Ice Cream Social

Summer is here, or nearly here, for many in the United States.  With summer, comes heat.  And with heat, comes ICE CREAM!  Make any gathering a bit more flavorful with these great cold-treat ideas:

1. Have a sundae party on Sunday!  Invite neighbors and friends over for a generous serving of homemade vanilla ice cream.  Everyone can bring their own toppings to share with the group.  Provide spoons and bowls, and make sure the bowls are big enough to hold all the goodies!
2. Create your own “marble slab” creamery.  Take basic flavors of ice cream and various toppings, such as chocolate candies, peppermints, crushed cookies and nuts.  On a slab of marble, pound the toppings into a serving of ice cream, softening and mixing the dessert.  Serve in bowls.
3. Make the world’s longest sundae (or have fun trying!).  Purchase a new aluminum gutter (at your local home improvement store) and wash thoroughly.  Scoop ice cream into the length of the gutter and top with your favorite “accessories”!
4. Want to make ice cream but don’t have an ice cream maker?  Kaboose.com has an excellent and easy recipe that involves Ziploc bags!  It is delicious and cold - two ingredients for a great ice cream party!  Of course, if you are looking for an all-out, adultish kind of recipe, try this Honey Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from allrecipes.com.  It is a higher degree of difficulty, but the flavor is well worth it!