homemade ice cream

last summer we started a tradition of making smores in the backyard over the grill. This summer, our "thing" has been homemade ice cream. It's a super easy recipe that only takes about 10 minutes. We've done it a dozen times or so, but yesterday I finally took pictures. This is the kids shaking the baggies inside two buckets full of ice (we were out of gallon ziplocs)... and what better place to shake them than on the trampoline??

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

*Tonight for the FHE treat, Daddy told the kids we had some ice cream bars in the freezer. They got excited and said, "Homemade ice cream bars??" and when I said, no-- they all groaned, like toffee bars from the store were chopped liver. I rolled my eyes at my husband and said in my best Martha Stuart voice, "Nothing is good enough anymore unless it's made from scratch."

DO try this recipe at home:

Items you need:

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 6 tablespoons rock salt
• 1 pint-size (or sandwich sized) Ziploc bag
• 1 gallon-size Ziploc
• Ice cubes

Directions:

1. Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
2. Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
3. Place the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully.
4. Shake until the mixture is ice cream, which takes about 10 minutes.
5. Wipe off the top of the small bag, then open it carefully. Enjoy!

Tips:

• You can substitute half and half for milk, if you'd like.
• Double bag the small ice cream baggie because sometimes the salt from the ice can creep in... and salty ice cream is no good.
• A 1/2 cup milk will make about 1 scoop of ice cream, so double the recipe if you want more. But don't increase the proportions more that that -- a large amount might be too big for kids to pick-up because the ice itself is heavy.
• We've used sea salt instead of rock salt and it turned out just fine.
• Don't add the toppings until AFTER the ice cream has hardened.