When I lived about 400 miles north of my family, I was pretty good at making sure birthday presents arrived decently close to the actual birth date of the recipient, within a day or two, depending on the vagaries of the carrier of choice. Since moving into the neighboring zip code, however - I mean even in the same AREA CODE – my ability to send a timely package has completely left me. Unless we are dining together on the actual day, good luck getting anything from me in the same cycle of the moon.
Consequently, I took it upon myself to institute a new family gifting policy this year – the gift may be as late as you want, but you must add one gift for each delinquent month. When I mailed my sister’s gift in late June, in honor of her early February birthday, I made sure to include five gifts. When she
delivered my May birthday gift in July, she rightly included three gifts for me. One of her gifts was a colorful pie baking dish from Follette Pottery in northern Louisiana. It comes with a 3,000 year guarantee, if I treat it properly. How many generations removed will that be?
Included with the dish was a little recipe for Ice Cream Bread. Never thought about it, but it makes good sense, doesn’t it? Ice cream contains all the sugar, fat, and liquid you’d need for a good cake. Here’s what you do: combine 1 pint (2 cups) of your favorite ice cream, softened, any flavor, with 1-1/2 cups self-rising flour. Pour into a greased baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. In the case of this pottery baking dish, place it in a cool oven and bake. My sister tried it with a pint of Haagen Dazs(r) Raspberry Something and a Pyrex dish, cold oven, and we all agreed it was delicious! A smear of chocolate ganache and it would have been heaven.
This would be a real treat for the kids to make at Christmas – without destroying the kitchen trying to manage multiple ingredients. Let them select their favorite flavor of ice cream – we were thinking that peppermint would be very interesting – when have you had a peppermint cake? – and fun to decorate for your holiday party.
Next, Part II – you’ll see, it’s too sublime, it needs it’s own post.
~Janet @ The Christmas Place
