Editor's Notebook: I Scream, You Scream...

The hot weather works in its favor this year, making National Ice Cream Month and Day as important as a ten-year-old's birthday. Ice cream is, after all, cooling and a very simple food to make and enjoy, as I learned myself, in celebration of the big day.

When I last made ice cream, a bucket with a handle, large quantities of rock salt, and a bag of ice was involved. Technology has stepped in to simplify the process. My ice cream maker – a Turnover Sale impulse buy – churns for 30 minutes. That's all. The ice cream is done.

So I tried it yesterday, combining vanilla, milk, sugar and cream. I added grated gingersnaps, crystallized ginger, and grated ginger root, as well. I pressed "on," walked away from the machine and waited.

Fresh ice cream, half an hour later, was a revelation. The lifetime of ice cream under my belt (literally), melted away, as if I had never eaten ice cream before. In fact, John Keats came to mind. To describe the experience of reading Homer, he compared himself to, "some watcher of the skies/ When a new planet swims into his ken." Yes, ice cream straight of the electronic churn was that good.

The recipe I followed is below, in case any readers have an ice cream maker stowed away for a warm day. Enjoy!

Ginger Ice Cream

1 cup sugar

½ cup milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 Tablespoon vanilla

Mix well and pour into churn.

When the ice cream looks fairly solid, add:

½ cup chopped crystallized ginger

½ teaspoon ginger root, micro-grated

¼ cup crumbled gingersnaps

Churn for 5 minutes.

Scoop and eat.