We All Scream

We All Scream
Originally uploaded by Michael_L

There's really nothing like homemade ice cream.

Have you ever had homemade ice cream?

Up until this weekend, I had thought that everyone had at least tasted homemade ice cream. When I was growing up we never had a lot, but we always had a lot - if you know what I mean. And one of those things we had a lot of was homemade ice cream. Every winter we would make homemade ice cream at least 2 or three times, and it was always a big affair with lots of people around to share it. I was asking some of my friends if they ever had homemade ice cream and I was astonished to hear that almost none of them had! How could that be?

Near where we lived growing up, were these "cliffs" near the road and in the winter they would always "ice up" and make these huge icicles, more like spears that could kill you. We would go to the cliffs with a burlap bag and harvest ice to make ice cream with. To this day, whenever we pass by there and see ice we always say "Ohhh...there's ice cream"

Now that I think about it.....We used to make ice cream a lot. There were lots of times when we used fresh whole milk to make ice cream, oh the taste.....there's nothing like it. There really isn't.

This past weekend The Roomate and I were at the Red Dot Boutique when I spied with my own little eyes an ice cream maker. It was so cute and tiny, it looked like the E-Z Bake Oven version of the one we had when I was a kid. This one even had an electric motor on it instead of a hand crank - ooohhhh fancy! I grabbed it faster than I grabbed Barbie's Dream House and threw it in the cart.

Sunday afternoon I ran to our local grocery store and picked the freshest of ingredients - cream, heavy cream, whipping cream and strawberries, all to create a most delicious potion!

It was much easier than I remember and a whole lot warmer. Since we only made ice cream in the winter all I remember as a kid was running to check and see it was done and then flying back to the house to warm up, of course with a hand crank ice cream maker we kept ourselves warm by cranking.

Within an hour I had freshly churned ice cream, and I couldn't wait for the first taste. There are only a few things that are "the best" on the first taste.

For example, beer. I like beer but it's not my first choice of drink, but sometimes the first drink of beer is just delicious. If it's hot outside, and I'm hot and the beer is ICE COLD then the first swig is the BEST drink ever you feel like you've died and gone to heaven....but only on that first swig, after that it's all downhill.

Ice Cream is the same way, but oh so much better. There is NOTHING like the first spoonful of ice cream after it's finished. It's smooth and creamy, frozen but not frozen solid. And strawberry ice cream at that!

I wish you could have sat on our back porch and had a bowl with me, I'm sure you would have enjoyed it as much as I did.

I'll let you know the next time I'm making it, so you can stop by.