Cornstick Pan

I picked up this vintage Lodge cornstick pan from a thrift store a few years back, but I haven't used it much, and the few times I have, I wasn't impressed with the cornsticks. Time to try again.

 

I wanted to try to make baked pancakes in it, so I found this recipe and modified it:

Baked pancakes

1/2 c flour

2 Tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

about 1/2 tsp spice of choice- cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. I used pumpkin spice blend

1 egg

1/4 c plus 1 tbsp milk

1 tbsp oil

Preheat oven to 400. Oil cornstick pan with about 1/2 tsp oil in each well and preheat pan in oven. I don't think I preheated the pan before, and that's a smart move. Mix batter, it will be enough for the 7 wells in the pan. Bake 15-18 min. I pulled them at 15 min but a couple of minutes more would be good next time because they were pretty brown on top but could have been even browner on the bottoms.

These came out pretty well. Nice and crispy, but fluffy on the inside.

Baked pancakes

Corn Sticks

Small batch, makes 7

1/2 c cornmeal

1/4 c flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/2 c milk

1 egg

1 1/2 Tbsp oil

Preheat oven to 450. Grease pan well with oil or crisco and preheat. Mix all ingredients. Bake 12-14 min.

Savory Muffins

2 Tbsp melted butter

1/2 c milk

1 egg

1 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

about 1/4-1/2 c shredded cheese

Herbs- rosemary or basil

Preheat oven and greased pan to 375. Mix wet ingredients, add dry. Bake 15-20 min.

Wool Wrap Blanket Skirt

 The home office gets cold in the winter. For a number of months, I was wrapping a fleece blanket around my waist with a binder clip, but this wasn't very glamorous. I heard about the NorSari "wearable blanket" made in MN, but it's made of a blend fabric consisting of a lot of poly and acrylic, and costs about $150. 

I found a Westaway & Westaway tartan 100% wool throw blanket (49" by 31") on eBay for $22 ($32 including shipping.) It's the perfect dimensions and I didn't have to do any edge finishing. I added a velcro strip so it could wrap around my waist. It keeps me so warm and cozy, and I love the colors of the plaid.

Pellet Smoking

Andy has been wanting a smoker, and after visiting a BBQ equipment store in Brainerd on a rainy day, he suddenly decided he needed one STAT. We found a used Pit Boss series 3 pellet smoker on Craig's List for $100. It was really cruddy when he brought it home, but after 2 hours of hard-core cleaning and scraping, I got it clean enough that you wouldn't be afraid to put food into it. Next time, I'll buy some oven cleaner for it.

In late July, Sara and Todd visited, so we had them over, along with Elizabeth and Tim, for smoked chicken and ribs. Major first success.

In Aug, we had Grandma and Grandpa over for chicken and ribs. The leftovers are tremendous, and can feed us for days.

In Sep, we hosted our college friend Karen and her boyfriend Kingsley from KC, along with other college friends, for more smoked chickens and baby back ribs. The fermented pickles were a huge hit, as well.

Also in Sep, the night before leaving for a weekend work retreat and the harbor, we had 18 people from Andy's department over for 4 smoked chickens (people brought dishes to share, as well) and gazpacho from our garden. It was a hit. Forgot to get pictures!

Pork butt. Enhanced set up with grill mat and small table from Costco

Cleaning the smoker remains a real chore. Even with Easy Off manual spray, it took me about an hour. Steps:

1. Empty bin of pellets (into a bucket) so they don't take on the odor of oven cleaner
2. Vacuum the bottom of the smoker
3. Scrub racks with a grill brush, remove racks and water tray and spray with oven cleaner on the curb
4. Spray the inside with oven cleaner, including the inside of the door, close door and let sit a bit
5. Scrub the inside with grill brush and paper towels
6. Repeat 4 and 5 many times. Use a green scrubbie to scrub the inside glass door
7. Clean the outside with Fantastic
8. Rinse grates with a hose
9. Once everything is dry, reassemble, return pellets to bin

Dirty door

Inside caked with grease and grime

After cleaning

Nov 2022

Andy roasted a turkey for Thanksgiving. He bought an injector to inject the turkey with a melted butter mixture- it came out delicious.

Smoked cherry crisp with our own home-grown cherries

Smoked brisket and drumsticks, July 2023

April 2024

Andy bought a new, bigger Pit Boss smoker, and sold the previous one (astonishingly, for double what he paid for it) and is ready to smoke even more.

Assembling the new smoker

Cooking chicken for the first run. Harriet approves

Smoked salsa, pureed in food processer

Dad's Smoked Mac & Cheese

• 16 oz macaroni noodles, uncooked
• 8 oz Velvetta
• 16 oz shredded colby jack cheese
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 4 c whole milk

Combine all ingredients in a 9x11" or so pan. Place in smoker at about 350 for at least a couple of hours, stirring at least once during that time.

