I love ice cream. My #1 Comfort Food. Doesn't matter if it's snowing or 40 below. I never met an ice cream I didn't like (well, perhaps one flavor).
Ice cream may be produced in factories today, but it was originally a back-porch homemade treat.
"In 1843, New England housewife Nancy Johnson invented the hand-cranked ice cream churn. She patented her invention but lacked the resources to make and market it herself. Johnson sold the patent for $200 to a Philadelphia kitchen wholesaler who, by 1847, made enough ice cream makers to satisfy the high demand. From 1847 to 1877, more than 70 improvements to ice cream makers were patented." [source]
Excerpt: (California, 1895)
LUKE STOOD
inside the kitchen, watching Garth and Mitzi through the screen door. They sat
side by side on the porch swing. Garth moved the swing to and fro with a gentle
push of his feet.
Luke
couldn’t see Mitzi’s face from his vantage point, but he knew she enjoyed the
ice cream immensely. He’d tasted the treat delivered by the creamery. Plump,
fresh cherries, frozen in sweet cream with plenty of sugar. Mitzi had been
delighted.
Satisfaction
swelled in his old heart.
By
Jupiter, it felt good to give the dear girl a bit of happiness.
Garth,
idiot that he was, may have ordered Luke to cease and desist with the presents.
Luke had thought about it, for all of about five minutes.
He’d
believed that eventually Garth would do his duty and court his own wife. Until
then, somebody had to do it for him.
‘You
can’t teach an old man to suck eggs,’ Luke had wanted to say. Who was Garth to
question his father’s experience? Did he think he could tell his dad something
he didn’t already know?
Luke
had lived through two wars and survived a gold rush. More importantly, he’d
been a husband for twenty-two glorious years. A pang of loneliness tightened
about his heart. He’d been around plenty long enough to understand how a
courtship ought to progress.
Garth
may have ordered him to stop giving presents, to stop meddling, but Luke knew
better. Besides, ice cream didn’t count. It was food, not a bauble and
certainly not meddling.
On
the porch, he heard Mitzi’s moans of pleasure. Luke grinned at her little-girl
delight. Until tonight, the poor thing hadn’t ever tasted ice cream.
Imagine
that. Ice cream. He shook his head, amazed at the simple life she’d
lived.
Silhouetted
against the setting sun, Luke watched with pleasure as Mitzi rested her head on
Garth’s shoulder. From this distance, he couldn’t quite hear what they talked
about, but they were talking. That was good enough to ease an old man’s
concerns.
Cora
stepped up to his side, her tread light on the kitchen floor. She folded her
arms and watched the young couple for a minute, perhaps two. “You did a good
thing, Luke. A very good thing.”
Yes,
he had. The more he saw of Mitzi and Garth together, the more he knew he’d done
the right thing.
They
looked like a husband and wife, and the image made Luke grin.
A
husband. He’d made his boy a husband.
He
wanted to jump up and down, hoot and holler with the thrill of victory—but that
would interrupt the most domestic, tender thing he’d ever seen going on out on
the porch swing.
An
idea came to mind, a most exciting thought. It wasn’t a gift, he rationalized.
Merely her due. Mitzi was a Wakefield, not a nun. She deserved more than a
plain gold wedding band. If Garth had found Mitzi on his own, he would’ve wooed
her with a diamond the size of a quail egg.
If
Garth knew how to court properly, he would’ve bought Mitzi a diamond already.
The boy would appreciate a little help getting the shopping done.
“I
need a woman’s opinion,” he said to Cora.
“Oh?”
“Tomorrow
morning, you and I are visiting the jeweler.”
Copyright © 2013 Kristin Holt, LC
| OLD FASHIONED ICE CREAM [credit] | |
1 c. whipping cream
1 c. milk
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 children (or more)
1 lb. coffee can
3 lb. coffee can
Ice
3/4 c. salt (rock or kosher works best)
Put
all ingredients in a 1 pound coffee can with a tight fitting plastic
lid. Place this can inside a 3 pound coffee can with a tight-fitting
plastic lid. Pack space between cans with crushed ice. Add 3/4 cup of
salt over the ice. Place the lid on the 3 pounds can and roll back and
forth on the cement or floor (that won't scratch) for about 10 minutes.Open
the big can and remove the smaller can; wipe the outside of the can and
lid and open to scrape down the sides and stir ice cream. Put the lid
back on and put it back into the salt and ice and continue rolling for
another 5 to 10 minutes. Open and enjoy. Serves 2 to 4.
|
