Just in time for the snow, the wind, and the hunkering down.
In time for fort building, big and small, inside and out. Those built of ice and snow and those of flannel sheets, quilts, silks and clips.
For our crew it doesn’t matter where they are built, goodies and snacks are requested for delivery once the structure is erect enough to support itself. Even if that does mean there is duct tape stuck to the wall from the sheet it’s attempting to hold up, and even if daddy has requested many a time to not use duct tape to tape forts to walls due to the paint it pulls off when they come down.
I remember when I was young and the snow was higher than the mailbox and my dad would plow the driveway and toss it up over the mailbox, until that snow pile was tall enough for us to craft a little curvy slip-slide to get from top to bottom, with stairs cut into the side of it and a tunnel underneath.
We had a brown coffee thermos of my dads we would make Nestle hot chocolate in. Imagine our disappointment when one of us would get back with the hot chocolate and the marshmallows mom put at the top had already melted. I do recall the littles getting upset with me. Wish I knew the ‘don’t kiss the messenger line’ at that time!
Back then, ’bout thirty years ago, we didn’t have or know what steamers were. It’s all the rage over here with our girls, the kid friendly steamer….this mama doesn’t drink much coffee or tea, so they beg me to stop in at the coffee shop for a vanilla steamer.
I’m not a fan of either the cost of said steamers, or the raw sugar they put in them, and the high fructose corn syrup containing “non-sugar” option, so I surprised them on one of the first chilly days when Jackie Frost had nipped their noses just a bit on their way in from outside.
They stepped in to sautéed apples, a fresh warm vanilla steamer and hot, buttery popcorn with nutritional yeast, and if I do say so myself, I had two happy girls.
…….
Kid-Friendly Steamer
Ingredients
- 8 oz raw milk or almond/hemp/coconut milk
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 3 drops stevia
Instructions
- Slowly warm the milk over low heat in a saucepan.
- Stir in vanilla and stevia.
- Pour from saucepan into BlendTec.
- Note: if you are going to double the recipe, I recommend blending only up to 16 ounces of warm milk at a time in a blender.
- Blend until frothy and foamy.
- Pour into mugs.
- Optional: whipping cream and/or shaved dark chocolate
Now that I’ve shared a favorite winter childhood memory, what is one of yours?
