Chocolate, vanilla, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip, butter pecan, strawberry, rocky road, peanut butter, coffee, and pistachio are among the top ice cream flavors enjoyed by Americans each year. Considering the average American eats fairly large quantities of ice cream and that its manufacture is a multi-billion dollar industry, it is no wonder that July is “National Ice Cream Month.” The old saying, “You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream” is as true as ever.

Americans typically argue over presidential actions, but no one seemed to get bent out of shape back in 1984 when Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Proclamation designated July as the official ice cream month as well as the third Sunday in July as “National Ice Cream Day.” According to icecream.com with the clever name, “As the World Churns,” 87 percent of us have ice cream in our freezer at any given time and on average, each individual enjoys 48 pints each year. The site states that a cow gives enough milk to make two gallons of ice cream per day and nearly 10 percent of milk produced in the United States is used to make ice cream.

Here are some interesting facts relating to ice cream. Scientists explain the “brain freeze” some people experience when eating ice cream comes from the cold touching the roof of the mouth, causing the blood vessels in the head to dilate.

It takes about 50 licks to finish a single-scoop cone. Speaking of cones, credit for its invention goes to a couple of men from the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Mo. An ice cream vendor ran out dishes and is said to have grabbed a thin waffle pastry and shaped it into an edible cone; the pastry possibly from another nearby vendor. Dolley Madison, wife of our fourth president James Madison, enjoyed ice cream and served it at his inaugural ball. Perhaps lesser known is that Thomas Jefferson, our third president, penned his own recipe for vanilla ice cream and the original copy is found in the Library of Congress.

Ever walk down the grocery store aisle and wonder what brand of ice cream to get? Regardless of price, most ice creams have a long laundry list of ingredients, with some artificial ones that you can’t even pronounce. Even the few without the controversial ingredient of high fructose corn syrup are likely to have added “natural” flavoring, which often means chemical mixtures isolated from natural sources and created in labs, just like the artificial ones.

In the name of profit for companies and convenience for the consumer, we have moved far away from the days when our grandmothers prepared food with simple and wholesome ingredients, which for the most part, were healthier for us to eat. Even the more “fattening” ones such as ice cream were made with real food that our bodies recognized and digested.

My mother has often noted that her grandfather loved to eat his own homemade lemon ice cream, after which he would wipe and re-twirl his long mustache. With some curiosity, determination for something healthier, and in the spirit of “National Ice Cream Month,” I decided to search for some possible recipes. I found that most are for electric ice cream makers, which I don’t have, or the kind kids sometimes make by rolling a mixture in coffee cans with ice. In not much time however, I found some websites where neither of these methods are necessary. You simply mix the ingredients and then freeze the blend for several hours. Isn’t that really what an ice cream maker does, just in shorter time? Of course, in the old days, people also didn’t have freezers or much of a freezer compartment in the first electric refrigerators, so that’s why they used the hand cranked makers surrounded by ice and salt.

A refreshing and simple lemon ice cream was my first choice and low and behold, the ingredient list is short. No “natural” lemon flavoring is required because it uses a real lemon, zested and juiced for authentic flavor. Short of going to the dairy farm, which is a step I may take, it is not perfectly natural, but certainly an improvement from what is found in the store and made in very few steps. For step one, just stir together one 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream (that you have whipped into stiff peaks from one pint of heavy whipping cream). Next, stir in the zest (grated peel) and juice of one large lemon (or 2 small). I added a few drops of certified pure essential lemon oil for more taste, but that is optional. Freeze the blend for several hours.

A peanut butter brownie ice cream recipe was also appealing, particularly if one is craving something with chocolate. Again, this recipe is pretty simple. In step one, stir together one 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk with one teaspoon of vanilla extract and 2/3 cup of creamy peanut butter (I prefer Smucker’s Natural because its only ingredients are peanuts and salt). Next, fold in whipped cream (that you have whipped into stiff peaks from two pints of heavy whipping cream) and about three cups of cubed brownies. I made these from a recipe at a website noted below using the dry ingredients of cocoa, sugar, flour, salt and wet ingredients of eggs, water, vanilla extract, and liquid coconut oil. It is very simple and uses real foods without the unnatural ones found in boxes on supermarket shelves. The same goes for chocolate sauce.

Make it a good week and enjoy some ice cream. If not the top ten flavors, there’s always rum raisin, butterscotch pecan, maple walnut, or moose tracks.

As one anonymous person said, “An ice cream cone can solve any problem even if it’s only for a few minutes.” Many more great recipes in addition to the ones I tried may be found at crazyforcrust.com.

NOTE: Next Sunday, July 19, marks the anniversary of when delegates reached an agreement to end the war in Korea, followed a few days later with the signing of a peace treaty. The column will be especially dedicated to the anonymous reader and Korean War veteran who noted that it is too often the “Forgotten War,” particularly after reading the column in May entitled, “Students Write about Memorial Day.”

Mary Burns Deas writes weekly for the OBSERVER. Send comments to lifestyles@observertoday.com