Aunt Mary’s Lemon Vanilla Ice Cream

It’s hot! Want to keep cool and enjoy the cooling off too?  We have just the thing you’re looking for right here 🙂  When I was a child, my family spent many lazy Sunday afternoons after church at my great Aunt Mary’s home, eating, swimming, eating, talking, eating, singing and then just because it was all so good…eating some more.  Aunt Mary, my mother’s aunt, was my grandfather’s youngest sister.  The youngest of 9 children, she not only had many siblings,  but a great number of nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews as well as her own children and their spouses and their spouses families, and her grandchildren, all who descended on her home and were always warmly embraced by her and my Uncle Bob .

Her home was large and welcoming and made a great place for our extended family….aunts, uncles, cousins….all to gather on a regular basis to eat and enjoy each other’s company.  Everyone brought their favorite side dishes and desserts and Aunt Mary supplied the baked ham or fried chicken to complete the feast, along with the sweet tea, lemonade or punch, and coffee.

Food was abundant and delicious as all my aunts and cousins were great southern cooks.  There were wonderful salads and casseroles, biscuits and cornbread, pies and cakes and cookies galore.  But of all the desserts offered, (and there were MANY), none was as good, or enjoyed as much as Aunt Mary’s homemade ice cream.  No matter how full we got, there was never anyone who could turn down a bowl of that luscious, lemony, sweet, cold, concoction.  It was just so cool and icy and refreshing, more of a lighter ice milk than a high fat creamy ice cream.  On a hot summer day, it was/is irresistible!

So good is this recipe, that my father made ice cream freezers full of it, all summer long, especially when we weren’t visiting at Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob’s home.  For me, it is truly the taste of summer, and a sweet reminder, both of lazy summer afternoons spent at Aunt Mary’s, and a reminder of my daddy who sat as long as it took almost every week, to turn the hand crank on that old wooden ice cream freezer that housed that perfect refreshment we all enjoyed so much.

I know this is a nostalgic memory for me that influences the sweetness and delight of the taste of this ice cream, BUT I’ve never served it to anyone who didn’t love it too. The recipe sounds like it makes a lot.  It does.  But for me, it is never enough.

Sweet memories wrapped up in a dish of sweet ice cream….well now that’s love, joy and abundant living 🙂

Happy cooling off and very happy eating!

Aunt Mary’s Lemon Vanilla Ice Cream

1 quart half and half
1/2 gallon whole milk
6 eggs, separated
3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon lemon extract
1 tablespoon vanilla

Beat egg yolks and sugar until very thick, light in color and nearly doubled in volume.  Add in half and half and milk, with lemon and vanilla extracts.  Mix together well.   In a clean separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff.  Mix egg whites into half and half mixture.  Pour onto container and freeze in ice cream freezer according to instructions from manufacturer.

If you aren’t serving ice cream right away, store the container in your freezer, or take up ice-cream into smaller containers and freeze until firm.

Enjoy the sweet taste of summer 🙂