I Scream, You Scream

When I was a child and the snow fell, my mother always rushed to the kitchen and made snow ice cream and divinity fudge--egg whites, sugar and pecans, mostly. It was a lark then and I always associate divinity fudge with snowstorms. Eudora Welty

I can definitely relate to this quote by the great Eudora Welty except my snowstorm association only refers to the snow ice cream part. Unfortunately, my mother didn't make divinity fudge, but she did make the most delicious snow ice cream ever.

Back to my story, on the rare afternoons it would snow during my childhood, mother would send my sister and me outside with large bowls in our arms and thick gloves on our tiny hands to collect every fresh flake of clean snow from our patio furniture. Then, to our delight, mom and her two girls would spend the rest of the afternoon making and eating snow ice cream all the while wishing for more snow.

Now, every time it snows, my brain automatically conjurs up sweet memories of cold afternoons at home playing in the snow, warming up by the kitchen fire, and making our favorite, once-a-year treat, snow ice cream . On those days, mom let us take over the kitchen and do things our way. Whether we were clean, messy, or ate of the bowl, she didn't care . My love for the kitchen was born because of these moments and the all too rare snowstorms.

It snowed here last week. Well, actually, it just flurried a lot. Not one flake stuck to the ground, cars, people...nothing. But as the snow swirled and drifted about the sky, I couldn't help but think back to those snow ice cream days when it finally dawned on me that those days are the reason I crave ice cream in the winter. For an unknown reason, there's something that draws me to icy substances in icy weather. I'm not sure if I'm a glutton for punishment by filling my cold body with cold ice cream or if I just really like that it keeps its same frosty consistancy until the last bite. In the South, from April to October, as soon as you step out of the ice cream parlor, your frozen sweet treat turns into a drippy, melted mess on a cone.

Since there was no snow on the ground or patio that day, I knew I couldn't make snow ice cream. So I decided to do the next best thing. Get out the trusty ice cream machine and make my own icy concoction. Making ice cream can be time consuming, but if you choose the right kind of ingredients, it's a cinch, except for the whole churning thing, but at least we got our work out for the day. Making ice cream from a machine that day may not have felt like old times, but at least the family spent time together making and eating it, but most importantly, it gave us a chance to reminisce about fond memories and snow ice cream.

Eggnog and Fudge Swirl Ice Cream

3 1/2 cups store bought eggnog
4 tbs. brandy
1/4 cup store bought chocolate sauce

Add eggnog and brandy to an ice cream maker. Prepare ice cream according to manufacturers instructions. Drizzle in chocloate sauce and cut through ice cream with a spatula to create swirls. Freeze for a couple hours and top with more chocolate sauce.