Homemade Ice Cream

After all these months of working so hard to lose weight, I'm starting to relax and eat more decadent foods. After a long hot day at the warehouse, I've started eating a bowl of ice cream for summer about once a week. It is so refreshing ... and I suspect it's also one of my "comfort" foods based on childhood memories of ice cream treats!


In our hurried, stress filled life, there are many things we rarely take the time to do any more. Making homemade ice cream is one of those things. Even if we do this, we use an electric ice cream mixer. Definitely changes the atmosphere around this activity.


I remember making homemade ice cream on Grandma and Granddad Sisk's farm. It was a social event, with several relatives or neighbors bringing their own freezers and recipes to churn. Of course there would be fresh fruit involved in some of the recipes ... either in the ice cream or in the toppings.


We'd sit out in the driveway and take turns churning away. None of this standing around watching the electric ice cream freezer doing all the work! And the mystery involved ... has it churned long enough? The new ice cream freezers automatically shut off when the ice cream is done, but with the old fashion hand cranking you had to have an experience churner who would declare it ready.


Maybe next year at the family reunion we ought to have a homemade ice cream "cook-off"!