snow day

Living in St. Louis definitely has it’s seasonal ups + downs.  White Christmas?  Yes.  Tornadoes on New Year’s Eve?  Sure.  Five inches of snow 2 weeks later?  You betcha.  And if you know St. Louis drivers, you know we freak out at the slightest talk of snow.  The Schnucks Panic Aisle was definitely opened last night…

Luckily, I was able to get a wonderful 3 mile run in outside before the weather turned too bad.  I might not like running in rain, but I LOVE running in snow!  And a little extra in the Vibrams made it even more glorious!

Both Matt + I had a snow day today.  [Well, technically I did, but I still had to go in, but left after lunch.]  And instead of doing the normal things people do in snow – build a snowman, go sledding, etc. – we took the suggestion of our local Fox station to make our own Snow Ice Cream!

SNOW ICE CREAM
Adapted from Fox 2 News St. Louis.  Makes 2 servings.

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsweeted vanilla almond milk (or milk of your choice)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5-6 cups fresh fallen snow (you probably won’t use all of this)

Add sugar, milk, and vanilla extract to a large bowl.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved. 

Slowly stir in snow in batches, until it reaches the consistency of ice cream.

Serve immediately with your favorite toppings.

**If you don’t want to eat this right away, collect the snow and place in the freezer until ready to use.**

This is probably the easiest recipe in the world!  It took all of 10 minutes to make, including collecting the snow.  Now, our snow had already fallen and we just scraped off our patio table (I know, real sanitary, right).  Ideally, you should put a bowl outside while the snow is falling to get the freshest snow possible, but our way works too.

Seriously, this was probably some of the best homemade ice cream I’ve ever had!  Guaranteed, not creamy whatsoever, but when you think of homemade ice cream, it has the granulated, icy texture that I still really love.  If you are craving ice cream and have snow, MAKE THIS RECIPE!  Make it NOW!  Well, IF you have enough snow…

We are now debating on going back outside and making some more… I might make this every night until the snow is gone.  Just remember, don’t use the yellow snow…

major craving for custard

Last night, I had a major craving (Major Craving… ala How I Met Your Mother) for ice cream.  I mean, like I wouldn’t be satisfied until I got my taste buds on some creamy, cold ice cream.  Guaranteed, it was 15 degrees outside, but still… I needed some, and I needed some NOW.  I blame it on the massive amounts of sweets I ate during the holidays.

As I’m sure you all remember, our most convenient go-to place, Fritz’s, is closed until February.  Luckily, Matt remembered we had a gift certificate for Blue Sky Creamery located in Paul’s Donuts.  So, we hopped in the car and headed out that way.

[Sorry, Matt’s windshield is really dirty…]

We’ve only been to Paul’s once for ice cream – back when we were dating, and very close to the beginning of our relationship.  All I remember was that they had Twix to mix into your ice cream.  And although that sounded like a winner to me, I noticed the pumpkin ice cream in the freezer and knew I definitely couldn’t pass that up!

I decided on the pumpkin with M&M’s mixed in.  So, maybe that seems like a weird combination, but that was my other craving.  (Again, blaming it on the massive amounts of more specifically M&M’s I’ve eaten in the past 2 weeks.)

 

This was BY FAR the best pumpkin tasting ice cream/frozen custard/froyo I’ve had to date!  So cinnamon-y + spicy… DElish!  Of course, not nearly as creamy, given it is ice cream and not custard, but still dang good!

Matt got my second choice – white cake ice cream with Twix mixed in.  The cake flavor was strong + spot on, and with the Twix added, was stellar!  I almost wish I would’ve gotten that, but oh, the pumpkin!  (Mine’s much prettier too, doncha think?!)

Unfortunately, Blue Sky Creamery has gone bankrupt and Paul’s is slowly phasing out Blue Sky to Edy’s.  So glad we went when we did!  Now, if only I can figure out how to get that same pumpkin flavor at home…