Rum Balls (aka Bourbon Balls)

These are simple and good.  And definitely alcoholic, in case that's an issue.

The original recipe is from my mother, from an old community cookbook she had.  The cookbook is called Cookie Cookery, by the Sisterhood of Congregation Brith Shalom (Houston, TX), published in 1971.  It's a small but very decent collection of recipes for cookies and other small goodies, of the sort that are served at receptions and other gatherings.

I remember my mother making batch after batch of sweets from this little booklet, wrapping and freezing them months before some Big Event was to take place.  She and her friends would defrost and then prepare everything shortly before said big event -- trays and trays of beautiful cookies from her and from her friends.  It was an interesting mix of baking traditions -- traditional Texas in all its multi-ethnic splendor and also the different waves of immigration, Jewish and non-Jewish, into the Houston area.

Anyway.

One of the recipes in there is for Bourbon Balls.  I grew up eating these, often for holidays.  My mother would use whatever booze she had on hand, whether bourbon or rum or something else, as long as the flavors are more or less compatible.  They always turned out well.  Most of the recipes I see online are a bit more complicated.  These are simple but good.

The original recipe uses somewhat vague quantities such as "a box of powdered sugar".  I have no idea what that means, so I make these to taste.  Also, vanilla wafers came in 13 ounce boxes back then.  These days the boxes are 11 ounces.  I suspect that the vanilla wafers didn't use to be such a miracle of modern food science (the modern boxes list lots of additives to give the cookies their characteristic taste and texture), but eh, who knows, and they're simple to use.

The original recipe:

13 oz. box of vanilla wafers

2 cups chopped pecans

1 box (unknown size) powdered sugar

1 cup bourbon

Crush the wafers, mix everything, then roll in powdered sugar. (In other words, basically the method I write out below, except that I'm not sure food processors were a Thing back then.)  Makes 80 bourbon balls.

My version of Bourbon Balls (or Rum Balls):

1 box Vanilla wafers (currently the boxes are 11 oz, which works fine. I used the Safeway generic brand because the ingredient list wasn't as horrifying as the Kroger generic brand or the actual Vanilla Wafer brand.  I'm pretty sure that any kind of cookie is going to work, honestly.  And precise quantities aren't important)

2 cups chopped pecans, give or take a bit

about 1 to 1.5 cups powdered sugar (to taste; I'm using somewhat more than 1 cup these days but the actual quantity is not too important)

about 3/4 cups rum or bourbon  (give or take a bit.  I used Bacardi gold because that's what I have on hand, its flavor is reasonable, and 3/4 cup was sufficient to give it a good scooping texture.)

Crush the vanilla wafers  (I used a food processor).  You should end up with roughly 3 cups of crushed cookies, give or take a bit.  Chop the pecans finer if you want them finer, and add them to the crushed cookies.  Mix the crushed cookies and pecans with the powdered sugar.  Then add enough booze to get the dry ingredients to hold together. It'll start out a bit wetter but will get a little drier as the booze soaks into the dry ingredients.

Take little blobs of the dough and roll them in powdered sugar.

That's it.  Eat them up, yum.

They store pretty well at room temp or in the refrigerator, and they can be frozen, too.  The number of rum balls you get from this obviously depends on the size of the balls you roll.  But it should be at least a few dozen.

I can think of variations with added cocoa/chocolate, spices, different types of booze, different nuts or maybe some dried fruit, and so on.  One of these days I'll make my own cookies for these instead of using store-bought vanilla wafers.  My guess is that a regular sugar cookie or shortbread would work great.  It's probably a good recipe for any kind of old/crisp/stale cookie.  The cookies lose all integrity and just become a nice flavorful mush to soak up the booze and sugar and hold the nuts in place.

Recipe Corner: Red Onion Pickles

We have a recipe for quick-pickled red onions that we like a lot.  I'm adding it here in case the website that hosts it goes poof.  Also, the website that hosts it is kind of annoying, with pop-ups and ads and huge walls of other stuff before you get to the actual recipe.  It does have interesting recommendations and variations and discussions and what-not, so it's not useless, but it's not what I need when I just wanna make a quick batch of red onion pickles.

Of course, there are zillions of recipes and websites with recipes for quick-pickled red onions!  But we know that we like this one, so it has become the House Recipe.  The website with the recipe is here: https://carlsbadcravings.com/pickled-red-onions/

And here it is, in my own words and with my own commentary:

Red Onion Pickles (aka quick pickled red onions)

1 red onion.  This should be thinly sliced crosswise (i.e. as if for use on hamburgers).  I usually cut it in half before slicing rings, to make half-moons instead of full rings.  But that's mostly for better control.  Thin means whatever you want it to mean.  The original recipe recommends 1/8" to 1/4", with the thicker ones taking longer to absorb the pickling liquid.  I don't really measure, but my guess is that we usually do 1/8" or thinner.

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar.  We use plain old grocery store cider vinegar.

1/4 cup red wine vinegar.  The cheap brand from the grocery store actually tastes better in this recipe than more expensive and higher-quality red wine vinegars.

1/4 cup water

1.5 tablespoons sugar

1.5 teaspoons salt.  We usually use table salt (i.e., not kosher salt or other salts that have very different weights per volume).  I don't think it matters if you're using iodized, non-iodized, fine sea salt, etc.

The red onions we usually find around here are very large, so I usually double the recipe amounts for the liquid.  In other words, the total pickling liquid is 2 cups rather than 1 cup.

Put the onion slices in a container (I usually separate out the rings).

Heat the liquid to a simmer, so that the sugar dissolves.  I don't know how important it is to bring the liquid to a high temperature or if the only purpose is to dissolve the sugar.  We usually do this on the stove, but a microwave ought to work, too.

Pour the liquid over the onions.  Let it cool to room temperature (or wait about 30 minutes or so), then cover and refrigerate.

You can eat it right away (after the 30 minutes of cooling) or wait.  The recipe website says it'll be better after a few hours, which is usually when we get to it.  It'll last in the refrigerator for quite a while, definitely on the order of several weeks to a few months.

