Grandma Powers' Sourdough Waffles

I was given this recipe up here in the Idaho Mountains by Chad, whose family roots go way back in this area. I can imagine many cold, snowy, blustery mornings when these waffles were a welcome sight on the breakfast table by those who then had to brave the outdoor winter elements. I did change the recipe up a bit when I made them as I don’t want milk in my sourdough starter…all I did was eliminate the milk in the “evening before” mix and added it in with the second day mixture. Worked great.

Grandma Powers’ Sourdough Waffles

The evening before you want to make the waffles, mix:

2 cups sourdough
3 cups flour
1/3 cup milk
3 cups water

Cover with a towel and set the mixture in a warm place overnight.

The next morning the sourdough mixture will be nice and bubbly. Remove 2 cups of the sourdough mixture and put in the refrigerator for later use. The remaining sourdough will be used in the waffles.

In a bowl blend:

1/3 cup sugar
1 ½ t. baking powder
1 ½ t. baking soda
1 ½ t. salt
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil

Heat your griddle and at the last moment add the sourdough mixture to the sugar mixture.  As the two mixtures combine they will continue to be bubbly…this makes for a nice, light waffle. Cook until nicely browned on both side and serve with…what else…maple syrup and butter. These waffles are wonderfully airy; I highly recommend them!

Twas the week before Christmas....

December 19, 2011--Happy Birthday Mom!
Sunny and cold today…highs in the low 30’s

It is so hard to imagine that Christmas is only a week away. Jake and I see indications that the season is indeed upon us when we watch TV commercials and news commentary on how much the Nation is spending this year as compared to last but that hustle and bustle is so far removed from us. It is freeing not to be caught up in the last minute holiday dash, the craziness that inevitably descends upon even the most level-headed of us. But I must say…I do miss hosting what used to be our annual Christmas party on Bay Ridge. Those were good times.

Jake and I (and most of the rest of the town) continue to be without water. Several good minds and willing bodies joined forces to see if they could solve the current water dilemma but Mother Nature seems to be winning out. We have tried heating the ground/waterline by building fires to thaw it all; Jake made a concentrated salt water solution and tried to pour it down the line from high up; heads have been scratched and much creative problem-solving has gone into figuring this out, but so far we are stuck. For now (and perhaps until Spring) an RV hose has been connected to the line way up by the holding tank and water seems to be flowing steadily from that so Jake and I may decide to buy a snowmobile and simply cart our water from there to the quarters. First, however, we are going to try a narrower line (to force the water to flow more quickly), bring that line down the mountain, and see what happens with that. Every day is an adventure.

Laundry still has to be done and bodies washed so we currently rely on the goodwill of those who will schlep water for us. We have been lent 4 extra water containers and I reciprocate with food for Jim, especially, who regularly fills our containers up at his house and brings them down on his next trip. We have become champs at conserving water and Jake is tickled to be allowed to eat out of pans and lick his plate.

As for me, I have been trying out some new recipes, few of which I will share in the blog. I tried a meatloaf recipe that must be from the Depression Era that is made with ½ pound of pasta, a cup of bread crumbs, one cup of hamburger, and various seasonings…not so much. I doctored it with more meat and some Jimmy Dean sausage but it still lacked a certain finesse. I would have been chopped on the Food Network but my sweet husband ate it as long as it was covered with enough gravy. I then tried my hand at a white chicken chili, which I have made several times with great success, but I underestimated the power of chipotle powder. It was hot enough to still feel the next day so I “fixed” it by adding more ingredients including sugar. I now have twice the chili I intended to have. My one success was tortillas! They as super easy and tasty; I will never go back to the store-bought kind.

