Making cool 4th of July memories

The middle of the summer brings the 4th of July and lots of family fun!

It's the time we celebrate our great nation with fantastic fireworks, family picnics and backyard barbeques! Make some cool new memories with this easy recipe for old fashioned homemade ice cream.

The Inside Scoop on the Science of Ice Cream

• Make sure the bags are tightly closed before the tossing begins or you'll have a mess! It takes a lot of shaking and tossing before the mixture turns to ice cream! Another surprise is how cold the ice cream gets! You many even want to dig up those winter gloves for this summer fun as your hands can get COLD!
• Be careful when removing the small bag of ice cream from the larger bag. Rinse it off to prevent your ice cream from getting "salty".
• Try a variety of fruits in your ice cream! Ripe bananas, strawberries, blueberries and diced peaches all work well. Canned, diced, drained fruit can work as well. Remember to wash any fresh fruit you add before mixing in with ice cream mixture.
• Bring up for discussion how we make ice cream! Think back to the cold days of winter on this hot summer day. Salt lowers the temperature at which water freezes, so with salt, the ice will melt even when the temperature is below the normal freezing point of water. The ice-salt combination gets colder than pure water ice and can freeze ingredients to turn them into ice cream. Who knew science could be so delicious!

Ice Cream in a Bag

Yield: 1 Serving

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons soft fruit (strawberries)
• ½ cup low-fat milk
• 1/3 cup rock salt (outside bag)
• Ice cubes

Directions

1. Wash hands with soap and water. Put sugar in quart size freezer bag that has zip closure. Add vanilla and soft fruit. Seal the bag tightly. Mix well by squeezing with fingers until everything is combined.
2. Open bag and add milk. Reseal bag again and mix until everything is combined.
3. Open a gallon size freezer bag with zip closure and put in ? cup rock salt. DO NOT PUT SALT IN SMALL BAG! Fill the gallon size bag halfway full of ice cubes.
4. Put the quart bag into the gallon bag and seal shut. Shake the bag for 5 minutes or until the liquid has changed to ice cream. You can toss the bag gently with a partner, too, to share the fun and the cold.
5. Take quart bag out of gallon bag. Eat with spoon and ENJOY!

Nutrition Information: Calories 100, Total Fat 0g, Sodium 50mg, Total Carbohydrates 20g, Fiber 0g

Source: Nebraska Food Calendar

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July 4 – Office Closed for Holiday

July 8 – Deadline for 4-H Fair entry and quality assurance completion/submission

July 19-26 – Putnam County Fair