The website suggests that you can reuse the pickling liquid if it's been less than 3 weeks since you mixed it.   The one time we tried, the stuff we added went bad.  Dunno if the liquid wasn't acid enough after the onions had soaked in it or if it had been longer than 3 weeks or what.  Perhaps it would have worked better if we had re-boiled the pickling liquid to kill any germs in the liquid and/or the new veggies.

Although I'm sure there are many fine variations, the above is so good that we've never had the desire to explore.  Friends tend to like it a lot, too.

Recipe corner: Crockpot shredded chicken

Wow, it's been a while since anyone has posted.  We don't post much about our lives these days.  But this is still a great place to post family recipes.

Lately we've been making this in the crockpot.  It is incredibly simple, quite versatile, and entirely delicious.

Crockpot Shredded Chicken

Take a pound or two of boneless skinless chicken thighs, frozen or unfrozen, anywhere from 1 to 3 lbs, give or take a little.  Put this in the crockpot.

Dump in some tomatoes.  We usually have roasted tomatoes in the freezer so that's what we use.  We'll dump in a baggie of them (pint size, usually, though it's fine to use more or less).  If not, probably a few regular tomatoes or cherry tomatoes would work, if their flavor was good.  Or a can of diced tomatoes, juice and all.  It's probably entire optional if you don't have any tomatoes around at all or if you don't like tomatoes.  There's enough liquid already in the chicken thighs.

Cover and cook on low for 6-12 hours -- towards the higher end for larger quantities and frozen thighs/tomatoes, towards the lower end for smaller quantities and non-frozen thighs/tomatoes.  An hour on high equals two hours on low, and we do sometimes start these on high if the thighs are frozen.  Or we use interludes on high if we're short on time.

When the chicken is tender and falls apart easily, it's done.  Then, put the chicken in a bowl and shred it (a fork or two forks are very helpful for this).  It doesn't have to be 100% shredded -- do it to your preferred texture.  Add enough juice from the crockpot to keep the shredded chicken moist but not soggy.  Season to taste.  We usually add salt and garlic powder, maybe some pepper and a bit of either lime juice or cider vinegar.  We keep it pretty simple so that it will pair well with different kinds of sauces.

If there's still liquid left in the crockpot, turn it into a sauce.  This can probably be done in the crockpot but we usually do it on the stove.  Mix a bit of the liquid with some flour to make a slurry.  Mix the slurry in with the rest of the liquid (that is now in a pot on the stove).  Add seasonings to taste.  We usually take this in a southwestern-ish direction, with salt, garlic powder, a small sploot of lime juice or cider vinegar, ground chiles or chili powder or both, and a pinch of cumin.  But it can go in any direction you prefer.  Bring the sauce to a boil so that it thickens to your liking.  (This means approximately 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour per cup of liquid, usually.)

If there's not enough liquid left to make a sauce, maybe add it to the shredded chicken anyway and hope the chicken doesn't absorb so much that it gets soggy.

We will usually serve the chicken (plus or minus any sauce) as part of a meal with flatbreads or tortillas or rice, or as sandwiches with added barbeque sauce.  Add other condiments and sides to make it as satisfying as you like.  We're fond of red onion pickles, for example.

Small amounts of leftovers that might not be enough for a full second meal make an excellent filling for empanadas or bourekas or turnovers.  Or use it as part of making fried rice or a pilaf or soup or anything else you do with small quantities of leftover meat.

Yes, I know that there are food safety concerns about starting frozen stuff in a crockpot, for fear that the internal temperatures will be in the danger zone for too long.  However, the meat cooks for a long while after the temperatures are hot enough to kill any germs (165F and above).  We don't trust raw chicken anyway, danger zone or not, given the vagaries of the modern food industry.    Also, if I'm going to be home, I run the crockpot on high for a few hours to increase the temps as quickly as possible, whether the chicken is frozen or not.  If I'm not home I don't worry about it, of course -- it'll do fine on low since I might not be home for 10-12 hours anyway.  Defrosting the chicken before cooking is yet another option for people who are sensitive to these things and/or worried.

Although chicken breasts can be used, they're more likely to dry out and get stringy with the long cooking.  Chicken with skin and bones can be used, but deboning would be a pain and you'd have to decide how to handle the soggy skin plus the extra fat in the pan.  I'm sure other types of poultry would work well, too.

This grew out of some of the family's existing recipes for things like pulled pork and shredded brisket.

Recipe corner: Sauces for Fish

 We use various different sauces when baking fish.  They all evolve and get tweaked over the years.  I'm listing a few of them so we don't lose them.  They can be used as marinades for a little while before cooking in addition to being dumped on the fish just before cooking.  I often reserve some of the sauce to use to baste the fish during the last few minutes of cooking so the sauce doesn't puddle up and get burned.

Honey-Mustard-Soy

I found the original recipe in one of those magazine-ish things that come in the mail and that have articles that are really elaborate advertisements for expensive kitchen remodels, combined with straight-up advertisements from kitchen-remodeling-related businesses.

The original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons mustard, and 2 tablespoons maple syrup, to be mixed and poured over 2 salmon filets (I assume roughly 1.5 to 2 lbs fish total?) which are then grilled.

I switched the maple syrup to honey.  I use Grey Poupon Country Dijon Mustard because I like using dijon for this rather than hot-dog mustard and that's what I usually have lying around.  I use the Japanese-style soy sauces from the grocery store because I think its stronger flavor works well for this -- Kikkoman, for example.  And I use honey because I usually have it around, while I rarely have maple syrup as a pantry staple these days.

So... that means my personal version is a 1:1:1 ratio of soy sauce, mustard, and honey.

If you're eating less than a pound of salmon, it works fine to mix 1 tablespoon of each rather than 2 tablespoons.  I usually do that, in fact.

I spread it over the salmon and then bake as usual.  If I have way more sauce and it starts to puddle up, I reserve the excess sauce and spread it on the salmon during the last 3-5 minutes of baking.

I suspect that this sauce would work for many kinds of fish, not just salmon and steelhead.  It might also work pretty well on chicken though I haven't tried that yet.

