Stickygross

The online newspaper says the day's high was about 36 degrees C. I beg to differ. I am baking in my apartment that faces the sun. The fans just blow the sticky heat around a little and do nothing to assist with the liters of water that are escaping from my body.

A big problem for me in this heat? I lose ALL my appetite. Yesterday, I pretty much just had cereal, chocolate milk, and mashed pumpkin. And 4-cheese pizza, except it was only 3-cheese and being cheap, we managed to talk the guy into giving us a discount due to their lack of catupiry. With the dollar as low as it is, I'm watching just about every penny!

I can't eat much, but what I want to eat is ice cream. Ice. Frozen berries. ANYTHING COLD. So today I've been experimenting with sorbets in an attempt to keep from having to throw out fruit and things that were getting old.

WARNING. SOME GROSS DESCRIPTIONS TO FOLLOW.

My first try was a coconut-lime sorbet. The recipe called for things I didn't have, so I improvised, throwing toasted coconut into the boiling water and sugar liquid and then adding my super-acidic juice. It's coming along nicely. The coconut gets extra chewy as it freezes and adds a fun dimension to the sorbet, though I think it needs more juice and a little less sugar. Next time...

While looking up recipes for the lime sorbet, I saw one for a chocolate sorbet, dairy-free. And that intrigued me, because I find it hard to believe that chocolate, sugar, and water can become something as "deliciously creamy" as these tasters were claiming. So I scrounged around for my little box of baking cocoa and threw the first scoop in. Then, as that wasn't working so well, I pulled the bag out of the box and noticed it was perforated with tiny holes. Hum. Tiny holes are probably not part of the packaging design for cocoa powder. These would indicate the presence of bugs in the chocolate. This leaves me with three options:

1. Throw it out.
2. Sift it.
3. Use it and worry about the bugs later.

I decide without much thought to just toss it all in. It's been in the refrigerator; surely it's too cold to support life there? And they'll all die in the boiling liquid if there's any left...

So without the slightest quease, I knowingly toss buggy cocoa into my sugar syrup. And I'm stirring and testing and stirring and testing and...what's that on my spoon? A small, chocolate coated white WORM????

Bugs I was prepared for. Somehow, worms are infinitely more disgusting.

There is a pause. There is desire for chocolate sorbet. A decision is made.

I have a tiny mesh strainer. So the chocolate mixture gets strained into the freezing pot...and oh, what A LOT OF DISGUSTING WORMS ARE IN THE BOTTOM!!! But none in my ice cream!

It's freezing now. And would you believe, this isn't affecting my desire to eat it one bit???