The Ice Cream Party

Here is a bit of conversation from work today, held over lunch. We had been discussing homemade ice cream. Personally, I like to pour espresso on a bowl of plain vanilla ice cream. But the conversation takes it's usual strange turn, as it does when you work in IT:

Me: Yep, just regular vanilla with a shot of espresso poured over it.

Boss: I love rootbeer extract mixed in with vanilla ice cream. My kids love it.

Coworker1: You know, I actually bought a blender attachment that goes on a drill.

Me: Wow, I bet you could make a lot of mixed drinks with that. (pause)

Coworker1: Well, I figured I could get some cream, fruit, and some liquid nitrogen and whip up some ice cream pretty quick. (everyone else nodding in general agreement) It's just that once you use the liquid nitrogen, you can't really put the ice cream in a regular blender, or mix it by hand or anything.

Me: Oh. Right.

The conversation continued with everyone talking about their favorite local supplier of liquid nitrogen, and their favorite containers for transporting it. Then,

Coworker1: This sounds like the makings of a good department outing. An ice cream party? We can all bring our favorite fruit!

Me: And I'll bring my camera.

Boss: I bet I could get permission to do it right here in the cafeteria...

Coworker2: I doubt it.

Boss: (indignantly) I can easily get permission to hold an ice cream party. I just won't mention that we're making it ourselves.

And so, probably before the end of the summer, this idea may well come into being. I will, as I said, bring my camera and do my best to explain how it actually works. I'm sure you will all want to try it out yourselves.