"As usual" for salmon means anywhere from around 15-20 minutes at 325F to 10-12 minutes at 400-425F.  The lower temperature takes longer but is more forgiving if you're worried about over-cooking the fish or burning a sauce.

Teriyaki-ish

The above recipe led to this variation.  It has a somewhat Asian-ish flavor.  I usually use it on salmon though it might work well for other kinds of fish.

1 tablespoon each of honey and soy sauce, with a bit of sesame oil and some minced ginger (we've been using a tube of ginger puree that a family member found in the grocery store).  I don't really measure the sesame oil and ginger, sorry, but the two of them together are roughly 1 tablespoon, or I might even use 1 tablespoon sesame oil and then add a sploot of ginger.   Yes, the sesame oil is likely to lose some flavor if the oven is too hot for too long.  Make more sauce (with the same ratios) if making more than a pound or so of fish.

Spread/pour it over your fish and bake as usual.  Or marinate for a little while and then bake.  We usually use this with salmon or steelhead, but it would probably work well for all kinds of fish and maybe chicken.

I often save some sauce back to add to the fish during the last few minutes of cooking.

Adding a bit of minced garlic would only add to the yumminess.  Or add a bit of garlic powder to the sauce.

Ideas and Speculations

I wonder how this 1:1:1 concept could be extended.  Maybe shift it back towards the soy-honey-orange idea that's already a recipe on this blog?  If so, maybe use orange juice or orange juice concentrate for one of the ingredients.  Keep the soy sauce, and maybe add a bit of honey or sesame oil.  The ginger puree would probably be good.  I am going back and forth on whether mustard would work well.

The basic concept seems to be soy sauce (savory/salty), sweet stuff (honey or maple syrup or maybe a fruit juice), and something flavorful that may act as a binder (mustard, sesame oil + ginger).  You could probably substitute wine for the soy sauce (probably white or rose) and that alone would be pretty good (wine, honey, mustard).  What other ingredients might work as part of a triad? Jam or jelly? Ketchup or barbeque sauce or steak sauce? Horseradish sauce? Olive oil? Pesto? Flavored vinegars? Other fruit juices?  Hmmm...

Lemon cream sauce with mustard

This is from something I found online.  I posted about it here, but now, as requested, I'll put it on this blog so we can find it more easily.

It is based on this recipe, though a previous version of the website.  (When we first round the recipe, I'm pretty sure it was old-style, no blinking bits and random videos and zillions of silly photos before getting to the recipe.  And it was on the 'net WAY earlier than the 2019/2020 that the link claims for it.  I probably used a version from 2016 or early 2017.  The recipe seems to be the same, as does the person who posted it, but the surrounding stuff is a little different.)

This is a good recipe for using up small quantities of cream.  As usual, any kind of cream can be used, not just heavy cream.

It works great with tilapia and probably other mild fish.  It wasn't as good when we tried it with chicken.

This makes a lot of sauce as it cooks, which is great to mix with grains and starchy things such as rice or wild rice or freekeh or couscous, etc.

The basic recipe/technique:

Melt a half stick of butter (1/4 cup, 4 Tablespoons, 2 oz.) in the microwave.  It doesn't have to be all melted, just really soft and close to melting.  Add 1/4 cup cream, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, some minced garlic (or garlic powder), salt and pepper, and about 1.5 tablespoons of lemon juice.  (I usually use 1/2 of a lemon if I'm using fresh lemon juice, even if it ends up being a bit more than 1.5 tablespoons.  Canned lemon juice works, too.)  Mix it all up.

Put a few tilapia filets (or any kind of mild-flavored fish) in a greased pan.  Pour the sauce over the fish.  Add some diced scallions or shallots or bits of onion if desired.  The amount of fish isn't too important -- anywhere from about a half pound to two pounds, depending on the ratio of fish to sauce you want to generate.

Bake at 390F (give or take a bit) until it's done, about 10-15 minutes depending on how much fish and how thick the filets are.

The sauce can taste fairly sharp depending on how much lemon juice and mustard is added.  I usually use Dijon country mustard because I like the strong mustard flavor and the included mustard seeds.

The amounts again:

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup cream

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1.5 tablespoons lemon juice

salt, pepper, and garlic to taste

optional finely-diced onion or shallot or scallions

Recipe corner: Hummus

 Here is the recipe we usually use for hummus.  It's extremely similar to every other recipe out there.

Hummus

1 can chickpeas (the 15 ounce size -- see notes below)

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons tahini

1/2 teaspoon garlic (usually 1-2 cloves max)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cumin

olive oil (garnish)

cayenne (garnish)

Ingredient Notes:

Chickpeas...  I usually make this with no advance planning.  Therefore, cans of already-cooked chickpeas are very convenient.  I use the 15-or-so ounce size can, which I think is about 1.5 cups of cooked chickpeas.  Checking online, I see that this is about equal to 3/4 to 1 cup of dried chickpeas if you want to start from that.  I'm sure this hummus is even better if you cook the chickpeas yourself.  You can use the ratios above to increase/decrease the other ingredients if you're starting with some other quantity besides 1/5 cups chickpeas

Garlic...  You can use fresh-minced garlic cloves, minced garlic in jars or pureed garlic from tubes, or garlic powder, etc.  If using raw garlic, beware of using too much.  It's pretty potent stuff.  I don't measure too precisely.  The 1/2 teaspoon measurement above is more of a guideline and reminder not to overwhelm the hummus with the harshness and heat of excessive raw garlic.

Lemon juice...  I usually don't have fresh lemons on hand, so canned lemon juice works perfectly well.  The flavor is slightly different.  Three tablespoons is roughly the amount of juice from one lemon, depending on the size and juiciness of the lemon.

Seasonings...  salt and pepper to taste.  Use a little more or less cumin as you prefer, but use the 1/2 teaspoon as a rough guideline.  I sometimes add a small sploot of olive oil to the hummus and sometimes only drizzle it on top.

Instructions:

If you are using a can of chickpeas, drain the can, saving the liquid.  Rinse the drained chickpeas.

