Ice Cream is Good for the Soul

Last week I took my children to a restaurant. My six-year-old son asked if he could say grace. As we bowed our heads he said, "God is good. God is great. Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if Mom gets us ice cream for dessert. And liberty and justice for all! Amen!"

Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby I heard a woman remark, "That's what's wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know how to pray. Asking God for ice cream! Why, I never!".

Hearing this, my son burst into tears and asked me, "Did I do it wrong? Is God mad at me?"

As I held him and assured him that he had done a terrific job and God was certainly not mad at him, an elderly gentleman approached the table. He winked at my son and said, "I happen to know that God thought that was a great prayer."

"Really?" my son asked.

"Cross my heart." Then in a theatrical whisper he added (indicating the woman whose remark had started this whole thing), "Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes."

Naturally, I bought my kids ice cream at the end of the meal. My son stared at his for a moment and then did something I will remember the rest of my life.

He picked up his sundae and without a word walked over and placed it in front of the woman. With a big smile he told her, "Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes, and my soul is good already."
--- Author Unknown

Another thought ... I used to do ice cream as a science lab when I was teaching middle school science and the kids always looked forward to learning the science of ice cream ... as well as eating the ice cream, of course.  If you get into that, you can explain that the *reason* the ice cream freezes is the principle of exothermic reaction.  Salt mixed with ice causes the ice to melt. When salt comes into contact with ice, the freezing point of the ice is lowered. Water will normally freeze at 32 degrees F. However, a 10% salt solution freezes at 20 degrees F, and a 20% solution freezes at 2 degrees F. By lowering the temperature at which ice is frozen, we are able to create an environment in which the milk mixture can freeze at a temperature below 32 degrees F into ice cream.  And that's the "science" of ice cream!  I'm sure there is a gospel principle in there somewhere ...

Here is also some interesting history about ice cream that I wrote up recently for a RS cookbook I put together on ice cream:

Since Americans consume about 15 quarts of ice cream per capita each year, it is appropriate that the first recorded instance (1744) occurs in the writings of an American, who mentions "fine ice cream, with, strawberries and milk." The history of ice cream itself can be traced back, to the Roman Empire, China, and India, much of that history surrounded by folklore. Ice cream was officially introduced to England in the 17th century and to America in the 18th. It seems to have been called "iced cream" initially
(1673), but by the mid-18th century had become known worldwide as "ice cream." Here are a few historical highlights:

1559: Ice cream appears in Italy as ice and salt are discovered to make a freezing combination.
1782: Ice cream is served at a Philadelphia party given by the French envoy to honor the new American republic.
1813: Dolley Madison, wife of U.S. President James Madison, serves ice cream at her husband's Inaugural Ball.
1846: A portable hand-cranked ice cream freezer is invented by Nancy Johnson in New Jersey.
1851: The first wholesale ice cream business is founded by Baltimore milk dealer Jacob Fussell who receives milk in steady supply but is faced with a problem of erratic demand. Fussell sells his ice cream at less than half the price charged by others, and is honored as the father of the American ice cream industry.
1904: The ice cream cone is introduced at the St. Louis World's Fair by Syrian immigrant pastry maker Ernest A. Hamwi who sells wafer-like Zalabia pastry at a fairground concession, serving them with sugar and other sweets. When a neighboring ice cream stand runs out of dishes, Hamwi rolls some of his wafers into cornucopias, lets them cool, and sells them to the ice cream concessionaire. Other stories have other inventors of the cone at the World's Fair that year, but a US ice cream cone mold patent actually had been issued earlier in the year to Italian immigrant Italo Marchiony who claims he had been making ice cream cones since 1896. Many other claimants challenge Hamwi's right to call himself the ice cream cone originator.
1924: Americans consume on average 17.8 pounds of butter per year, 6.8 pounds of ice cream, 4.5 pounds of cheese, more than 350 pounds of fluid milk (nearly one pint per day).
1926: The first commercially-successful continuous process freezer is perfected by Clarence Vogt, allowing the ice cream industry to become a mass-producer of its product.
1930: Dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) is introduced commercially in the United States for purposes such as keeping ice cream cold - and the rest, as they say, is history!