A MEMORABLE ICE CREAM MOMENT

ICE-CREAM, according to Anne Fadiman (At Large and At Small: Confessions of a Literary Hedonist) existed in recipes brought from Italy to the French court in the 16th century by Catherine de Medici. 

Italians turned frozen desserts to an art in the 18th and 19th centuries, using anything from coffee, chocolate and cinnamon to strawberries, cherries and grapes for flavor. The first record of ice cream in the US dates to 1744 in Maryland!

From literature, we learn that the Victorians delighted in ices and sherbets; in popular literature, a memorable ice cream moment comes, for me, from Rosamunde Pilcher's novel The Empty House.

This is when a young Virginia Keile shares an ice cream on a Cornwall beach with first love Eustace Philips. It is actually a rainy day and sharing something with a young man she is beginning to love is like magic for the honest and kind-hearted girl.

Later, Virginia will succumb to her mother's insistence (and maneuvering) and marry for money and prestige. Marrying for money is the easy way out of life's pressures and the easy way into an empty house. What will happen to Eustace? Will Virginia ever find happiness? I can't say; I wouldn't want to spoil this lovely little novel!

Meanwhile, enjoy a beautiful summer, with sun, ice-cream and new amazing posts from The Lipstick Papers, of course!!!!!!!!