Snowy night

When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade, no? So, it only makes sense that if Mother Nature hands you umpteen inches of snow, you make SNOW ICE CREAM!!! =)

 I found a recipe for snow ice cream (which I had never heard of, but apparently it is a favorite past-time for some people) while browsing Facebook before bed. You can see the recipe here. It looked so good...and since I'm always up for something sweet, I decided we had to make it right now! I had to modify the recipe some to jive with my carb-conscious/sugar-free way of eating. Instead of sweetened condensed milk, I used about 1 and half cups of heavy cream and mixed in 1/2 cup of Splenda. I also used more vanilla extract than called for (about 3-4 tablespoons). We have some really good Mexican vanilla extract and it is perfect for this. I used the hand mixer to whip up the cream/Splenda/vanilla mixture a bit so it wasn't quite so runny, but not to the point that it was fluffy like whipped cream. Then Ryan trudged out into the snow and filled my big 8 cup mixing bowl full of freshly fallen, very soft snow. I folded the snow into the cream mixture until it reached the consistency I wanted and it was well combined. Note: Be careful what you use to stir it with! The plastic spatula I was stirring it with snapped right above the silicone spatula part cuz it got so cold!

Close-up so you can see the soft, perfect, texture! YUM!

The color is off a bit because of the flash, but isn't that pretty?! Can't believe it's made from snow!

After we enjoyed our ice cream, it was time to catch a couple pictures of the weather and join in on Blizzard Watch 2011. Dun dun dunnnnn....

A view of the front of the house. Winds are pretty strong right now.

Front row seats to see all the "action."

"Ahhhh - snow!"

"What? I just had a moment. 'Scuse me."

From outside looking in.

Cats are never cooperative photo subjects. *sigh*

"Snow pumas" as the hubby likes to refer to them. Loki loves this stuff. Go figure with that shag rug he carries with him everywhere.

Sending warm thoughts to everyone. While you're cooped up, might as well have fun with it and try the snow ice cream!
~A