It was a really busy week.
We got a lot done . . . except content for a blog post.
This morning we woke to snow. It looks like March is starting out white . . . oh well.
We’re back next week, thanks for checking in.
Winter’s End . . . maybe
This week the weather warmed and our colds waned.
It looks a bit like spring outside. Most likely a late winter melt is underway. Could be a ‘false spring,’ but we’ll take what’s offered.
While winter was losing its grip, we continued homebased projects.
One of those was trying a simple oven baked pizza.
Using a cast iron skillet to magnify the oven’s heat, this was a resounding success. America’s Test Kitchen recipes rarely fail.
By weeks end the day temperatures had moved into the low forties and we headed off to the river for a long awaited escape.
River levels were up . . . putting grass and willow banks under a few inches of water . . . plus the heavy flows brought turbidity.
Fishing wasn’t great, but the weather is supposed to stay clear and warmer so there is hope for next week’s trip.
Cast Iron Pan Pizza
Ingredients
DOUGH
- 2 cups bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- 1 cup lukewarm water 105 to 110 degrees
Sauce
- 1 cup tomato sauce
PIZZA
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 4 oz Monterey Jack Cheese shredded (1 cup)
- 7 oz Mozzarella cheese shredded 1 ¾ cup
Instructions
DOUGH
- Mix flour, salt and yeast. Add warm water and mix until most of flour is moistened. Using hands knead dough in bowl for 1 minute until dough forms a sticky ball, about 1 minute.
- Spray a 9 inch pie plate with oil spray. Transfer dough to prepared plate and press dough into a 7-8 inch disk.
- Spray top of dough with vegetable oil spray. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
- 2 hours before baking, remove dough from fridge and let sit at room temp for 30 minutes.
PIZZA
- Coat bottom of cast iron skillet and use your fingertips to flatten dough until it is 1/8 inch from edge of skillet. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rest until slightly puffy, about 1 1/2 hours.
- 30 minutes before baking adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 400 degrees.
- Spread 1/2 cup sauce evenly over top of dough, leaving 1/2 inch border. Sprinkle Monterey Jack cheese evenly over border. Press cheese into side of skillet forming 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch wall. Evenly sprinkle cheese over sauce.
- Bake until cheese at edge of skillet is well browned, 25 to 30 minutes.
- Transfer skillet to stovetop. Let cool for 3 minutes. Check bottom of pizza crust. Place over medium high heat and cook until crust browned. Transfer to wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.
Into a New Year
Since our last post we’ve extracted ourselves from social media, turned off that stream of ad laden drivel and got reacquainted with reading and our local library.
Toward this end, we shifted our e-reader habits away from the corporate giant. Extracting ourselves from the monolithic Amazon is no easy task and certainly not complete yet. But steps have been taken.
We ‘side loaded‘ a couple thousand books to ePub readers and made connection with the local library via Libby. It was very freeing.
December’s end and January’s start were an endless string of gray skies threatening rain, snow or both. Then, this week the sun returned to the high desert.
In Central Oregon clear winter days start cold, bone chilling cold, but usually that freeze is tempered by midday. We took full advantage of this and headed over to summer lake for a late lunch drive.
We didn’t expect to get much birding but Summer Lake valley offers great vistas and it’s always a nice drive.
We watched a flock of trumpeter swans and white fronted geese lounge on an iced over pond.
Caught sight of a few song birds and a pair of Bald Eagles perched on top of a tree.
We also watched a young coyote practice his field mousing skills . . . to little success. It was an enjoyable way to pass the time over a snack lunch.
Winter has for now, softened its face so we’ll take advantage.
Christmas Cookie Thoughts
Not sure at what point cocoa drop cookies became Christmas cookies. They don’t look like ‘traditional’ holiday bakes.
And it may only be in my tattered imagination that my mother turned out a double batch every year around this time.
JQ and I picked it up more than 40 years ago on what may well have been our first celebration of the holiday together.
At the time our holiday season required travel away from our house. Dividing our time between in-laws, rarely did Christmas day find us around the tree in a space we called home.
This persisted beyond days of young married couple in tiny rental properties. Forced to adapt to other’s holiday practices, it became necessary to carve out our own time.
