As a kid the start of Summer always started fresh cherries and homemade ice cream. When I grew up and moved away from home the first thing I had to buy was an ice cream maker. Every year my brother and I come up with new flavors and have a great time comparing notes on new ice cream flavors. Some years we even come up with the same ideas since we are a bit alike.
I do not think I could imagine a summer without the sound of a whirring ice cream maker on the porch and the slight taste of salt on the first scoop of ice cream and scraping the ice hard ice cream stuck on the bottom of the bucket. OOOhhh that sure brings me back. Seeing my mom mixing the sugar and eggs until they were frothy and then adding the milk and half & half. Dad would then put the ice cream mixture in the mixer and start the motor and 45 min to an hour later we were in ice cream heaven on a hot summer night.
Soon after I got married I found out that not every family makes ice cream all summer long. What, how could that be possible? So since then it has been my main job to make ice cream for his family every summer. One summer (2 years ago) I made 10 batches for T's family reunion and boy was I ever tired since I also made all the baked goods for breakfast and snacks, and decorated the sheet cake. That was my burn out summer and I have only made a few batches each summer but this year I think will be the year of wonderful ice cream. Wonder why? I will tell you why.
Friday at work we were closing early and I hear the door open and I was no I want to close early you can come back later and I turn around and there is my Father-in-Law and said he said hey do you still want that ice cream maker. I said you are not teasing me right? He said no you can have it if you want and I said yes of course would there be any other answer. T's parents have a Simac Ice Cream Maker. It is a self-contained maker, they bought it 20 years ago and have maybe used it 5 times. I have drooled over it for well almost the whole time we have been married so about 10 years. They have always been a bit out of my price range that I am willing to spend on a ice cream maker. After all the excitement, I quickly left and went out to thier house my FIL loaded up the machine I chatted for half and hour and then went to the store to buy all the ingredients. I have since made 3 batches of ice cream. Vanilla, Raspberry and Strawberry which I had one scoop of each and boxed up and took it over to my in-laws tonight for a thank you. So this summer will be my ice cream summer. I have wanted to experiment with new flavors and this is the perfect way. So be ready for my successes and all my flops.
~B
P.S. It makes wonderful frozen daiquiri. (drinking as I type)
