Unique Serving Platter

My cousin loves gadgets. I have never seen anyone who buys more worthless inventions than he does. It seems like every time a new kitchen appliance comes out, he is the first one in line. He must watch the home shopping channel all night! I bet he has learned to replace sleep with infomercials.

His latest toy is a hot chocolate maker that he ordered online. Now both of us love hot chocolate. We have been trading recipes for hot chocolate back and forth for years. We have made chocolate the traditional Western way, we have made it like the Aztecs did – pepper and no sugar – and have even invented original chocolate recipes that no one else has ever thought of. We love mocha lattes, chocolate covered espresso beans and all other things chocolate. Therefore, when he got a hot chocolate maker, I thought that there might be something to it. Could hot chocolate makers really make better hot chocolate? Would they be able to somehow steam the milk better or keep the temperature just right? I wouldn’t have been the first one to buy a hot chocolate maker, but now that he had it, I was a bit curious.

Let me tell you, the hot chocolate maker was a complete disappointment. Don’t get me wrong – if you have no idea how to make hot chocolate, hot chocolate makers can help. They keep the chocolate moving around, preventing it from sticking to the bottom. Nonetheless, if you are an experience chocolate connoisseur like myself and not someone who just throws in a mix, there really is no point. A hot chocolate maker, like a rice cooker, is just another useless toy for amateurs who don’t know how to cook. I think it is always better to learn how to do things the right way than to buy some new gadget to do them for you.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some gadgets that are great. For example, I’ve always found that espresso comes out better when made with an espresso maker. And just try steaming milk without a steamer – it is almost impossible. Nonetheless, having too many gadgets takes all the fun out of cooking. In my opinion, you should be able to do almost everything with a few simple tools. You don’t need a hot chocolate maker. All you need to make hot chocolate is a measuring cup, a whisk, a ladle and a pot.

There are so many ways in which we recall the events in our life. People talk about having a good memory or a poor memory or as some older people may phrase it “a head for recalling things”. I find that I use all of my senses to bring back events. The bigger the event the more triggers there are to recall it.

When I was a child summer was a magical time. It seemed to last forever and there were so many things to do. We lived in a small farming community. Each month of the summer seemed to have a special celebration that marked the passing of the days. To recall many of the events I simply have to see ice cream cones and the long days of summers of a simpler time of life can be relived. While I was growing up I did not realize the number of occasions that featured ice cream cones as part of the celebrations. Now reflecting back I realize that the big round tubs of ice cream and stacks of cones were part of all the church celebrations. Also whenever we were rewarded for a job well done, we were taken on a drive to the Dairy Queen to have ice cream cones.

My father especially liked ice cream. When I was growing up there were not the multitude of flavors that are available today, although that would not have made any difference to my dad anyway because he usually picked vanilla ice cream. On a rare occasion if he was feeling especially daring he would pick maple nut. Every year on Father’s Day mom would dig out the old ice cream freezer and would make the recipe for ice cream. The batter was poured in the maker and it was sealed then ice and salt would be placed around the cylinder and we would all take turns cranking the churn until the ice cream was formed. Mom would then make us ice cream cones and we would sit outside and have our dessert before supper, no wonder summer seemed like it was magical.

Today I can recall these happy times of sitting in my parents yard, visiting with relatives, playing softball and relaxing in the sunshine, just by walking past an ice cream parlor. These memories are also triggered when I see others eating ice cream cones or when I see cans of Hershey’s syrup. There are other smells, tastes and sights that recall family memories for me, but the happiest seem to center around ice cream cones.