Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Shakin' Things Up!

Every mom knows that kids who play hard take great naps. That's exactly what I had in mind today when we made ice cream! Yes, you read that right - we made ice cream. The twist - and the reason your kids will nap well afterwards - is that instead of using an ice cream churn, we shook it up. It didn't take long - but you will me amazed how much energy it takes to shake your soon-to-be ice cream for 5 minutes!

Here are the kids, hard at work - before they let me take over:













And, here are the kids tasting the final product:













I learned a couple of lessons during the process:

1 - Be prepared to do some (no, a LOT) of the shaking yourself (but you won't earn a nap....)
2 - Dig out the mittens from last winter before you get started.
3 - Homemade beats store bought - especially since this was so easy!

The recipe? Did you want the recipe? Oh, okay.....
(By the way, I got the recipe from FamilyFun.com - I watched the video first, and you can get a printable version of the recipe, too).

For the ice cream, you'll need:
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 cup half-and-half
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 small (quart-sized) zipper bag

For the "shaker" bag, you'll need:
1/2 cup kosher or rock salt (we used kosher)
ice cubes
2 large (gallon-sized) zipper bag

Prep time: less than 5 minutes; Shaking Time: 5 minutes; Yield: 2 servings

Pour the sugar, half-and-half, and vanilla extract into the small bag and zip closed (squeeze out most of the air, but not all of it). Double-bag the large bags, and put the small bag with the ice cream ingredients inside. When you are ready to start shaking, add the ice (I filled it a little more than 1/2 way) and the salt. Close the bags and shake for about 5 minutes, until the ice cream is a little thicker than soft serve.

We did not add any toppings to the ice cream - I'm a big believer in trying it "as-is" the first time. You shouldn't get any complaints - it was fantastic!

I doubled the recipe to make four servings. I did not increase the portions within the small bag - I made two "shakers" and then shook each recipe-worth of ice cream individually (it is possible to do all of the shaking yourself....). By the way, I highly recommend double-bagging, and I also suggest using store-brand bags. I used name-brand bags, which got torn, so in any case you probably won't be able to use them twice.

We will be making this ice cream again, and I will update this post if we come up with any good variations on the original recipe. Hope you will try it - it's great fun, and a great way to cool off on a HOT summer day!

2 comments:

Amy said...

OK- so I don't know you guys either, but Ryan graciously read our family website because I am friends with Martha Compton and I now am reading your site! I just want to thank you for puclishing the info about the LLB lunchboxes. I am thrilled that you are as concerned for the nurtrition of your children as I think I would be and I love that the laptoplunches group made a lead-free, phtalate free, and BPA free item such as this! What a relief to know that people (somewhere) care about such things... especially the lead issue! God bless you guys in your efforts to raise healthy children and thank you again for your link an info about this site. I welcome anymore tips or site regarding the health of our children anytime! Thanks again and God Bless you- Amy Nelson

RLR said...

Amy - thanks for posting! I'm glad you clicked by for a visit. I have to admit, it's because of the kids that I'm more in tune to health- and environment-related issues, but I'm far from perfect. I can't remember how I found out about the LLBs, but my best guess is that I probably saw it in a parenting mag. My favorite parenting mag, by the way, is Wondertime. There's a link to the website in the "Favorite Things" list on the bottom left (adding it now).
Hope you will stop by again, as new-parenthood allows! Best wishes to you and yours!