An Old-Fashioned Christmas: Snow Ice Cream

I love it when it snows, but I loathe the snow itself. I usually don't even step one toe out the door if I don't have to. My driveway and stairs to the lake turn into icy death slopes and my road doesn't ever get plowed. It's not only dangerous, it's terrifying. The idea of winter sports is completely unappealing to me. Personally, I like to snuggle inside by the fire with a good book and comfy socks and a heavy sweater and a cup of tea. Or scotch. Whatever.

But toddlers like snow. Ugh.

So that means I need to dig into my mom bag of tricks and do my thing to make it special for Stenni and not completely ruin the fun snow time that she deserves.

I tried sledding. We go every time it snows, and she loves it. And I get an extra workout. But really, it doesn't do it for me. But she likes it. We make snow angels. We made a snowman but by the time I went to get his accessories and Stenni's sled, she had already spear-tackled him to the ground. Good stuff.

But Stenni's number one fun time thing to do in the the snow? Eat it. Yeah, really. She loves to eat snow off of all available surfaces in our yard. I don't get it, but I figured I could work with it.

If you haven't already made snow ice cream, you are not living. Its worth stepping out your front door to scoop up some snow even if you're winter-phobic like me.

You really only need a few things:

• a big bowl
• a big spoon
•  a lot of snow
•  a can of sweetened condensed milk
•  some vanilla extract

Scoop up the snow into the bowl. Pack it down a little. I use my huge babka-making aluminum bowl, but just use the biggest one in your kitchen. A soup pot wouldn't be a bad idea. 
Then mix in the sweetened condensed milk. I usually use between 1/2 to just shy of a full can. Use enough vanilla for flavor but not enough to melt everything. Stir very well. Like, very well. You don't want to eat a chunk of pure vanilla extract ice. Not cool. Use a mixer if you want. It's prob a good idea to make it nice and smooth like actual ice cream.

Then eat it all up. Share it if you have to. Easy as pie. Plus, you get to stay inside all nice and toasty, which is a huge plus!

Round up the usual suspects and use your hugest bowl.

Remember to mix very well! Yours should look better than mine!