The weather is set to change from mid-60’s to snow, which means I get out 2 things:
- The soup pot
- Sourdough stater
A hot pot of chicken quinoa soup is the perfect companion to the soft roasted-garlic potato sourdough bread. Both warm a body inside out!
Yes, I realize most of my posts so far have included food, but we eat. A lot! A snowy day is a great excuse for delicious foods and warm snuggles by the wood stove.
The kids and puppies headed out to play in the snow, so I whipped up a quick batch of hot chocolate and 2 loaves of bread. The hot chocolate, as usual, was fabulous!
Hot Chocolate
Combine a 2:1 ratio of sweetener to cocoa. Stir with a bit of very hot water. Add milk. (Today, we used 4 tbsp. of honey and 2 tbsp. of cocoa for about 4 or 5 cups of milk.)
Heat on stove until edges just start to bubble. Don’t boil!
I have conquered cooking on the wood stove, but have not figured out the baking. I assumed the pan needed to be covered, which we did with a large pot. And, learned a bit late, that it’s best NOT to place the pan directly onto the cook top. It needs to be elevated. (After much burning on the bottom, we placed a cake pan under the cast iron skillet, which helped tremendously!)
The dogs were happy to eat the burnt crusts and the inside was heavenly! I will count it as a learning process, and try again next time.
After we warmed up a bit, it was time to cool down with snow ice cream. The kids gathered snow from an untouched part of the yard. I added raw milk, cream, and honey to the snow. This may be my favorite version, yet! The honey gives plenty of flavor and subtle sweetness. (We are currently “brewing” homemade vanilla, but it is not ready.)
The kids happily added sprinkles to their ice cream!
Snow Ice Cream
Stir together half of the collected fresh (&clean!) snow, about 1/2 cup of cream, 1 cup milk and sweetener to taste. Continue to add snow until it reaches your desired texture. (I think we used about 6-8 cups of snow.)
It’s not even lunch time, and the kids are ready to start the snow fun again. Bundling up in plenty of layers until they can’t feel their toes. Back in for hot chocolate and a warm meal. Too hot, so more snow ice cream.
Snow days are so fun and a great break in the routine. But it sure amounts to be a lot of work! At least it only comes around once or twice a year.
I’d love to hear your favorite snowy day recipes for food and fun!
I really enjoyed reading this Ashley. We will be trying out the Snow Ice Cream and Hot Cocoa recipes. Thanks for sharing 😃
Awesome! Hope you enjoy them.
Good read and I think I’m going to make some quinoa chicken soup for lunch since I have a left over chicken breast from last nights supper. Thanks for the idea.