Put the drained chickpeas into the food processor with the rest of the ingredients.  Whir it up, adding some of the reserved liquid, until it's pureed to your favorite consistency.  (the rest of the can's liquid will not be used, so do with it what you will)  If you don't have a food processor, you can puree it in a blender, smash it up with a fork or potato masher or ricer, push the chickpeas through a food mill, etc.

Scoop the hummus into a container.  Drizzle a little olive oil on top and sprinkle with cayenne.  Many recipes call for other things to be sprinkled on top, too, such as oregano or sesame seeds or za'atar.

Serve at room temperature or chilled.  Store it in the refrigerator, covered, where it will keep pretty well for up to a week or so.

This goes well with flatbreads and as part of a Mediterranean-influenced meal.  It's also good with vegetables, crackers, rolls, couscous, other pasta, or anything else you want to experiment with.

Sweet and Sour chicken

 Sweet and sour chicken. This recipe is based on the one from
The Thousand recipe Chinese cookbook by Gloria Blay Miller. ISBN 0-517-20160-7

This is the best sweet and sour that I have had -- significantly better than most restaurant sweet and sours.

 

Sauce:

1) 3/4ths cup water

2) 1/2 cup sugar

3) 1/2 cup vinegar (I use rice wine vinegar, can also use apple cider vinegar)

4)  1 tablespoon cornstarch

5) 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce

6) 1/4 cup water

7) (optional) either 1/2 teaspoon red food coloring or 2 tablespoons tomato sauce (for color)

Boil 3/4th cup water and add sugar. Stir until dissolved, then add vinegar and bring back to boil. 

While boiling, blend cornstarch, soy sauce, and 1/4 cup cold water.

Dump blended mixture into sugar/vinegar/water mixture and reduce temp to low. 

Main part of sweet and sour:

1) 1-2lbs chicken, cubed

2) other stir fry veggies

    a) pineapple

    b) pepper

    c) onion

    d) carrot

    e) garlic+ginger

3) 2 eggs

4) a bunch of corn starch 

5) lots of veg. oil

chop everything. Then, stir fry all vegetables, leaving the chicken until the end. Put veggies in a separate bowl (put in a warming oven if you have an oven safe bowl). 

Fill wok with a few inches of oil to deep fat fry the chicken and heat to aprox 350-400 degrees -- just prior to the smoke point.

Dunk chicken cube into egg, then corn starch, then the oil. Cook until it floats or is golden brown. Then remove from oil and put into bowl with other veggies. Repeat until all chicken is cooked. 

Bring sauce back to a broil and mix into the chicken and veggies.

Serve with rice. This goes quite well with beer. 

Enjoy!

Roasted Lamb Shanks and Flatbread

 This is a recipe that I've made several times. I completely made up the lamb, but the flatbread are the King Arthur's flatbreads, with some adaptations. (recipe here: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/skillet-flatbreads-recipe ). I enjoy using hummus with the flatbread and making little sandwich things.

I tend to get around 1.5 pounds of lamb (one shank per person), and it is enough for some leftovers. You could probably get away with 4 shanks for 5 people.  I get the lamb from a local grocery store called Haggens, but any nice meat market should have it.

 

The lamb requires some sort of covered roasting pot. I use a shallow 10" cast iron with a lid. 

 

1) Preheat oven to 300

2) Put some olive oil in the pan.  

3) Cover lamb shanks with Salt, Pepper, Garlic, Thyme, and Rosemary. 

4) Cook for 2-3 hours and let it sit for 10-15 minutes after it is cooked. 

(The lamb releases lots of fat, so gravy is a good option!)

I start the flatbreads about 20 minutes before I pull the lamb out of the oven. I cook them in a 12" cast iron, but you can use any skillet. 

Flatbread recipe:

1) 3 cups flour

2) 1.5 teaspoons salt

3) 2 teaspoons baking powder

4) some garlic

5) Some thyme

6) 1 cup ice water

7) 2-3 tablespoons olive oil

Mix all dry ingredients. Then add oil. Then add water and mix. The dough should be moist but not sticky. 

Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit for 10 minutes.  

Add lots of oil to the pan. You want it to be about the same depth as the flatbread; not so it covers the flatbread, but so it just comes up to the top of the flatbread. The stove should be on a medium heat

Divide the dough into 12ish blobs and roll them out. I make them about 8" in diameter or about a quarter of an inch thick.  

Cook them one at a time until they smell done. They should be golden brown on both sides. Add oil to the pan as needed. (note, this can smoke a lot -- add oil when it starts smoking, or turn heat down a bit)

Dry on paper towels and transfer to serving platter. 

Serve this meal with roasted broccoli and a nice red wine. 

Enjoy!

Recipe Corner: Zucchini Potato Pancakes

We found this recipe on the 'net in a couple of different forms.  I'm adding it to our blog so we don't lose it.

I have seen this recipe in several places.  When I first made it, I interpolated between the versions on My Kitchen in the Rockies and My Columbian Recipes.  There is no special reason why I used those two except that they were the ones I stumbled across first.  Both of the blogs say that the original recipe came from the Joy the Baker Cookbook.  There is a recipe for zucchini pancakes, no potato added, on Joy the Baker's website if one wants to see the ur-recipe.  Which apparently was inspired by yet another person!  I love how cooking is so collaborative, with food concepts being adapted by so many different people.


Zucchini Potato Pancakes

2 cups peeled and grated potato
2 cups grated zucchini (or any kind of summer squash)
1/4 cup onion, finely diced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2 eggs
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
oil (for sauteing, about 2-4 tablespoons total over the whole recipe)

Mix the grated squash and potatoes with 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Put it in a colander to drain for about 10 minutes, and then squeeze out the excess liquid.

Meanwhile, saute the diced onions in a bit of oil until they are translucent.  Add the garlic, saute another minute, then set aside.

Break the eggs, beat them slightly to mix well, then add the flour, baking powder, and another 1/2 tsp. salt.  Add the two veggie mixtures (onion with garlic, and the shredded veggies) and mix well.

Heat more oil in a pan.  Add blobs of the veggie/egg mix.  Flatten them a bit with a fork or spatula.  Cook over medium-high heat, flipping when the edges turn brown, until they are crisp on both sides.  These are not deep-fried; they are merely sauteed.

