Cold Stone Creamery

With the kids out of school and with the temperatures, finally, on the rise, it will only be a matter of time before you hear the first screams of summer: "Moooooooommy, my ice cream is dripping!"

Enter Cold Stone Creamery. The company known for its staff of singing ice cream scoopers is coming to the rescue of parents, whose frozen treat loving kids, can't lick fast enough to prevent massive meltdowns.

Cold Stone just announced that it is working with Jell-O to create a non-melting ice cream. According to the folks at Cold Stone, their product will remain creamy at ice-cold temperatures, and as it warms up, instead of melting, it will develop a pudding-like consistency.

Translation: No more kids standing in puddles of vanilla with sticky streaks of ice cream traced on their arms and legs.

The new non-melting ice cream will be available at select Cold Stone locations beginning next month.

Mark your calendars!

Trucks with Music

Is there a better way to welcome "SUMMER"

than sitting on the front steps eating ice cream

delights that are hand-picked from the

ice cream truck?!

Ice Cream Revisited

Well, we finally tried the ice cream in a bag recipe that I blogged about on June 5th. It was received with mixed reviews. The kids thought the process -- which took approximately 6-10 minutes from beginning to end -- took entirely too long. Hello?! Homemade ice cream in less than 10 mins is hardly an eternity. They also found the ice cream to be a bit too bland for their delicate palates -- which was almost amusing when you take into consideration that they usually ONLY LIKE PLAIN OLD VANILLA and that is exactly what we made.

Oh well... at least I liked it! (C wouldn't even try it.)

I will try it again in a few weeks. I am trying to chalk the odd experience up to the children being on sensory overload after such a busy, chaotic weekend.

By The Way...

Last Thursday, I posted a homemade ice cream in a bag recipe with the high hopes of trying it out with the children over the weekend. I never quite got around to that ambitious plan. And somehow I don't think I will get to it this weekend either. I will be jetting off for a long weekend in Vegas with my fabulous husband on Fri. Can't wait!!! Guess the ice cream plans will just need to wait a bit longer...

Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag

I saw this recipe for Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag on Family Fun a while ago and I've been meaning to do it with the kids. Maybe this weekend I can drag myself to the store and get the ingredients! (We all know that's not going to happen, but let me dream a bit.)

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup salt (The bigger the granules, the better. Kosher or rock salt works best, but table salt is fine.)
Ice cubes (enough to fill each gallon-size bag about half full)
1 pint-size ziplock bag
1 gallon-size ziplock bag

1. Combine the sugar, half and half, and vanilla extract in the pint-size bag and seal it tightly.

2. Place the salt and ice in the gallon-size bag, then place the sealed smaller bag inside as well. Seal the larger bag. Now shake the bags until the mixture hardens (about 5 minutes). Feel the small bag to determine when it's done.

3. Take the smaller bag out of the larger one, add mix-ins, and eat the ice cream right out of the bag. Easy cleanup too! Serves 1.

Note: One of the commenters on Family Fun said she adjusted the recipe for her pre-k class: My class (18) each had their own bag and I used 1/2 C. whole milk, 1 tbsp. sugar, 1/4 tsp. vanilla each bag.

If you have tried this, let me know what you think!