Happenings in history during the summer months: Radio was patented in 1896 First U.S. Spacewalk by Ed White in 1965 The shopping cart was created by Sylvan N. Goldman of Humpty Dumpty Stores and Standard Food Markets in Oklahoma City and introduced on June 4, 1937 First Hot Air Balloon flight by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783 First Drive-in Movie Theater opens in New Jersey in 1933 First day ice cream was sold in the U.S., June 7, 1786 Nancy Sinatra was born, 1940 Now you can become that annoying person in the bar like Cliff from Cheers and give people a little nugget of history every day! So out of that little lot what shall we make? Hands down winner has to be Saturday's, the first ice cream to be sold was over 200 years ago! Let's make ice cream. VANILLA ICE CREAM INGREDIENTS 4 egg yolks pint milk pint heavy cream 4 oz sugar or caster sugar 1 vanilla pod (sliced down the middle) METHOD Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring the pan slowly up to boiling point. Place the vanilla pod into it and leave to infuse for about 20 minutes. In a bowl, beat and mix together the egg yolks and sugar until thick. Carefully remove the vanilla pod from the pan of milk and scrape out the seeds into the milk. Pour the milk into the mixture of egg yolks and sugar whilst stirring. Pour the mixture back into the pan and heat gently, stirring until the custard thickens - DO NOT BRING TO THE BOIL OR IT WILL PROBABLY CURDLE. When you can see a film form over the back of your spoon it's time to remove the saucepan from the heat. Leave to cool. When the custard base is cold stir in the cream. Transfer the whole mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. WHAT'S THAT? You don't have an Ice Cream machine in your apartment? Don't worry, here's what you do. This method of making ice cream requires quite a lot of time, effort and patience but for those who don't have an ice cream maker it means you can still enjoy our ice cream recipes. Make sure you have a bowl that's quite wide to use for the churning/freezing process that comes next. Take your ice cream recipe mixture and carefully pour it into the bowl, then chill in the fridge for up to 2 hours, checking on it after 1 hour. The reason it can take longer than an hour is when a recipe mixture has had cooked ingredients added, therefore thorough chilling will take longer. Take the bowl out of the fridge and transfer to the freezer for about half an hour. Then check just how much the mixture has frozen - ideally, it should have started to freeze at the edges but not fully through to the center. Take the bowl out of the freezer and beat the ice cream mixture until it's creamy once again (to dislodge and break up the ice crystals that have formed). Put it back in the freezer for another half hour, then remove and once again beat with a whisk. Do this again so that you have beaten the mixture a total of 3 times whilst freezing in between. Put the mixture back into the freezer for a final time until it's ready to eat. This can take anything from 30 minutes upwards, depending upon the quantity and type of ice cream you're making and also how you like the consistency of your ice cream (some people like it softer, some harder). AND FINALLY... The Ice Cream Man An ice cream van owner was found dead today in his van. The man was discovered under the ice cream dispenser, covered in ice cream, chocolate sprinkles, hundreds and thousands (sprinkles) chopped nuts and raspberry syrup. Police believe he topped himself. CHEF GILLIGAN