This made 12 pancakes.  The amount per blob was more than a tablespoon (as specified on one blog), somewhat less than 1/4 cup (as specified on another blog).  So about 2-3 tablespoons batter per pancake, more or less.

Serve immediately with any desired sauces or condiments.

The original recipes say that these are best the day they are made.  They can be kept warm in a 200 F oven if necessary.  If there are leftovers, store in the refrigerator and reheat in a lightly oiled saute pan the next day.


We served these with hummus.  I can see a lot of other sauces or condiments being useful -- all kinds of salsas, baba ghanoush, many kinds of chutneys, ketchup or chili sauce or shrimp cocktail sauce, potsticker dipping sauce, yogurt or sour cream or creme fraiche, etc.

The ratio of potato to zucchini can be adjusted to fit the size of your potatoes and zucchinis.  I also believe that the total quantity of grated veggies is somewhat flexible, though of course not infinitely flexible.  Summer squash of any sort can be substituted for the zucchini.  I suspect that other vegetables can be added to the mix.  The pancakes can be made somewhat bigger or smaller.  Various herbs or spices can be added to the batter.  And so on.

One medium-large baking potato is about 2 cups.  One medium or two smaller summer squash is about equal to 2 cups.  In case you need to know.

I wonder how these would taste being rolled in pita bread, with vegetables and tahini or tzatziki or hummus, as some mad variation on a falafel.

One blog recommends them as part of a menu which includes smoked salmon and herbed cream cheese.  Another recommends sour cream or creme fraiche, with a dusting of cumin and paprika.

This is a versatile recipe as well as being a nice way to use up the rapidly accumulating squash from the garden.

Recipe Corner: Cherry Liqueur

An old favorite, put on the blog so we don't lose the recipe.

Cherry Liqueur aka Cherry Schnapps

2 lbs. cherries
2 cups sugar
4 cups vodka (or 2-1/2 cups brandy and 1-1/2 cups vodka)

Wash and stem the fruit, then cut open each cherry to expose the pit.  Put cherries in a large, clean jar.  Cover with sugar, stirring well to cover all the fruit.  Let it sit for 3-4 hours.  Then, stir in the booze until the sugar is mostly dissolved.  Seal and store in a cool, dark place for 2-3 months, stirring or shaking occasionally to enhance flavor extraction.

For the cherries, use the best-flavored ones you can find.  For the past few years, we've found big, black sweet cherries at the farmer's markets.  The shnapps ends up being deep red in color.  If you use yellow cherries, the color is more brown/golden.  I'm pretty sure this would taste good with pie cherries if you have access to those.

You're cutting them open a bit so the innards can mix well with the booze.  If you don't have time to let the cherries sit or get the sugar dissolved, don't worry about it.  The long, slow soak with occasional stirring will do the job.

You can strain out the cherries or leave them in until the jar is empty.  We usually leave them in.  When the jar is empty, I take out the cherries, pit them, and freeze the brandied cherries.  Or, if you need a few brandied cherries, eat them whenever you want.


This is highly medicinal, of course!  It's approximately the same thing as kirschwasser, one of those sweet fruit brandies that my parents used as an Old Country cough/cold remedy.


The same basic recipe idea can be used for lots of other kinds of fruit, such as raspberries or blackberries.  Also, if you prefer to pit the cherries instead of adding the pits to the liqueur, that's fine, too.

Recipe Corner: Fried Rice

I was asked to make fried rice.  I looked at several recipes online and in cookbooks and came up with this amalgamation.  This version was approved of by all household members, who promptly ate it all up, yum, and asked me to make it again.

I'm adding it to our blog since I don't want to forget how to make it in a way that I know will be liked.

Fried Rice on the Divide

~4-5 cups cooked rice (it doesn't matter if it's leftover cooled rice or freshly cooked hot rice)
2 eggs, mixed with a pinch of salt
~3-4 scallions, chopped
~1/3 cup frozen peas, more or less thawed (use the microwave or let them sit out for a while)
~2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
a bit of ginger, chopped (optional)
~4 T. oil, divided (see the cooking process below)
~2 T. soy sauce
pinches of salt, pepper, etc.

Heat ~2 T oil in a frying pan until hot.  Pour in the egg mixture and cook as for scrambled eggs.  Remove the cooked eggs from the pan.

Add ~2 T oil to the pan.  When it is hot, add the scallions, garlic, and peas, and saute (stir fry) for ~30 seconds to a minute, until they are about half-cooked.  Add the rice, soy sauce, and cooked eggs.  Saute (stir fry), stirring, until all is blended, cooked, etc.

Serve and eat.  It will serve 4 people if they are not too hungry and/or have other things to eat at the meal.  If you are feeding teenagers, it might look like the hyena feeding time at the zoo.

I'm sure this would be even better with some diced leftover meat, other vegetables, and so on.  I sometimes add a sploot of sesame oil when I add the soy sauce.

Needless to say, all amounts are approximate.

I used a large cast-iron frying pan for this.  A wok would work well, too.

This is a fairly new recipe for us, so I expect it to evolve over the next several months.


Ramen Noodle Variation

If you want to tart up some ramen noodles, the above mix of stuff works well.

All the ingredients are the same except for the rice.  Instead, use one packet of ramen noodles, cooked and drained.  (Put the seasoning packet somewhere else, not in the noodles)  Cook the rest of it as above, except that the cooked noodles get fried with everything instead of cooked rice getting fried with everything.  Definitely add sesame oil to this variation; it makes a big difference for balancing the flavors.

I'm pretty sure that any other kind of Asian noodle would work tolerably well for this.

Recipe Corner: Butter Mochi

We had this at a potluck a few years ago.

The person who brought it gave us the recipe.  She wrote, "I got this recipe from a Japanese/Hawaiian woman who owned a little cafe in Mesa AZ called 'Highland Cafe' which is now closed."

The person at the potluck gave us the full recipe, which makes two pans of butter mochi.  We usually make a one-pan version, with the amounts slightly tweaked.  We now bring it to potlucks.

