Ice Cream!

(Well, not really, but good anyway)

Now, this is important: this recipe is BEST made with a real hand-cranked ice cream freezer, cranked by available kids under the age of 13. (Why pick that age as the upper limit? See my post on “junior high”. Ooops. Haven’t posted on that yet. heh) Really. It just makes a better “ice cream” that way.

๐Ÿ™‚

Keep in mind, you can adjust the amounts for bigger batches, if you want, but a half gallon or so is usually enough for a family of four.

This is pretty much as we made it when I was a kid. (Didn’t everybody make “Eagle Brand Ice Milk” in the 50s?)

Vanilla “Ice Cream”

Ingredients

2 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand milk
1 qt. milk (or half n half)
1.5 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Other stuff

HAND CRANK ice cream freezer
rock salt
“lightly” crushed chunk ice
KIDS

Combine all ingredients, mixing well. Pour mixture into freezer can of a 1 gallon hand hand-crank freezer. Assemble the freezer and pour a layer of ice around the drum (about 2-3 inches worth). Sprinkle rock salt in a thin layer on top of the ice. Layer some more ice, then rock salt, then ice, etc. until just below the top of the ice cream cannister. Add ice only all the way to the top, if you want.
Crank at a steady pace. Kids can sit on top of the ice cream freezer and crank it if ya put a layer of newspaper on top and then an old towel for them to sit on. Or team two: one “sitter” and one “cranker” so they can switch off.

As brine begins coming outa the weep hole, layer in more ice (and maybe a tad salt) every now and then.

When (if) the kids start to find the crank hard to turn (cos the stuff’s freezing up on ’em) you can take over the cranking.

All kindsa easy variations possible: add some peach, strawberry or blueberry preserves before freezing. (Blueberry preserves ought to be added when the stuff’s about frozen, IMO–just toward the last.) Lotsa variations. I like to substitute some scraped vanilla beans for the vanilla extract. Nice. Heck. I wouldn’t mind taking the rest of the bean and running it through a coffee grinder to milk more flavor, although it does change the flavor a bit.

You can store the ice cream in the cannister in the ice/brine mix (packed with newspaper/old towel–see, ya knew those’d come in handy) for a few hours, if necessary, but eating it right away or making it just before a meal, storing it in the brine/ice mix for just during the meal is probably best.

VW Bug asked in comments about where to get a hand crank ice cream maker. How about here?

[coupla edits made, including comment about jr. hi… ๐Ÿ™‚

When in danger or in doubt…

…run in circles, scream and shout!

This, from President Bush’s speech presenting Judge John Roberts, sent a chilling message (heh) to anti-democracy folk who prefer having judges create law ex nihilo from the bench instead of interpret law that actually exists because elected representatives, supposedly expressing the will of a majority of the electorate (uhm, you know: democracy at work) acted.

“He has profound respect for the rule of law and for the liberties guaranteed to every citizen. He will strictly apply the Constitution in laws, not legislate from the bench.”

Oh. Dear. That would certainly put a twist in the ACLU’s knickers. It’s already sent shock waves through the “freedom to kill babies” bunch. And the usual suspects on the Loony Left fringe (which now seems to include leading “moderate” Democratic senators) have expressed “reservations.”

(OK, fair notice: I have no idea whether President Bush’s assertion will prove true or not. And, frankly, I doubt he has sure and certain knowledge that it is, either. It’s a hopeful assertion that the country return to rule by democratic vote, nothing more. But also nothing less.)

Wanna stop the erosion of civilization being spawned by such as the ACLU? Call, write and/or email your U.S. Senator to encourage them to ignore the ACLU and their ilk and simply confirm Judge Roberts. He has the qualifications. And, despite my doubts as to his committment to “strictly apply the Constitution in laws, not legislate from the bench” I suggest we support his nomination simply because he is the president’s choice and he is qualified. Whether he votes on the bench the way I would want or not is not the issue.

Of course, the simple fact that he might not legislate from the bench has the appeal of being something that’d seriously chap off such as the communists in the Amerikan Criminal License Underground, since their fav tactic seems to be twisting the words of the Constitution to mean new things in accord with their agenda.

Contact Your Senator

And consider joining the Stop the ACLU Blogburst. Simply go to

Protest the ACLU

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