Ingredients: 

• Large Bowl of Clean Snow
• 14 oz. Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 2 Teaspoons of Vanilla 

Directions:

1. Pour the condensed milk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla into the large bowl of clean snow.
2. Stir by hand thoroughly.
3. Serve with toppings of choice. 

Snow Cream, 2010 by Cassie Sanford Clark

When I was a little girl there were three reasons to LOVE winter:  Christmas, inclement weather days off from school, and Mamaw’s snow cream.  I remember when I was a little girl that I would shriek with delight when it started snowing (these days I groan out of horror).  I would run straight to Mamaw and ask if it was time to make snow cream.  According to my Aunt Janey, Mamaw didn’t make our special treat with the first snow of the season – we had to wait until the second.  Southern tradition holds that the first snow of the season is dirty from catching all of the impurities in the air on the way down.  My Aunt Karen claims that it was the Biltmore milk that made Mamaw’s snow cream magical, but I missed out on the Biltmore milk days.  I can’t imagine that Mamaw’s snow cream could have gotten much better!

I don’t remember having to wait for the second snow or the Biltmore milk, but I do remember getting a bowl and running outside to the pump house to get snow off the top of it – my cousin, Kylie, remembers this time honored tradition as well.  Mamaw wouldn’t use snow that came straight off the ground (my best guess would be to avoid dirt and worse i.e. yellow snow).  After bringing the snow in, I would help Mamaw mix up the frozen treat (sometimes being chastised for dipping my fingers into the condensed milk to have a taste), and then I’d sit by the wood stove and eat until my little heart was content.

These days it’s my little princesses who get up and shriek when they discover it has been snowing.  Maybe they’ll get lucky this year and Wilmington will have strong flurry.