I have been hit with a bit of nostalgia this evening. We’ve had so much hot weather in our area this month, and we’re not used to it. I can cope much better when it is cold. I heard this statement a long time ago… “When it is cold, we can always put on another layer of clothes; when it is hot, we are limited to how much we can take off before we could be arrested.” I have a feeling that doesn’t always apply these days. Even on moderate days, we can see far more that we need or want to, thanks to the fashion styles. Sorry, I digress!
We were in the city for a short time this afternoon, and were tempted to stop for an ice cream cone. After considering the high price, we decided that we could wait until we got home because there was ice cream in our freezer. That sparked a conversation about enjoying ice cream when we were growing up on the farm.
To have an ice cream treat was quite an ordeal. We didn’t have electricity so Dad would make sure that he would have ice in our “ice house”, where blocks of ice were covered with lots of straw, in an underground cellar. Dad would chop the ice in small pieces, pack it around the metal container that Mom had filled with a custard mixture that would become vanilla ice cream. We took turns at the crank that kept the container moving so there would be no lumps, while Dad kept adding salt to the ice. I realize that if someone would ask me why he would add the salt, I would not be able to answer because I didn’t know. I went to Google, and surprise… I found the answer. Click on this link because the answer includes the kind of ice cream maker we used. Wow… another ‘c’ word… computer!
In season, Mom and I would walk to pick some wild saskatoon berries by the creek, or pick strawberries from her garden, and if there was no fruit available, we loved to pour some Rogers Golden Syrup on our ice cream. It was better than caramel (in my opinion), but we do have some in our pantry today.
The one thing that is missing is a freshly baked cookie, like my Mom made. I stopped baking cookies a long time ago. We rarely include desserts in our meals, and if we do hanker for something baked, we go to Costco. It works for us!!!!!
Tags: Memories Treats
