Good Press (not scary press like the last post)

Our PR firm put out a press release a couple of weeks ago. I didn't expect much to come of it, but Springs Home and Garden published a very nice article as a direct result. With total disregard to copyright law, here's what they had to say...

June 1, 2005
You can have a ball with newfangled ice cream maker
By Teresa J. Farney, Staff food columnist

When a press release for the Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker came across my desk, I couldn't help but chuckle. It reminded me of an incident several years ago that involved a similar contraption known as the "Kick-The-Can Ice Cream Maker."

But first, the Play & Freeze. It's a hard plastic sphere that looks a lot like a soccer ball, with the advertising tag line: "The first and only ice cream maker in which fun is the main ingredient."

To start, you'll need a few friends and the right ice cream ingredients for the action to begin.

Here's how it works: Remove the lid from one end of the ball and fill the ball with as much ice as possible. Then add rock salt and replace the lid. Next, mix the ice cream ingredients in another container, remove the lid from the other end of the ball, pour in the ingredients, and replace the lid.

Finally, put your friends to work. Give the ball to them so they can shake it, pass it and roll it around - for about 15 minutes.

"While shakin', rattlin' and rollin', kids and adults can sing songs, tell jokes or play imaginative games until the ice cream is ready for serving," says the press release.

Now that you have the idea, let's rewind to the 1980s, when I attended a food conference. Dian Thomas, a Utah-based cookbook author known for her crazy-sounding cooking ideas, was on a panel discussing food story ideas.

Thomas was big on novelty cooking techniques, like strapping foil-wrapped burgers on car tailpipes to cook them on the way to a picnic, and making grilled cheese sandwiches on an ironing board, using foil to cover the sandwich and a hot iron to "grill" the cheese. You know - goofy stuff.

On this particular day, she was demonstrating how to make ice cream using a clean gallon-size paint can filled with ice and another, smaller can to hold the ice cream ingredients. The smaller can was nestled inside the larger, ice-filled one. Both cans had lids. Then she got someone from the audience to help her lightly kick the can back and forth across the floor. Because it would take about 20 minutes for the cream to get cold enough to serve and Thomas had other wild stuff to show us, she asked another member of the panel to give her a hand: none other than Martha Stewart.

Now, Stewart had arrived for the panel surrounded by her "handlers," all dressed New York-style in trench coats - kind of like a bunch of presidential bodyguards. But Stewart's "people" were clustered at a table in the back of the room. So when Thomas hollered, "Hey, Martha, come on down here and give me a hand making this ice cream," there was nothing they could do to help her.

Stewart's jaw dropped - it was not a good thing to "kick" a can to make ice cream - and she sort of turned pale. But she gamely went to help roll the can while Thomas demonstrated her backpack grilledchicken recipe.

As Thomas finished the chicken project, Stewart and another helper finished the ice cream. The creamy mixture in the small can had gotten chilled enough to make ice cream, and even Stewart gave a nod of satisfaction when she tasted it. As I remembered this incident, I couldn't help but wonder whether Stewart shared the experience - and gave advice on how to make ice cream in kitchen equipmentchallenged places - with her recent roommates.

If you'd like to turn ice cream-making into a group activity and don't feel like messing with paint cans, you can get the Play & Freeze Ice Cream maker at http://www.icecreamrevolution.com. It costs about $35.