Crafty Moms Share: ice cream

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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!

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.

Sorbet Floats--Summer Celebrations or Perfect Drinks for a Frozen Party

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We are in the middle of Labor Day weekend here in the United States. It is the unofficial end to summer. Hazel starts school this week and she is not happy about it. To celebrate summer, say an end or just for fun, we made some sorbet floats. Now this idea started when we were out to dinner with my parents at the Rock Harbor Grill. We looked at the dessert menu after dinner even though none of us could eat another bite and I saw a blueberry sorbet IBC cream soda float. I was tempted, but then noticed all desserts were $8 and figured we could make it cheaper at home. I bought a six pack of IBC cream soda and then searched for blueberry sorbet. I finally found some in one of those serve yourself frozen yogurt places. We bought a small cup of it and made the floats.

Now since this was a summer celebration we used our umbrella straws. I could totally see Olaf drinking this in his dream of summer. Since we did not have much sorbet, we only needed one bottle of soda for the two drinks. Hazel loved it! (Now she has yet to like any of the drinks with bubbles in it previously.)

I finally got her to take the straw out of her mouth and told her to smile to show she liked it, but the smile didn't quite happen.

Now one of the best things of these floats is it is made with sorbet which is dairy free so Hazel can have them without worry of the dairy issues! We had some raspberry sorbet in the freezer, so we tried that the next day. We put in a lot of sorbet the first time we made them and not quite as much so it could have a chance to melt. We talked about the sorbet being like frozen hearts from Disney's Frozen. So we decided this would be a fun punch to make for her Frozen party.

Hazel has been asking for these every night now. We are not quite as fancy as the first ones. Needless to say we love them.

My favorite is when the sorbet is really starting to melt and you can taste the fruit mixed well with the soda. So that is our summer celebration/Disney Frozen inspired drinks. Goodbye, summer!! We will miss you!!

For more Frozen inspired things check out:

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:

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?

Mommy and Daughter Day

Do you have a great homemade Mother's Day gift idea? Share it here!

I know I promised another Mexican Cinderella post this week and here it is Monday's post and time for my Fairy Tales in Different Cultures post, but I decided to wait this week since we did not do the crafting I had hoped over the weekend. So stay tuned for the Mexican Cinderella coming soon with (hopefully) some great Cinco de Mayo crafts.

This weekend was a bit hectic. It was Stewardship Sunday at my church and since I head the Stewardship Ministries Team, I was in charge. Luckily I have a wonderful committee with many talents and many other volunteers to help. We did our final push on the campaign and then provided a luncheon. It went well, but I am tired.

Yesterday, Steve went hiking with some of his friends from work, so Hazel and I had an entire Saturday to spend alone. The only thing we had to do was be at the church at 1 p.m. to set up for the luncheon. I had also received a message from my aunt. Her step-granddaughter needed help with a Flat Stanley school project. We decorated Flat Stanley (though we made her a girl so we call her Flat Sophia) and took her a few places to take some pictures. More on Flat Stanley another day since I thought a blog project to do with it. We stopped at the library to get a Flat Stanley book and found out there was a Mother Goose Story Time starting in five minutes so we stayed for it. Then we went to run our other errands and go to Lakeshore Learning for their free craft. Now it was after noon, so we headed home for a quick lunch and then to get to church. I bribed Hazel into helping at the church with ice cream afterwards.

We headed to the local ice cream place/farm. Hazel wanted to check out all the animals, so we both got frappes (the Boston term for a milkshake) and walked around. We stopped in the middle section to see the cows and goats.

Then we headed over to the calf nursery. We had a fun time checking out the calves.

Next to the nursery is the poultry cage. They didn't have the food machine out yet, but the male turkey had his feathers up trying to impress the female. Hazel said he impressed her. The female turkey did not seem too impressed though.

Then we headed over to the big cow barn. This farm sells the milk and ice cream from their milk of their own cows. The first door of the big barn is the section reserved for the very pregnant cows--to birth in two to three weeks. We found one little baby sitting with its mother there as well.

Then the next two doors have the other cows. We found a few grooming themselves and these cows seemed hungry or at least were very interested in all the people at the doors. They came over to say hi and Hazel thought they got a bit too close (as did another girl who had gotten licked by one).

Hazel was almost licked by the mostly white one. We were petting them on the noses. Her tongue was the same color as her--white with black spots. Of course our favorite picture was of the cows kissing.

We saw the ones in the middle again. One was getting a drink this time.

Then we bought some milk and frozen yogurt to take home for Daddy. Hazel fell asleep in the car. She hadn't been sleeping well this week since I had so many meetings at night. She slept for a couple of hours and I took a nap as well. Then Steve came home and we went out to dinner, but the wait was too long, so we ordered take-out and sat at the bar while we waited. Hazel thought it was fun to sit at the bar and drink apple juice from a fancy glass. Then we headed home and had some dinner and went to bed. That was our fun Saturday!! The best part is we got outside for the afternoon!

Happy Family Times #26--Family Walk, Play & Dinner

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Have you and your family done something fun or different this week? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting all of our great family ideas so we can all be inspired to spend more time with our families! Please share yours below.

This week after Hazel's second day of school, we decided to go on a scavenger hunt at a local state reservation. However Hazel was a bit tired from school so we kept putting it off and decided to wait for Daddy to get home. He agreed to go with us, however we did not plan for the early sunset and the mosquitoes. So we did not get too far on our walk/scavenger hunt. We did however find some neat holes that we were guessing what could live there (well and wondering who would throw their trash there), a huge rock, and a maple leaf and an oak leaf.

Going into the woods only a short bit, we turned around and headed to the Visitor's Center. Of course this was after a bug flew into my eye and Steve had to get it out. Not fun. Then we headed for the small playground. (The big playground is by the lake and about a mile walk from the parking lot.) We let Hazel play for a bit.

She was very excited that she could climb the "rock" wall since she could not last year. And one of the most exciting things for Hazel was sliding down the pole. We had to help her get on it, but she loved sliding down it and did a happy pole dance after the first time!

Steven noticed the back of the "rock" wall the dinosaur skeleton imprint. It is the first time we ever noticed it. After playing for a bit, we headed to a local pizza place for some dinner. Hazel has discovered their ice cream freezer and always wants one after dinner there. As you can see she enjoyed it!

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!!

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...

Friendship, Readathon, Book Clubs and More

Today I thought I would share a bit about friendship. It is the theme of the Readathon 2012 Week 2. Did you know that 1256 readers have signed up so they have donated over 1256 meals to hungry kids via FoodforEducation.org? (If you want to join just click on the Readathon 2012 button above and for each reader that joins a meal is donated!) For more information and some links to different friendship crafts and activities go to MeMeTales.

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...

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

Summertime Fun Ideas from Oriental Trading