I love ice cream. There is nothing like hand churning five quarts of that creamy frozen goodness on a hot summer day. I think the sore arm, and the sweaty brow makes it taste all that much better. As a kid I think the old folks played us like Tom Sawyer, and convinced us of how much fun they were having turning that hand crank, and we just had to have our turn. And we felt like we pulled one on them when they forgot to take the churning back from us. Kids today don’t fool so easily. They want the frozen creamy goodness, but also want it after the fact.
Now there are a lot of things that goes into a good ice cream recipe, like eggs, sugar, and of course Cream. Now while you are churning there is a lot of time to think. What I found myself thinking about, was who was the first person that thought it would be a good idea to consume excretion from a cow? I know that we all were breast fed, and it is not a weird thought to consume the milky substance we call breast milk, as a baby. But as an adult, it kind of grosses me out now. Ok, So, have you seen a cow? Really, who in their right mind would look at one of these fury beasts and say… “Oh Yum, Cow Breast Milk”? I don’t even want to know how they first sampled it. Gross, just gross.
The same thought goes for the egg. I am glad I was not the pioneer in that expedition. Imagine if you were on a quest to find something weird to eat. The thought process may be something like, what about eggs? So your first attempt was with a turtle egg. Yuk… I mean, YUK! And how many species were tried before the chicken? So here you are, crack an egg, and there it is, yellow and clear goo. You instantly find that you can’t pick it up with a fork. There is no telling how long it was until they thought about cooking it.
But I am thankful for those that went before me in the food conquering world. We now have something as wonderful as ice cream to show for it. Which leads me to the many ways you can eat it. Really, who doesn’t love a banana split? Or a hot fudge sundae? But the best of all is the eatable containers. You know that if you were in possession of a food creation machine (that’s where we get all those crazy crackers and cookies. They are not made in a tree like Keebler wants you to believe). But with one of these machines, I know I would have created the ice cream cone. Something you can hold in your hand, and lick your ice cream like a crazed dog Then you get to the cone itself, and now you don’t have to worry about leaving any of the sweet goodness in a bowl, you just start eating your way to the end, lick your fingers clean, and smile like nobody’s business. Well, sorry to run, but I have to go, I think I hear the ice cream truck coming!
