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Now that’s something you don’t hear everyday…

 

My very first teaching job, I had a principal who liked me. Really, really liked me. Even though I was a first year teacher she would often send visitors into my classroom, to “represent” our school.
My kids had been working on a research project and one of my super nerdy kids (J)was doing Mount Kilimanjaro. This was long before the days of the Internet were available to the kids and they were forced to use things like books (gasp) and magazine (the horror) to research their topic. At the time of the project I was a subscriber and avid reader of Outside magazine. I was dating a very outdoorsy kind of guy at the time. If you have never read it before, it is actually quite interesting, but every now and then, in the back they have what one might call a quirky tidbits and quips. But I thought nothing about it. I gave a copy of the magazine to J since it had a spread on Mt. Kilimanjaro. Again, thought nothing of it.
When the guest from New Zealand came through I was reading a story about a family of owls. This was 6th grade, so we still had story time from time to time. The kids were raising their hands and participating nicely. Everything was going great. That way until J raised his hand.
Let me be the first to say that in no way was this kid trying to be a smart ass. He was one of those kids like in Jerry Maguire who went around telling you how much the human head weighs, it was just his thing. So when he raised his hand, I just thought to myself, yay, the smart kid is chiming in. I called on him and out of his mouth he said, “did you know owls don’t have penises?” At first I was like WTF? But then I remember the little write up that was in Outside magazine about that. In total amazement I did not panic. Or sure, I panicked on the inside. Big. Time. But on the surface I just rolled with it.
“Most birds don’t” was all I said, and I moved on from there. And that was the end of that. The rest of the classes eyes got about as big as an owls, as well as the visitors in the back, but J was more than satisfied with my answer. We even later (with permission from his parents) researched why that was, and what did they have if they didn’t have penises? You will have to look that up, this is a semi-family blog. 😉
The visitors were impressed to say the least that I just rolled with it. In a way, I was too.
I ran across an old copy when I was Spring cleaning. It had a quirky little article on mangoes. It got me wanting to make something with mangoes. So I did. At first I was thinking a Bavarian, but then I just ended up making it into good ol’ ice cream. I know many of my Phoenix friends are experiencing a heat wave, so a little ice cream will do them some good. As long as they eat it quickly.
Now go look up why owls don’t have penises, you know you are going to.

Mango Ice Cream

1 1/3 pounds ripe mangoes (2-3 mangoes)
½ cup water
¾ sugar
½ cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
¼ tsp vanilla extract
a few drops freshly squeezed lemon juice

Peel the mangoes, slice them into quarters, and remove pits. Cut the mangoes into chunks and cook them with the water in a medium, nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, covered, stirring once or twice, until soft and cook through, about 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat, stir in the sugar, then cool to room temperature.
Puree the cooked mangoes and any liquid in a blender or food processor (I then ran it through a sieve so that any pulpiness would be gone), Add mango puree with the sour cream, heavy cream, vanilla and lemon juice and blend until smooth.
Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

 

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Comments

  4. Nothing better than an ice cream cone to while away the time while you wonder about the sexual physiology of birds!

    Great story – as the mom of a grade 7 aged boy I can see this scene very vividly!

    Reply

  11. So, Just thought I’d let you know, if you go to ask.com and ask why owls don’t have penises, your blog shows up. LOL!!! I’m pretty sure you should let those of us who tried to google it, and got some less than happy sites in on the rest of the story. 😀

    Reply

  12. I learned something new today! I never thought about that aspect of bird anatomy. I bet your kids loved you.

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  15. Haha, after commenting on your post, you know I’m totally going to look up the whole owl situation. What a great story. Way to act super calm under fire. You’re super cool. As is this ice cream. It looks totally delicious, and I just love that it was inspired by yet another quirky article in Outdoor!

    Reply

  18. Cute story and kudos for not busting out laughing (which is what I probably would have done!) That mango ice cream looks delicious and I’m a sucker for tropical flavors so I’d love to try David’s recipe soon!

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  20. Way to be cool Peabody! Good job at rolling with it, you must have been freaking out inside! But, just must agree, looking back the story is kind of cute. Children are just like innocent little sponges like that, ready to squirt out embarrassing information when you’re the most vulnerable… adorable!!
    The ice cream looks/sounds fantastic. Unfortunatelly, it’s still snowing in Calgary, so I’ll wait a couple more months to make it 😉

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  21. Heh, if it was me I would have turned it into a lesson on the correct pronunciation of “cloaca,” so good on you for keeping it professional. 😉

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  23. Hah! I still remember the days of no Internet for researching. Those indices of articles were nightmares!
    Mango ice cream is one of my favorite flavors, not just because it’s the national fruit of the Philippines *and* my favorite fruit– it’s just perfection!

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  24. This Phoenix girl sends a big THANK YOU for the ice cream recipe. We had our first 100 degree day yesterday (oy!). I celebrated by making a big ol’ batch of mango rum sorbet. YUM!!!

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  25. You are going to make my jaw drop one way or another. You did it again. There are a very few times in my life when I made just the right response as you did with this boy’s question. And they stand out like the sun in my memory.
    If I were in Dallas I’d love the ice cream today.
    In Michigan we’re having a paradise day.

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  26. Oh my god that is a GREAT story! Ha! And you’re so right, my next stop is google… 🙂

    I’m pretty impressed with how you rolled with it too! ha!

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  27. That is a very funny story! It had me cracking up! My husband recently bought an ice cream maker so we will have to try this recipe since we are looking for some and I love mangoes!

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  29. I just feel sorry for the poor lady owls.
    I guess it would make the males better aerodynamically. You know, not having a heavy under carriage loading them down! haha.
    Yeah, I haven’t looked it up yet! I have to dash off to work now. I will be wondering about this all day. (I’ll ask one of the doctors.)
    And craving mango ice cream too.
    Nice story Peabody. It sounds like you were a great teacher.

    Reply

  30. What a great post and I have to say that ice cream looks great even though I’m not terribly fond of mangoes. My wife would kill for that though…!! Sorry I havent been around as much as I’d like to…

    Reply

  32. I had a neighbor growing up that had a mango tree in his back yard – but the mangoes used to fall into our back yard. My mom loved that. 😀

    This is delicious, Pea – looks so refreshing!

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  37. I had been looking for a mango ice cream recipe the last few days, and decided to use this same recipe (picked it off URB) switching out the peaches for mango. So I was tickled when I looked here and saw you had done the same! Turned out great! My mangoes were pretty ripe, so I skipped cooking them and it worked fine.

    Reply

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