Nothing screams summer like homemade ice cream

By Jacki Wood

Editor’s note: this is the last in a series of articles about summer ideas found on our Pinterest page.

July is National Ice Cream Month, but no special designation is needed to know that summer is a perfect time for ice cream.

Growing up, from Memorial Day to Independence Day to Labor Day, my family enjoyed making homemade ice cream when we all got together. So ending this series with ice cream seemed appropriate.

My husband and kids helped me with these three recipes, ice cream in a bag, Jell-O sherbet and strawberry frozen yogurt.

As a bonus, there’s no need for an ice cream maker for any of them.

Ice Cream in a Bag

This idea combines fun and flavor. From the Growing a Jeweled Rose blog: “Kids love making ice cream in a bag because they can actually make the ice cream by running around.”

We’ve tried a slightly different variation before, ice cream in a can, where we rolled a can back and forth between two people. So we thought this would be fun and it was.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 C. heavy whipping cream or half and half

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 2 1/2 tsp. sugar

• 6 T. coarse kosher salt

• ice cubes

Directions:

Place the ingredients into a tightly sealed sandwich bag, pressing the air out as you seal it. Place the bag into another tightly sealed sandwich bag. Fill a gallon bag half full of ice and mix with kosher salt. Put the sealed sandwich bag into the larger bag and seal it. You can also double up on gallon bags, especially if you have little ones.

Then get moving. You need to shake the bag for five to 10 minutes. You can run and play tag, toss the bag to each other or just stand and shake it.

Then enjoy. Eat it straight out of the bag or put it in a dish.

Jell-O Sherbet

I’d never thought about making sherbet until I saw this from SmartSchoolHouse.com. I put Hannah in charge of this one and she really enjoyed making it. It’s very sweet but probably the best sherbet I’ve ever had. Just make sure the gelatin dissolves completely.

It calls for Junket ice cream mix, which I had never heard of, but found near the Jell-O section at the store. Also, we picked three flavors instead of four: lemon, berry blue and raspberry.

Ingredients:

• Junket ice cream mix in very vanilla

• 1 1/4 C. whole milk

• 3/4 C. heavy whipping cream

• Jell-O: berry blue, orange, raspberry, lime or whatever flavors you desire

Directions:

Place four glass bowls in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Combine the Junket ice cream mix with the whole milk and heavy whipping cream. Stir until dissolved. Pour the mixture into a 9.5 x 5.5 pan and freeze until firm.

Once firm, break into chunks with a fork and put chunks into a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth, about two minutes.

Remove the four glass bowls from the freezer and evenly separate the vanilla ice cream into each of the bowls using a spatula. Put 1/2 T. of the different Jell-O flavors in each bowl, one flavor per bowl, and gently mix with a spoon until fully combined. Do this as fast as you can to prevent the ice cream from melting.

Put the four different ice cream flavors into one container that can be sealed.

Gently use the back of a spoon or spatula to connect the four different piles of ice cream so they freeze as one piece. Put the lid on and let it freeze for one to two hours before eating.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

For healthier fare, this strawberry frozen yogurt from the Feel Great in 8 blog is perfect. It’s simple, quick and good for you.

Ingredients:

• 4 C. frozen strawberries

• 3 T. honey

• 1/2 C. plain Greek yogurt

• 1 T. lime juice

Directions:

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Depending on your blender, you may need to add more juice. Scoop and enjoy.

Additional ideas can be found on the NNL’s “Summer Fun” Pinterest page at pinterest.com/nodawaynews/summer-fun/.