Snow cream and other snow-related musings
Published 9:46 am Thursday, January 18, 2024
- Snow or is it sleet from Winter Storm Heather January 15 2024. (Tracye Prewitt/The Vicksburg Post)
It snowed this week in Mississippi, or was that sleet? Anyway, something white actually fell from the sky and covered the ground and anything that wasn’t moving.
I know we got by with just a dusting and we’re not talking a “snowmaggeddon” this time, but it sure was fun to look at.
Snow takes me back to the days of braving the seven-mile drive to my Nannie’s house.
My parents didn’t get snow days from their work, so when I was lucky enough to get one from school, I had to go to Nannie’s.
I remember when we pulled into the driveway, we were met by my Aunt Cooter.
Coot, you see, had been up since dawn feeding the cows but that didn’t deter her joy over the snow that was falling. She was as giddy as a schoolgirl over it.
She had put Nannie’s enormous mixing bowl, the one she used to make biscuits, on the top of the pickup and had collected as much as the bowl could hold of this precious white manna.
Why on earth would she do that, you may ask. She did it for the snow cream.
OMG! What is snow cream? Surely you jest. Snow cream is ice cream made from snow. It was the next best thing to heaven to eat as a child.
Snow cream is just clean, collected snow (a big bowl that is pretty full), condensed milk (14 oz. can) and two teaspoons of vanilla.
Mix it and eat immediately because all good things must come to an end and snow melts quickly in the South.
I don’t remember ever building a snowman, but I do remember dislocating my shoulder sledding with friends in high school, running off the road in the middle of nowhere with my paraplegic friend and having to walk for help (this was long before cell phones), snowball fights with my cousins and my white faux fur coat that made me look like a short little polar bear. Grrrr.
So don’t complain too much about the snow. Like I said, it doesn’t last long in the South and it is beautiful to look at.
Heck, it is a miracle it happened in the first place. Mother Nature has to hold her mouth just right for snow to fall here.
So enjoy it when we get it and just remember we are only 60 days away from Spring.