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I can remember times from my childhood better than I can remember what I had for lunch yesterday. One fond memory from some 60 years ago is getting together with my cousins at the home of my next door neighbors, who happened to be my grandparents.

A summer highlight was making homemade ice cream. Nothing fancy about it. We met on the concrete slab in the backyard which, many years later, I learned was a wooden door covered with cement that covered the septic tank. I may not have jumped rope on the slab had I known that.

The cousins took turns sitting on the wooden ice cream maker as one of the uncles kept adding ice and salt while others took turns cranking. Some cousins were not yet heavy enough to do the job but I never was turned away.

It seemed like forever until the cranking became too difficult, signaling that the wait was almost over. What a special delight it was to sit on the porch, laughing and eating ice cream with family.

Nowadays, making ice cream is much easier. There are electric machines and insulated containers you simply put in the freezer. You can even find plastic balls to kick around the room and freeze the contents.

A handy freezing container is a metal loaf pan. The ice cream will freeze faster in metal than in glass, and it is best to place the pan in the freezer before filling.

Most homemade ice cream recipes call for vanilla extract for good reason. Extracts are federally required to be at least 35% alcohol. The alcohol lowers the freezing point, making the ice cream more scoopable and less likely to form ice crystals.

You can avoid the alcohol by using vanilla flavoring instead of extract, but you will sacrifice some flavor. Even better is a vanilla bean so you get those yummy little vanilla specks.

Vanilla ice cream with various toppings is always a good choice for offering variety, but add-ins can make the ice cream special. Remember, your add-ins will freeze so care should be taken to add smaller chopped pieces. A whole, rock-hard M & M can take away from the fun of eating the ice cream.

Both of our recipes today are frozen without an ice cream maker. Heavy whipping cream and heavy cream are the same, but whipping cream is different with lower milk fat content. If your ice cream recipe calls for milk, whole milk works best.

Our first ice cream recipe, from foodiecrush.com, is quick and creamy, and the second recipe, from mentalfloss.com, freezes in a Mason jar and might require more than one person doing the shaking.

Have a wonderful week and happy eating.

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Beat whipping cream to stiff peaks. Whisk together sweetened condensed milk and vanilla; gently fold in the whipped cream slowly so as to stay aerated. Freeze in metal loaf pan 4 to 6 hours. Yields 10 servings.

Mix all ingredients in a 16-ounce Mason jar. Secure lid and shake vigorously 4 to 5 minutes. Mixture is ready to freeze when it has doubled in size and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Freeze 3 hours. Yields 4 servings.

Cheryle Finley is a food columnist for The Joplin Globe. Address correspondence to Cheryle Finley, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, MO 64802.

Cheryle Finley is a food columnist for The Joplin Globe. Address correspondence to Cheryle Finley, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, MO 64802.

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