“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” (John Ruskin)
Snow is in the air tonight. The temperature plunged and the rain started turning white. Frankie went outside a while ago and came back with white sprinkled all across his black furry back.
Snow has been scarce around here in Kentucky this winter. We had a smidgen early in December. We’ve had a few flurries since then. Mostly the kind where if you didn’t look quick, you wouldn’t see any snow. If it does snow as forecast tonight and Friday, I think it’s going to be that kind again. Or at least even if it does leave some on the ground it won’t last long since Sunday it’s supposed to be 60 degrees again. But that’s weather in Kentucky, especially in March. One weatherman said we’d had a whole winter of March this year.
I’m okay with no snow. We’ve had plenty in years past. The pictures are from one of the big snows we had back in 2015. The dog is my sweet Oscar who enjoyed the snow. Frankie loves it too, but he hasn’t had as much snow to enjoy as yet. While I don’t mind one good snow a year if it doesn’t stick around long, mostly I tend to agree with Carl Reiner who said, “Some people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.”
But I know plenty of people get excited by the prospect of snow. There are some things that you can’t do without a little snow. Go sledding for one. And you can’t make a snowman without a good snow or dig out a snow fort and have a snowball fight. No snow means no days off from school. All kids need a few of those. And you can’t make snow cream.
That leads me to a memory sent in by a reader some time ago. So if you’re one of the lucky snow lovers who have plenty of the white stuff on the ground and you’ve ever wanted an actual recipe to make snow cream, here it is from Virginia along with her story.
My grandmother was ‘the greatest cook ever’ and used to make delicious snow ice cream. Fresh clean snow (yes, it was cleaner in the “good olde days” ) whole milk or cream, sugar, and vanilla. For some reason, I crave ice cream in the Winter–maybe because of Gran’s “Snow Cream”. One of my mother’s favorite holiday treats from her childhood was “boiled custard” (which you must not allow to boil). A rich, cooked drink similar to eggnog, boiled custard is actually a custard which is thin enough to drink from a cup. My grandmother used to make it and pour it into glass jars which she would set down outside in the snow to cool. Mom and her brother and sister would drink it outside straight from the jar and then get “switched” by Gran for stealing the family treat!
Fresh Snow Ice Cream
1 small pkg of regular (not instant) vanilla pudding mix
1 cup sugar
1/2 milk
1 pint cream
2 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 to 2 gallons fresh, clean snow
In an extra-large, heavy mixing bowl, combine pudding mix and sugar. Stir in milk and blend until dry ingredients are dissolved. Blend in cream, vanilla extract, and nutmeg. Cover and chill until ready to serve ice cream. To make ice cream: Stir mixture well and add in enough snow to make desired consistency. Do not over-stir. Serve immediately.
Thanks, Virginia, for sharing your story and your grandmother’s recipe. So if you have a heaping bowl of clean snow – actually, the fun spoilers, er, I mean the experts, tell us that no snow is clean enough anymore, but it’s still fun to think about snow cream.
My mom used to make snow cream sometimes too. Dad liked it, but she just stirred some milk or cream and sugar into the snow, I think. I didn’t like it much then and have never made it myself. I just eat my snow sugar free and wait for summertime to make the real stuff by cooking up some ice cream stock, adding some mashed fruit–nearly always bananas–vanilla and cream to put in an ice cream freezer surround with ice and salt and churn away.
Have you ever made or eaten snow cream?
Thanks for reading. I borrowed some of this post from a previous post back in 2012 so I could get back to churning out some words for my work in progress.