But as much as I enjoy ice cream, I'm not indiscriminate. I have no interest in brands like Blue Bunny that pack their cartons with a lot of fillers and dare to call it ice cream. The big cheater corporations can keep their high fructose corn syrup, fractionated palm kernel oil, artificial flavors, titanium dioxide, potassium sorbate, and propylene glycol monoesters. Talk about Franken-food! And that's just a short list of all the weird stuff that shows up on carton labels. Why do they use all of that jibberish junk? Because it's cheap. Cushy on the wallet, maybe, but don't let them fool you. Cheap food cheats our health, and ice cream is no exception.
If you've ever made your own, you know how simple ice cream really is. At its heart are cream and sugar, period. And to fancy it up, we need look no farther than the fruits of nature. Vanilla beans, peaches, berries, and cocoa are the flavors we dream of, so why accept anything less? Right now, there's one brand of ice cream available in our corner of Arkansas that I'll buy without question—Alden's Organic (at Nature's Way in Mountain Home), but since they only offer a few flavors, you have to get creative and add your own. You can get decent ice cream from Haggen Daz, Breyers, Starbucks, and Ben and Jerry's at Wal-Mart, but not all flavors are free of unsavory additives, and each of those companies are known to be unscrupulous in one way or another. As always, my favorite option is homemade all the way. If only I had a cow...
Anyway, over the years, my family has gone through a handful of ice cream makers. Since we don't like to skimp on quality food, I admit that we skimped on these machines instead. We'd grab whatever sale-priced electric machine was offered at the local Wal-Mart, and by the end of the season, the machine wouldn't work anymore. I'm betting that if we'd originally bought a decent model, we might still have it. And if I intended on buying one now, I'd search out a reputable hand-powered churn, skipping the electricity altogether. But since an ice cream machine isn't in our budget this summer, I looked for a way to make ice cream without one, and I found a method that's so simple it's almost silly. Kids get a kick out of this nifty low-tech technique, and you can even do it while camping. Since it only makes about a quart of ice cream, it might be fun to let each person make their own—great for a birthday party activity. Dig in!
Easy Homemade Ice Cream-in-a-Bag
Here's what you need:
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream (or half-and-half if you want to lighten up)
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ cup sugar (or more to taste)
About 4 cups ice
1 cup coarse/rock salt
1 cup cold water
1 quart-sized freezer bag that seals
1 gallon-sized freezer bag that seals
Mixing bowl
Mixing spoon
Towel or gloves
Here's what you do:
1. Mix milk, cream, vanilla, and sugar in a bowl.
2. Pour the mixture into your quart-sized bag.
3. Carefully squeeze out the excess air, and seal the bag.
4. Put the quart-sized bag into the gallon-sized bag and gently pack it in with ice, water, and salt.
5. Squeeze the air out of the big bag and seal.
6. Gently toss the bag up and down for about 10 minutes (pass it around to share the work). Use a towel or gloves—the bag gets cold!
7. When the ice cream has thickened, serve it. Homemade ice cream doesn't fare well for long in the freezer, so it's best to eat it quick.
Once you've made this basic vanilla recipe, you can go wild with additions like blended fruit, chocolate chips, a pinch of peppermint extract, unsweetened cocoa powder (¼ cup or more according to taste), or cookies (Newman-Os, the organic version of Oreos work perfectly). I suggest adding already chilled goodies to the quart bag, then sealing the bags back up and tossing a bit longer to firm up again.
Wash and re-use your plastic bags to save money and precious planetary resources.
Related News:
Organic Dairy Family Farmers Need Support
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) has called for a boycott of bogus organic dairy brands such as Horizon and Aurora (suppliers to Wal-Mart, Safeway and other giant chains), who have inundated the market with misleadingly labeled "organic" milk produced on factory farms. Recently, the situation has worsened as organic feed prices have increased and recession-pummeled consumers have cut back on the amount of organic milk they are purchasing. The result is a surplus of organic milk, depressed milk prices, and an increasing number of organic dairy farmers across the U.S. being driven into bankruptcy. Consumers can support ethical organic dairy farmers and preserve organic integrity by boycotting Horizon and Aurora products and instead supporting local organic farmers and dairy cooperatives like Organic Valley (whose milk, butter, and cheese is available at Nature's Way in Mountain Home). Learn more online at: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18096.cfm
A multi-year research study by The Cornucopia Institute created a scorecard, posted on its website (
1 comments:
It's nice to see that consumers do care about where their organic products come from. Add Stoneyfield Farms milk to your list of phony organic products. They are dropping family farms in favor of cheap "organic" milk from factory farms in Texas and Arkansas. This is a devastating blow to many family farms across the country. Hood markets the Stoneyfield milk. Stoneyfield yogurt is a different company that does support its family farms. Consumers should know.
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