Homemade Ice Cream

I grew up with home-churned ice cream every summer, and I'm not talking pulling out the churn once a summer; it was more like every 2 or 3 weeks!  My dad says this is his "calcium", since he doesn't drink milk. :)  So, I thought I'd share my mom's homemade ice cream recipe since it's ice cream time of year.  First of all, if you don't have a churn, I recommend White Mountain.  They're pretty pricey, but it will last.  (We've tried the Wal-Mart churns before, but they break pretty quickly.)  Maybe put it on your wishlist for Christmas or birthday.

I made strawberry ice cream this weekend, but peach is probably my favorite. (The recipe for both is the same just substitute peaches for the strawberries).

Mix the following in a food processor or blender:

• 4-5 cups strawberries (preferably from the B-N-V)
• 1 quart half & half
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 2 cups sugar (I used a little less & it was fine)

(I also didn't have room in the food processor to mix all of this so I just mixed the sugar and strawberries first, then dumped into a bowl to mix the rest.)

Pour the mixture into the ice cream churn canister and add whole milk to the "fill line" or in our case, the churn isn't to be filled over half full.  Stir.

Let this mixture chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Make sure you have rock salt and plenty of ice on hand.

Place the canister in the churn, and alternate ice and rock salt layers (make sure you have way more ice than rock salt.)

Lock the motor in place and plug it in (preferably outside since it makes lots of noise & the ice/salt mixture leaks as it melts).  It will only take 20-30 minutes before it's ready.

I didn't take any pictures of our ice cream when it was finished, because of course we were too busy eating it.  We had plenty leftover so we put the rest in a freezer container to save for later.  It's not as creamy when it's leftover but still oh so good!