Most of my childhood was spent growing up in rural Indiana, and while I remember getting a lot of snow in the winter, the Blizzard of 1978, was by far the worst winter I can remember. I was 15 years old at that time, and I remember being shocked to see snow drifts 10-20 feet high. And it was bitterly cold…around 30-50 degrees below zero if you factor in the wind chill. I think that’s the year Mom’s lips got frostbit…if I recall correctly…from walking outside to get the mail.
Speaking of walking outside, visibility was horrible. Most everyone was snowed in for a long time because the storm was so severe that everything basically just came to a standstill. Fortunately for us, my parents always stocked up on food and supplies so we were well prepared while waiting out the storm.
We passed the time playing cards for hours…usually guys against gals. Me and Mom would always be partners, while Dad and my brother competed against us. We played samba, canasta, pinochle, and euchre. Those were our favorite games, but we also occasionally like to play rummy and double deck rummy. My sister, who’s six years younger than I am, would join me and my brother in playing Monopoly, and us kids like to play chess and checkers too.
Anyway, we made the best of the blizzard, and ate a good bit of it too!!
If you’ve never tried snow cream before, you’re in for a real treat. Just be careful that you don’t get any yellow snow!!! Try to make sure that the snow you collect for your snow cream doesn’t have any debris on top of it. You don’t want to choose snow that has pieces of twigs or dirt that’s blown on it, and of course, you want to make sure the snow is free of bird droppings and other animal’s do-do. Seems obvious I know, but well…figured I should say it anyway.
I live in the city in an apartment complex, and my Mom suggested that I collect snow from on top of my car. There’s so many people walking around here, not to mention lots of cats, dogs, squirrels, and birds, making it hard to find clean snow. So this morning, after getting about 6 inches of snow, I went outside to collect snow from the front of my car. (I didn’t want to take it from the back side because other vehicles driving by can splash mud and junk on the back part of the car.
The snow we got last night was a dry snow. Dad says that wet snow makes better snow cream than dry snow, but both are still absolutely yummy!! I just made some, and each bite I took was absolutely heavenly!!
There are several ways to flavor it. Dad makes a sugar-free version for Mom by sweetening and flavoring the snow with raspberry flavored Crystal Light and cream. You can also make chocolate snow cream by using cocoa powder instead of vanilla. My favorite flavor is Dad’s traditional vanilla snow cream; I think that’s the best! Here’s the vanilla snow cream I made a few hours ago with a little bit of cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top.
Dad’s Snow Cream
Ingredients:
- fresh snow (I used 6 cups of compacted snow)
- cream or milk (cream makes it taste better than milk, and I used 4 tbsp. heavy whipping cream)
- vanilla (I used 2 tbsp. pure vanilla extract)
- sugar (I used 1/2 cup)
Instructions:
- When you get a good snow, gather some snow that’s freshly fallen. Make sure it’s not there’s no animal or people tracks through the snow. You can also put out a container on your porch to collect the snow if you don’t want to take the snow off the ground.
- Add sugar, vanilla, and milk to taste.
- Stir all the ingredients.
- You can eat some and then freeze any that you have leftover in plastic containers.
You’ve heard the old saying “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade”…well I say, “When old man winter blows a blizzard your way, make snow cream!!” YUM!!!
LOL!! You’re absolutely right about that!!!