I scream for ice cream

When I was little, I used to make homemade chocolate ice cream with my grandmother using double bowls, ice, and salt. Imagine my delight when I spotted the Cuisinart ice cream maker at Macys.com. I persuaded my fiance that he would also enjoy homemade ice cream (no preservatives, simple ingredients) and we added it to our wedding registry.

Well about a week ago, I came home to find a big box from Macy's on the front porch. It was an engagement gift from his Aunt Peggy and her boyfriend Bob! Inside the big box was the ice cream maker - we immediately started to plot our first batch. I was soooo excited!

I wanted to make peppermint, and my fiance wanted something crunchy so we settled on mint ice cream with crushed Scharffenberger chocolate.

The final product was creamy and light - sort of like a more substantial whipped cream. We have been enjoying it all week. The recipe we used called for milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla extract, peppermint extract, and chocolate chips. Next time I want to find a recipe that calls for eggs too so I can see how that changes the flavor. I also want to make a lemon verbena flavored ice cream. Do you have any favorite recipes (or flavors) we should add to the list?

Thanks again Aunt Peggy and Bob!