Fun Facts about Ice Cream Sandwiches -- National Ice Cream Sandwich Day!

Did you know today is Ice Cream Sandwich Day? To celebrate here are some fun facts about ice cream sandwiches and at the end there is a round-up of recipes to try!

I Scream! You Scream! We All Scream for Ice Cream!

So we love ice cream in our house. My dear husband often eats it every night (he use to barely eat it and then after an illness started eating it all the time). The other day at the store Hazel and I saw a small ice cream maker for around $10. We bought it since Hazel wanted to try to make ice cream.

Now as a child, I remember making ice cream with my family. It was a big ordeal and we always made it in the winter so we could use snow instead of ice to cool it. Of course our old ice cream maker made a good amount and it was huge. It was the size of a normal household bucket to clean with and had a huge crank on top. I don't remember how much ice cream it made, but it was enough to feed the five of us. Hazel's ice cream maker makes enough to feed the two of us, but we shared some with Daddy as well. Over the weekend we tried the recipe that came with the maker for vanilla ice cream. (I'll admit I questioned the small amount of sugar and vanilla, but figured the makers should know a good recipe--they didn't.)

Original Recipe Mixing

The recipe was to mix 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of cream, 1 teaspoon of sugar and a couple of drops of vanilla in a bowl and put it in the refrigerator for an hour. Then prepare the drum of the mixer with 5 ounces of salt, 1/2 cup of cold water and fill the rest with ice. Set up maker and then pour three-quarters of your mixture in and turn and turn and turn. Once it begins to form ice cream pour remaining mixture in. Well we did all of this and it tasted like frozen milk. Not very delicious. Oh, well.

New Recipe Mixing

So I searched the internet for a better recipe. I found several recipes, but this one on All Recipes was closest to our failed one and All Recipes was nice enough to have a button to scale it to the same amount of milk and cream as the original. So we used 1/2 cup of milk (fat free since that is what we have), 1/2 cup heavy cream, 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Then we put it in the refrigerator. We mixed it yesterday and then got too busy to finish it, so we finished it today.

Hazel helped me today prepare the maker. We measured the 5 ounces of salt and then she added the 1/2 cup of cold water. Then we added the ice cubes. She had fun adding these.

Then we closed the drum and put it in the machine and put the top and scaper on the machine. Then we poured 3/4 of the mixture in and Hazel started to turn and turn.

After a little while she got bored turning, so I took over. Then I added the last part of the mixture and then we started to get ice cream! And this time it actually tasted good!

Ok, I know there have been many posts about making ice cream in a plastic bag. I found a link at About.com with the instructions as well as a good explanation of the science behind it. Teachnet.com has a similar post but also includes the history of who founded ice cream. And for a little fun here is an ice cream flavor personality quiz. Science News For Kids offers some books to check out on ice cream. I'm going to check them out from our library. Science News For Kids also has an interesting article talking about the nutritional values of ice cream, etc. and has percentages of favorite flavors and a link to a word find.

So what is your favorite flavor? Mine has always been strawberry.


This is where I share...

Ice Cream Shop--Dramatic Play

While touring a school yesterday (this is part of the stress and such I have been dealing with), Hazel had the best time playing with the ice cream shop that was set up in the PreK classroom. I promised her that if we continued the tour and left the room we would set one up at home. The set up in the classroom was simple--tins with large pom poms as scoops of ice cream labeled with ice cream flavors, two ice cream scoops, bowls, an empty root beer bottle and fancy cups for the root beer floats, spoons, a cash register and a telephone and a blackboard with the prices and such.

Bowl of Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

We of course did it with a bit more creativity. I added black dots to the white pom poms to make chocolate chip ice cream. (Hazel has informed me I need to make some cookie dough ice cream next.) We also thought about some toppings.

Using smaller pom poms for cherries, marshmallows, nuts, chocolate chips and tiny pom poms for candies. Then we put some longer skinny beads in a sprinkle jar for rainbow sprinkles.

