Product Placement for the Win

Amazon.com knows what I like.  You know how they are.  They create lists of items that you might like based on other things you have previously purchased. They use your buying habits as a way of convincing you of other things you "need". And, most of the time, I am pretty good at resisting their suggestions.  Not so, however, in the case of this handy Glide-A-Scoop Ice Cream Tub.  Having recently pinned several "No-Churn" ice cream recipes to my "Sweet Tooth" board, I realized Amazon was cheering me on from the kitchen sidelines with their strategically placed suggestion to buy this item.

Let me be perfectly clear, though, this ice cream tub does nothing special.  It doesn't have insulated sides that cause the ice cream to freeze while sitting on the counter.  There is not a single affiliation with the Zoku to be found here.  It most definitely does not churn the ice cream for you.  It holds ice cream. That's it.

With all of that being said, the Tovolo ice cream tub was delivered to my home in Prime fashion, where it then sat on my counter for a week.  I found myself moving it from one end of the counter to the other, as it repeatedly got in the way.  But, keeping it out was my way of reminding myself to make some No-Churn ice cream happen; sooner than later.

Finally, after an entire work week went by, my weekend aspirations included filling my Tovolo ice cream tub with some ice cream of the cookies and cream variety (click here for recipe).  Try cutting up 20 Oreos and not stealing a morsel or two.  I may have had to add in extra cookies to make up for lost bits.

In the end, this no-churn ice cream stuff is serious business.  Seriously good, that is.  Having used a Cuisinart ice cream maker in the past, this no-churn method is far easier, with maybe a bit more patience required because it has to freeze 4 hours before eating.  We pulled it out of the freezer a little over three hours in; it was soft, but still very yummy.  However, I would wait the full four hours if serving in ice cream cones.

My boys, nine and twelve years-old, are anxious to experiment with different mix-ins. And, really, that's the best part of cooking and/or baking; the memories made toiling over different recipes, waiting together to see how it comes out, and then enjoying (or in some cases, ditching) the results of our efforts.  It is a process of discovery that is made more delectable by the fact that the product can be consumed.  In those circumstances where the results go awry, the process was not a waste, but a chance to make observations and inferences about what to do differently the next time.

I guess this ice cream tub holds more than just ice cream, after all. We may need to add, "easily store a fraction of scientific process and a handful of memories" to the product description.