La Fiesta de los Vaqueros - Tucson Rodeo!

Cool shot, huh? Awesome time at the Tucson Rodeo on Sunday! It can be a long day in the Arizona sun, so here's what I learned and what I need to do for next year.

1. You don't need to be there when it starts at 12:30. Get there for the ProRodeo Competition which starts at 2:00 and lasts about two-and-a-half hours, which is plenty of time in the sun :) Also obviously be mindful of the age of your children and their attention span :)

2. Bring sunblock. You can also buy a cowboy hat there or across the streeet. Prices start at $10 and go up to $200.

3. There is a lot of great junk food there including funnel cakes and ice cream and kettle corn. OR, you can bring food in, but not in a hard cooler. We had a soft cooler with food/drinks and it was no problem to bring in.

4. Give yourself time to walk around the rodeo also; lots of cool booths with lots of cool cowboy stuff. They stay open after the rodeo, so you have time afterwards also.

5. If driving down from Phoenix, stop off at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch. You can spend 20-45 minutes there easily. Ostriches bite and are nasty. Don't hold your hands up high to feed them. Hold them low and bring them up slowly until the Ostrich can reach your hand. Better yet, feed the deer.

6. Get tickets online or over the phone, far ahead of time. They sell out. Try to sit in a row as close to the field as possible, and definitely sit in section B or A. Not that our tickets in section C were bad (as you can see by my photo above), but the roping activities happen from the chutes between sections A and F (see the graphic on the left). Also, the sun will be at your back if you are in sections C, B, A, and in your face in Sections E and F. I'd recommend the lowest row you can get in Sections B or A, and lower numbers are more south, so a high seat number in section A or low seat number in section B is ideal.

7. It's definitely a kid friendly event and a lot of fun. Kids under 3 were free, but next year I'd either still buy a seat to have the extra room, AND/OR bring seat cushions because they are metal bleachers.

Last thing: When the bareback riding started, Aaron asked "Why are they doing bull riding on horses?!?!" That was a particularly cool event, as was the Saddle Bronc riding (picture above of the winner, Billy Etbauer). The Tie-Down and Team roping was also really great fun to watch...

You can see more of my photos from the event here: http://picasaweb.google.com/david.pinkus/TucsonRodeo2008

Pareve Chocolate Ice Cream Experiment

It's in the ice-cream maker now...taking longer than usual to firm up...

Here's what I did:

Non-Dairy Vegan Chocolate Ice-Cream
1 lb. soft tofu, drained (what I bought was 14 oz.)
1 C sugar (oh sweet yummy sugar, twice as expensive domestically because of trade tariffs).
1 C plain soy milk (we'll add vanilla in a second)
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's, because Scharffen Berger I reserve for gelato)
1 T Vanilla extract
Pinch of Salt
Optional: Some Godiva liquor. It's pareve, but I don't know if it is vegan. Probably.

Why the liquour? Because alcohol has a much lower freezing temperature than water, so if you want to be able to scoop this ice-cream after you throw it in the freezer, you need to ensure it has some fat and sugar and alcohol in it. Otherwise it will be rock-hard in the freezer. Tofu and soy milk are mostly water, so anything you can do to help the scoopability will be good.

1. In my kick-butt Vitamix, blend them all together. Let it go for a while until they blend nicely. But not too long, or it will start to warm up (which just means it will take more time to cool).
2. Pour into ice-cream maker. Relax and wait. Grab a spoon. Periodically scoop some up the side and say "Yummmm"... When it's almost done, throw some chocolate chips in there if you're feeling saucy.

My favorite food....

I don't think that I've mentioned it before, but for the record, ice cream is my favorite food. I 'll even go as far as to say that I believe one of the secrets to a happy life is to eat ice cream every day. You can substitute other frozen treats for the once-a-day thing, but whenever possible, go for the real stuff.

And I learned something very important tonight, from this blog, which is that the reason some ice-creams freeze rock-hard in your freezer and others do not, is that fats and sugar don't freeze. So the cinnamon ice-cream I made last night, which turned out to be incredibly scoopable, was because the recipe had an abundance of cream and sugar in it. Not to mention some eggs as well. The strawberry ice-cream I made last week, which was great while it was in the machine, is now un-scoopable because the fruit (high water content) freezes solid. The way to manage that (as the above blog points out) is to add some liquor to your ice-cream; not enough to affect the taste, but enough to keep it slightly softer. I'll try it next time I make a batch (no doubt this week).

I also made chocolate gelato using Scharffen Berger Cocoa Powder ($8.25 a can at Safeway) and it was outstanding. Like wow! It was still somewhat scoopable while frozen, but it didnt' last long; it was too good.

Simple Strawberry Ice Cream
4 cups hulled strawberries
1/2 C confectioners' sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 1/4 C whipping cream

Puree strawberries in a blender or food processor until smooth, then add sugar and lemon juice and process again. Press puree through a sieve into a bowl. Chill until very cold. Add to ice-cream maker and churn until think, then add the cream and churn until thick enough to scoop. Next time I would add some liquor at this point to make sure it doesn't freeze too hard (unless we're going to eat the whole thing at this point).


Banana Gelato (pareve, but check the soy milk).
1/2 C sugar
2/3 C water
1 lemon
3 ripe bananas
1 1/4 C vanilla-flavored soy milk

Put sugar and water into a saucepan and bring to a boil; stirring until sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool. Put the bananas in a bowl and mash with a fork (next time I'll Vitamix it). Slowly add lemon juice (again, next time in the Vitamix). Stir the sugar syrup and banana mixture into ice-cream machine and start mixing with soy milk (next time I'll add it all into the Vitamix, along perhaps with a banana liquor because this recipe also froze like a rock). Also, you can use 1/2 lemon instead of a full one. If using unflavored soy milk, don't forget to add 1 t of vanilla extract.