Inside Bay Area review

A fun little review from Inside Bay Area:

Stop, drop and roll may be great advice when the house is on fire, but you can also try it with the new Industrial Revolution Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker. It's a plastic ball about the size of a soccer ball that makes you want to drop, kick and toss it all over the yard. The ball has two openings. On one side is the chamber into which you pour your ice cream ingredients. Opposite is the opening through which you add several cups of ice, and about 1/2 cup of rock salt.

At our house, I enlisted the help of my 12-year-old and three of her friends to test out the freezer. They mixed up the ingredients in about 10 minutes (remember, four cooks in the kitchen always takes longer), rolled the ball around outside for about 10 minutes, then opened it to see if it was ready. The contents were still liquid. They packed more ice and salt into the ball and continued to play, this time inside the house, with me pulling at both sides of my hair, hoping the ice cream contents would not spill.

No spills later, the group peeked at their ice cream again. It was foamy at the top, but as they fished around inside with a spoon, they discovered the edges were totally frozen hard. They stirred, then served what they admitted was the first ice cream they had ever made all by themselves. They loved it. The Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker makes a little over 2 cups of ice cream per batch. The balls come with recipes and are available for $34.95 at outdoor stores such as REI and L.L. Bean, and online at www.icecreamrevolution.com.