Getting Real With Wanda Morrissey
When my friends found out what I asked for, and got, for Mother’s Day, they all thought that I was nuts. There reaction ranged from “you wanted an appliance”, said in a tone of complete disbelief, to “won’t that just make more work for you”. Well, yes and no, it’s not really work if it’s something you enjoy.
I got an ice cream maker for Mother’s Day. And, no matter what others think, I really like my ice cream maker. I have fond childhood memories of homemade ice cream. The maker my parents owned was a huge monster of a thing. I remember my parents putting it in the kitchen sink to help minimize the mess. My mom would fill the cylinder with all the ingredients and then mom and dad would take turns stuffing ice or snow, if it was winter, around it to keep it cold as it mixed. If too much ice got packed in, the cylinder would get stuck and then my dad would mutter not nice things under his breath as he tried to get it going again. All the while, my sister, brother and I would be chirping in the background, “Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet?”. It took a couple of hours for the ice cream to set up enough to eat. But, oh man, that was the best ice cream ever.
I wanted my son to have the same memories so that’s why I wanted an ice cream maker. My maker is a lot different from my parents. It’s compact and I don’t need loads of ice (or snow). I freeze the cylinder over night, then mix up the ingredients and let them chill for a couple of hours, pour the mixture into the cylinder, put it into the machine and 20 minutes later you have ice cream. I wasn’t disappointed. My son was so excited the first time I made ice cream, I thought he would bounce out of his skin before it was finished.
I’ve made two batches of ice cream so far, one chocolate and one vanilla. They didn’t last long. Next I want to try coffee flavoured; my parents used to make great coffee ice cream with their ice cream maker and I saw a recipe online for avocado ice cream that looked really tasty. I think the ice cream maker is already a huge success. It’s already making great ice cream and great memories.
