The unfortunate title of this book makes me reluctant to recommend it to friends just because I feel so embarrassed saying it (and the cover art just makes it worse). But that's just doubly unfortunate because it's such a great cookbook!

A few years ago I hosted a party that involved a vegan ice cream bar using two ice cream recipes and several topping recipes from this book. No one else at the party was vegan or dairy-intolerant, but everyone loved the ice cream anyway.

Since then, I break it out every summer and find all-new recipes to enjoy. This year, after I got a bunch of rhubarb I didn't know what to do with, I made the strawberry-rhubarb sorbet, which was fabulous. I've got the makings in my fridge right now for the ginger ice cream with raspberry-rhubarb sauce, which I'll whip up probably tomorrow or the next day. Last year I even used the basic ice cream recipes to make my own natural mint-chocolate-chip ice cream. The ice creams are also fantastic frozen into popsicles (my children's favorite).

The only complaint I have (aside from the title) is that they're not lower in sugar than they are, but that's easily remedied so I didn't dock it any stars for that. Nor did I rate it down because I didn't know what a bombe was without looking it up elsewhere. It just seems unfair to rate it lower for my own ignorance. ( )