Church Ladies and an Ice Cream Social

Remember Ice Cream Socials?

When I was growing up it seemed like every summer we always had at least two or three Ice Cream Socials to attend and the best ones were always at our church. Let's face it those church ladies really know how to put on an ice cream social! The ice cream was usually vanilla but the homemade pies and cakes were fabulous. And I'm pretty sure that there was more then just a little bit of mine is better then yours going on!

After eating the cake and ice cream the adults would socialize and my cohorts and I pretty much ran wild through the church and sometimes even spilled out into the parking lot! Of course now our hyper activity would be blamed on the sugar but then it was just considered normal. It's always so funny how food brings back so many vivid memories almost like it happened just yesterday!








Homemade Sweet Black Cherry Ice Cream
Recipe developed in the kitchen of Big-Black-Dog

3 egg yolks
1/2 c. sugar (I used 1/4 c. Splenda Sugar Blend)
3 c. heavy cream
1 whole vanilla bean
1 qt of fresh black sweet cherries, pitted and chopped

Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the dark seeds. Set aside.

Whisk eggs, add cream and beat for several minutes gradually adding sugar. Pour mixture into a small sauce pan and heat until it becomes thick. Remove from heat and add scrapings from vanilla bean. Cool to room temperature and then add the cherries. Then put mixture in the refrigerator and cool completely. Pour chilled ice cream mix into your Ice Cream Maker and follow manufacturer's directions.

Top with a few sweet black cherries.






The Ice Cream Social is hosted by Susie of Kitchen Bouquet please visit and see what other wonderful flavors of ice cream are in the collection plate this week!





Gadgets that Work






Who likes pitting cherries? Anyone? Pitting cherries is a terribly boring, tedious process. It's very messy and the juice turns your fingers purple!

I found my vintage cherry pitter at a local garage sale several years ago and jumped at the $2 price tag. It looked brand new, probably only used a few times and it works great.

The pitter is all in one piece so no assembly is required. And it's very easy to clean, just a quick rinse with hot, soapy water is all that is needed. As of yet I've not put it in the dishwasher. Along with the cherry pitter you do have to use two bowls, one bowl to catch the fruit and one to catch the pits.

Just fill the hopper with cherries and then start turning the crank. The cherries move down the shoot and somehow the large disk separates the fruit from the pit. The fruit comes out as the disk turns and the pits continue down the spout and finally are expelled at the end. It's very simple, effective and saves hours of time. And whenever I need to pit a large amount of cherries, I'm so glad I have it!

If you don't want to bother with a large cherry pitter I did find a very cool, simple one at The Honey Jar Online. In fact I think I might buy one! The below vintage-format video will show you how it works.






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