Life’s Simple Pleasures 😋And American 🇺🇸 Heroes And Really Cute Little Kids Who Kicked The Cans🍦
Sunday July, 15th is National Ice Cream 🍦 Day! Now, that’s a holiday I think we can all get behind! What better way to celebrate than with a completely non-tech homemade icy cold version of America’s favorite dessert? We’re making Kick The Can Ice Cream!
You know the saying, “Enjoy the Little Things In Life, Because One Day You’ll Realize They were the Big Things“? Well, this is definitely one of those sweet, little, big things. We enjoyed a wonderful get together to celebrate 🎉🎉🎉 family and the reunion of two amazing men, both long-time retired, career officers in the Marines Corps. Both heroes in service who’ve known each other for many years. A while back and by some miracle of a coincidence we learned of this previously unrealized connection and we finally made this reunion a reality. I think you can see by the smiles in their faces that this was one incredible get together.
True Valor
Carl Romano, our friend and next door neighbor is one of the heroes. The other hero is James Mulloy. Jim is our friends’ father and father-in-law and “Pops” to her kids who are also our very good friends’. I can’t begin to express how incredible it felt to be a part of this reunion it is hard for me to put it into words.
Carl retired as Lt. Colonel after 30 years of dedicated service in the Marine Corps. He did several tours of active duty, then was actively involved in military training for many of his later years with the Marine Corps. He was on duty throughout Asia and the South Pacific until he returned to Camp Pendleton, then retired in San Diego.
James (Jim) Mulloy retired in 1984 after nearly 3 decades of active service. He too spent his active duty in South East Asia, Vietnam. Jim is the recipient of both the NAVY CROSS and THE PURPLE HEART. To read a bit more about Jim and how he was awarded with the Navy Cross, see https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/4134
Both of these men are of extraordinary valor and deserve our highest level of respect and gratitude. Jim and Carl both went on to second careers after retirement from the USMC.
Kick the What? For What?
I learned of this tradition of Kick-The-Can Ice cream from our good friends and twins, Jessica and Kaitlyn (granddaughters of Jim), who grew up in a small mountain town. Every year when school let out for summer, a tradition was to make 🍦 ice cream for the school kids in this method. I’d never heard of it before, but wish I had! Don’t you think it’s a great way to enjoy a little fun then reward the effort with delicious hand (or foot) made ice cream? Trust me too, it was really delicious. It’s funny how times have changed. In the twins’ school day version, they used coffee cans. For our version, we used new, empty paint cans, ‘cuz no one drinks coffee from cans these days.
Today, in the 2018 version, you can buy a ball at Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Labs-SoftShell-Cream-Ball-Blue/dp/B00KX7GSME/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1531419736&sr=8-1&keywords=kick+ice+cream It’s actually not a bad deal if you were going to make this fairly often. No duct tape or hammering necessary!
We’ve already started planning our “adult-only” Kick-The-Can Party. We’ll be serving frozen margaritas!🍹
The Do-It-Yourself Version of Kick-The-Can Ice Cream
This is a easy ice cream recipe. No requirement to make a special custard base. This is straight up simple to prepare and pretty darn delicious too. Mix 3/4 cup milk and 1 cup cream with 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Select the flavor you like best. We used 1/2 cup fresh 🍓strawberry puree and we made a second batch using 1/2 cup fresh 🍑 peach puree. You can do this with any flavor of fruit or substitute 1/3 cup cocoa powder….add chocolate chips, whatever you like!
Mix together, then put the ingredients into a small 1 quart washed and never before used, paint can and seal the lid with a hammer. Place that can into a gallon paint can (clean and never before used). Then alternating, fill the large can with crushed ice and about 3/4 cup of ice cream salt or rock salt. Seal the lid using a 🔨hammer. We also secured the large can with duct tape.
🎶🎵”You Know, I Get A KICK! Out Of You!”🎶🎵🎶……….. (🎷Are you hearing Frank?🎺)
Get to rolling and to kicking. The can will start to ice up almost immediately. You’ll need to roll the can around for a good, solid 15 minutes. But it’s fun and everyone can give the can a kick or a roll. We did this with a 2 and 3 year old, plus their moms and dads. Even our dog had a howling good time. I drank wine 🍷 and watched, but I feel that too is important work.
Yep, it’s solid! A perfect quart of ice cream.
When it’s time to open the cans, the looks on the little one’s faces are priceless. They loved seeing and eating the sweet treats they made!
Ingredients
For the Ice Cream
- 3/4 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup fruit puree
- Optional: 1/3 cup cocoa powder instead of puree, or Chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, etc.
Supplies
- 1 gallon clean, never used paint can or coffee can
- 1 quart sized never used paint can or coffee can, washed and dried
- hammer
- duct tape
- crushed ice
- ice cream salt or rock salt
- Kids to kick the cans!
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine milk, sugar, cream, vanilla and puree. Mix well. Add ice-cream ingredients to the quart size can. Seal well and hammer shut. Set the small can into the larger can. Fill the larger can with rock salt alternating with crushed ice. Seal the can and hammer shut. Secure well with duct tape.
- Kick the can for at least 15 minutes. Open and enjoy the ice cream
