I was thinking today that if someone asked me to pick only one dessert that I could have the rest of my life, what would it be? Hands down I would say ice cream because then I would have unlimited delicious choices of flavors and novelties! Just today I had a wonderful root beer float in downtown Annandale.
It was my duty as this was a school fund-raiser for the cheerleaders. (True confession: I actually had two root beer floats because I brought one home for my son but he was asleep and I didn’t want it to go to waste.) I think I have passed my love of ice cream on to my children as well.
When the Schwan’s truck pulls up they can order by novelty numbers … 013 (orange push-ups) and 044 (chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches) are often called out while he is punching in our order. (Makes a mother proud doesn’t it.) If we happen to miss our Schwan’s day there is often weeping, and it’s not just the kids.
This food fetish I blame on my parents who often had ice cream as a bedtime snack. New York vanilla with Nestles Quik on top. If you let it get all melty and stir it up it’s like a malt in a bowl. I was sharing this story with my son as we were parked at the Peppermint Twist in Delano this week. Whenever we go to Delano I feel it is my personal responsibility to support the Peppermint Twist. If I don’t I am afraid it will close and I don’t know of any other place where you can sit in your car, order over a speakerphone and have a waitress deliver it to the car window. (Just like Happy Days!) It looks kind of goofy with pink painted bears dancing on the lawn, but hands down they serve the best malts in the area.
When I was young there was an A&W Root Beer restaurant in Grand Marais that also served you at your car window. It was a really big deal to get root beer in a teeny tiny frosted mug. Something about a frosty mug adds to the root beer sensation. (Word of advice – do not drink root beer through a tiny straw – it will come out your nose. I speak from experience …)
Some of my greatest memories are also tied to ice cream. Once on a trip to Maine I picked fresh raspberries then ate them with lemon custard ice cream. It tastes so good I also cried.
Eating Dove bars and orange popsicles sitting by a fan at my little house in South Minneapolis … no air conditioning, so I had an excuse to eat as many as I wanted, guilt free!
How about Bananas Foster? (Flaming bananas over vanilla ice cream. Yum!) I joked on Facebook the other day that I should have married a Schwan’s Man. One of my high school friends reminded me that she was married to a Schwan’s man once … they had the most beautiful ice cream babies but the relationship cooled off quickly! Ha!
Seize the moment, eat ice cream.
"Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart."
-Erma Bombeck
Apple ice cream pie
1 large store-bought graham cracker crust
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch chunks
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
11/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
One 12-ounce jar caramel topping
1 quart vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted (optional)
1. Read the package directions on the graham cracker crust and prebake if necessary. You can, of course, use your favorite homemade crust recipe, pressed into a 9-inch pie pan and prebaked. In either case, let the crust cool on a cooling rack while you prepare the apples.
2. Melt the butter in a large nonreactive skillet or sauté pan. Add the apples and cook, stirring, over medium heat until they’re just about tender, five to six minutes. Stir in the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice, cook for another minute or so, and remove from the heat. Let cool.
3. When the apples are almost cool, scrape them and their juice into the pie shell, spreading them evenly in the crust. Without measuring – that’s the fun part, not measuring – slowly pour a little less than half of the bottle of caramel evenly over the apples. Put the pie shell in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up the apples and caramel. When you do this, put the ice cream in the refrigerator to soften it.
4. After 30 minutes, spoon the softened ice cream over the apples, pressing it down and smoothing it out with the back of a fork. Now pour as much of the remaining caramel over the ice cream as you like. Sprinkle the nuts over the top of the pie, and then put the pie back in the freezer for 1 hour to firm it up. Slice and serve.
Ice cream pumpkin pie
1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened
1 (9-inch) pastry shell, baked
1 cup canned or cooked pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dash ground nutmeg
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
Syrup
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
Spread ice cream into pastry shell. Cover and freeze until firm. In a bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg; fold in whipped cream. Pour evenly over ice cream; cover and freeze until firm. For syrup, combine brown sugar, water and corn syrup in saucepan; bring to a boil. Boil for 4-5 minutes, stirring often. Cool; stir in extracts. Drizzle over pie.
Lemonade ice cream pie
1 pint vanilla ice cream, slightly softened
1 can (6-oz. size) frozen lemonade, undiluted
1 container (8-oz. size) Cool Whip
3 drops yellow food coloring
1 graham cracker crust
Blend the ice cream, lemonade, Cool Whip and yellow food coloring with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into graham cracker crust and freeze. Keep leftovers in freezer.
This is a super easy recipe for children in the kitchen this summer!
Sandy Holthaus of rural South Haven loves to cook. She and her husband, Michael, have three school-aged children. Holthaus is active in the community and has many interests and hobbies. She is originally from near Grand Marais. The Tastes Like Home column appears regularly.