I shoot for the highlights. I base my metering off the brightest thing in the scene that I want to hold detail. I shoot in full manual 99% of the time so its a quick spot meter and adjust from there.
If your using a shutter or aperature mode, you will need to adjust the exposure using exposure compensation to allow more light in or take light away. I dont know every camera out there so I cant say what to do or how to adjust it without knowing what control options it allows you.
In this shot, I metered towards the brightest object (besides the sun) which would have been the yellow leaves high in the canopy. The tree was actually almost black but was brought back in photoshop.
Much easier scene here, even diffused lighting thanks to the overcast sky. Metered the brightest leaf.
Same here, metered some light colored branches that were close to the off white of the birds that were coming in to feed.
Here im sure I used shutter priority mode. Evenly lit scene with a mostly neutral Dove.
When it comes to snow....you really have to pay attention to metering. usually I will set the camera up to make sure I have as much detail in the snow as possible and adjust anything else in post workflow. If you blow your highlights you will never get them back. You can save the shadows more so then blown whites or highlights. Thats not to say that blown highlights are bad in certain images, but for teh most part, in general photography, you really want to base your metering for them