Smoked mac & cheese

2022 Camping Retrospective

 Whitewater State Park, April 22-24

We booked our first camping weekend on the 23rd of December, when it was cold and dark. Turns out our spring weather has been so bad, not much has changed by the end of April. We picked up Betty from the State Fair April 8th, and Andy figured out how to dewinterize. The cool rainy weather didn't stop us from enjoying a nice first camping weekend together. After doing a bit of research on making our own awning, I ordered a tarp (10' x 15'), 10' of 5/16" keder rail rope and 4 nice telescoping tarp poles. I sewed the rail rope to the tarp, and we have a nice awning for about $120 in materials. Menu hits were the two cocktails from the Vikre camping cocktail cookbook Meg got me for Christmas (maple blueberry reduction with bourbon, and greyhounds), woofem's with chocolate pudding (made with crescent roll dough instead of biscuit, which worked better and resulted in a thinner-walled cup), and a potato and sausage hash on Sunday morning (cooked in the new 12" cast iron skillet Joe gave us, with a lid on part time to soften the potatoes). On Saturday night I cooked a chocolate cake over the campfire and our chicken and parsnip stew in honor of Andy's birthday. The other event of note was when Andy fell in the river while crossing the step stones, getting completely soaked.

Espresso and banana bread break

Check out the new awning

Whitewater State Park, April 29-May 1

We came back to Whitewater for a second weekend in a row so Andy could be in a fly fishing class from 5-7 PM both Fri and Sat. The weather was pretty gross all weekend. Gray, cold and misty, except the prolonged times in which it was real rain, such as the entire Sat fishing class. We cooked dinners in the camper, brats and beans Friday night and chicken fajitas Sat night. On Sat we hiked a bit at nearby Carley state park- there were a couple of crossings over the river, and the river was so high we had to find a detour to bypass one that was submerged, adding 30 min to the hike. We were tired of the weather, so on Sat afternoon we went to the Whitewater winery and each enjoyed a flight. Their Driftless white wine is actually really good, so I bought a bottle to bring home. Sat night, the cup holder adhesive in Betty gave way, dumping a cup of red wine into our sheets and memory foam mattress. Andy came back absolutely soaked, and we just threw his wet clothes in the bathroom. We left about 9:30 Sunday morning, after seeing the weather was going to stay awful. We stopped at Cabela's in Owatonna, where dad dropped some serious $ on new fly fishing gear (he ended up returing the rod a couple months later, realizing he could use his existing one). At least it's a nice hobby. More clean up than usual after this soggy weekend.

Fri night fishing class, they went to the river for Sat night

Hiking at Carley state park

Whitewater Winery- Better than sitting in the rain

Camper Stolen- May 21, 2022 

At 5 AM on a Saturday morning, I awoke to a scraping sound right by our garage and ran to the window only to find that the camper was gone, having been dragged by its chains, with the tungue jack down, across the neighbor's lawn. We immediately called the police, and they found it upside down less than a mile away. It was stolen with a stolen truck, so the likelihood of catching the thief is low. This set off a 2 month process with the insurance company (Horace Mann) to get the right expert to determine if it was totaled (it was) and ultimately reimburse us for essentially replacement value. Only 10 months old, and had been used only 5 times.

Such a sad sight

After the tow truck righted it

New T@B

There was a shorter queue for T@Bs right now than there was in 2020-21, and we were able to order then pick up a 2023 on Aug 20, in time to keep our Labor Day booking at Lake Vermilion. We needed to buy a few items to replace those lost or destroyed in the theft, and added enhanced security measures, but we were pretty ready to go. We've named it Horace, in honor of our insurance.

Bringing the new one home

Lake Vermilion State Park- Sep 2-5

With traffic and a couple of stops it took us 6 hours to get there, but the new campground is lovely. We also visited Ely, Tower, had a great BBQ lunch at Neighbor's outside of Tower and did a self-guided surface tour of Soudan mine. Andy brought the kayak and enjoyed some fishing.

