Recipe for Family Fun

Here is something I did for family home evening tonight. I read about it in my book called The Potentially Sane Mother's Guide to Raising Young Children by Tamara A. Fackrell. The first section is about the family team. We read Matthew 12:25 and discussed being united as a family team and working together. The family teaching activity was called: Homemade Ice Cream Team. Here is the recipe (if it wasn't healthy for our bodies it was healthy for family unity!):

Ice Cream Ingredients:
1 quart whole milk
1 quart half and half (I only bought half the amount by accident, but it still worked)
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Other items:
Ice (tons!!!!)
Rock Salt (Lots!)
1 gallon-sized zipper bag
1 pint-sized zipper bag for every two people

Mix the ice cream ingredients together and pour the mixture back into the containers.
Have family members pair up or rotate bags (that's what we did).
One partner takes a large bag, and the other takes a small bag.
Fill the large bag half full of ice and sprinkle in plenty of rock salt (two adults handfuls, 3-4 small child handfuls).
Pour the milk mixture into the small bag until it's half full. Press all the air out of the small bag and place it inside the large one. Press all the air out of the large bag.
To make ice cream, the bag needs constant movement. Work in teams to keep it constantly moving until you reach your goal. The process takes about fifteen minutes--ten if you prefer a milkshake!
Add toppings to make your treat even more delicious.
Talk about how this activity involved teamwork. Sometimes the team members' hands got cold--sometimes teamwork can be uncomfortable--but it is nice to share the burden with another person. Explain that working together is sometimes hard, but sweet is the reward. Matthew 12:25.

This was a great activity even for my young family. I have never had all my kids attention at family home evening and not one of them left to do something else! They all wanted to help, and we did have cold hands afterwards. We also ran out of ice, so my hubby ran outside to get some!!! Thanks goodness it's winter time. The ice from outside worked like a charm. Hopefully you can all do this activity sometime. I'll never buy an ice cream maker now that I know all you need it are a couple of plastic bags!!!