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Lesson of The Week- 

Quote of the Day:

"Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone."

    --Jim Fiebig

 See you all next week!    Smile, laugh and enjoy your life and learning!

 Aloha- Do you know anyone who doesn't like ice cream?  I mean really can't stand it?  I don't.  Sure some flavors are better than others but I think everyone can find some kind of ice cream that they like.  I used to make home made ice cream many years ago and it was sooooo good.  I'm thinking about starting up again and that's why I though it would be fun to talk a little about ice cream.  It make everyone happy!

Theme: Ice Cream

 A Brief History of Ice Cream

In 400 BC, Persians invented a special chilled pudding-like dish, made of rose water and vermicelli which was served to royalty during summers.  The ice was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavours. The treat, widely made in Iran today, is called "faloodeh", and is made from starch (usually wheat), spun in a sieve-like machine which produces threads or drops of the batter, which are boiled in water. The mix is then frozen, and mixed with rose water and lemons, before serving. Ancient Persians mastered the technique of storing ice inside giant naturally-cooled refrigerators known as yakhchals. These structures kept ice brought in from the winter, or from nearby mountains, well into the summer. They worked by using tall windcatchers that kept the sub-level storage space at frigid temperatures.

Ancient civilizations have served ice for cold foods for thousands of years. The BBC reports that a frozen mixture of milk and rice was used in China around 200 BC. The Roman Emperor Nero (37–68) had ice brought from the mountains and combined with fruit toppings. These were some early chilled delicacies.

Ice cream was the favorite dessert for the Caliphs of Baghdad. Arabs were the first to use milk as a major ingredient in its production, sweeten the ice cream with sugar rather than fruit juices, as well as perfect ways for its commercial production. As early as the 10th century, ice cream was widespread amongst many of the Arab world's major cities, such as Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo. Their version of ice cream was produced from milk or cream and often some yoghurt similar to Ancient Greek recipes, flavoured with rosewater as well as dried fruits and nuts. It is believed that this was based on older Ancient Arab, Mesopotamian, Greek or Roman recipes, which were probably the first and precursors to Persian faloodeh.

In 62 AD, the Roman emperor Nero sent slaves to the Apennine mountains to collect snow to be flavoured with honey and nuts.

Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat asserts in her History of Food, "the Chinese may be credited with inventing a device to make sorbets and ice cream. They poured a mixture of snow and saltpetre over the exteriors of containers filled with syrup, for, in the same way as salt raises the boiling-point of water, it lowers the freezing-point to below zero."  (Toussaint does not provide historical documentation for this.) Some distorted accounts claim that in the age of Emperor Yingzong, Song Dynasty (960-1279) of China, a poem named "詠冰酪" (literally Ode to the ice cheese) was written by the poet Yang Wanli. Actually, this poem was named "詠酥” (literally Ode to the pastry, 酥 is a kind of food like pastry in the western world) and has nothing to do with ice cream. It has also been claimed that, in the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan enjoyed ice cream and kept it a royal secret until Marco Polo visited China and took the technique of making ice cream to Italy. However, others have argued that the Chinese didn't drink milk during that period, whereas the Italians had arguably been making something resembling ice cream before Marco Polo returned to Italy. In any case, no known ice cream recipes appear to stem from ancient Chinese sources.

In the sixteenth century, the Mughal emperors used relays of horsemen to bring ice from the Hindu Kush to Delhi, where it was used in fruit sorbets.

When Italian duchess Catherine de' Medici married the duc d’Orléans in 1533, she is said to have brought with her Italian chefs who had recipes for flavoured ices or sorbets, and introduced them in France. 

 One hundred years later, Charles I of England was supposedly so impressed by the "frozen snow", he offered his own ice cream maker a lifetime pension in return for keeping the formula secret, so ice cream could be a royal prerogative.[11] There is, however, no historical evidence to support these legends, which first appeared during the 19th century.

The first recipe for flavoured ices in French appears in 1674, in Nicholas Lemery’s Recueil de curiositéz rares et nouvelles de plus admirables effets de la nature.  Recipes for sorbetti saw publication in the 1694 edition of Antonio Latini's Lo Scalco alla Moderna (The Modern Steward).  Recipes for flavoured ices begin to appear in François Massialot's Nouvelle Instruction pour les Confitures, les Liqueurs, et les Fruits starting with the 1692 edition. Massialot's recipes result in a coarse, pebbly texture. However, Latini claims that the results of his recipes should have the fine consistency of sugar and snow.

Reading

Answer the following questions in your journal.  Try to write complete and detailed answers.

1. What's your favorite flavor of ice cream and why?

2. What does the phrase, "Ice cream is food for the soul," mean?

3. What are the ingredients of a perfect ice cream sundae?

4. What brand of ice cream is the most popular in your country? Why?

5. Can you argue that ice cream is healthy? Try.

With your class or as an individual learner take this speaking challenge.

Just like in this video....Pick a desert that you like and demonstrate how to make it for your class.  Be sure to ask for feedback and of course bring samples!

Independent study:

Try something new!!  Do some web research and see if you can find a desert that you would like to make.  Make it and share it with your friends.  Being creative, trying new things, risking failure and engaging in challenging activities are all skills that will help you to learn English.

Writing

Listening

Challenge

1. Watch this video

2. If you encounter a word or phrase you don't know...go back and listen again.

3. If you still can't understand write it down and look it up. (if you can) Or ask someone.

4. Listen again until you can listen from start to finish with a general understanding.

Cherry Ice Cream

I love Gelato! It's easy to make too!