Ice Cream

My dad has made ice cream ever since I can remember, and even before that. I don't know when it stared, but he partially financed his college education by selling a book about ice cream that went with the ice cream freezers that my Grand Dad sold. My dad's favorite became Lemon Ice cream, in part, at least, because his brother, my Uncle John, loved it and it was a way to remember remember him. Uncle John drowned in the Arkansas River about ten years before I was born. Lemon was a staple at every birthday party I can remember. It's pretty easy to make: Lemon Juice, grated lemon rind, sugar, and half'n'half. Simple enough. When I moved out to Oakland, I found that my grandmother had three lemon trees in her yard. I called my dad - "You have to send me an ice cream freezer," I demanded. He did and soon I was grating and squeezing lemons and freezing up ice cream every few months for friends and classmates. I have this vague memory of my dad once making orange chocolate chip ice cream. If Lemon Ice Cream worked, and Lime Ice cream was almost as good, why not Orange? and since orange and chocolate go together so well, why not orange chocolate chip? Yeah! The problem is, my dad doesn't seem to remember the Orange Ice Cream. I asked him about it he didn't remember, and my mom said it may have been store bought stuff. But I remember digging orange and chocolate chips out of a big ol' can, and the only ice cream that I know of that comes in a can is the homemade stuff. A few days ago, it was discovered that my grandmother's orange tree had produced a huge crop of trees. "Well," I thought, "Let's try it." So I got some half and half, sugar, the oranges, and a block of semi-sweet chocolate, and began to make ice cream. Now, ice cream is not a science, it's an art. One quart of half'n'half and a cup of sugar is fine, but measurement will get a man only so far, it's up his spoon to finish the job. About halfway through, I realized the oranges, being a little bit sweeter than a lemon, would lack the punch of lemons. So I mixed a few lemons in. The next problem was the chocolate, which came in large blocks and had to be reduced to a suitable size. The blender failed me and I ended up grating it into fine shreds, which showed up as little flecks in the ice cream. So how did it turn out? Folks, orange chocolate chip ice cream, from oranges grown in my grandmother's yard, is some pretty good stuff. My only complaint is that I wish the chocolate flavor was a little bit stronger. I think next time I would like to try it with some Chocolate syrup, instead of grating a brick of the stuff, but otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing.