Patriotic Ice Cream for Memorial Day or Fourth of July

2 boxes of vanilla ice cream
2 cans blueberry pie filling
2 cans cherry pie filling
2 tubes white frosting with small decorator tip & straight tip

It is best to use inexpensive ice cream when making this dessert for two reasons: First, because now days only the less expensive brands come as perfect rectangles in a box and second, because home made ice cream simply does not get hard enough for our purposes here. However, feel free to use any kind of ice cream you wish so long as it is white in color. I use store brand, vanilla ice cream.

You will make this on the serving dish, so select wisely. The dish must be freezer safe. . The dish must fit in your freezer. This dessert must lie flat, so you cannot tip the pan at an angle to make it fit. And the pan must be one that will be easy to use for cutting slices of ice cream. You will probably want to cut this ice cream when you serve it because it will help the flag maintain it's shape longer, and because everyone will get a piece of different colors that way. Don't feel you must use some fancy dish. This dessert is itself the show piece. So long as the pan you use isn't an eyesore, you should be okay.

First, I open the box of ice cream on all sides so that I can easily cut the ice cream into slices. Then I cut two standard size boxes of ice cream each into four slices long ways. This means I will have eight slices of ice cream. Using my selected pan, I put the slices of ice cream in the shape of an American flag. NOTE: For a larger crowd you can use more ice cream to make a larger flag, and then, of course, use more of the other ingredients

I then take my knife and lightly scratch out the stripes and the blue field. When I know I have them right, I edge them deeper. Tip: If you start from the beginning using a ruler, and do the blue field first, you will find this much easier. You want a deep edge to help keep the juice from the cherry and blueberry pie filling from running together.

Once you have your stripes and field edged out, you're ready to begin coloring. Remember, the bottom stripe is red. What you want to do is to use a spoon and spoon out the filling, without the fruit, onto the area where the first red stripe is supposed to be. Spread it on the entire stripe area making sure you have even coverage. Do not use a pasty brush as a pasty brush just doesn't work well with ice cream. Use a spoon.

Once you have that stripe completely covered, take your tube of white frosting with the straight tip and draw a line separating the cherry/red stripe from the vanilla/white stripe. This, like the edge, helps to prevent any bleed through. It also gives your flag a more finished look.

Continue painting every other stripe with the filling only, not the fruit, out of the cherry filling can. Save the strawberries in a separate dish. While you shouldn't totally slather the filling on, don't be stingy either. That's why we have two cans of filling to work with. You want to have good, even coverage. Draw a line between each red and white stripe using the white frosting with the straight tip.

Tip: It would be extremely helpful if a friend or family member could help in the preparation of this desert. Otherwise, you must work very quickly or make part of it, put it in the freezer for a while, then take it out and resume. You can't spread filling on a melted piece of ice cream!

Once the stripes are completed, you paint the blue field using the blueberry filling. Again, you put the fruit in a bowl and only use the jelly-like filling. Once the field is painted, use the white frosting with the straight tip to outline the blue filed to separate it from the stripes. You don't want blue running into your red and white!

Now it's time to make the stars. Obviously, we can't make 50 real stars, but we can make the allusion of stars. How many stars you make is up to you. Remove the straight tip from the tube of frosting and put on the small decorator tip. Voila! You have stars. Just keep making them one after the other on top of the blueberry field.

Do Ahead Tip: You can make your stars in advance on a piece of waxed paper. Let them completely dry. Then all you have to do is pick them up and place them on the blue field. In fact, you can do this way ahead of time by letting the stars dry and then freezing them in a zip lock bag. This is a great time saver as you have enough to do getting ready for your Memorial Day or Fourth of July feast.

Now you need to freeze your flag. It is very important to keep you flag flat while freezing. This is why using a large sheet can be problematic; some people get good at making large flags, but they do not have the room in their freezer for a large pan. If possible, crank your freezer up to its highest setting. If that is not possible, make sure you're making your flag enough in advance, so that it will freeze hard. You want this flag to be as hard as possible as people will want to look at it for a few minutes before it is cut. This will be one of those deserts that are considered too pretty to eat, so the harder you can freeze it, the better.

Remember those left over cherries and blueberries? When serving your flag, have them ready on the side for those people who would like to add them to their ice cream. You may even want to have more than what was left over or add some other sundae products like whipped cream and nuts.

Everyone likes ice cream on a hot day; moreover, this dessert is guaranteed to make your Memorial Day or Fourth of July memorable