Summer Time Is Home Made Ice Cream Time

Being a native Texan, everyone assumes I like the heat. The truth is, I like the air conditioning. But if I do have to be in the heat, I can always dream about a nice bowl of fresh-out-of-the-maker home made ice cream.
Homemade ice cream always brings back childhood memories of my dad getting out the old hand-cranked maker, the big stainless steel bowl for mixing the raw eggs, cream, sugar and vanilla. He would be a little secretive while he was making his delicious concoction, but all of us kids didn’t mind. You always knew it was going to be good. Dad would get the bananas from the store that were just getting the brown spots on them. He would make a large batch of banana ice cream. The method of adding the bananas wasn’t much of a secret in dad’s process. I was nominated to sit on the crank while my older brother and dad would take turns winding that thing around. Before the mixture came completely together, dad would stop, open up the can, and add those bananas, mixing them in well. Next he or my brother would crank until it wouldn’t crank any more.
You could see the family lining up, bowl and spoon in hand. Since I had been so helpful to sit on the crank, I would get first shot at the ice cream, unless there was some special dignitary present; someone like the pastor or visiting relatives. I liked going first, it meant I would probably get seconds if I hurried.
Often we would have family that would bring their hand-crank makers over and we’d have two batches going at once. That’s when I discovered flavors like fresh peach, and strawberry. After I had gotten older, and I was the ‘visiting relative’, we’d still get some homemade frozen desserts, but the old hand crank was gone, and electricity took the place of arm power. That was a very good step of progress, mainly because I was too big to sit on the crank style.
Dad made a batch of chocolate ice cream on one of my visits. It was so good that I have been a chocolate ice cream maven since. I rarely have just plain vanilla, unless it is for a la mode. I also know that dad didn’t use any vanilla when making his chocolate dessert. He said, “If you want vanilla, then why am I making chocolate?” His statement didn’t make sense at the time, but many years later, I got to taste a real ice cream chocolate shake at a restaurant that reminded me of dad’s chocolate ice cream. I asked them how it was made, and they showed me. Blue Bell™ chocolate, chocolate milk, AND Hershey’s™ chocolate syrup. Wow, that was good.
So the next time you go out for a real ice cream chocolate shake, don’t let them ruin it with vanilla.