Since the paper on which we wrote the recipe is getting rather scummy with drips of this and that, here is the recipe, both the 2-pan version and the 1-pan version.

Butter Mochi  (original recipe)

1 20-ounce box of sweet rice flour (3.75 cups)
2.5 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup), melted
1 can coconut milk (2 cups)
1/2 cup milk
5 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls.  Combine and mix thoroughly.  Grease two 9" x 13" pans.  Pour batter evenly into both pans.  Bake for 45-60 minutes.


Butter Mochi (enough for one 9" x 13" pan)

approximately 1/2 box of sweet rice flour (we estimate it)
1.25 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (regular salt is fine)
1/2 stick butter, melted (1/4 cup, we use either unsalted or salted depending on what's around)
approximately 1/2 can of coconut milk (we estimate it)
1/4 cup milk
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

The method is the same as above.  The mochi is usually done in 30-45 minutes, when it is golden and set, but not too dark along the edges.  Even with a greased pan, this can be a pain to get out of the pan.  If the pan is hard to clean, soaking it in water for a short while softens the stuck-on bits enough to get off fairly easily.

We cut this into 1" squares, give or take a bit, and then remove it from the pan.

When we make the half-recipe, we end up with half a can of coconut milk left over.  We either make another batch of mochi within a few days, or we use the coconut milk for other things.  I suppose it could be frozen, then thawed and used in a second batch later.  The rice flour is not a problem.  It keeps indefinitely in the pantry along with other flours.

Sweet rice flour and coconut milk can be found in grocery stores with a good ethnic section or in Asian specialty markets.  Sweet rice flour is also known as mochiko.

There are several similar recipes on the 'net for butter mochi in case you want to try several and then tweak it to match your own personal preferences.

Mammatus Clouds Over Monument

I'm clearing out the camera and found these shots I took early in the summer.  It was an afternoon of thunderstorms -- hail, tornadoes, flash flooding, and all those other things.  Oddly enough, we got almost nothing.  It all went around us but not over us.

The clouds were amazing, though.  Big poofy lumpy blobs on the underside of the very dark clouds... It was very dramatic!

These kinds of clouds are called mammatus clouds.  They are indeed associated with severe thunderstorms, though that is not the only time they can be seen.  We have seen them before.  However, this time I had a camera handy!

Recipe Corner: Orange Honey Soy Glazed Chicken

I have no idea where we found this recipe.  Online?  A cookbook?

It's easy and relatively fast.  The preparation can be done in the time it takes the oven to preheat.  After that, very little attention is needed.  The rest of the meal can be put together while this cooks.

Orange Honey Soy Glazed Chicken

1.5 lbs chicken thighs  (or whatever)

1/4 cup orange juice

3 tbsp honey

2 tbsp soy sauce (we usually use a strong-flavored Japanese brand from the regular grocery store)

< 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 to 1.5 tbsp oil

a sprinkle of garlic powder


Mix all of the above.  It can be used as a marinade if desired for about 30 minutes, but it's not necessary.

Put chicken in a pan, pour over the sauce.  Sprinkle sesame seeds on top (optional).  Bake at 350-375F for about 30-40 minutes.  Baste with the sauce a few times during the cooking.

The exact cooking time is not critical.  The chicken can cook for a while longer without getting too overdone.   Ditto for the amount of chicken.  We use anywhere from about 1 pound to more than 2 pounds.  It depends on the size of the packages in the grocery store.  The recipe works fine for other chicken parts, too.

One can easily derive many variations on this.

Recipe Corner: Classic Gingersnaps

Sure, these are probably just like most of the other gingersnap recipes out there.

But it's the one we use, and we know it works.  It makes cookies that are gloriously gingery and soft the first day, crunchy beyond that.  The tops of the cookies have large cracks all over.  The sugar adds an interesting crunch to the texture.  They are moderately irresistible.

This is from a clipping, source unknown but probably from a spice company.  We are putting the recipe on our blog in case we lose the clipping.

Classic Gingersnaps

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

350F oven, preheated.  Bake 12 minutes.  Makes ~48 cookies.

Cream the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add molasses and egg and beat well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.  Gradually add to the wet ingredients and mix well.  (We usually do our one-bowl method -- add the soda, salt, and spices to the first mixture and blend.  Then add the flour and blend.)

Put a few pinches of sugar into a small bowl or plate.  Shape the dough into one-inch balls and roll them in the sugar.  Replenish the sugar in the bowl as needed.  Place the cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake until they are done, then remove them to cool on a wire rack.

When we vary this, we might add more spices.  Someone wrote "1/4 c milk" on the corner of the recipe, so I imagine that is added sometimes, though I'm not sure why.  Sometimes we use butter for part of the shortening.  I've seen versions of this that call for vegetable oil, no solid fat at all.

Recipe Corner: Not-Quite Sugar Cookies

When we make cookies, we'll often start with a basic recipe and then play around.  We'll add stuff, substitute stuff, etc., and then see what the results taste like.  If we are lucky, we'll write down the successful variations so we can make it again.

This started out as plain old sugar cookies.  That's one of our go-to recipes.  It is so easy to make -- we can have a batch mixed together and on the cookie sheets by the time the oven preheats.  It is a great base for all kinds of additions.

The latest batch is worth writing down.  Its origin as a sugar cookie is not obvious.  I don't know how well they will keep.  I don't think we'll be finding out, since they are disappearing rapidly.

To be honest, a lot of the amounts in the recipe below are approximate.  How much, after all, is a "sploot"?  Or "add a bit more until it tastes right" or "add until the dough is the right texture or thickness"?

Not Quite Sugar Cookies (aka Yet Another Sugar Cookie Variation)

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar (white)
about 1-2 tablespoons molasses
1 egg
1-1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal (old fashioned oats)
1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
about 1 teaspoon almond extract (probably optional)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
"some" milk

Preheat oven to 375F
Melt the butter in the microwave (or at least get it pretty soft).
Add the sugar and mix.  Add the egg and mix.  Add the vanilla and almond extracts, then the baking soda, salt, and spices.  Mix.  Add the flour and oatmeal.  Mix.  Add enough milk to make it like a good sugar cookie dough.  I don't know how much that is, but I think it's somewhere between a few tablespoons and a quarter cup.  Maybe we'll be more careful and write down the exact amount next time.  If so, I'll update the recipe in this post.

