My eldest loves this ice cream, so I’m writing down the recipe.

• 4 cups frozen blueberries
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3 cups heavy cream

Add blueberries, sugar, and water to a sauce pan and bring to a simmer until the blueberries pop. Strain the solids out and just use the liquid (I had about two cups of blueberry juice). Put the juice in the refrigerator until cold. Add milk and cream, then follow directions on your ice cream maker.

I used part of the ice cream to make ice cream pie. Straight out of the ice cream maker, I dished the soft ice cream into a prepared pie shell then put it in the freezer. The next day, I placed the pie on the counter for 10 minutes before cutting. Whipped cream made a good accompaniment!

I had an idea on how to get a rainbow cake with just four pans. If I colored two portions of cake batter for each pan I could have eight colors. I separated the batter evenly between eight bowls and colored each bowl with drops of gel color. Since the convention is to name seven of the rainbow colors, I made the eighth color pink (although it was tempting to make it greenish purple like octarine as a nod to Terry Pratchett). I put one color in each pan, then dolloped the second color on top before spreading it out to get a slightly marbled effect. The cake came out more like a spectrum! Hurray!

My youngest wants a rainbow chocolate chip chocolate cake. We settled on a four-layer cake with chocolate frosting and mini chocolate chips in the batter. I used Heritage Wheat all-purpose flour from Sunrise Mills both to see how well it bakes in a cake, and if my digestive tract has any issues with it. Using a recipe for yellow cake from my go-to Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, I did four layers (because that is how many pans I have), and used gel food coloring to make yellow, orange, pink, and purple (which is more indigo because a second drop of blue slipped in). I halved the cooking time recommended since the layers were thin, then added 2 more minutes which I didn’t need (my gluten-free cakes lately have been not cooked through, so I was apprehensive). The cake was slightly dry, but definitely cooked, and the layers were easy to handle. It was also easy to frost with a thin layer of chocolate frosting (store-bought ‘cause I didn’t want to make it). The family said it was good cake! (Which are words that have not been uttered for the last few cakes, when I was using different flours.) The mini chocolate chips were rather lost in the frosting and crumb, but I also forgot to put them in until the last minute, so we’ll try to remember them earlier next time. Oh, and no tummy troubles, huzzah!

Over buying fruit is not usually a problem in my household, as we eat an abundance of apples, oranges, bananas, and berries. But sometimes, for whatever reason, I have fruit uneaten that is approaching inedibility. But I now have a dehydrator. Ah! I cleaned and sliced all the very ripe fruit (mainly bananas and strawberries), and had some room so threw on some oranges and blueberries. I ran the dehyrator at 135 degrees for around 14 hours. The fruit stopped changing appearance, but had a leather-like texture rather than crisp. So I stuck them in the freezer in a bag. Fresh out of the freezer they are crunchy and full of flavor. And they should last in the cold storage for awhile! (Until my family finds them…)

I didn’t slice the blueberries, and they did dry out hardly at all. The mandarin orange was the most surprising; I liked the texture and taste dehydrated!