Blackberry Ice Cream, Kind of

While I tend to stick to topics surrounding food, Teddy, and dancing, recently, I’ve found my thoughts treading in slightly different waters. In other words, is it cool if I speak my mind on some issues for a few moments? Yeah? OK, great. Here I go:

One of the problems with people like me is that it takes having a newborn to discover—and fully feel the impact of—the fact that though yes, some employers may opt to offer generous paid maternity and (not quite so generous) paternity leave, they don’t have to. In terms of parental leave, unlike most developed countries, all that is required by law here in the U.S., via the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, is 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Apparently, the intention of this bill was to assist in "balanc[ing] the demands of the workplace with the needs of families.” But let me ask you this? How the heck would this really help out a young family if one of its members just had a baby and was hoping to have the support, at least for a week or two, of the other member? To be fair, I should note that some states have expanded on the aforementioned FMLA. For example, in California, PFL (Paid Family Leave) provides up to six weeks of benefits for individuals who must take time off “to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, parent, or registered domestic partner, or to bond with a new child.” Though pay attention to the word "benefits" there; this means that PFL will pay you only a portion (about 55%) of what you’re used to making.

Full family disclosure: Matt’s company offered him one week of paid paternity leave. And yes, he could have taken more time because of FMLA and could have received a portion of his salary for up to six weeks thanks to California’s PFL, but because of the nature of Matt’s job, the fact that we really rely on his full salary (as my writing and our videos don’t quite pay enough yet to sustain us—yet being the key word there, amiright?), as well as the fact that my mother was planning to visit and help that second week of Teddy’s life, Matt and I decided he should go back to work that week after Teddy was born.

Now, I realize that this is a complicated issue with all sorts of implications, but as a new mother who lives thousands of miles from family, not only could I have really used Matt’s help with our newborn son, but this situation also made it so that Matt was constantly playing catch up on all of the various tricks of how to soothe and care for our little boy, which I undoubtedly picked up in between the hours of 8am to 7pm while he was at work.

I know, I know. You’re like, “Amelia, when do you talk about blackberry ice cream?” Hang in there. I’ll get to it! (Maybe.)

The second problem with people like me is that I rarely take my political frustrations any further than signing the occasional petition, arguing with my mom, emailing Barbara Boxer, or studying up on California’s props right before an election (and voting).

Now, I bring all of this up because I have a new cause; and one that though I can’t do much about, I can’t seem to do nothing about either.

Perhaps you’ve read an article or two about the current battle between the book publisher, Hachette, and the online super-store, Amazon? Well, for those of you who haven’t, I will try to sum it up as briefly as possible. (I will also link to this interview with Sherman Alexie on The Colbert Report, which sums it up quite well and quite hilariously.) In short, the two companies are in a dispute over contract negotiations and caught in the crossfire are 5000 of Hachette’s books, which Amazon—a company responsible for 40-50% of all book sales as well as a company known for its speedy service—currently says they will ship in two to five weeks if customers order them. At the same time, they’re offering “similar titles” available immediately and at their standard discounted price. Most devastatingly for Hachette authors whose books are coming out this summer, you cannot pre-order their books. As stated by Sherman Alexie in the aforementioned interview, pre-publicity and pre-sales are everything, especially for a first-time author; they help determine how many copies booksellers order from the publisher, whether said books reach various bestseller lists in their first weekend, which, in turn, drive sales, etc.

Point being, as a first-time author whose book is being published by Hachette—albeit not until February of next year—I’m very invested in this dispute. And I would like to think that even if I didn’t have a book coming out, that as a book lover and someone who values an ecosystem where artists and content creators are not squeezed or bullied by the companies that sell the things they work so hard to create, I would still be invested.

And so, perhaps you’re wondering (if you’re still reading, that is) what am I going to do about it?

For starters, I hope writing this post counts as something. (C’mon, I had to do fact-checking and read articles without skimming them!) But mostly, for me, it comes down to being happy to spend a little more for books (and other things) at places I can feel good about supporting. (By the way, Amazon is giving similar advice to those people not willing to wait the two to five weeks for a book to ship. In a statement to their customers, they wrote: "We regret the inconvenience and encourage you to purchase from one of our third-party sellers or from one of our competitors.")

Amazon says that it’s all about getting the best price for you, their beloved customer, but there's another price to be paid for getting things cheap; especially when Amazon wants to drive down cost while also taking a bigger cut of the profits. Publishers, authors, artists, vendors, and their employees all suffer in that scenario and that’s something I just can’t buy into.

p.s. This blackberry ice cream was delicious.

p.p.s. Here are a couple of places where you might consider spending your hard-earned dough.

My mom shows her distaste for Amazon's negotiating tactics. Just kidding! This shot was taken after I brought up the idea of making basil ice cream. She  wasn't into it.

Blackberry, on the other hand...

Blackberry Ice Cream slightly adapted from Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones

For the blackberry purée:
2 half-pint baskets blackberries (2 cups)
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar, as needed

For the base:
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup 1% or 2% milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 large egg yolks

Cook the berries:
Combine the berries with the sugar, using 1/4 cup if they are very sweet and 1/2 cup if less so, in a small nonreactive saucepan and stir well. Put the pan over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the berries are soft and the liquid they release has reduced somewhat, about 10 minutes.

Let cool slightly, then transfer the berries and their juice to a blender or food processor. Purée until smooth. Strain half of the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium bowl, pressing on the solids to extract as much purée as possible. Discard the solids. Add the unstrained purée to the same bowl and stir once to combine. Cover the bowl and refrigerate.

Make the base:
In a medium heatproof bowl, whisk the yolks just to break them up, then whisk in half of the sugar (1/4 cup). Set aside.

In a heavy nonreactive saucepan, stir together the cream, milk, remaining sugar (1/4 cup), and the salt. Put the pan over medium-high heat. When the mixture approaches a bare simmer, reduce the heat to medium.

Carefully scoop out about 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture and, whisking the eggs constantly, add the cream to the bowl with the egg yolks. Repeat, adding another 1/2 cup of the hot cream to the bowl with the yolks. Using a heatproof rubber spatula, stir the cream in the saucepan as you slowly pour the egg-and-cream mixture from the bowl into the pan.

Cook the mixture carefully over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it is thickened, coats the back of a spatula, and holds a clear path when you run your finger across the spatula, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Turn off the heat.

Set the pan into an ice-water bath, wash your spatula, and use it to stir the base occasionally until it is cool. Remove the pan from the ice-water bath, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate the base for at least two hours or overnight.

Whisk the blackberry purée into the chilled base.

Freeze in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. While the ice cream is churning, put the container you'll use to store the ice cream into the freezer. Enjoy right away, or for a firmer ice cream, transfer to the chilled container and freeze for at least 4 hours.