Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream

A couple of months ago Anita posed the question, “What is your favorite smell?” Being the food obsessed person that I am, my first response was sauteed onions and garlic. Upon further reflection, I remembered that non-food smells do exist, and I told her about my love for the smell of sawdust, musty basements and grapefruit (I know that grapefruit is a food, but just work with me here…). I assumed that this was just a normal one of our conversations, but my sneaky roommate had something up her sleeve. After returning from a weekend trip home, she presented me with a bottle of some of the most delicious smelling body wash my nose has ever had the pleasure of meeting. Apparently her hometown of Columbia, Missouri has this incredible little store called Makes Scents, where you can create different scents for body wash, hand soaps, perfume, etc. Being the wonderful friend that she is, Anita had tucked my favorite scents away in her mind, and during her trip home, created a cedar and grapefruit scented body wash for me!

my cedar and grapefruit scented body wash (creatively named after my hometown)

Being presented with this unexpected gift got me thinking…why do we like the smells we like? I mean, no one really wants to go around bragging that they love the smell of musty basement or skunk (ahem…mom…), but that doesn’t change the fact we inhale a little deeper when we’re around those smells. I find it interesting that not only can smells have a pretty pleasurable effect on our mood, they can also jog our memory. I remember being in a ballet class one time, and all of a sudden having a hundred memories from high school rush back to me. It turned out that the girl I was dancing next to used a shampoo that had the same scent as the perfume I wore in high school.

Okay, a lot of you might be thinking, “Where is she going with all of this?” Don’t worry faithful readers, I promise this discussion is leading to a recipe…but first, back to the story!

With all of these thoughts in the back of my mind, I started asking my friends about their favorite smells. A lot of people (particularly those who enjoy cooking) mentioned that they shared a love for garlic and onions. I also heard a lot of responses that included fresh cut grass, gasoline and lavender. Interestingly, many of the men I asked responded with clove or pumpkin spice. To be honest, I mean I enjoy the sent of pumpkin pie, but it’s definitely not my favorite. So, a little perplexed by this common thread, I typed “pumpkin spice men’s favorite scent” into trusty google, and sure enough the first link that popped up was to an article that described the scents that men and women find most attractive. In the article it explained that the Smell and Taste Research Foundation in Chicago recently conducted a study that determined a lavender and pumpkin spice combination was found to be the most attractive scent in the male population with “normal olfactory ability” (I guess it makes scents…I mean sense…that they would have to exclude those who can’t smell…). So there ya go ladies. Start dabbing yourself with lavender and pumpkin spice as part of your morning routine…or better yet you can just make today’s recipe and serve it to any man with whom you’ve decided you wouldn’t mind getting on a first name basis (yay for the new harry potter this thursday!!!).

Okay. Phew! You made it to the recipe. Just as a heads up, while Anita and I would love to claim creative genius for this recipe, it actually comes from our adopter, Stephanie’s blog: Desserts for Breakfast. Warning, you will need an ice cream machine for this recipe…or you could try it this way.

What you need (makes about 10 large scoops):

• 7 oz of cream cheese
• 5-6 tbs of pumpkin puree (I was lazy and used the canned stuff, but fresh works too!)
• 1 cup of sour cream
• 1/2 cup of half and half
• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1 tsp of nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp of allspice
• 1/4 tsp of ground clove
• a pinch of salt

What you need to do:

1. Add all of the ingredients to your handy-dandy food processor, and blend until smooth (we noticed that you need to look out for clumps of cream cheese that refuse to be blended).
2. Place mixture in the fridge and chill (we left ours in overnight…mostly because we were being lazy).
3. Add the mixture to your ice cream maker (make sure you chilled the bowl beforehand!) and let it sit for about 30 minutes.
4. The finished product will be the consistency of soft serve ice cream, so we put it back in the freezer for another couple hours before serving.
5. Enjoy!

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