Things to Do on a Snowy Day

With this much snow on the porch when I got up, going to work was not one of the things on my to-do list today.

With 5 inches on the ground and the snow still falling heavily at 6 am, I made the choice to not try to get out this morning. Reasons: it's about 1/4 mile of uphill driveway, a mile to paved road, 4 miles to a two-lane road, and none of the above gets cleared until long after all the other bigger roads are done, and sometimes not even then. After that, it's another 12 miles to the interstate where, according to the radio, no clearing had yet been done. With the snow still falling, Larry didn't want to get out the tractor yet.

Otis and Jeb enjoyed the snow--especially the walk Larry must have cleared just for them.

So---snow day! I called work to be sure everything was covered, and then set about making breakfast. Sleep in? Why? I've got a day off!

After writing about pancakes on First50 this morning, I was ready to make some to eat. When I make pancakes, I don't measure anything; it's a guess-and-go routine. Here's what I used today:

About 1 and 1/2 cups of self-rising flour

About a tablespoon of sugar, maybe a little more than that

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

Mix the dry ingredients together until well blended. Then add:

2 eggs

about a tablespoon of light olive oil

enough apple cider to make a thick batter. Milk is the usual liquid but we like the flavor of the pancakes with cider. Adding the liquid is the hardest part, but honestly, if you get it too runny, your pancakes will just be thin, and if it's too thick, they'll be thick pancakes, so it's not to worry about. You can add more cider if it's too thick, or more flour if it's too thin.

Heat a cast iron skillet with a little cooking oil spray in it until a drop of batter cooks quickly, then keep the heat on medium-to medium low to cook your pancakes. Use a ladle to pour in your batter. I like to make small pancakes; some people like to make great big pan-sized ones. It's up to the cook-you can make Mickey Mouse and all sorts of shapes too, by the way you pour the batter.

That's all there is to making pancakes from scratch.

Now, what else to do today? Well, you could visit Warren's Home Among the Hill's blog. I just found it this morning, and he has the coolest warble run you can make to put on your refrigerator--wow! He also has a nifty catapult, how to make a hat and all sorts of other great ideas to share.

You can also make Snow Ice Cream. I know, I kn0w--snow is dirty, unsafe, yada yada. So live dangerously! I've made and eaten snow ice cream for many years and I'm still kicking at 57. CLEAN snow is a good idea, of course; don't get snow from where the animals like to visit, or from the roadside. Even if you don't actually eat any of it, just making it is a fun thing to do.

Yum!

Here's the recipe in my nothing-is-exactly-measured style:

Get a big bowl of snow. Add sugar, milk and vanilla and whomp it up. If it's too soupy, add more snow; too thick, add more milk. It takes a lot of snow, so don't be surprised if you have to go outside to get more. You can make chocolate by adding chocolate syrup, and other flavors by using your imagination.

So there's two things to do. Here's one more: cut an apple in half, cover it with peanut butter, roll it in bird seed or sunflower seeds or other seeds you might have for cooking (like sesame) if you don't have any birdseed handy, and put it outside for a treat for your birds. Then sit back and watch them go after it!

Don't forget to get a black cloth and a magnifying glass and catch some snowflakes. Snowflake Bentley used a more sophisticated method to capture the first photos of snowflakes. To read more about him and to see my snowflake photos and get links to stunning pictures of flakes, you need to see my blog from last February.

That's three good things to do, and two good things to eat. Of course, you could always just watch it snow and take pictures, which is what I plan to do a lot of today.