Ann from Montana…that would be me

Hoo-rah!!!

The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, was one of the first blogs I read and one that I still read regularly and especially her add-on Tasty Kitchen. Her photography section gave me motivation to step up my own photography and I learned a lot from her posts and tutorials. The tutorials were my introduction to Photoshop: my digital darkroom. Ree shares bits of her life with her husband and their 4 children on a working cattle ranch. In the last year she has published a cookbook, a children’s book and just released – her own love story and how she came to be “Pioneer Woman”. Although I’ve read the serial posts which the book expands on, I am just now enjoying the book: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels: a Love Story. If the stars align and the weather is ok, I will go to the Charlie Russell Art Show in Great Falls, Montana this March where she is to be for a book signing. I have the Kindle version of the book and don’t need her signature but hope to meet her and say in person how much I enjoy all that she shares.

I love to cook and good knives are a cook’s most used tool. I am thrilled that I won this set and look forward to years of good cooking with them, but the real thrill for me was seeing “Ann from Montana” on The Pioneer Woman blog. Ann from Montana…that would be me :)!

Peace

Between world news, the snow/ice storm in the U.S., the cyclones in the South Pacific, and a horrific local couple of news items…the sadness of all seems a bit overwhelming to me today.

I took this photo on my phone, Monday afternoon.

I love the sun and the shadows and Karl and the memories and thoughts and story that it tells.

I’ve been looking at it and thinking serenity, love, grace and peace.

Peace.

Homemade English Muffins and stuff to go with them

Yesterday, Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen had a feature post: homemade English muffins.

Aside from making me want an english muffin right then and there, it made me want to make my own. I read through the recipe. I really didn’t have time…still catching up from last week’s computer adventures. But I did have some of the Portuguese Broa dough in the refrigerator. ( the bread I’ve been making)

Last night I tried an experiment with one little bit of dough. It was successful, so this morning I made 3:

I used a plum sized bit of dough squashed into a flat circle. Mason jar lid rings were my muffin molds.*** That is cornmeal on the board underneath them. I let the dough rise in the rings for about an hour while Karl and I had our walk, I had my first cup of coffee and did usual morning stuff. I preheated my skillet slightly more than medium hot and then plunked the rounds in the hot pan – about 5 minutes each side. I let them cool about 5 minutes on a wire rack, then split them open with a fork…

….nooks and crannies!!

Toasted, with orange marmalade made by me in my very own kitchen just before Christmas – Breakfast!

And again for lunch with Spicy Tuscan soup, another Tasty Kitchen recipe.

The eatin’ is good in the little house in the woods!

***I’ve since made muffins without “forms”. And I’ve made various sizes. I’ve also decreased the rise time as they “rise” on the skillet while cooking. So my current procedure is to take a piece of dough the size I want, squash it into a flat circle, let it rise about 15 minutes on some cornmeal and then grill it on a hot cast iron skillet. For me it is working out to about 5 minutes per side.

After the storm

At my house…and along the road home, just a smidge over 2 inches of new snow with this last storm. It was windy and very cold compared to last week. It was 12F when I ventured out with Karl yesterday afternoon about 4:30 p.m. to see what the valley looked like. The last of the storm still hung over the mountains south of the road home as it started its march East.

My road home, unplowed. The highway looked like it had been plowed but the wind had blown snow over it and although beautiful, a trip on it was unnecessary.

I turned around, put on snowshoes and Karl and I traipsed around the state land for our afternoon walk.

A beautiful afternoon as the sun headed to bed after the storm.

***2/1/2011 Edit…Sorry, comments were off by accident – back on now :)!

Where’s my treat?

This morning…snowing and blowing per NOAA’s forecast. And the temperature dropped from its balmy 39F to 16F overnight…scheduled to go even colder…Karl’s kind of weather :)!

The routine is our morning walk down the driveway at which point Karl peels off and circumnavigates the property while I keep an eye on the bouncing blue collar and return via the direct route back up the driveway. Meanwhile, Bob circumnavigates the garage and adjacent wood pile.

One of Karl’s “2 per day” special treats is dispensed after Karl, Bob and I return to the house.

“I’m back! I’ll take my treat now”.

“Oh, wait – invader???”

“OK, I’m in. Where’s my treat?”

Orange Chocolate Coconut Macaroons…and Bob

Since making the Orange Chocolate Chip Muffin/Cupcakes …which I have made 2 or 3 times since the original post on 1/7…I have been on a bit of an orange/chocolate bender as far as sweet treats. I use dark chocolate 60% cocoa chips in the muffin. It is a wonderful combination with the light orange flavor of the muffins.

Enter coconut. In some combination of looking at recipe sites and nutritional/healing food sites, I got into coconut. I bought unsweetened finely shredded coconut from “Let’s do Organic”, Coconut Oil from Spectrum and Thai brand coconut milk.

This morning, in a quest for something easy and quick to have as a bit of sweet before a quick run to town to beat the forecast Winter storm…I found this Chocolate Orange Macaroon Recipe on Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen recipe site. Perfect!

I subbed my organic, unsweetened, finely shredded coconut for the typical sweetened shredded stuff, used King Arthur Flour’s White Whole Wheat flour for the Whole Wheat, backed off the sugar about 2 Tablespoons, upped the orange zest a smidge and used 60% cocoa “shavings” from a bar instead of chips. I made them bite sized and OH MY!!! – very good little bites they are!

They were in the oven lickety-split, out and cooling in time for a couple with a cuppa before Karl and I headed to town.

It is late Saturday afternoon as I write this. It is still 39F, drippy and calm. The forecast calls for a Canadian Arctic cold thing to run into this warm air and cause a ruckus resulting in snow, wind, etc.

Meanwhile, Bob was looking sweet as I walked by with the camera so he made this post with the macaroons.

Happy Weekend!