Today is national ice cream day. In fact, July is national ice cream month. That means you may have already passed up twenty days of sheer indulgence. Guess you have no choice but to play catch up. Don’t feel bad. I’m a total ice cream nut and somehow just discovered this nugget of knowledge.

President Reagan created national ice cream month in 1984. His wish was for us to observe it with “appropriate ceremonies and activities”. What better activity than spending a little time outside churning some homemade ice cream. This was my first attempt at a homemade batch. I can remember making it often with my sisters (under the tutelage of mother dearest) during my childhood. However, I’d yet to tackle the task in my “adult” years. I chose something simple – cinnamon vanilla bean. I also chose to make it Philadelphia style, which means it is very simple and only contains cream, milk, and sugar. The only negative is that it does not keep as long in the freezer as a French style custard based ice cream which I hope to attempt in the weeks to come. I’m curious to see which style I prefer and will certainly share the positives and negatives with you. I have a gazillion flavors in mind and am thinking about substituting honey for the sugar in one batch. Getting excited just thinking about it. For now, go grab a cone and enjoy reading over these fun facts.

….First ice cream parlor opened in New York City in 1776
….The first ice cream machine for the home was invented in the 1840s
….Ice cream floats were created when a soda shop owner ran out of regular cream
….Martha Washington use to serve ice cream to her guests at Mount Vernon
….The ice cream cone was popularized at the 1904 St. Louis World Fair
….Approximately 90 percent of the nation’s population consumes ice cream
….After the U.S., New Zealand is the world’s largest ice cream consuming nation
….Approximately 9 percent of all the milk produced by U.S. dairy farmers is used to produce ice cream