What would any Fourth of July celebration be without ice cream? It almost seems unpatriotic even to think about deleting America’s favorite summertime dessert from any red, white and blue menu. After all with each American consuming a yearly average of 23.2 quarts of ice cream and other frozen dairy treats, the United States eats more ice cream than any other nation in the world.
On our recent travels along the backroads through the original 13 colonies and into Canada, we soon noticed a remarkable phenomenon. It seems as if every small town in the northern states boasts an ice cream shop. Even some very tiny towns, which had no other visible business on the highway, still had an ice cream shop.
From the time we entered Pennsylvania, through Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, we spotted a mom-and-pop ice cream shop in every small town. I know ice cream is popular in the South where long summer days tempt us to seek those foods which will help us cool off, but what makes it so popular in the North?
I was so fascinated by the image that I began to ask strangers what makes ice cream so popular in the North. Most responded, “Hmmm, I’ve never thought about that.”
One lady says, “After such cold winters, we are so ready for summer that I guess we want to absorb everything summer to store up for the next winter.”
Jen Klein adds in her article for Chef Mom, “The north central states of the USA have the highest per capita consumption of ice cream, which is why thinking about ice cream and frozen desserts midwinter isn’t all that odd. No matter the temperature outside, northerners like their ice cream.”
The Huffington Post reports, “The New England area is full of states that are into serious ice cream eating. (Not a huge surprise considering they live so close to where the magic that is Ben & Jerry’s happens.)”
According to the International Dairy Food Association, iced concoctions date back to the second century B. C. Even the Bible takes notice that King Solomon was fond of iced drinks during harvesting. The first official account of ice cream in the New World comes from a letter written in 1744 by a guest of Maryland Governor William Bladen.
Records kept by a Chatham Street, New York, merchant shows that President George Washington spent approximately $200 for ice cream during the summer of 1790. President Thomas Jefferson was reported to have a favorite 18-step recipe for an ice cream delicacy resembling a Baked Alaska. In 1813, Dolley Madison served a strawberry ice cream concoction at President Madison’s second inaugural banquet.
The walkaway edible cone made its debut at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month.
While ancient civilizations may have created the first iced desserts, America has embraced this sweet concoction, enhanced, improved and made it, in its countless flavors, its own. As the Dairy Association’s information indicates, we even woven it into our own history. And while we as Americans may disagree about most issues, a vast majority of us agree that ice cream is a tasty treat, worthy of a place on the table at all birthday celebrations, especially the one for the nation.
My favorite ice cream memory dates back to my childhood days when the ice cream truck came by our house each summer day. My mother would send me out with 35 cents to purchase three dime treats and one nickel cup of vanilla ice cream. One day, a neighbor questioned my mother about the purchases. “Surely,” the neighbor asked, “you don’t give your child a smaller portion of the treat than yourself?” My mother laughed. “The three dime treats coated in chocolate are for Jamie, her grandmother and myself. The cup of vanilla ice cream is for our dog Honey. He loves it and starts barking from the moment he hears the truck’s familiar bell, long before we do.”
When our grandson graduated from high school last year, we celebrated afterwards at his favorite dessert place - Fro Yo. Here we were introduced to frozen yogurt. While I had certainly heard of this treat, I had never tasted it. But after that first taste, frozen yogurt has become my choice for ice cream. Like almost one third of the nation, vanilla is my favorite flavor.
My favorite ice cream dessert to serve is from the recipe our daughter-in-law used the first time she prepared a meal for us. When she worked as a student teacher her supervising teacher share this dish and recipe with her.
Ice Cream Dessert
24 ice cream sandwiches, unwrapped
1 large container Cool Whip
1/3 cup Kalu`a
Mix the Kalu`a with the Cool Whip. Line a freezer dish with 12 of the ice cream sandwiches. Coat with half of the Cool Whip mixture. Layer the remaining 12 sandwich on top of the Cool Whip. Cover this layer with remaining Cool Whip. Sprinkle with shaved chocolate candy bar and/or chopped nuts. Freeze at least two hours before serving. Cut the cake in squares to serve.
Happy Fourth of July. May God Bless These United States of America.
2014
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