fun for kids: snow ice cream

We got a lot of fresh snow last night.
Usually I'm not happy when that happens.
This morning I was.

I came across a recipe for snow ice cream a while ago.
I've been waiting for a few inches of fresh powder so I could try it out.

Plus, somebody has got to teach Cate the proper way to eat snow.
I've got to break her of this nasty habit.
(Sure, I could pick up the boots so she can't reach them. duh.
Sometimes I'm just not fast enough.
And when that happens I just reach for the camera.)


{please excuse that big blob of snot coming out of her nose}


I went into the backyard to find some clean snow.
A lot of the stuff in the front already had footprints tromped all over it.
(Plus, I didn't want the neighbors to see me scooping up snow with a measuring cup and putting it into a bowl. They already think I'm crazy. I don't want to flame the fire.)

I gently scooped off the top powdery stuff so as to not get any dirty old snow.
It seems kind of gross to me to be eating snow at all
but I was intrigued by the very concept
of snow ice cream.

After I scooped my fresh, clean snow (way more than the 8 cups called for in the recipe),
I transferred it to a bowl that could hold it all
and poured a can of sweetened condensed milk on top.


Note to self:
Buy sweetened condensed milk more often.
It's easier to make snow ice cream if you have a fresh can.
If it expired 4 years ago and is brown and really really thick, don't use it.

I added vanilla and stirred, stirred, stirred.
It ended up looking a lot like cheap ice cream with freezer burn.
And no surprise, that's what it tasted like too.
Put some sprinkles on top and the kids didn't seem to mind.

I think they kind of liked it.