For many years, holiday time involved evening car trips and nights in spare bedrooms. These annual observations of old rituals grew cumbersome about the time we moved too far away to make our participation practical.
Problem solved . . . mostly.
At some point we shifted the celebration away from its recognized date, eventually landing on Winter Equinox as an appropriate time to celebrate.
There wasn’t a wholesale dissolution of old family traditions . . . rather a blending that wouldn’t have been possible at the parents’ place.
Onto this festival observance we brought change. Not change to what had been, but to what we did last year.
It turns out that what we wanted was to mix things up. Perhaps that is why the cocoa drop cookies replaced classic Santa-shaped iced sugar cookies.
It’s origins are shrouded in mystery. My mother’s recipe card file resides in one of our kitchen drawers.
Most of it’s cards suffer from tattered edges and cooking stains. Nearly all have been copied at least once. Each duplication shifting it farther from its origin.
There are still a few written in Earl’s blocky print or Jackie’s fine cursive hand. Some even offer clues as to the Aunt, Uncle or family friend who shared this treasure.
A well loved recipe, especially for a cookie, is not going to avoid picking up remnants of the baking process and eventually ink fades. All, even the ones in my barely legible hand, share memories of the plates they offered.
What really sets this cocoa infused mound apart is it’s icing. Browned Butter Frosting was one of my early culinary challenges.
It is not easy tending a quarter of a cup of butter to a point of golden brown, while not allowing it to slip into burnt territory.
Swirled on the top of each cookie it pairs perfectly with a rich chocolate cake texture.
Unlikely to have ever been in a ‘Women’s Day’ holiday cookie spread, it’s perhaps this bend away from tradition that has it permanently on our holiday cookie plate.
At this point it’s not important if it ever was, or when it started, because at our house Cocoa Drops are Christmas cookies.
We’d like to wish you a Merry Christmas, and peace in the new year.
Black Dog Hair Blog will take a couple of weeks off again this year. We’ll start posting second or third Sunday in January , , , hope to see you then.
. . . in case you don’t have the recipe;
Cocoa Drop Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 3/4 cup AP flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup shortening at room temp
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup walnuts chopped
Brown Butter Icing
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar keep ¼ cup in reserve
- 2 Tbls heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Sift together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together shortening, sugar and the egg.
- Add in buttermilk and vanilla mix until combined and smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients, 1/3 at a time to the liquid and mix until combined before adding next third.
- Stir in chopped nuts and refrigerate dough for one hour.
- Preheat oven to 400º
- Using a cookie scoop, place balls of chilled dough on to parchment lined baking sheets. 2 tablespoon measures (30g) will yield about 24 2” cookies. 1 tablespoon measures will give you 1 ½ inch cookies and yield about 45.
Brown Butter Icing
- Melt butter in sauce pan over medium heat, stirring regularly until it comes to a boil, reduce heat to med. low and continue stirring until it turns a golden brown color. Remove from heat and pour over 1 ¾ cup of powdered sugar in a medium bowl, add in cream and vanilla, whisk until you have a thick, spreadable icing. You can add the reserved sugar to help get the proper consistancy.
Another Trip to the River
Rain, marking a transition between fall and winter, started up this week. But it didn’t stick around long.
We headed up to the Crooked River to take advantage of a perfect fall day. Morning starts with a dusting of frost and fog obscures the view. We just add an extra layer of flannel under the vest and venture out.
By midday the frost is gone and the fog has burnt off. October skies are typically clear and the sun feels warm, even if there is a bit of chill to the wind.
This time of year migration is in full swing, which boosts the variety of bird sightings. JQ’s camera is kept busy with the renewed activity.
The Kestrel has come back along the river and is hanging near their old nesting site. Hours pass watching the comings and goings of all the different critters.
Another seasonal shift on the river is water levels. As irrigation needs subside, the reservoir restricts flow to start the process of resupply.
These lower flows are matched with temperature shifts, which in turn trigger bug hatches. This is good for the fish and the fisher.
All too soon shorter days will bring cold days and hard frosts. Snow is not far behind which will cause a shift to our travels.
But for the present we’ll add warm shirts to the packing and shift from iced to warm drinks. There is still plenty of sunny fall days to enjoy.