Tag: Weather

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It’s about weather . . . Again

Winter driving in Oregon

Our week was a deluge of endless ‘black friday’ ads and rain. Not sure when this Black Friday exploded out of control, but it can stop any time, as can the rain.

There was also a winter storm advisory from the weather service. A ‘Snowmageddon’ was supposed to blanket the Pacific Northwest.

For us it was a no-show-mageddon, though some nasty weather hit coastal areas. By week’s end, rain had obliterated any snow accumulation and we were left with cold, wet and gray days.

That is not a complaint. Really.

Soup is the best remedy for a gray day

While we didn’t get out much this week, we weren’t totally dormant.

This pre-winter weather is a perfect time to enjoy soup or stew. And really, what is the difference  .  .  .  tomayto, tomahto.

… wine helps as well

This week we ladled bowls full of steamy French Onion soup. A classic topped with slices of toasted baguette and melty Gruyere cheese. We’ll share the recipe. It’s not a quick cook, but well worth the extra steps.

A great soup cook book is invaluable, especially in winter months.

A couple of years ago JQ picked up a copy of Cook’s Illustrated “All Time Best Soups” and with that began Soup Sunday at the Schommer house.

In the process many of the book’s pages were stained and it’s margins filled with hand scribbled notes  .  .  .  signs of a good cook book.

Skies and the ground have cleared and the weatherman is calling for slightly warmer and much sunnier days ahead. So next week we’ll return to our favorite streams and backroads  .  .  .  though we are still braced for winter.

Print Recipe

French Onion Soup

Ingredients

SOUP

  • 4 lbs onions sliced through root end into ¼ inch pieces
  • 3 Tbsp unsalted butter cut into 3 pieces
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 cups water plus extra for deglazing as needed
  • 1/2 cup dry sherry
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 2 cups beef broth
  • 6 sprigs fresh thyme tied with twine
  • 1 bay leaf

CROUTONS & CHEESE

  • 1 small baguette cut into ½ inch slices
  • 8 oz Gruyere cheese shredded (2 cups)

Instructions

For the soup

  • Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of Dutch oven with vegetable oil spray. Add onions, butter, and 1 tsp salt.
  • Cover and bake until onions wilt slightly and look moist, about 1 hour.
  • Stir onions thoroughly, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Partially cover pot and continue to cook in oven until onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring onions thoroughly after 1 hour.
  • Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, continue to cook onions, stirring and scraping pot often, until liquid evaporates, onions brown, and bottom of pot is coated with dark crust, 20 to 25 minutes. If onions begin to brown too quickly, reduce heat to medium. Also, be sure to scrape any browned bits that collect on the spoon back into the onions.
  • Stir in 1/4 cup water, thoroughly scraping up browned crust. Continue to cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6-8 minutes. Repeat deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are a very dark brown.
  • Stir in sherry and cook until evaporated, about 5 minutes. Stir in chicken broth, beef broth, 2 cups more water, thyme bundle, bay leaf, and 1/2 tsp salt, scraping up any remaining brown bits. Bring to simmer, cover, and cook for 30 minutes. Discard thyme bundle and bay leaf and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  • Soup can be refrigerated for up to 3 days, return to simmer before proceeding.

Croutons and soup prep

  • Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Lay baguette slices on rimmed baking sheet and bake until dry, crisp, and lightly golden, about 10 minutes, flipping slices over halfway through baking.
  • Position oven rack 8 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set broiler-safe bowls on baking sheet and fill each with hot soup. Top each bowl with 1 to 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with grated Gruyère cheese.
  • Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around the edges, 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle lightly with chopped parsley and serve.
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Gray Skies

Winter’s approach stripped the Aspen of leaves

The pall of rain moved in this week  .  .  .  literally. But then clear skies returned. That’s a given in Central Oregon. 

For the most part, we kept busy this week with indoor activities.

We managed to make it to an interesting lecture on misinformation at the local library.

Plus, we spent a few hours walking around the High Desert Museum  .  .  .  both brightened the rainy days that made up most of the week.

We never get tired of watching the otters play.

There’s a space of time as we wait for winter to come on full snow  .  .  .  a seasonal shift.

This image is from a multi-media display on water  .  .  .  it was fascinating.

Sheltered under gray sky and surrounded by puddles, the period is brief but still dampens one’s spirit.

A water feature runs throughout the grounds surrounding the High Desert Museum.

Fall’s brilliant color displays are dulled with the arrival of winter’s rain.

The sky did clear, but only after depositing a layer of snow. Winter seems early this year, but as with any seasonal shift, we’ll adapt.

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Face to the Sky

Weather has taken a toll on this fence post.

It seems that weather, or the discussion of weather takes up disproportionate space on this blog. Perhaps not on par with fishing, but close.

