Snowbound Fancies
Be careful what you wish for! The last couple of months many of us were
decrying all that sleet and ice and wishing for some white fluffy snow instead.
Well, it came with a vengeance.
Last week gave us enough wind and that white stuff to go down in the books as
the 2017 Valentine’s Day blizzard. It started out with just pretty white flakes
floating down gracefully, but in short time the trees and the meadow became a
blur and once the windows became plastered with snow, even that view
disappeared.
The birds valiantly tried to hang onto the swinging bird feeder, but one
forceful gust even dislodged that and tossed it to the side of a drift on the
deck. The wind was building an immense snow drift on the other side of the
deck, which ended up as a swirling ‘snow-sail’ more than six feet tall. Next
morning it was over and the silence was deafening. Finally there was the sound
of the town road plow a quarter mile away. The drifts through our woods though
kept their pristine shape until dusk, when our plowman was finally able to
demolish the mountain of snow blocking our long and winding drive.
Times like this a warm kitchen becomes an inviting place for activity. We
started the day with a complete breakfast: oatmeal, eggs, bacon, cheese and
scallion in one dish – the ultimate scone.
Oatmeal, bacon and cheese scones.
Crisp 4 slices of bacon, drain and roughly crumble. Sift together in a food
processor: 2 cups flour, 1 Tblsp. baking powder, 1 Tblsp. sugar, ¾ tsp. baking
soda, ½ tsp. salt. Add 1 cup old fashioned oats and pulse 15 times. Add 1 ¼
sticks cold unsalted butter cut in 1 Tblsp. pieces and pulse until mix
resembles very coarse meal. Transfer mix to bowl. In a small bowl fork stir 2
eggs with 2/3 cup well shaken buttermilk. Toss crumbled bacon, ½ cup shredded
cheddar or parmesan cheese and 2 Tblsp. thinly sliced scallion with the oat
mixture. Stir in the buttermilk and mix only until dough forms. Turn out on a
floured surface and knead 5-6 times. Divide dough in two and pat into 6 ½ inch
rounds. Place rounds on a parchment lined pan and cut each with a sharp knife
in 6 sections, separating the sections slightly. Brush with additional
buttermilk and bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Cool and serve with
butter.
The quiet snowbound day also was conducive to making another one of my favorite
winter dishes, cabbage rolls. This is an old East European dish that has the
added benefit of being even better on reheating and once made can provide
several ready made meals. Some variations of the dish are baked, but this one
is cooked in tomato sauce on the stove,
Cabbage rolls in tomato sauce.
Remove any discolored leaves from a 6-7 inch head of cabbage and partially
core it with a sharp knife. Bring salted water in a large pot to boil, enough
to cover the head of cabbage. Carefully lower the cabbage in the boiling water
and cook for 5 minutes. Lift out the cabbage, but keep the water hot. When
slightly cooled, peel off the softened leaves from the cabbage until you reach
leaves that are too hard to remove. Return the cabbage head to boiling water
and repeat the process until you have 16-18 removed leaves. Refrigerate
leftover un-softened cabbage and for later use in salads or soups.
In a bowl mix 1 lb. ground beef
with 1 medium chopped onion, ½ tsp. salt, ¼ tsp. pepper and 1 Tblsp.
Worcestershire sauce. In another bowl mix:12 oz. tomato sauce, 14 oz. can diced
tomatoes, 1 Tblsp. white vinegar, 1 Tblsp. Worcestershire sauce, 1 Tblsp.
sugar, 2 large chopped onions, 1 cup cabbage boiling water. Place ½ cup of the
tomato mixture in a large 4-5 quart Dutch oven and pack the rolls in a single
layer on the bottom with folded side down.
To prepare the rolls: a) trim off
any hard portion of the bottom of each cabbage leaf, chop it and add to the
tomato sauce, b) spread out each leaf, place a heaping Tblsp. meat near the
thick part of the cabbage leaf and fold the leaf tightly around the meat as an
envelope. Pour some tomato sauce on the filled bottom layer of the rolls and
continue with another layer until the meat is used up. Roughly chop any
leftover leaves and layer on top, finishing with the remaining tomato sauce and
press down to cover. If there is not enough sauce, add a little of the
cabbage boiling water. Bring the pot to boil, then turn down the heat and
simmer covered for 1 ½ hours.
It made a warm and satisfying
dinner with boiled French fingerling potatoes from our last summer’s garden
after a snowbound day.
(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the
author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the
Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)