Bowl of Chocolate Ice Cream with Sprinkles

Oh, the classroom also had some plastic ice cream cones. It took us awhile to find something to use, but we found these scented bubble ones. Our plan is to dump out the bubble liquids into our supplies for outside and just keep the ice cream cones. We need to do this with our "soda" bottle as well.

I bought her two scoops at the Dollar Tree as well as the plastic bowls. I found chocolate colored pom poms at Michaels and then discovered A.C. Moore had bags that only had the two inch pom poms in them (but no browns). We also found our sign/placemat at the Christmas Tree Shop. I added Hazel's nickname and shop to it.

Then I printed labels for the ice cream containers. I invaded our Tuperware cabinet and also picked up some at the Dollar Tree.

She now has nine flavors: strawberry, vanilla, black raspberry, blue raspberry, blueberry lemonade, chocolate, chocolate chip, orange sherbet, and lemon sherbet. Oh, and apparently she has an assistant.

But be careful when ordering, the assistant likes to attack feet if they get too close.

Hazel has no idea what a root beer float is, but she had to have the glasses like the classroom did. So we bought a few and got the bubble stuff in a "soda" bottle.

Root Beer Float

I tried to explain it to her, but since she has never liked anything to drink that is carbonated she really does not know what soda is.

Black Raspberry with Nuts

Now this is her favorite thing to play. She told me in bed tonight that she could not wait to play ice cream shop in the morning. 

Chocolate Ice Cream with a Cherry on Top

I think my activity tonight will be to find the instructions for felt popsicles I once saw on-line. 

Adding Sprinkles to Strawberry Ice Cream

Oh, and she is packing some of it up so she can take it in a truck and go around town. Her truck is a series of chairs and things all lined up behind her rocking horse (which she is really too big for but will not let us put it away). 

Ok, off to find some popsicle patterns. Have a great night/day! Do you want some ice cream?

National Ice Cream Day = Easy Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

Source

Did you know that July 15 is National Ice Cream Day? I read it in Parents Magazine. (Apparently it is also Cow Appreciation Day and Tapioca Pudding Day, but I won't be celebrating those. Source) National Ice Cream Day apparently came about thanks to President Ronald Reagan who also named July National Ice Cream Month and picked the third Sunday of the month to be National Ice Cream Day. Many of the ice cream retailers will have specials including some free ice cream. Check yours locally.

To celebrate we made an easy homemade strawberry ice cream. I know I saw this somewhere and cannot find where it was. So if it was your blog, please let me know so I can link to it. Since I could not find my original source I went and googled it and found it at All Recipes. 

You take a package of frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup of sugar and 2/3 cup of heavy cream. 

Put them in your food processor and process. That is it. Then enjoy!!

We certainly did!

We also enjoyed a few books about ice cream.

The Full Scoop by Gail Gibbons is a great book that explains how ice cream is made and some history of it. It is the only one I found that actually was not just about factory made ice cream.

And of course, Curious George and the Ice Cream Surprise is always a favorite! 












 This is where I share...

Fairy & Ice Cream Party Updates

Disclosure:  Some of the links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

I am finally stopping to catch up after the holidays and Hazel's birthday. Today I am going to share some of the details of her two birthday parties. First we always have a family and adult and younger kid party for her birthday. This year we decided on an ice cream theme. I made invitations with My Memories Suite.

Summertime Fun Ideas from Oriental Trading

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to the products for your convenience but do not receive anything if you buy from them.

So one of the things that got me going on our Summertime Fun Series is this amazing review for Oriental Trading. We picked out a variety of things to review to bring different summertime activities to you. Hope you will try some of them out.

Happy Family Times #4

We are having beautiful weather this week so on Saturday afternoon when Daddy returned from hanging with the guys, we decided to go get some ice cream. We have a local place, Richardson's Ice Cream,  that makes homemade ice cream and sells their own milk. They have cows and other animals as well. We headed there. It takes 15-20 minutes to get there and tired Hazel fell asleep in the car, but we woke her when we got there.