The days have been sunny and relatively mild, especially compared to what we were expecting when we signed on to this gig. The snow continues to disappear and we now even have mud puddles in places. Where the snow is packed, like in front of our steps, it is slipperier than snot and Jake and I are careful to not end up on our behinds. I think back to the days when I would take a running start and slide as far as I could on packed snow or ice without a single thought about falling and breaking a hip or a knee. I am getting old. We did enjoy our afternoon around the fire on Saturday when it was warm enough to take our coats off and let our skin breathe. A couple of buggies came in and we regaled the two couples with stories of the area and our experiences so far. They probably got more than they expected but we feel it important to share the uniqueness of the area with people who may otherwise just be looky-loos in an old mining town. Oh, it is so much more than that.

At the moment we are listening to Christmas tunes on the easy listening station and enjoying the fragrance of our pine-scented candle. We are using the generator tonight since I was too lazy to post yesterday while Jake was watching the Broncos game (what a blowout that was!) so the Christmas lights are shining in the window. We can only enjoy the lights when the generator is running since they suck up so much juice from our solar batteries. No wonder our electric bill back home was so high in the wintertime! This experience of living off the grid has been educational on so many levels. Will we ever use water the way we used to? Will I ever be able to live without cans of freeze-dried veggies in my pantry? Will we ever be able to rejoin polite society?

We expect that the week ahead of us will be quiet here in the mountains although we have heard rumor that New Years should be a fun time…I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Tomorrow I will make more sourdough bread and bake some ranch-flavored pork loin chops to share with Jim who is in town just for a couple of days. I still have cabbage to make coleslaw with so we’ll have a good warm and tasty meal together before he goes down off the mountain to be with his family. Jake will continue to try to outsmart the waterline and Kanela….well, she’ll just be Kanela.

Some weird Matrix thing happened to this pix...but Kanela, like Jake, loves a good cigar.

Jakeism:  Its been a long time since I have done a Jakeism. What can I say. I've been busy. Doing what, I can't say. The  water line has been key in my mind. As much as I want to take over and do things my way, I just work here...I have to rememer that . But all and all I am having a great time. I have (because of logistics) become a Denver Bronco's fan. Recently they (The Broncos) have become aware of this. I apologise to every die hard fan. It seems that every team I root for eventually ends up in ruins. We  as Tebow fans can only hope for one thing: die Raiders!




Roasted Pumpkin and Garlic Soup

Roasted Pumpkin and Garlic Soup

1 small pumpkin
1 garlic bulb
2 cans condensed milk
a couple pats of butter
water
chicken bouillon
salt and pepper
hot pepper flakes
nutmeg
croutons

Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the innards. Spray cut edges with cooking spray. Cut off the top of the garlic bulb; spray with cooking spray. Wrap pumpkin and garlic in aluminum foil and bake in the oven at 350 degrees until the pumpkin is tender when poked with a fork. Remove from oven and cool.

Into a soup pan scoop out pumpkin flesh and squeeze the roasted garlic cloves from the skin. Mash well. (Please don’t puree…I think that would remove all the good texture. For the same reason don’t use canned pumpkin!) Add milk, butter, water, chicken bouillon, and seasonings to taste. Cook over a low heat being careful not to let it scorch.

You can eat this soup right after you make it but I think it is better a few days later after the seasonings have melded. The croutons give it a nice crunch and I even add a little feta cheese on top for a little something-something. Jake refuses to eat this soup but I think it is delicious. Perhaps you must like savory cooked pumpkin to like this soup…)

Bourbon Balls

Bourbon Balls--A Christmas Favorite!

2 ½ c. finely crushed vanilla wafers
1 c. sifted powdered sugar
2 T. cocoa
1 c. finely chopped walnuts
3 T. light corn syrup
¼ c. bourbon or rum
Sifted powdered sugar

In a large mixing bowl combine vanilla wafers, powdered sugar, cocoa, and walnuts. Stir until well combined. Add syrup and bourbon and stir well. Roll into 1” balls then coat with powdered sugar. Store in a foil-lined, covered tin..they are better 3-4 days after they are prepared.

(I always double this recipe! This year I didn’t have enough vanilla wafers so instead substituted some crushed Ritz crackers…just as delicious!)

Leaking propane and a frozen water line.