This can be attributed to a couple of things, really. When you’re going outside the weather is part of the process. However, when that outside is on the high desert, the weather becomes the view.

Layers of storm clouds fill our view east

Since moving to Central Oregon, we’ve noticed that you can literally watch the weather. Not just the weather you’re in, but all those storm cells moving about you.

Winter still has a hold on the high country, but winter wheat has turned fields green

Get up on a butte and it’s 360 degrees of weather. We were used to small openings through groves of Doug Fir. Doesn’t really matter because that weather was typically hitting against your hat.

Clusters of clouds float across the sky

Drove ’97 North this week. As you finish the grade to the Cow Canyon Rest Area, just past South Junction Road, the horizon line drops to a constant lower third. The other two thirds is sky and this trip we got lucky with the weather filling all that space.

John Day River Canyon walls are covered with fresh spring growth

Half a dozen storm systems were scattered about. Directly above us white streaks of Cirrus filtered the sunshine. Blackish thunder heads trailing gray curtains of rain bumped against the Cascades.

It’s raining over there.

To the East, less ominous but more abundant fronts hung behind projections  of windmills and grain elevators.

After the sun sets there are additional perks to being on this side of the Cascades. It’s our impression that Central Oregon experiences more cloudless days than the place we moved from.

A Cottonwood Canyon State Park vista

Regardless, the vista is wider, even at the bottom of a river canyon.

Cabin lights under a star filled sky

This particular April evening offered excellent star gazing. You just had to scoot chairs off the cabin porch. Constellations I’m familiar with got lost in a night sky filled with the stars not visible in an urban settling.

Never get tired of that view

Constellations I’m familiar with got lost in a night sky filled with the stars not visible in an urban settling.

Looking east  .  .  .  the constellation Hercules might be there on the left.

Much like birding, identification isn’t critical to enjoying the moment. We regularly cast an eye to the night, or early morning sky. On this trip JQ braved the early morning cold and got some excellent images.

If the weather is right you can turn your face to the sky and see all kinds of wondrous views.

 

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Weather . . . again

Making paw prints in fresh snow is good fun

Don’t mean to complain about the weather  .  .  .  but  .  .  .

Again this week we’ve been under mostly gray skies with a few inches of snow flurries thrown in.

One of the consequences of a wetter than normal winter is rivers are at or above capacity. Streams we frequent are running at April levels.

Un-fishable water is usually a product of run-off and right when ODFW opens the Upper Deschutes River as an alternative.

It’s really not all that deep

These dreary days mean we’ll fill the blog with more domestic tasks.

Oh there was activity, just mostly indoors and with fewer photos captured.

Not fishing doesn’t mean not thinking about fishing. Limited stream access just means more sitting at the desk spin’in feathers.

I even posted some of the patterns on Instagram. Winter is the season to refill boxes with patterns depleted last summer.

Books occupy another segment of daily activities. What an Inter-library loan can’t find, Hoopla and Kindle can.

Ken Forkish, owner of Ken’s Artisan Bakery In Portland, Oregon has written several books on bread. Evolutions in Bread and Flour Water Salt Yeast make for great reading.

There is always an eclectic mix of titles stacked on the living room table. This week that pile contained an inordinate number of cookbooks.

The other activity associated with dreary weather is cooking and we’ve done quite a lot of that. Soup Sunday returned this year and we’ve sampled and canned a couple of good recipes. JQ tweaked her chocolate pound cake recipe to perfection and fourth time seems to be the charm on finding a truly good chocolate chip cookie.

We didn’t get out much but that will change with the season. For now we’ll start a new book and wait for the real thaw.

 

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Ice Days

How it all started

This week we got caught up in a Pacific Northwest winter storm.

At least once a year an arctic front rides the jet stream over a rainstorm and turns Portland’s streets to skating rinks.

. . . are you seeing this?

Trouble is  ,  ,  ,  this storm was an Atmospheric River and the jetstream turned on some gale force winds.

On our side of the mountains, the ice storm was minimal, but we did get three feet of snow to go along with the freeze. It pretty much closed down the whole Pacific Northwest for nearly a week.

There IS a whole deck chair under there

Only a few days ago the gas stations and grocery stores around us were still waiting on trucks from PDX to re-supply.

“Out of fuel” signs were common and empty grocery shelves were another casualty .

Inevitably these cold snaps are followed by warming and an accompanying slush and flood cycle.

Unlike many, our neighborhood did not experience any power outages.

The worst of it was the numerous snow shoveling excursions as we attempted to keep ahead of the accumulation.

In the end, we had shoulder-high berms on either side of the driveway.

We don’t require daily access to the transportation system and are quite content to stay at home.

As we write this post the view out our window is more springlike rather than a winter scape.

With all this “stay at home” time, we hit our reading lists pretty hard and finished up some fly tying.

