Don’t EVER go shopping on an empty stomach!
That’s rule number one. Every woman knows better, and when we are conned into the impulse buys that the grocery store features on the end caps of the aisles, and at check out, we excuse it by saying…..”I didn’t have my breakfast, or I would have known better!”
Today is just glorious. The skies are clear, the snow on the ground is a clean, untouched white, and the sunlight glinting off that pristine snow is dazzling. With all that beauty around us, the weather forecasters are saying that we’re in for quite a snowfall in the next two days. We are right on the dividing line between an area slated to get 6-12 inches, and one that they think will get 3-6 inches. Looks like we’ll get six inches, don’t you think??
So, we’ve gone to exercise, and we’re in the car on the way home, thinking about what we might need “if we are snowed in.” For gosh sakes…..it’s just going to be six inches! What’s with the “snowed in” thoughts??
We have plenty of meat, and cheese and eggs. I have bacon and lunch meat, and all the canned goods I could possibly want. There’s both canned and dry soups for lunch. I have enough romaine for salads for about three days of hearty salads. There’s coffee and soda pop and all kinds of tea, plus a half gallon of skim milk. Why in the world were we thinking about stocking up, just in case we were snowed in?
I bought a bag of California navel oranges, because they were running a “buy one, get one free” special. With three of us eating the oranges, they should last all week. I bought yeast and bread flour for the bread machine, as well as two loaves of bread. I found a 10 for $10 sale on pork chops, and I think we’ll save those for Tuesday, when my niece and her boys come to dinner. Mother bought beef for Swiss Steak, and I got the canned tomatoes she’d need to make that meal. My real downfall was the jar of salsa and chips for my husband, and a bag of chips for me. I subscribe to the “Don’t buy it, and you won’t eat it” philosophy, and I really fell down here.
Do you suppose there is something genetic in us that makes us prepare for coming storms like this? Most of the excess purchases I can freeze and dole out over the next month, but it seemed really important that we “STOCK UP” to be prepared for this storm. Watch…..we’ll get a inch of snow, and wonder why we had to be so prepared. Maybe we should blame it on the weather guys who insist on building mountains out of molehills.
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
Hum… where have i heard this before! Around hear if you even think about snow the stores are packed. People think they want get out for two weeks!
Joe, my parents retired to Table Rock Lake in SW Missouri. It’s hilly there, and they don’t get a lot of snow. Each winter, the residents fill their pantries with canned goods and the first person who is able to make it out after a snow brings back coffee, newspapers, milk, and bread for their neighbors. It was really nice to see how everyone worked together when the roads were dangerous.
As long as we have fresh milk to last through a siege, the rest of the grocery list is immaterial. If we have appreciable snow without there being fresh milk from which to make snow icecream, it’s a disaster of major proportions for me. Thirty years ago, when we couldn’t get the car out due to a blizzard, I walked 2-3 miles to the grocery store for milk (well, I also bought dinner napkins; but, the paper towels that we had on hand would have sufficed.) How joyful was my tromp through the huge drifts in the sunny, still morning!
How lovely, Cop Car! I haven’t been out in the snow yet, but I can understand just how joyous that walk must have been.
Too bad you weren’t along with us in early 1983 when a friend and I tromped through the fresh, 26″ snow in the Washington DC area. I had been in town for a meeting and she had invited me for the weekend. The blizzard turned into a blessing, according to her. She had worried about how she would entertain me. We spent a lot of time shoveling (they had 3 snow shovels so 3 of us could work at once) and she and I took walks. We had had to abandon her car about 6 blocks from her house because there were already about 16-18 inches on the ground at that point and no snow plow had made it any closer to their house. Their teen-aged daughter was mesmerized by the snow icecream. She’d never had any and she kept coming up with different flavorings to try (rum, lemon, orange….) I’d never tried anything other than vanilla.
I’ve never had snow ice cream. Today would be a great day to try it! DH thinks we have 6-8 inches so far, and we get little squalls now and then.
Snow ice cream? Sounds interesting….care to share the recip? Not that I would ever get to try that here in Jamaica! (Unless of course you sent some in a frozen container!) 😉
That would be snow, milk, a bit of sugar and a bit of flavoring (vanilla or whatever). Mix well and enjoy!
Now, Bogie, let’s be more specific. For each 1 cup of milk, use 1-2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2-1 teaspoon of vanilla. Taste the mixture to make sure that it is sweet enough and that the vanilla is strong enough for you. Then, add as much snow as can be incorporated into the mixture to make a stiff mush. I think it will take 3-4 cups of snow; but, I must admit to never having measured the snow–LOL.
Dr. D, it seems we ALL got the recipe! Do you mix and eat right away, or do you put it into one of those ice cream freezers and turn the paddles?
I think we’re going to have enough snow this winter to give it a try.
Thanks, Bogie and Cop Car, for the recipes.
Eat the ice cream immediately after incorporating the snow. It doesn’t keep. Powder snow works best, if one can manage. I’ve never failed to make snow icecream just because the wrong type of snow was available, though.
In early 1988, I was working in Pennsylvania for a couple of months and staying in a motel. I bought a small bottle of vanilla and a 1# box of sugar to keep in my room. When we had fresh snow, I’d hike to the “Dunkin Donuts” down the highway and buy a small carton of milk to make icecream. I’ve been known to beg enough vanilla and sugar from the kitchen of a restaurant in a motel to make icecream. At work, here in Wichita, I’ve toted the milk mixture in a thermos. At lunch, I’d just go gather some fresh snow. Voile!
I’ll learn to spell “the v-word” eventually–but don’t hold your breath!
I’d say that you are well and truly addicted to snow ice cream!