Form Without Function

According to Wikipedia : Form follows function is a principle associated with modern architecture and industrial design in the 20th Century, which states that the shape of a building or object should be predicated by or based upon its intended function or purpose.

This means that the function should be the primary concern of anyone designing stuff. I don't know that they still teach that in design school. I've gotten some things that looked really nice, but worked about as well as icicles would as hammers.

Most recently, for the wedding we bought a glass, 5 gallon beverage container at Costco. It had a greenish tint to it, lovely embossed grape leaves, and a spigot at the bottom for dispensing beverages. Since one of the first things we decided for the wedding was basil lemonade, we were thrilled to find this perfect container.

It wasn't until after the wedding that we learned something about this container. Since the spigot was located about 1/4 of the way up the side, the last 1/4 of the lemonade couldn't come out unless you tilted this large glass container, and balanced it while holding your cup under the spigot and turning the spigot. Oh, yeah, that's something every wedding guest is going to do.

The person responsible for refilling the container kept checking and seeing that there was still lemonade left. So it didn't get refilled more than a couple of times. Which left me with about 5 gallons of basil syrup and 3 gallons of freshly squeezed lemon juice on hand. Dang, that was a lot of lemons to juice! My wrist still hurts just thinking about it. So, I am certainly not about to just chuck all this out. We're making basil lemonade by the gallon, and I'm flagging every lemon recipe that comes my way.

One of the first that leapt out at me was from the a recent Taste of Home magazine. Lemon Gelato - mmm, just the words sound cool, rich, soothing. Just what I need! And unlike certain other things, this recipe worked beautifully, delivering on the promise of a refreshing summer dessert with an intense lemon flavor. My husband said it was like lemon meringue pie without the crust. A winner!

Lemon Gelato
- adapted from Taste of Home, recipe by Gail Wang

1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
5 egg yolks, beaten
3 Tbsp grated lemon zest
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 cups heavy whipping cream

Place the egg yolks in a medium, heatproof bowl on the counter next to the stove. Place it on a rubber glove to keep it from dancing away while you whisk in the hot milk.

Place the lemon juice into a medium bowl and prepare a larger bowl to be an ice bath for the medium bowl. Place a sieve over the lemon juice bowl.

In a small, heavy saucepan, combine the milk and sugar, and place over medium heat. Stir in sugar until dissolved and heat to 175 deg. F. Pour the heated milk in a thin stream into the egg yolks, whisking the yolks the whole time. Return the mixture to the pan. Add the lemon zest. Cook and stir over low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until mixture coats the spatula and, if you run your finger across the spatula, it leaves a trail.

Remove from heat. Pour through the sieve into the lemon juice. Stir. Place the bowl into the larger bowl of ice water; stir for 2 minutes. Stir in the cream. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Freeze in ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Place in storage container and put in the freezer for 2 to 4 hours before serving to harden.

Makes 1-1/2 quarts.



PS - Costco has a really good return policy. When my husband took in the beverage container the guy at the counter looked at it and said, "Oh, you don't need to tell me." I guess we weren't the only ones.