Now ten months into owning our ice cream maker I'm transitioning from ice creams to sorbets. And with some serious enthusiasm after last week's success. What I did was search out a couple of recipes from the Internet that best matched ingredients I knew I had on hand. The key among them being a bag of frozen mango pieces we buy regularly from Trader Joe's for making fruit smoothies.

But plunging in after choosing a recipe I realized I didn't have quite enough mango left in the bag. Which put me into experimental territory. But damn, this past year of smoothie experimentation must have seriously polished my culinary instincts, because the end result is probably the second most awesome sorbet I've ever had. (The best being a champagne sorbet we had for dinner at the Montague Inn in Saginaw a couple of years back.) Try this, and see if you don't agree:

BANGO SORBET

1 1/4 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups sliced peeled pitted mangoes
two-thirds of a ripe, medium-sized banana, cut into five or six pieces
7 tablespoons Bacardi Limon rum

Stir water and sugar in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat and bring to boil. Add mango pieces and banana. Bring to a boil. With fresh fruit you can probably remove the mixture from the heat almost as soon as it boils, because you don't want to turn the fruit pieces into cooked mush. But I let mine boil for a minute or so just to be sure the frozen mango pieces had been cooked through. Transfer mixture to food processor and puree. Pour into bowl and chill until cold, at least 2 hours.

Mix 7 tablespoons Bacardi Limon rum into puree mixture and then process it in your ice cream maker. Transfer to a sealed container and freeze for at least 2 hours. Expect the result to be firm, but still softer than ice cream or other sorbets that don't have alcohol in them. Serve and enjoy.