Winter Fun and Vanilla Ice Cream

We had the best time in the mountains with friends this past weekend.  With 8 kids, 6 adults and 2 snow storms it was definitely a little chaotic, but the kids had a great time sledding and building snowmen, and the adults had an even better time sitting by the fire eating and drinking.  The weather could not have been better- snowing then turning very warm and then snowing again.  Walker, Corby and I got one day of skiing in where Walker tackled his first black diamond and skied it like a champ.  We had amazing dinners of salmon one night, spaghetti the next and finished off the weekend with delicious steaks on the grill. It only took us two days to realized that 8 children require paper plates and cups especially since for some reason, the dishwasher up there literally takes 4 hours to run.  The last night we had a pinata for the kids and completely jacked them all up on candy and then expected them to stay downstairs and play quietly- obviously that didn’t happen, so we charged them with coming up with a play to put on for us.  This was a brilliant plan since it occupied them for a good hour and a half, and while the play was one of the weirdest and most discombobulated things I have ever seen- it was a riot, and they should all be on Broadway. After the play, they were all begging for ice cream, and since we were leaving the next day and the ice cream probably wouldn’t make the 5 hour drive back to Charleston, we relented, and then I made the mistake of promising them ice cream for breakfast as well.  While fixing the ice cream for breakfast the next morning, all 8 children could not have been happier with plain vanilla ice cream.  Sometimes there is nothing better.  It got me thinking that next time, we should bring an ice cream maker, and they could make their own ice cream.  I found this great recipe for vanilla ice cream and once I get an ice cream maker, I can’t wait to try it!

Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 cups half-and-half cream

3/4 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the heavy cream and the half and half. Gradually whisk in the sugar until blended.  Whisk in the vanilla. Refrigerate, covered, until very cold, at least 3 hours or as long as 3 days. Whisk the mixture to blend and pour into the canister of an ice cream maker. Freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions. Eat at once or transfer to a covered container and freeze up to 8 hours.