We finally ventured out and managed to top off our supplies (including a trip to See’s Chocolates),

But most importantly, we headed to the Crooked and had a walk along the river.  .  .  .  We may have been experiencing a little cabin fever.

Yeah, so hearing the river and being outdoors again was just what we needed.

We tested some new recipes and cooked and baked quite a bit  . . .

Crispy Oatmeal Cookies, a staple in this household

Tried Indian Butter Chicken and got numerous canning and freezing projects shelved.

The weather report calls for more mild rainy days, so it looks like we’ll have time to get ahead on our reading and do some more recipe testing while we wait for this ‘El Nino’ to move on.

Print Recipe

Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tso baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 14 TB unsalted butter, softened but still cool
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups thick old-fashioned rolled oats

Instructions

  • Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in bowl.
  • Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat butter and both sugars at medium low speed to medium and continue to beat until pale and fluffy, about 1 minute. Scrape down bowl as needed.
  • Add egg and vanilla extract and beat on medium low until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Reduce speed to low, add flour mixture, and mix until just incorporated and smooth, about 10 seconds. With mixer running, gradually add oats and mix until well incorporated, about 20 seconds. Give dough final stir by hand to ensure that no flour pockets remain and ingredients are evenly distributed.
  • Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll into balls and space them 2 1/2 inches apart on prepared sheets. Bake 1 sheet at a time, until cookies are golden brown and crispy on the edges. Let cookies cool on wire rack.
Print Recipe

Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani Indian Butter Chicken)

Ingredients

MARINADE

  • 3 pounds chicken breasts
  • 1/2 cup Plain Greek Yogurt
  • 1 1/2 tsp Lemon juice
  • 1/2 TB Ground Tumeric
  • 1/2 TB Garam Masala
  • 1/2 TB Cumin

SAUCE

  • 4 TB unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces and chilled, divided
  • 1 onion, chopped fine
  • 5 garlic cloves, minced
  • 4 tsp grated ginger
  • 1 serrano chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced
  • 1 TB garam masala
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tso pepper
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1/2 cup tomato paste
  • 1 TB sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup heavy cream

Instructions

Marinade

  • Whisk together the yogurt, lemon juice, turmeric, garam masala, and cumin in a large bowl.Put the chicken in and coat with the marinade. Cover and marinade chicken up to a day.

Sauce

  • Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, ginger and serrano and cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is softened and onion begins to brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
    Add garam massala, coriander, cumin and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
    Add water and tomato paste and whisk until no lumps of tomato paste remain. Add sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt and bring to boil.
    Off heat, stir in cream. Using immersion blender or blender, process until smooth, 30 to 60 seconds. Return sauce to simmer over medium heat and whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Remove saucepan from heat and cover to keep warm (Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 4 days; gently reheat sauce before adding hot chicken.)
  • Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Remove chicken from marinade and place on wire rack set over foil-lined baking sheet. Broil until chicken is evenly charred on both sides and registers 175º, 8 to 10 minutes per side.
  • Let chicken rest for 5 minutes. While chicken rests, warm sauce over medium-low heat. Cut chicken into ¾-inch chunks and stir into sauce. stir in 2 tablespoons cilantro and season with salt to taste. Transfer to serving dish, sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon cilantro and serve.
Print Recipe

Jam Crumble Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup jam of your choice

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour muffin tins. Set aside
  • Cream butter sugars and extracts together for 1-2 minutes. This will be used for both the cookie bottom, as well as the topping.
  • Add in the flour and salt, and mix just until combined. The mixture will still be crumbly.
  • Scoop the mixture into each muffin well. Press into the bottom and up the sides a little, forming a well. Pressinto the pan, but do not over pack.
  • Scoop 1 tablespoon of jam into the center of each cookie.
  • Sprinkle each cookie with 1 heaping tablespoon of the remaining cookie mixture.
  • Bake for 18 minutes or until lightly browned.
  • Let cool completely, then remove from pans. You may need a knife to run around the edge to help in coping them out. These will freeze really well for up to 3 months.
Print Recipe

Freezer Hashbrowns

Ingredients

  • 3-5 baker potatoes
  • 1 egg
  • 1 TB cornstarch
  • 1 tsp salt

Instructions

  • Peel potatoes. Cut into quarters and place in a pot of water. Salt and bring to a boil.
  • Parboil potatoes for 10 minutes, drain allow to cool.
  • Grate cold potatoes. Whisk egg and add to grated potatoes, then sprinkle and toss with cornstarch.
    Place mounds of grated potatoes onto parchment covered cookie sheet and shape to the size and shape you prefer. Freeze for 1 hour.
  • Heat avocado oil in skillet, a couple inches deep. Bring oil up to frying temperature. Place frozen hash browns in pan and brown on both sides.
  • Once brown, cool on rack. These freeze well and only require a little bit of heating up for those dash and go days.