing and you are not. They are moving away from you and you are standing still.

So I am learning to gently cup every treasured relationship in the palm of my hands and, when I must, to gently let them go when as they begin to drift away. Their priorities are not your priorities. Yours are to have enough sleep, a glass of wine every night, and a good book. To make good food and eat good food. To challenge yourself in small ways if you can’t quite yet bring yourself to face larger ones.

Today’s soundtrack is: Anais Mitchell’s Hadestown, which is a concept album that tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice via a folk opera featuring notable musicians such as Ani DiFranco, Justin Vernon (lead singer of Bon Iver), and Greg Brown.  Just a taste of how lovely this album is:

Today’s summer feat is a barely adapted homemade sweet corn ice cream recipe from the New York Times that is punched up with a tart raspberry swirl. I found the end result to be a sweet, summery treat with a light corn flavor but the ice cream itself was pretty mild and had a somewhat starchy mouthfeel. The raspberry really adds a great dimension, making this ice cream really sing.

Corn kernels and cobs are infused in a mixture of cream and whole milk. The cobs are removed while the kernels are pureed, simmered, and eventually turned into a custard that forms the base of this ice cream.

The corn custard gets strained through a fine mesh sieve for a smooth consistency, and the remaining cream mixture is thoroughly chilled in the fridge for at least four hours. After that, pour the mixture into your ice cream maker, follow your ice cream maker’s instructions, etcetera, you know how these ice cream recipes end.

My raspberry sauce was made by simply cooking down a pint of raspberries, a little lemon juice, and a 1/8 cup of granulated sugar. I then strained the mixture through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds and put the sauce in the fridge to chill for a few hours.

To get my raspberry swirl, I poured my ice cream from my ice cream maker into a storage container that is more shallow than deep and poured my raspberry sauce on top. I then took a butter knife and cut swirls into the ice cream. I do not have a very elegant hand in doing this.

Put the whole thing into the freezer and let it freeze overnight or so.