Today was mostly spent tidying and sending things away. Folks from various corners of Portland came and picked up various things, slowly creating more space in the house.
I also made snowcream tonight with the snow I saved in the freezer. Snowcream, for those of you who didn’t grow up with it, consists of a bowl of snow, evaporated milk, sugar and vanilla. When I called Dad to ask him for the recipe, he said that you just mix those things together until it tastes right.
sigh
So that’s what I did. Mmmm… snow cream. Rob was not impressed, but I think Christina appreciated it. I grew up thinking that everyone made snow cream, then thinking that it was a Southern thing. And now I’m beginning to suspect that it’s a very localized thing. Like, maybe just Tennessee. Have you ever had it?
I’ve heard of it, but never experienced it.
Snow cream
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the American dessert. For the British dessert, see Snow (dessert).
Snow cream was founded in the hills of Kentucky by Meagan’s grandma Hensen. It is made by slowly pouring a small amount of sweetened dairy-based liquid (similar to ice cream ingredients) into clean snow. The liquid partially melts the snow and congeals into an easily made ice cream substitute. To make Snow Ice Cream try mixing 5 cups of fresh snow, 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup of Half and Half or milk and a dash of salt. Also good with other extracts such as mint, almond, orange or lemon. To make it creamier, try adding a 1/2 a mashed banana.
Snow cream is sometimes improved with the addition of powdered sugar and food coloring.
I don’t think Rob would find food coloring or powdered sugar an improvement. An English reciepe? The mystery deepens.
I remember having it whenever it snowed, and I grew up in Portland (mostly). None of my family is from the South.
I made it for my kids, too, whenever it snowed.
Growing up in NYC, the snow would always melt by the time I waited for the elevator and got back to our apartment, so my best friend Claudia Kaminsky and I learned to eat it “neat” by the handful. My mom would also let me eat giant icicles I would break off of things (usually cars, though I never told her that) after she rinsed them off.
Now I let my children have what Rebecca has dubbed “snow treat”, a bowl of fresh snow drizzled with maple syrup… to the delight of the kids, it looks rather like the kind of snow you are never supposed to eat…
Whew. So far, every time I’ve said the words “snow cream” to people they’ve looked at me like I’ve sprouted another head.
I wonder what the dash of salt is supposed to do in the wikipedia recipe.
Salt is a flavor enhancer, and particularly when something might be a touch bitter.
Salt changes the freezing point and affects the texture of things like ice cream.
Hm… well, we never put it in and my enjoyment wasn’t marred.
We made it growing up all of the time, but we get a bit more snow here than some.
Sometimes, as impatient kids, we’d just take the bowl of snow and pour milk on it and then a little Hershey’s chocolate sauce.
My boy just likes it plain – just a bowl of snow.
Yes, we had it in Idaho. My father and grandmother would make it, and then they quit one year because they were concerned about the condition of the snow. (Acid snow cream anyone?) Not sure if there really was cause to worry about or not, but still they quit :(. Maybe I should look into how our snow outside looks… I’m sure the kids would love it. I think we called it “Snow Ice Cream”.
Chocolate! I’ve never had it with chocolate. Mmm…
I think we stopped too for a while because of the acid rain thing, but I can’t imagine eating it once or twice a year really hurting.
We occasionally did the maple syrup thing. I had forgotten that, but now that you mention it…
As for the acid rain thing, it wouldn’t surprise me if we put worse things in our bodies that’s worse that we have bought from the grocery store.
*hopes for more fresh snow*
So, does the maple syrup harden in the snow? I’m fascinated and will have to wait ages to experiment on my own.
We have a cool treat here in Hawaii called “Shave Ice”,similar to Snow Cream. You can have shave ice in almost any flavor you want, including the very popular azuki bean with vanilla flavoring.
Ha! I thought of “Shave Ice” when I was posting about this, but I think that Rob and I would both agree that the finished products are very different.