December 11, 2011
40 degrees at 2pm

It has been a week full of diverse experiences for Jake and me. It started our benign enough…Jake working with Jim under the house across the road, with local electrical guy Dave coming up to help move wires and such. Dave is the guy who entertained us on Halloween night by playing The Shining for us…otherwise a really nice guy. While the guys made progress under the house I continued to experiment with sourdough recipes and made biscuits as I mentioned in my last post. I was stumped as to how to take a pot of coffee and hot honey/butter biscuits to the guys for their break when a little memory tickled the back of my brain. I think it was in one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books that she wrote about taking lunch to Pa in a metal bucket. It worked like a charm.

On Tuesday evening Dave invited us over to watch a movie again (he has so many that he's cataloged them) and we ended up having an impromptu baked potato feed: chili, onions, cheese, sour cream, and hot sauce. Everyone brought something and everyone was stuffed in no short time. We then settled in to watch Little Big Man starring Dustin Hoffman…all 2 hours and 20 minutes of it. The movie had its moments but it not one that I would recommend as a classic.

Dave's cool kitchen sink.

While making the rounds one afternoon I hoofed up to one of the houses that sits high up the mountain and noticed that the shutter on the kitchen window had not been closed. I went over to take care of it and was hit by the odor of propane coming from the nearby tank. I went over and sniffed a bit but couldn’t really tell where it was coming from so went back down the hill to get Jake’s nose and a second opinion. When the two of us got back up there we walked in to a wall of propane…there was definitely a problem. We called the owner and he came up the next day. Apparently there is a valve that has gone bad and the only way to fix it is when the tank is empty. The homeowner did what he could to tighten things up but we still smelled propane the next day when we checked it out. It’s a shame what with the price of propane and all. Jake has designated that house as an official no smoking house!

Propane space heater turned into dirt warmer.

While a propane leak does cause a problem it is not as severe as the current problem Jake and I are dealing with. We awoke on Thursday to no water. The valve beneath the house was frozen solid and there was no water in the line, not even frozen water. We have had temperatures below freezing for a couple of weeks now and the ground is frozen about 4” down. The water line in places is buried only by 2 or 3”s of dirt and we have not had significant snowfall to insulate the ground. with a nice snow blanket.

With the help of Jim, Jake warmed the ground and dug down to the line where it runs down the hill up from our quarters. There, too, the line was empty and flexible. So where is the ice? The only person who really knows the water system like the back of his hand is not up here to show Jake where the line runs so we are currently in a holding pattern and waterless. When we need water in the quarters we have to stop the flow going through the line so that it comes up through our faucet. I suspect what has happened is that I have had the valve closed for too long at a time while washing clothes or making bread and cooking and the line slowly started freezing far up the hill where the sun never shines. There will be a solution but for now we are sparingly using what little water we have and keeping our fingers crossed that we will have water somehow or another for the remaining 5 ½ months here.

Searching in the snow for the elusive water line. Yes...this is one area that has snow.

Last night brought yet another story to add to our experiences here. At about 1:00 in the afternoon the monitor went off (Jake has changed the announcement to “Merry Christmas!” instead of “You’re Awesome!”) and I looked out to see a small front-wheel drive car coming into town. Uh oh. I watched it try to get up the slick hill in front of the hotel and of course it didn’t make it. That didn’t bode well for the car getting back down the mountain because before you go down, you have to go up a steep, slippery grade. To make long story short, the two 20-something guys with their 4 year old and 4 month old ended up showing back up at our doorstep after three attempts to get over the grade. They were shaken up, didn't have phone service, and were not quite sure how to proceed so we brought them all into the house and had them call down to a family member who came up and rescued them…over 2 hours later. Today they came back into town with chains and we can only assume that everyone made it down off the mountain in one piece. That’ll learn them.

Too young to sign the guest book.

Even bigger rigs need chains to conquer the snow.

So other than those moments of excitement each day begins without the alarm clock and ends with reading in bed. We are learning that each day unfolds in its own unique way and that the best way to handle things is to simply go with the flow. It is what it is. Not a bad way to keep blood pressure where it’s supposed to be.