Lopjoy for supper

Flandrau State Park and Oktoberfest, Oct 7-9

New Ulm is an easy 90 minutes away. We left Harriet with Will because we knew we were going to New Ulm's downtown Oktoberfest and didn't want to leave her untended for hours. We stopped for a German dinner at Turner Hall (sauerkraut soup!), then made it to the state park, which is IN the town of New Ulm, and clearly a long-standing one, filled with great CCC structures. We booked a few weeks ago, so had a spot with no electricity. Temperatures dropped into Sat morning, so they were in the low 30s, but we were comfortable with our furnace on. As the sun rose on Sat morning, a remarkable thing happened- as the frozen leaves started to warm a bit, they started dropping en masse and we heard them plinking on our roof like rain and watched out the windows at the yellow leaf drizzle. It was mesmerizing. After a blueberry pancake and Spam breakfast, we headed into New Ulm. A quick stop at the tiny farmer's market, the 11 AM parade (Andy accepted a shot of sauerkraut), a craft fair, beer garden with bands, we bought ourselves German wool alpine hats from Guten Tag Haus, watched the sauerkraut-eating contest, ate a German lunch from food trucks, then drove to the Morgan Creek Winery where I had a flight of bad Minnesota wines (but the views sitting outside were lovely) and then we went to Schell's brewery for beers, then we went back downtown for a soft pretzel (because they were out at Schell's). Then we went back to camp with the intent of cooking dinner, but we just couldn't get motivated, and besides, there was one more German restaurant we'd been wanting to try, so back downtown to have dinner at Kaiserhoff. My chicken spaetzel soup and Ray's salad was just the thing, and Andy had more sausages, German potato salad and sauerkraut (of course), plus apple strudel. We had a quick breakfast Sunday (more Spam for Andy) and left camp about 9 to get back home and help Will move into his first apartment.

Fri dinner at Turner Hall

A cold breakfast

Sauerkraut shot at parade

New hats, and I'm enjoying a Schell's sangria beer

Lunch

Setting up sauerkraut eating contest

Morgan Creek- not-so-great MN wines, lovely setting

A quick hike in Flandrau before heading back for dinner

Dinner at Kaiserhoff

Later that day, the hitch sees more action for moving Will

We wanted to bring the camper back to Elk River RV for a few things before we store it Oct 30 (fan handle broke off, bathroom door opens and flops around during travel, panel behind toilet is loose) but they don't have any appointments, so I guess we'll have to manage those in the spring. 

Dairy-Free Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

•  2 cans cocount cream (Trader Joe's has good prices)
• Scant 1/2 C special dark cocoa
• Scant  1/2 C sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla

Bring first four ingredients to a simmer and whisk until well blended. Allow to cool and add vanilla.

Cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent the coconut fat from hardening at the top and chill several hours, stirring periodically to limit fat hardening. Process in an ice cream maker.

Care of Cast Iron Cookware

This BSR skillet needs care and seasoning

Maintaining cast iron:

·         Allow skillet to fully cool before washing it. You can use a little dish soap and a sponge or soft nylon scrubby- don’t use steel wool or chainmail. Don’t soak in water, and don’t wash in the dishwasher

·         Cast iron is prone to rust so dry it thoroughly- one way is to heat it on the range for a few minutes to dry it completely. After drying, coat the pan in a very thin layer of neutral oil (like canola, a couple of drops is all you need). Using a paper towel rub the oil all over the inside and outside of the pan including the handle

·         Store cast iron bone dry, and don’t stack damp cookware on top of it

Restoring/re-seasoning:

·         Over time and with a lot of use, there can be carbon build up on the skillet, especially on the outside. The safest way to strip a skillet down to bare metal is with oven cleaner (if you don't have a lye-bath, that is)

·         Any rust spots can be scrubbed with a solution of 50% vinegar and water, dry and re-season the skillet immediately after removing rust

·         To re-season (or add an additional layer of seasoning):

1.       Wash it well with detergent,

2.       Put it in the oven at 200 for 10 minutes to dry and "open up"

3.       Rub it all over with Crisco or neutral oil, wiping off all excess well with a clean lint-free cloth

4.       Put it back in the oven upside down at 325 for 15 minutes, take it out and wipe it well with a clean cloth again, then returned it to the oven upside down at 375 for 2 hours

5.       Repeat this seasoning process at least two more times if starting from a stripped surface

Preserving:

Cast iron is extremely durable, but there are three major things to avoid: 

• Thermal shock: Never immerse a hot skillet in water or add a significant amount of cool liquid to a hot skillet. This can cause cracking or warping. Let the skillet cool before washing it
• Significant overheating: There is a myth that crusty cast iron can be cleaned by superheating it in a fire or by putting it through a self-cleaning oven cycle. Very high temperatures such as these can cause permanent heat damage. 
• Try to avoid dropping- this is how handles break off (not to mention it's really bad for your toes, too)

Sugar-and-Dairy-Free Chai Powder

 Sugar-and-Dairy-Free Chai Powder

1/4-1/2 cup sugar-free sweetner 

1/2 cup dried coconut milk powder 

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon each ground allspice cardamon, cloves, nutmeg

Can be blended into coffee, or brewed black tea. Can also be warmed in milk and added to espresso.