Well, I couldn’t wait to make the ice cream — even though I won’t eat any until later today, I went ahead and put it in the freezer first thing this morning. It’s done churning, and now it’s resting in the freezer for a half hour or so. I’ll transfer it to a plastic container after that.

I have to admit that I cheated for the first batch. Next to the freezer on the shelf were some ice cream mixes from the same company. I got the “cookies and cream” flavor — just add milk. Of course, the mix contains all kinds of additives, which kind of takes away one of the reasons for making your own ice cream, but I knew that the consistency of that first batch would be just right — and if it wasn’t, the fault would be the freezer’s, not the ice cream mix.

As I posted the other day, I wanted to step up from my 1-quart tabletop ice cream maker to a larger model. I was lusting after a 1 1/2-quart Cuisinart but it was out of my price range. And I couldn’t find any ice cream makers of any sort at my local W*l-M*rt.

Well, on our way to Nashville tonight to pick up my brother from the airport, my parents stopped at a W*l-M*rt in Antioch, and I found something that seems to be just the ticket. It’s a 1 1/2-quart Rival tabletop unit. I like several things about the design, and I think the added quantity will help the consistency of the finished ice cream. And it was just $29.92 – far less than the Cuisinart, and $10 or more less than I’d seen similar Rival models selling for on Amazon.

The two-part freezer bowl (it collapses for easier storage) is in the freezer getting cold, and I’ll make my first batch with the unit on Saturday. I can’t wait.

I’ve had a small tabletop ice cream freezer for several years now — the kind which requires you to freeze a liner rather than using ice and salt. It’s not bad, but sometimes I have trouble getting just the right consistency with it.

Yesterday, I used it to make two batches of blueberry ice cream to take to our church chicken dinner today. I don’t know if it was the recipe, the freezer or the operator, but the ice cream was a little too hard and had to be scraped, rather than scooped, out of its container after sitting in the freezer overnight.

I want a new ice cream freezer. What I really want is a big Cuisinart model which is a larger version of what I already have — I think working with a slightly larger quantity of ice cream would actually be helpful, in this case — but I even thought yesterday about buying an old-fashioned ice-and-salt model (electric — I’m not quite that old-fashioned). Believe it or not, I couldn’t find a single ice cream maker, of any sort, at Wal-Mart yesterday, even after asking two different employees for help.

I probably won’t end up doing anything — I don’t need to spend the $50 for the Cuisinart right now.