This morning, to the amusement of the children, I set a large metal bowl outside on the front walk to collect falling snow. The goal? Snow ice cream, something I know only from my own nursery school memories (aside: is nursery school still called that? or is it more "preschool" now? I haven't heard nursery school in a while) but which I had been planning all winter and just waiting for a good time.

To make some of your own, place your largest bowl outside in an area where snow will collect without coming through tree branches and where vehicle exhaust isn't present* (so, not right next to a street or driveway). When the bowl is pretty much full, gently stir in some sugar, a small amount of vanilla extract and slooooowly stream in milk, stirring, until you get the consistency you want. Depending upon the moisture level of the snow and the warmth of your home, the result will be anywhere from thick like a milkshake to the kind of melty thing kids love to make by vigorously stirring commercial ice cream in their bowl (known as "ice cream soup" around here). Eat, enjoy, and relive your youth.

* A friend expressed mild revulsion when she heard of my plan to make snow ice cream. "Isn't it dirty?" she asked, with an almost audible shudder. My thoughts about this are: We live on a non-working farm in the middle of nowhere to the west of a large city and entire days go by without us seeing so much as a single vehicle that doesn't belong to us. So, the snow that falls into our bowl is likely to be about as clean as it gets and eating the result is no more unhealthy in the general sense than, say, a fruit roll-up, fake-juice foil drink thing, or your average sugary cereal - all things a child is much more likely to consume than a bit of milky icy confection once or twice a childhood. Even if we didn't live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, I'd probably feel o.k. about this. I mean, you don't want to collect snow from the middle of JFK Boulevard or anything, but on the scale of ingestible things likely to cause harm, I'd rank snow ice cream well on the low side.