AWEsome Cookery

  Sunrise at the Sand Point Cabin.      .   Warmth on a sled. .   Corn.  Soaked in the mineral lime.  Dried.  Ground.  Mixed with a sweetener and cinnamon. . Atole is generally made from toasted masa (corn hominy flour soaked in lime) or ground rice grains and mixed with hot water or milk, cinnamon and sugar. It is often served at celebrations like Day of the Dead and Christmas. Pinole comes from the Nahuatl word pinolli for cornmeal.

  A giant snow egg on the Hemlock Trail at ABR.     Snow angels outside of the sauna.     And the awesome wood stove responsible for the snow angels… .  . It’s been a hearty season here in the Upper Peninsula.  Lots of snow and sub zero temperatures—rough as it may be, it feels right when winter is as it should be.  Today it was 16 degrees above 0 and it felt like a heat wave.  And Emerald Ash

  Half pack—not looking so bad.   To make things more interesting, in the wee hours of the morning the day before we left I came down with a stomach/intestinal bug. This made for a very slow day of packing that was not planned to be a slow day…which spilled over into a late departure the next day.  Life and skiing are both about adjusting to stay in balance, so we did, and let go of plans.   The lucky

  This may sound a little like ‘stone soup’ or just a way to use up loads of onions in a pie but it really is scrumptious, summer or winter.   These tangy squares will be our travel food—snacking in the car or popping it in the oven to heat as we unpack the hundreds of pounds of gear and food into the home-base cabin.  It seems fitting to eat this caraway-sour-cream-onion pie in heart of Old Bohemian northern Wisconsin.

  Hot soup in the cold days of January—it’s never a bad idea.       We are knee deep in the process of prepping and amassing supplies for the annual trek north.  Pulling skis out of hibernation for waxing, dragging out sleeping bags and the camping stove, changing oil on the vehicle, finding catsitters, taking inventory of canned and frozen foods so I can make the menu plans for the cabins, and cooking piles of dishes to be frozen

  Recently a friend lent to me the cookbook Fäviken by Magnus Nilsson from Phaidon press.  I thought it was a sweet gesture to pass along this book but I didn’t understand why she thought of me until I began reading it.  Holy mama, it’s a gem after my own heart.   Fäviken Magasinet is a 14-seat restaurant in what had been a small remote agricultural hamlet of northern Sweden, surrounded by thousands of acres of wilderness and bogs.  Run by Magnus Nilsson

    Eat Good Luck for your New Year!   There was an idyllic snow on Christmas eve, and after walking home from a Norwegian Jule dinner on quiet streets in the falling flakes, we awoke to more snow and a perfect day for a beginning-of-season ski on that slippery powder.  As we skied through the woods we watched a gorgeous orange sunset through dark silhouettes of bare trees—but I forgot to take a camera!  So no photos from me,

  Nearly everyone who eats this deep orange treat asks for the recipe, it is yet another dish that will convince even the anti-yam-ites to change sides and join my Orange-Love Camp.  The original recipe was from Scott’s family and has seen adaptations along the way, the most recent alteration being to smoke the yams to give it extra depth.  It is of course delicious without the smoking, but occasionally it’s fun to do something different.       I

  Two liver posts in one year?!?  I must really have a need to push your boundaries, and this time there is no conclusion to the cliff-hanger story.  Just think of it as another tasty grey spread….creamy and rich and great on a cracker. Step outside your comfort zone in this life. Eat Liver.   You can’t get any more powerhouse than liver. They say liver contains more nutrients than any other food, gram for gram.  Protein, iron, folate, calcium,

  This is another recipe that appears the November/December edition of The IOWAN magazine.  They asked for “Iowa-Sourced” holiday recipes so polenta seemed like a good direction to take the classic dish since organic polenta is grown and produced near Cresco.  It resembles cornbread stuffing—flavorful and hearty as the night is long.  La Quercia pancetta was an obvious addition to the mix, rich with a hint of juniper berries….and from Iowa.   The polenta can be made a couple days in

    Apparently my celebration for the two year anniversary of this website was to take a week off.  Many things going on and very few of them have to do with food.  But that’s okay.   I started this little project because people often ask about recipes for my food, and since I’m relatively undisciplined and mostly use a recipe as a general guideline…I had nothing to offer other than lists of ingredients.  This website has been an experiment

    Still some color left and I’m soaking it in.  We spent an entire day last week hiking in the woods, the leaves were still bright yellow and the sun shone through as we wandered in the golden dome effect.  Funny how I so quickly switch from hiding in the shade in summer months to basking in the rays during fall and winter.  I even use different sides of the street when walking downtown depending on the season, around

  It’s a drizzly overcast day with a chilly night coming on, and time for all of the basil to be dug out of the garden and processed.  I’ll be up to my elbows in pesto of course, but I’ve been wanting to try herb salts all summer so this will be the day.     I was amazed at how green it is even after drying in the oven.  That color will be especially appreciated in the winter days

  I was searching at the Farmers Market for shallots and unable to find any so I finally asked one of my favorite vendors.  He pointed to containers on the table filled with what appeared to be red onions. Shallots!  Shallots the size of baseballs!  It’s a cook’s dream…I only have to peel three shallots instead of thirty.  Either Gilligan’s Island radioactive vegetable seeds have been distributed, or they’re the result of using the incredible Cowsmo manure fertilizer from Wisconsin.

  It’s time for a little image-tribute to the last days of summer and the radiant color of its bounty.  These are two photos from my friend David Cavagnaro of Pepperfield Project.  I never tire of looking at his pictures.  He photographs using only natural light, calling himself “stubbornly anti-technological” but the results are brilliant.     “We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.” .

  A pile of ripe tomatoes and a drizzly day remind me of another soup we used to make in the deli.  This creamy tomato soup is simple and homey, and if it doesn’t bring up good childhood memories hopefully it will create warm fuzzy new ones.     This year I planted climbing beans next to the tomatoes so the tomatoes would benefit from the nitrogen fixing wonders of the leggy legumes, and they completely merged and intermingled on

    Tis the season of these fuzzy tart rubies. The cicadas are buzzing, the days are steamy, but the nearly-sharp chill of the early morning gives away that secret I’ve been aching to hear…that fall is knocking at the door.   Sumac is often used in shawarma seasonings or ground up and sprinkled over hummus and Mediterranean meats, but this year the warm days make me want a refreshing cool drink that’s like a Midwestern lemonade.   . Staghorn

  In this late-summer heat the largest organ of my body has been working hard—my skin.  Opening up those pores and flushing out toxins, there has been no shortage of the that salty substance flowing forth.  I am not one of those who adore summer (when I’m especially crabby from the heat my snarky opinion is that the people who say they love summer all have air conditioning….sorry…it’s the cranky speaking) but I’ve been working on the zen of giving

. Cabbage.  Magnificent.   This is an easy-to-make Waldorf-Coleslaw hybrid that Scott created and I love it.  The cabbage is already at Farmers Market and the early apples are coming in so it seemed like a perfect time to share this salad with you.   The dressing is sweet-tart and the curry powder is subtle but essential—-great for a warm summer’s day. Not bad for a fall day either.   . Such beauty!  I suppose summer does have a few

  If you’re growing cilantro in your garden it probably looks like this right now: a mass of beautiful little flowers and bulbous green seeds.  Usually I don’t have time to deal with them and just wait until they dry in the garden then harvest the coriander seeds for use in the winter, but sometimes I catch them at this perfect stage when they have flavors of both fresh cilantro AND coriander seed. I know that there is an ant-cilantro