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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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.

10 comments:

  1. We love snow ice cream!! Unfortunately we haven't had a good enough snow yet to have it this winter.

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  2. Thanks for mentioning me.

    We eat snow now and then. I always warn the kids about...uh...yellow snow.

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  3. Sounds like you've been busy today even though you didn't go to work. We used to make snow cream all the time when I was young, it is good! We didn't go anywhere today, took Charley most of the day shoveling the snow and cleaning the cars. After a tractor cleared off the snow we now have a layer of ice on our road. Who knows what we'll wake up to in the morning.

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  4. aaahhh, snow cream. One of the great, true joys of a southern childhood.The best restaurants in Paris can not compare!

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  5. Oh snow ice-cream..Yummy. We never get enough snow here to make any but I do love it. I always heard you shouldn't eat the first snow of the year but we get snow so seldom here that I don't listen. I always have to take a bite.

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  6. I confess that I like snow ice cream, too. In fact, we might just have enough snow for it now . . .
    The marble run looked very interesting (you had me going with "warble run"). Keep me posted if you try it.
    We cancelled our storytelling meeting today -- just too dangerous to go out, live to tell another day.
    I have found a store with the perfect size crickets for the tree frog -- I told them they should add a slogan to their Pets Plus store "purveyors of gourmet crickets for fastidious tree frogs." He's been singing less, but looks good, and I'm betting he's glad to be indoors.
    I found the cartoon "Spot the Frog" online -- it's hitting close to home.

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  7. There must be something about snowy weather and pancakes that just go together; we had pancakes at our house, too. But I have never thought of adding apple juice-mmm. I will have to give it a try.
    As for eating snow-well here in the greater Kanawha (chemical) Valley, we are afraid that it might cause us to have an eerie green glow... ;-)

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  8. Our internet is so patchy today, I am finally able to read and post a little. I am glad to knwo so many of you like snow ice cream! I'm not alone in my craziness.

    No electricity last night, so cooking this morning was on the wood stove; thank goodness we stocked up on kerosene, water, matches and flashlights. Right comfortable when you have the stuff you need.

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  9. Our internet is so patchy today, I am finally able to read and post a little. I am glad to knwo so many of you like snow ice cream! I'm not alone in my craziness.

    No electricity last night, so cooking this morning was on the wood stove; thank goodness we stocked up on kerosene, water, matches and flashlights. Right comfortable when you have the stuff you need.

    ReplyDelete
  10. And guess what I made for supper tonight BEFORE I read your post!! I hopped over to First50 to see what that was all about. Now that's pretty interesting. I'm going to the home among the hills next. I see behives in his header. I used to keep bees until the hurricane storm surge drowned my hives. Sad but true. BW

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