Saturday morning was already hot and sticky when Booth lugged the big cardboard box from the garage into the kitchen. He wiped his face with a kitchen towel before he started to unpack all of the pieces from the box.
"What on Earth is that?" Brennan looked over the equipment with an air of suspicion, concerned that Booth might have a slightly hare-brained scheme in mind. "Whatever it is, it looks quite complicated."
Booth rolled his eyes at his wife as he spread the parts out on the kitchen counter. "It's an ice cream freezer, Bones. I got it at Priceco. I thought it might be fun for our family to make some homemade ice cream." Booth smiled happily as he put the freezer together. "I have some good memories of me and Jared helping Nana and Pops make homemade ice cream on their back stoop…"
"They made their own ice cream at home?" Brennan gave him a questioning look, wondering if he was teasing her.
"Yeah." Seeing his wife's confusion, Booth explained. "When Pops and Nana were young, most people didn't have a big freezer to store ice cream and stuff like that, so people made small batches of ice cream in a portable ice cream freezer. Nana and Pops got a hand crank freezer for a wedding gift, and they used it for a long time until they upgraded to an electric one. I still remember how much work it was to turn that big crank as the ice cream started to freeze." Reaching into a cabinet, Booth pulled out a battered metal box of full of recipe cards. "Remember when Pops sent you Nana's recipes? Here's the one for homemade ice cream. Originally it used raw eggs, but she changed it so it uses a cooked egg and milk custard."
Brennan grimaced as she read over the recipe and shook her head. "Evaporated milk, whole milk, sugar, and eggs...this recipe doesn't sound very healthy, Booth. It seems like there's a lot of sugar and fat in homemade ice cream. "
He chuckled as he nodded in agreement. "Well, that's sort of the point of having dessert, isn't it? C'mon...it won't hurt the kids or us to have a treat once in awhile. We can mix the stuff up and get it started. Then the kids can play outside and we can relax on the back porch and watch them having fun while the freezer does it's thing. It's a fun family activity. Christine and Hank can help me pack in the ice around the canister and pour in the salt, and maybe you can explain to the kids how salt affects the melting point of ice so it can be a scientific learning activity, too." Seeing his wife's dubious look, he pulled her close and gave her a kiss. "We can add some fruit to make it healthier, okay? And look what else I found in the recipe box...here's Nana's recipe for Italian Ice. I know you'll like that. I can put some of that in the regular freezer if you want."
"That does sound good." Brennan looked in the refrigerator and turned to Booth. "It looks like we have everything we need to make ice cream. I'll cut up some of these strawberries and we can mix them into the ice cream."
"Great! I'm gonna make the custard after lunch, and then we'll freeze it this afternoon. The ice cream will have to sit for awhile after it's churned so it can ripen, but we can have some for dessert after dinner."
"And then maybe later this evening, we can have another serving and let it melt..." Brennan quirked her eyebrow as she gave her husband a naughty grin.
"An excellent idea." Booth twitched his eyebrows at Brennan, chuckling as he wondered what his grandmother and grandfather would think about the different ways he enjoyed having ice cream with his wife. "I think using this ice cream freezer to make homemade ice cream is going to become part of some great family memories."
Brennan smirked as she chopped the strawberries. "I certainly hope so."