An Anniversary, An Award and Kiwi Gelato to Celebrate

Today, my blog reached a small milestone–it’s my three month anniversary.  I feel like a newlywed, looking for a reason to celebrate each minor event.  These three short months as a food-blogger have taught me much, you see.

• Blogging – My background is in numbers–Accounting, Finance, Investments.  I have zero web-based skills and was intimidated by the thought of starting my own page.  Enter WordPress and its user-friendly platform…Voila!  Jean’s a blogger.  Quickly, however, I saw the limitations of free web-hosting so I’ve acquired the right to use my domain name but I’m still working on the rest.  This is huge for me, but I choose to see the positive.  Three months ago I didn’t even know I could do this myself and here it is.
• Photography – For the first few posts I used a hand-me-down point-and-shoot from my husband.  I finally learned to use it and was so happy.   However, he quickly saw the difference between my pictures and those on Tastespotting and Foodgawker.  I was blind, you know.  I thought my early pictures were fine.  Don’t laugh, but I was delusional.  My sweet husband took pity on me and upgraded my equipment.  And you know what?  I was so intimidated about using my new camera that I didn’t touch it for two weeks!  I still have a lot of trouble taking consistently decent shots but I’m learning and having fun doing it.  Since my kitchen (I’ve discovered) doesn’t provide adequate natural lighting when I’m ready to take pictures, I’ve had to set up a little photo station.  I’m also developing a new appreciation for the different settings around my home that could help improve overall quality.  The resident photographer just has to learn to take advantage of them.  Again, progress has been made, no matter how small.  Reason #2 to be happy.  Update: I just re-read this post and it sounded like I was implying the inferiority of point-and-shoots.  Gosh, not at all.  I’m still really attached to mine.  I just didn’t have the heart to tell my husband that it’s probably more the photographer that needed to be upgraded than the camera!  Like Lance says, “It’s not about the bike”, right?

• Friends – Perhaps the best thing that’s happened so far is that I’ve been able to connect with so many nice people who share the same passion for food.  You quickly welcomed me and made me feel part of a community and it feels so good!  I still admire your work and your consistently beautiful and delicious offerings always inspire awe.  It makes me feel like a food-blogging impostor to be associated with you, but I appreciate it so much!  Thanks for the little doses of joy you bestow upon my day when you stop by for a visit.

To make this day even more grand, I received my second award from The Cilantropist:  The Beautiful Blogger Award.  I’ve had to visit her site even more than usual to make sure I didn’t get the award thing all wrong.  I can’t say enough how flattered I am that she thought of me, but I want to dedicate an entire post for the award as I am supposed to pass it on to others and give you random tidbits about myself.  I have to think about that, hmm.

Finally, I celebrate with this Kiwi gelato.  I hope you haven’t grown tired of all the “firsts” I’ve been posting lately, but they do represent a big part of why I started this blog–to make a dent on my extremely long Recipes-to-Try list.  This recipe is a fitting one to mark this occasion for I’ve been wanting to make my own ice cream for quite a while.  It was surprisingly easy!

The recipe I used came from Torrance Kopfer’s Making Artisan Gelato.  There wasn’t a recipe for kiwi gelato so I used his instructions for making the strawberry variety.  My first impression was positive:  The texture was consistent with the softer, denser gelati that I loved so much in Italy, particularly one in Florence (The serving pictured looks firmer because it’s sat in the freezer). This also tasted like kiwi and not sugar or cream, another good thing.  In many respects, the recipe was a success and I rate this gelato an 8/10 overall.

The drawback was my fault entirely.  In my excitement to make this, I failed to account for the consequences of pureeing the seeds.  There was a slight bitter aftertaste to the gelato–it wasn’t that bad but I wouldn’t feel confident serving it to company either.  I think I should have mashed the kiwi instead of using a food processor.  For this reason, I’ll wait to post the recipe if you don’t mind, but if you must have it, just let me know and I’ll update this post.  If you have suggestions, please comment away.

Thanks for reading this lengthy post.  I just wanted to express my appreciation for the little things in life that surprise by paying dividends in ways that truly matter.