The Snowfall of Feb 2010 and Snow Cream Tutorial

Last week we were in the midst of a really amazing snow storm at our town here in New York. 

 Here are some pictures I took of our yard.

Our property is wooded and looks and feels like a campground. We have a fire pit and picnic tables just outside our kitchen window.

Here is our swing and picnic table the day before the BIG storm AND after the more than 2 new feet of snow fell, oh my!

Here my hubby is snow blowing the driveway moving the snow that had fallen the day before the BIG storm which was the forcast for the next day.

And this is what we woke up to! 

 What to do with over 36" of snow?

At our house it is our tradition to make SNOW CREAM!  And that is just what we did!

Here is my snow cream tutorial for making 

4 mugs of snow cream. You don't need several feet of snow, you can make it anytime you can collect a large bowl of clean snow.

First step: collect a large bowl of clean, white, cold snow that has not been stepped on, pee'd on and that has no salt or sand or debri in it. 

Select a second bowl (a little smaller). It should look something like this.

These are the ingredients you will need: vanilla, milk, sugar (and of course,  snow!)

 

Add one teaspoon of pure vanilla flavoring to the empty bowl.

Next add 1 cup of pure cane granulated sugar. I use a 1/2 cup measure, so I add the first 1/2 cup to the vanilla. 

Then I add another 1/2 cup for a total of 1 cup of sugar.

 

Next I add 2 cups of cold milk (2% or whole milk) to the sugar and vanilla.

 Stir with large spoon to mix the 

vanilla, sugar and milk.

Next taste the mixture. If it is too sweet: add more milk. If not sweet enough: add more sugar. Make it the way you like it.

Now it is time to add snow to the milk mixture.

Add one large heaping spoonful of snow,

Add spoonful # 2 of snow,

Add spoonful #3 of snow.

 Add spoonful # 4 of snow to the milk mixture.

Now stir the snow into the milk 

mixture until it is slushy. It will still be milky.

Add 2 more spoonfuls of snow.

Now add a third spoonful of snow.

Stir the snow into the milk mixture. It will continue to be slushy, but not so milky.

Add another spoonful of snow if too milky.

 With another spoon, taste the completed snow cream. It should be slushy, but more or less dry, not runny. It should be sweet and tasty and not bland.

You can still doctor the taste at this point. In another cup or bowl, add a little milk, vanilla and sugar. Stir and taste. When it tastes good to you, begin to add it to the bowl of slushy snow until the taste becomes less bland. Then add more snow to get a slushy, but not milky consistency. If the snow cream is too sweet, all you need to do is add more snow. When it tastes just right, fill up mug #1:

 

Fill up mug #2:

 Fill up mug # 3:

Fill up mug #4:

 and you have just emptied the bowl into 4 mugs of snow cream! Any snow that is left over may be rinsed down the drain.

Enjoy! 

Put any unused mugs of snow cream in the freezer.

When you are ready to eat, put in microwave for about 10 seconds or leave at room temperature for a few minutes before eating.

And here is some banana bread I made just before 

the limbs came down on the electric lines and transformers and we were

without power, water, heat, and flush for six days! 

We left home and went to a lodge at West Point military academy until our power and water were restored. Many of our tall trees had the tops break off and land in our yard and woods.We have so many limbs down and my husband spent days removing snow! There is much more work to do to get up all the fallen limbs,

but it so wonderful to be back home and to have our lives back to "normal"!