From biggest failure to biggest success

The use-'em-or-lose-'em vacation day policy at work left me with a lot of days at the end of this year. Instead of couchsurfing in Europe or visiting friends in DC, I borrowed my sister's self-cooling ice cream maker (mine has a drum that you need to re-freeze), and I've been spending most of my time in the kitchen. I've made chocolate, Mexican chocolate, peanut butter, maple with buttered pecans, lemon with olive oil, and my first batch of waffle cones. My friend came over last night to help get rid of some of the evidence. I gave him a taste tour, from biggest failure to biggest success.

"This one's you're biggest failure?" he asked. "Yes," I said, "It's too chewy." The tasting continued with my nitpicky commentary and, when I asked which he wanted more of, he chose peanut butter -- the one that was the slightest bit too crumbly. While he could see what I was talking about, he said he wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out. And, besides, the flavor is ridiculous.

There's a distinct possibility that I'm crazy. My friend Chyna's mom said the peanut butter and Mexican chocolate are perfect as is, especially when paired together. In terms of my chocolate, some people say that chewy ice cream is "highly treasured." And my friend Ian loves my maple pecan so much that he ordered a quart of it. This all may be so. But I'm not just looking for delicious. I'm looking for perfectly delicious. And so, when I repeat these flavors...
...the chocolate won't be as chewy.
...the peanut butter will be smoother.
...the maple pecan will be a little less sweet.
...the Mexican chocolate will have a more flavorful heat.
...the lemon olive oil will stay exactly how it is.

Here's to perfect ice cream, and to the imperfect ice cream still being scoop-worthy.