Things I Love Fridays–Homemade Ice Cream

I am back from my trip to Utah! We had so much fun, and I’ll post about our trip later.  We spent lots of time with cousins and my kids had the time of their lives!  I stayed longer in Utah than Casey and therefore I had to fly alone with girls back home.  I wasn’t too worried about it because I knew that my kids wouldn’t scream the entire time or go crazy because they’re old enough to obey me so I figured it would go well, but I was wrong.  My kids were overtired and ornery.  To make a long story short Holland refused to wear her shoes or sit in the stroller on our layover in Denver and ran around the airport like a crazy child, and then refused to come with me onto the plane which made for a long time of her screaming all the way down the jet way, and while everyone was boarding, and 20 minutes after that in the air.  She finally fell asleep in my arms, and after 30 minutes of blissful silence (Carly was playing with the iPad) Carly started whining loudly because Netflix didn’t work on the iPad, cue Holland waking up and screaming again for 20 minutes. And she didn’t just scream she was flailing and kicking the seat in front of us.  I got her to calm down again and she fell asleep in my arms and I covered her ears and didn’t move a muscle for about an hour.  After that she woke up on her own and was happy again.  I will NEVER AGAIN fly by myself.  It is the most stressful, hellish thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. Yes, I have flown by myself many times with just Carly when she was little, but this was 100x more difficult. Kudos to every one who has flown with 2+ children and comes out emotionally unscathed.  I was so glad to get off that plane after 3.5 hours!

Now onto Things I Love.  Because today is the first day of summer I’m going to make my favorite homemade ice cream.  It’s a recipe that’s been handed down on my mom’s side of the family and it reminds me of summer. Last summer I finally spent the money and bought my very own 4 quart ice cream maker so I could make enough for a party. I am a purest when it comes to this recipe so I never add in any fruit, but you can add in any fruit that you want.

Country Vanilla Ice Cream

4 eggs

2 1/4 c. sugar

5 c. whole milk

4 c. heavy cream

4 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

Add sugar gradually to beaten eggs.  Continue to beat until mixture is well mixed. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Pour into 4 quart can and freeze with salt and ice surrounding canister.

Salt/ice tip: The best freezing salt/ice ratio is 5 cups ice to 1 cup salt.  I’ve found that the best/fastest way to get the ice cream done is to take a big bowl and measure out the ice and salt, mix it up well and then pour it around the ice cream canister.  This way ensures that each ice chunk gets some salt which will freeze the ice cream faster.  Lots of recipes say to just pour the salt on top of the ice but it doesn’t work nearly as well.