Put small balls of cookie dough on the cookie sheets.  Bake about 10 minutes.  Remove when the cookies are done (starting to get golden on top, bottoms starting to brown, and obviously set and no longer wet-looking in the middle).

These are different in texture from regular sugar cookies.  Is it the oatmeal?  The milk?  The molasses?  The higher relative proportion of flour/oats to the rest of the ingredients?  The crumb seems more tender than the slight graininess of a sugar cookie. They have a slightly caramel-like flavor.

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The basic proportions for sugar cookies are as follows, in case we need to know.  We use the same method for mixing.  Nuke butter, add sugar and egg, add other liquids and the powdery things, finally add flour, then add any other additions such as nuts or chocolate chips.

Basic Sugar Cookie proportions:

1 stick butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1-2 tsp vanilla extract, pinch of salt, 1.5 cups flour

Those can be drop cookies as is.  Or, you can refrigerate them in a log shape to make refrigerator cookie dough.  Or, you can chill it for a while, then roll out and use cookie cutters on the rolled out dough.

The obvious variations are to use brown sugar for part of the sugar portion, to add cocoa to make them chocolate sugar cookies (or add cocoa to part of the dough and make spiral or marbled cookies), to add interesting spices, to use different flavor extracts, to add things like raisins or nuts or lemon zest or other tidbits, to make them into thumbprint cookies, to add icing (mix powdered sugar with a smidge of liquid and some food coloring), to substitute other flours for part of the regular flour, and so on.

Recipe Corner: Mint Crinkle Cookies

We keep losing the recipe -- it's written on an index card, like many of our other recipes.  Last week, the index card, covered with bits of butter and crinkle-colored dough, went on walkabout.  Eek!  So here it is on the blog, for safe-keeping.  The recipe is originally from Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen.  We have many of her cookbooks but apparently we don't own this one yet.

Mint Crinkle Cookies

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons peppermint abstract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
about 2 oz. of cake decoration crystals (the original recipe calls for one 2.25 oz. jar of green cake decoration crystals, but we use about half of a 4 oz. jar of colored sugar crystals, any color.  Today it is "Decors Red Sugar Dessert Toppings")


350 F oven, preheated.  It doesn't matter if it's a convection or regular oven.  We've done it both ways.  Grease a couple of baking sheets or use non-stick ones.  We use ungreased, non-stick cookie sheets.

We usually use this quickie one-bowl method for mixing the ingredients.  A fork works fine for all the mixing -- you don't need any fancy electric appliances or whisks or anything.  Use a non-metal mixing bowl if you're using the microwave to melt butter.

Melt the butter (we use the microwave).  It's OK if it's softened more than melted.  Add the sugar and mix well.  Add the extracts and the egg and the milk.  Mix after each addition or after it's all added.  Then add the flour.  Before you mix in the flour, put the baking powder and salt on top of the pile of flour in the bowl.  Mix it a bit, then mix all the dry stuff into the wet stuff.  (Sometimes, we add the salt and baking powder to the wet stuff, mix it in, and then mix in the flour.  Either way works.)  Don't overmix.  Finally, add the sprinkles and mix.

Roll small balls of the dough, maybe 1" or so in diameter, and place them on the cookie sheet.  Flatten them slightly then bake until they are light golden (i.e. done).  It takes about 8-12 minutes depending on how big and/or flattened the cookies are.

Remove cookie sheet from oven. Let it cool for a few minutes (or not, as you wish).  Then remove the cookies from cookie sheet and eat.  You can wait for the cookies to cool before eating if you'd like.  They are good warm or at room temperature.  These keep for at least a day or two.  We don't know if they last beyond that because they're always eaten by then.  They are best the day they're made.

With about 12-15 cookies per cookie sheet, we usually use two cookie sheets per batch of dough.  So that's a couple-dozen cookies, give or take a bit.  They spread a bit while cooking, but not a whole lot.  It depends on how much they are flattened before cooking.



We like these with the peppermint extract.  One of these days, we might try something else, such as almond or lemon or anise extract.  Or maybe not.  Why mess with success?

We like the little crunch of the crinkles as we bite down into the cookies.  They are always obnoxiously and artificially colored by the coloring of the sugar crinkles.  It's a bit startling, but very cheerful and appealing to small children.

Recipe Corner: Granola Variations (plus 3-minute Oatmeal)

About a year ago, we found the following online recipe for Good Morning Granola.  We liked it.  It has evolved over the past year.  So, here is the current incarnation, along with our typical variations.  Our ingredients and methods are based on the original.  But we have changed and modified it.

This granola is excellent for breakfast or for a trail mix.  It is wonderful when mixed with yogurt (or Greek yogurt) and fruit for a yogurt parfait.  It makes a good ice cream topping, too.

Breakfast Granola

Preheat oven to 350F.

Step one -- the Dry Ingredients

Mix together:

2 cups oatmeal (old fashioned, the kind used for regular oatmeal)

1 cup of chopped nuts (lately, we've been using chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, or a mix)

1 cup shredded coconut

Put all of the above on a cookie sheet.  Sprinkle some cinnamon on it, maybe about a tablespoon, though we don't always measure all that accurately.

Put the cookie sheet with the oat/nut/coconut mix into the oven and toast about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything is at least a little bit toasted but not too brown.  Watch it carefully after about 8-9 minutes, because it can go from lightly toasted to over-toasted fairly quickly.  When it is about done, you can smell the aroma of things toasting.  Yes, that is how we usually judge when it's time to check on it.

Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and let it cool.  Mostly, it stays out of the way while you're doing everything else.

Step 2 -- the Wet Ingredients

This can be started while the other stuff is toasting in the oven.

In a saucepan, combine:

1/2 stick butter (4 tablespoons)

1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark or a mix

1 tablespoon molasses (sometimes a bit more than a tablespoon, but who's counting?)

