What could be better than cool creamy ice cream on a hot summer day? How about delicious old-fashioned ice cream that you and your family can make and enjoy all year round! (Who wouldnt like fresh homemade French vanilla ice cream with Thanksgiving pumpkin pie?)

Making your own ice cream does not have to be expensive or laborious. You dont even need an ice cream maker. In fact, you may have everything you need right now to serve your family delicious homemade ice cream in less than an hour.

If you dont have an electric or hand cranked ice cream maker, (or you dont feel like digging it out of the garage), you can still make ice cream using one of the following methods:

Easy Coffee Can Ice Cream

This method is easy and fun, especially if you have children. You need two clean coffee cans with lids, one can smaller than the other, such as a one pound can and a three pound can. In the smaller can mix one cup cold milk or half & half, ? cup sugar, and one teaspoon vanilla. For chocolate ice cream, add one tablespoon chocolate syrup or two tablespoons cocoa. Now seal the can lid and reinforce with duct tape. Place this can inside the larger coffee can and pack crushed or small cubes of ice and rock salt or water softener pellets around the smaller can. You can use one cup table salt if necessary. Seal the larger can well using duct tape.

Now comes the fun part! Have your children sit on the floor or a sidewalk and roll the can back and forth for 10 minutes. Open the large can and drain the water. Remove the small can, wipe it dry, and open. Check to see if the ice cream is freezing while mixing and scraping the sides of the can. At this point you may also add candy bits, crushed cookies, or chopped nuts. Reseal the can, repack in the larger can with more ice and rock salt, and continue to roll for another 8 to 10 minutes. Open and enjoy. Added bonus: the coffee can is perfect for storing the ice cream in the freezer (if there is any left.) Serves 2-3.

Quick Ice Cream in a Bag

This is a very easy way to make your own ice cream, and fun for the kids. You need a one-pint-size (16 ounce) Ziploc self-closing plastic bag, and a one-gallon-size Ziploc bag. Pour ? cup milk, ? teaspoon vanilla, and one tablespoon sugar into the small bag and seal. Fill the large bag half full of ice cubes or crushed ice and rock salt (several tablespoonfuls). Place the sealed small bag into the large bag and add more ice if necessary to loosely fill the bag. Seal the large bag and shake! It helps to wear gloves during this step. After five minutes or so the ice cream will be ready. Pull the ice cream bag out of the ice, wipe it off, and enjoy! Serves 1-2. This recipe can be doubled, but any larger recipe would be heavy and difficult to handle.

Of course, any ice cream recipe can be used for these methods. Just be sure that the ending serving size is no more than 4-6 for Easy Coffee Can Ice Cream, and 2-3 for Quick Ice Cream in a Bag. Of course, for larger quantities (2 to 6 quarts) youll need to use an ice cream maker. Your model will likely include delicious recipes for ice cream, sherbet, frozen yogurts, and ices.

Additional ice cream making tips:

1) For the best possible flavor, use overripe fresh fruit in your ice cream recipes (such as

peach, strawberry, banana, or cherry ice cream).

2) Substitute artificial sweeteners for sugar to make diabetic ice cream.

3) You can use 1% or 2% milk in many recipes.

4) Homemade ice cream is very dense (heavy) so will get very hard in the freezer. Soften

by placing in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes before serving.

5) Above all, be creative and enjoy!