Friday Night

The snow is back, but I don’t have anywhere to be. I’m coming off a 9-day work week, but I have the weekend off. I have a full pantry and lots of books. I am content. (This photo was taken out my front window this evening.)

Last week’s cleaning of my panty closet left me with much to contemplate. Like, how does something like this happen? How can I keep such a catastrophe from ever happening again? And how did so many Hershey bars get in there? Needless to say, I’ll have to gear my cooking toward inventory management for a while.

Cooking…

**Supper. I have a significant supply of rye berries to cook with, and last night, I started with warm rye berries tossed with roasted cabbage and caraway-infused butter. (Recipe coming soon.) The rest of the batch of cooked rye berries seems destined for a hearty winter salad, like this one or this one or this one.

**Up next. I have hopes of trying out a s’mores blondie recipe based on these walnut blondies and using up some of those mysterious pantry-lingering Hershey bars. I also have plans to make rye scones based on these. I have plenty of oat flour to use up and Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce and Whole Grain Baking from King Arthur Flour are the cookbooks I’m going to peruse to make that happen.

**Brainstorming. Meyer lemon or blood orange cheesecake using a version of this Lemon Curd from The Archives. Small batch cheesecake. Kumquat or cranberry upside-down cake. Cheddar rye muffins. Pepperoni pizza mac and cheese.

New products…

Recently, I got the chance to try out some new cheeses, crackers, and liqueur, and they were all delicious.

**Cheeses. The Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Uplands Cheese Co. in Wisconsin that Josh McFadden promotes in Six Seasons is available locally! How lucky for me, because it’s wonderful! I also tried a unique soft sheep’s milk cheese flavored with maple syrup from Hidden Springs Creamery in Westby, WI. It is sweet and creamy, great spread on a cracker or a toasted English muffin.

**Liqueur. My coffee and hot chocolate just found a new friend: North Forest Kreme walnut liqueur from Chankaska Spirits in Kasota, MN. The description on the bottle reads, “A silky combination of maple syrup and walnuts makes for a flavorful treat,” and it’s not wrong. This is great just sipped on its own, too.

**Reading. Last week I started reading the second volume in The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, Fool Moon. I’ve read this before, but I kind of lost my place in this long series, and I’ve started over. The first book, Storm Front, was even better in the second reading that I remembered it, and I’m enjoying the next one, too. I’m reading it on the new e-reader I got for Christmas, which replaced my broken one. I haven’t decided what to start reading tonight, or if I should just focus on finishing some of the books I’m in the middle of. (Perhaps I have a bit of a problem?)

I’m hoping that this snowy weekend will allow for some R & R, as well as a chance to re-group. There’s baking to do, which should be fun, but there’s also cleaning and organizing to work in. And hopefully a good night’s sleep or two. I hope you are keeping warm and cozy!