Hazel wanted an ice cream cone, so she got one. I think this is the first time I have seen her eat an ice cream cone. I'm not sure if my mother-in-law has given them to her or not though. She made a bit of a mess around her face, hands and shirt, but had fun. She didn't want it all so Daddy ate the rest of it. After eating the ice cream we headed over to see the cows and animals.

They have a fenced in section right behind the ice cream stand/market where they have the older calves. It was a bit crowded there so we headed over to see the baby ones first.

The babies have their own little houses and have a section where they stay for the first eight weeks (I think that is what the sign said). Then a small part of their area has the chickens and turkeys. The rooster was roaming free around the cows and outside the hen house.

Daddy finished his and Hazel's ice cream and joined us while we were looking at the birds.

The crowd that was at the older calves came over so we switched spots with them and checked out the older ones. They also had some goats (looks likes kids to me) there.

Then we headed over to the cow barn. The first part is reserved for the very pregnant cows who will give birth in the next few weeks.

Then there are the rest of the adult cows. Most of them seemed to be sleeping.

Then we headed back to see the babies and chickens.

And the male turkey was out strutting himself to impress the female.

We looked for a quarter so Hazel could feed the animals, but we didn't have any. Oh, well. Next time. It was a fun family time and we always love their ice cream!

Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

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Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!

Lorena and the Magic Mocha Mirror -- #ReadYourWorld Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in order to provide an honest review. All opinions are my own.

It is January and that means #ReadYourWorld Day is coming!! This year I am one of the book reviewers once again. I believe I may have missed one year but have been reviewing books for almost every one of the fourteen years! Today we are sharing our first book for the 2026 day. It is Lorena and the Magic Mocha Mirror by Valerie Williams-Sanchez. It is recommended for ages 6 to 8 and the second edition is Dyslexia-friendly! Before we get to our review, we will share a bit about Read Your World.

Doll Ice Creams and Sundaes

Now in this hot weather I know we like to have ice cream and as a child I loved sundaes! Well with the heat and humidity we have been having, Hazel's dolls wanted to have a sundae party! I was inspired by the Miniature Sundaes over at Making Friends. I bought clear shot classes at the Dollar Tree and a package of small red pom poms for the cherries. Then I invaded Hazel's ice cream shop. Since Hazel does not like hot fudge or chocolate sauce on her ice cream (I know, strange), I made some without any chocolate sauce and some with it.

I glued a pink for strawberry and a brown for chocolate large pom pom to the bottom of a glass. Then I glued a white large pom pom on top of it for the whipped cream. Then I added the small red pom pom cherries. I showed them to Hazel and she asked for sprinkles, so I found her sprinkle beads and glued each one on. 

For the hot fudge sundaes I experimented with some brown paint. (I used acrylic since it was what I had.) I first tried just putting it on the top of the ice cream pom pom (I used beige for vanilla). However it just really sat there and also absorbed into the whipped cream pom pom. For the other two, I poured the paint onto the inside sides of the glasses before gluing the ice cream pom pom. This worked much better for looks. We have my favorite strawberry ice cream with hot fudge and a plain vanilla with hot fudge. Now Hazel's dolls are all set to party! They can use the spoons that came with their tea set to eat them! Stay tuned for doll milk shakes. 

For more doll ideas check out:

• DIY Doll Sandals
• DIY No-Sew Doll Purse
• Cheap Doll Items to Buy or Make
• DIY Doll Pencil 
• Doll Mermaid Tail (Tutorial Coming Soon)
• Leather Doll Clothes
• Easy Doll Clothes to Sew New or From Baby Clothes
• Baby Doll Clothes and Changing Area
• Making a Waldorf Doll
• My Doll Clothes and Craft Pinterest Board