1/4 tsp salt, optional  (we usually use salted butter, so don't usually add any more salt)

Stir all together over medium heat on the stove until it becomes light brown and smells yummy and is all homogeneous.   Stir pretty much continuously so it doesn't burn. Then remove from heat.  You do not need to let this cool before going on to step 3.

We have not tried doing this in the microwave yet (in a microwave-safe bowl, of course!).  The original recipe called for maple syrup, but we usually use molasses.  I imagine honey would be good, too, or perhaps agave syrup or anything else that is sweet and flavorful.

Step 3 -- Combining It All

Put the toasted dry ingredients into a large-ish bowl.  Pour the wet syrup over it and mix it all up.

Step 4 -- Add-ins!

Add any or all of the following as the mood strikes.  Mix it in well so that it too gets coated in syrup.

1/2 cup raisins (we usually use golden raisins)

1/2 cup sliced dried apricots (slice them up with scissors -- it's fun!)

1/2 cup dried cranberries or Craisins

Any other dried fruit that looks interesting, such as dates or cherries or apples.

Chocolate chips (which we don't like, but don't let us stop you!)

Seeds such as sesame seeds or flax seeds

Etc.


Now that everything is mixed, let it cool.  Store in a container.  We usually put it in a ziploc gallon baggie.  No refrigeration needed.  We know this will last at least a day or two.  We don't know how much longer because we've always eaten it all up by then.



Bonus Recipe:  Microwave Oatmeal (aka Three Minute Oatmeal)

While we're on the subject of breakfast food, here is our very quick recipe for oatmeal for breakfast.  It is very, very quick to make.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, preferably with a lid, mix:

about 3/4 cup liquid, usually a mix of water and milk in whatever proportion one likes
1/2 cup oatmeal (old fashioned oats)

Put on the lid loosely, about halfway, so that some of the generated heat is trapped but air can still escape.

Nuke in the microwave about 2 minutes until it comes to a boil.  Remove.  Stir.  Add your favorite extras.  Eat.  It really does get done that quickly.


The more milk there is (as opposed to water), the faster it will boil.  It makes a big mess if it boils over.

You can use more liquid if you like your oatmeal a bit runnier.  The original recipe on the box calls for 1 cup milk, so you can see how we've adjusted it.

Potential add-ins:  salt, raisins, granola, brown sugar, syrup, dried fruit, fresh fruit, etc.

One tested winning combo is vanilla extract, cinnamon, and brown sugar, plus or minus chopped-up apple.

This is much more filling and probably better for you than sugar- and air-filled cold breakfast cereal!  And probably cheaper to make, too!

Recipe Corner: Ten Minute Banana Bread

We found this recipe for banana bread at http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/bananabread .  It is called 10-minute banana bread, and is based on a recipe from the 1997 edition of Joy of Cooking.  It has become an easy favorite when we have bananas that are too mushy even for banana splits.  It seems to do fine at our elevation without any adjustments.

We have variations and additions, which is why this is going on our family blog.  Our recipe card is getting hard to read what with all the blips and blobs of dough and stuff on it.

Ten Minute Banana Bread

Combine:

4-5 TB (about half a stick) butter, softened
2 eggs
2-3 very ripe bananas
2/3 cup sugar (usually 1/3 cup white sugar and 1/3 cup brown sugar)
1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional, but we like it)

Add and then blend in:

1-1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder

and spices (we usually start with 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, and 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. each of nutmeg, cloves, and ginger).

Most people combine all the dry ingredients and then add them to the wet ones.  Since we are lazy and don't want to wash any extra bowls, we add them straight to the wets.  Usually we add the salt and spices and stir all the wets.  Then we dump in the flour, put the leavening on top of the flour and stir it gently to mix it with the flour, then mix the flour/leavening in with the rest of the batter.

Since this is a quick bread, don't over-mix when combining the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.

Finally, put in any interesting additions.  We use two or three from the following list:  chopped nuts, raisins, dried or fresh/frozen cranberries, candied ginger, chocolate chips, plus no doubt we'll come up with more later.

Put in a greased loaf pan and bake 30 minutes or so in a preheated 350F oven.  The time it bakes depends on the loaf pan size.  This does pretty well in one standard size loaf pan.

It can be made into mini-loaves and probably also muffins.  We find that most quick bread recipes make decent muffins and vice-versa, and also simple cakes (in our 8x8 square pan).

Here are some variations:

One can cream the butter and sugar together for about 2-3 minutes before adding the other wet ingredients.  That apparently is what the original Joy of Cooking recipe calls for.

One can substitute 2/3 to 1 cup pumpkin for some or all of the banana.

One can use oil instead of butter.

An extra banana doesn't do any harm.

Our latest variation, which turned out very well, is to add 1/3 cup of oats (the kind used for oatmeal or oatmeal cookies) and 2 TB. of molasses.  Yum.

Recipe Corner: Chocolate Fondue

This may become our new New Year's Eve dessert tradition...

Chocolate Fondue

8 oz. milk chocolate (we used a package of El Rey's Rio Caribe Irapa Dark Milk Chocolate discos)
8 oz. white chocolate (we used a package of El Rey's Icoa White Chocolate discos)
1 cup heavy cream (one half-pint carton)
2-3 tablespoons of our home-made cherry schnapps

Dump all ingredients into our electric fondue pot.  Turn the heat to the recommended setting for dessert fondues.  Wait until it all melts and stir it until smooth.  Turn the heat down a bit, as recommended in the booklet that came with the fondue pot.  Dip in yummy things and commence the feast.

This evening's yummy things included approximate 1"-sized cubes and chunks of strawberries, bananas, apples, and angel food cake.

It was very, very good.  And very, very easy.

Happy New Year to all.

Ski Monument Hill merchandise

A commenter asked where to purchase "Ski Monument Hill" merchandise.

T-shirts, posters, travel mugs, and the famous license plate holder are currently available from the Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce, according to their recent advertisement in a local newspaper.  They have a "limited number" of these promotional items available for your holiday gift-giving needs.

We have not yet skied Monument Hill this winter.  With some luck, we won't have to.  For those who wish to try it, the weather forecast for tomorrow includes plenty of snow and wind.  Good luck!