what to do with all that snow...

snowpocalypse. snowmageddon. whatever you want to call it. (and really, can we justify such severe terms when we call every year's best snowstorm by the same end-of-the-world hyperbole!?)

but we do have a good five inches, with a rumor of up to ten more. (i'll believe THAT when i see it!)

anyway, i realized today that for the first time in my life, i have both an ample supply of fresh snow and real maple syrup.

Little House fans will remember the scene in "Little House in the Big Woods" (perhaps my favorite of the series), when the family goes to visit Grandma Ingalls and help with the maple sugaring. that night, the whole clan has a celebration, dancing while Pa plays his fiddle, and meanwhile, Grandma slaves over a hot kettle of maple syrup until finally she calls that it's ready. there's a rush to fill every available pan with fresh snow, and they drizzle out curlicues of boiling syrup, barely able to wait until it's cool enough to taste...

it's a maple taffy that results, and i have a vague recollection of trying this as a child, unsupervised, with nothing but Laura's recounting of the story to guide me - and without realizing that pancake syrup is not maple syrup.

thankfully, today was different. after all, we have the internet now. and real maple syrup. file this away under "fun with kids". want to try it? here's a good recipe, but let me tell you a few things i learned the hard way:

1. for this recipe, plan to have two big 13x9 pans of snow - or several smaller pans.

2. fill the pans and pack down the snow. if it's not packed down, the syrup will just melt right through it, and you'll be licking your candy off the bottom of a cold, wet pan.

3. i used a ladle and didn't exactly get the curlicue look i expected. next time, i'll make indentations in the snow to make separate puddles of taffy.

off to find a "safe place" for the candy before matt gets home...