On a summer afternoon as I drove along a back road in Corte Madera with a car full of dogs, a sudden flash of red caught my eye. Curious, I slowed down, pulled over into a lay-by, and ran back to see what it was. Sitting upright at the beginning of a trail was an electric ice cream maker. It wasn’t in a box but it certainly hadn’t been “dumped” there—it looked brand new, red, shiny and clean. As I took a closer look, I noticed some handwriting on a piece of paper inside the machine. It read:

I can’t keep this ice cream maker. I need to get it out of the house because I am gaining too much weight. Please take it and enjoy. If you would like more information about how to use this machine go to www.cuisinart.com.

I used that machine for years, but my first ice cream maker was a manual one. I kept the canister in the freezer and when my kids were little and got cranky I would pull out the canister, fill it with milk, cream, and fruit, and we would get to “work” making ice cream. We sat around the picnic table under a tree, salivating in quiet anticipation as we watched both the clock and the machine. We were mesmerized as the ingredients turned magically from a liquid to solid sweet ice cream. Thirty minutes later, bowls licked clean and all of us more than satisfied, and smiling, we put the remaining ice cream in the freezer. What I loved most about making ice cream with the kids is that it made us slow down. We found the recipe, measured the ingredients, and turned that crank slowly —only one full turn of the handle every minute, but also reducing the pace of our day is partly what summer is all about. One of the things we did to slow down was to make ice cream; another was to get the canoe out and go to the lake, paddle about, or lie back and watch the clouds go by. For you slowing down might be having a barbecue or a pool party, taking a long walk without the phone, reading a book, putting on a sundress, or daydreaming about a long-lost summer romance. Don’t forget to make some ice cream; ice cream sandwiches in particular bring out the inner kid in all of us

Chocolate Waffle Wafers

• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

• ¼ cup cocoa powder –optional (I use Guittard)

• 1/4 teaspoons salt

• 2 eggs

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

• 1/4 cup milk

Turn waffle maker on to #3 heat setting.

Mix flour, cocoa powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Whisk eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl for a minute until it gets frothy and light lemon yellow. Gradually add flour mixture. When it is incorporated, add the butter and milk. Pour about ¼ cup of batter onto the waffle maker, close lid and cook for about two minutes.

Using tongs, lift the waffle off the griddle. Pour another batch of batter into your machine and close the lid. While the next one is cooking, cut the cooked waffle with a 2 ½" cookie/biscuit cutter (you will get three or four wafers out of each waffle). Repeat until you are out of batter. After the wafers are completely cooled, see the directions above for filling the wafer.

Strawberry Ice Cream

• 4 egg yolks beaten

• scant ¾ cup sugar

• 1 cup 1% milk

• a pinch of salt

• 1 cup whipping cream

• 2 cups strawberries

Put strawberries in a food processor and pulse until they are the texture of hot dog relish (if they are too big they will stick out of the ice cream sandwiches). In a medium bowl toss them with ¼ cup of sugar, and put the bowl in the fridge.

In a saucepan over medium heat combine egg yolks, ½ cup sugar, salt and milk. Whisk until the custard starts to thicken, about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it so that it doesn’t burn.

Transfer to a bowl and slowly add the cream to combine. When cool add the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Add the strawberries in the last five minutes.