Sourdough Recipes

Sourdough Biscuits—Aunt Marilyn

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
½ t. salt
½ c. butter

Stir with dry ingredients with fork until well blended. Cut the butter into the dry mixture until it looks like bread crumbs. Stir in 2 c. sourdough starter. Turn dough onto floured board, knead lightly, work in more flour if very sticky. Roll out to ½” thickness. Cut circles 1½ inches in diameter. Place on lightly oiled cookie sheet. Set to rise in warm place about ½ hour. Bake 20-25 minutes at 425 degrees until lightly browned. Makes about 22 biscuits. Can be made using all white flour; reduce starter to 1 2/3 c.

(I don’t bother with cutting out biscuits in round circles…I just cut them more or less evenly in squares/rectangles and am done with it. No scraps!)

Sourdough Bread—Mom (Karen)

1 c. sourdough starter
2 c. milk
5 c. unsifted flour
1 ½ t. salt
2 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1 t. soda

The night before mix starter, milk and 3 ½ c. flour in a large bowl. Keep covered in warm place. Next day sift salt, sugar, baking powder, and soda with remaining 1 ½ c. flour and add to dough. Knead with just enough flour to make easily handled soft dough. Shape into 2 loaves or round loaves. Let rise until doubled about 2 hours. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

Sourdough Starter--Aunt Marilyn

Dissolve one package of yeast in 1 ½ c. warm water in the morning. Mix in 1 c. flour and let stand in a warm place. By evening starter will be bubbly and ready to use. If may be increased to whatever quantity wished for by adding equal parts of flour and water and allowing it to stand overnight. Starter should be medium thick. May be frozen for long periods of time or refrigerated a couple of weeks without attention. May also be unrefrigerated if fed flour and water daily. Replenish the starter with amount taken from it. If liquid gathers on starter pour it off and add some additional flour and water.

Sunsets, Christmas Specials, and Scouts

December 6, 2011
8 degrees when we got up…warming into the low 30’s

It has been cold, cold, cold! I suppose I am complaining prematurely since the real winter has not even begun but when the thermometer reads “0” when I have to let the dog out I feel cold. It’s the kind of dry cold that makes the inside of your nose crack and tears run out the corner of your eyes. It’s also the kind of cold that makes compact snow extremely slippery and freezes the water that flows out of our only water source. Never fear…the 1” line is buried at least an inch deep in places before it trickles out of a surface opening so our water flow should be safe under the blanket of snow we have. Jake and I get great pleasure out of drawing a frosty glass out of the kitchen faucet and gulping it down. Some of the best water in the world.

Jake continues to work with Jim under the house across the road from us. The house used to belong to the town doctor, with the front part being the waiting room and the back room being the former surgery. It has a built in “china closet” that used to house his instruments and there is a door in the wall that can be opened from the reverse side of the wall that reveals a wash area…very high-tech for its time, I’m sure. Now the surgery is home to a long dining table and an old-time peddle organ, an atmosphere far different from what it must have been during actual operations.

But Jake and Jim are not working in the upstairs, they are fighting the forces of nature underneath the house. The supporting structure that has held the house for decades, some of it for a century, is bowing under the weight of the house. The old stuff must come out and new materials put in, but not necessarily in that order! It is a dirty, dusty job and I am not thrilled by the state of his clothing when he emerges from under the house since it is my hands that must get them clean. Luckily I have scored a new wringer washing machine that makes my life a bit easier. And of course Jake recycles his jeans and sweatshirts as long as he can stand it.

Besides being the laundry maid I continue to hone my skills as a baker. My latest challenge after conquering potato bread and French bread is sourdough bread. I lucked upon a recipe for sourdough starter written in my Aunt Marilyn’s hand in the old recipe box that used to belong to my mom. Then I discovered recipes for sourdough bread, sourdough pancakes, and sourdough biscuits! This is versatile stuff! My first loaves turned out dense and chewy but not very sour because in order for the starter to get “sour” it must sit around for a while an pick up all those yummy yeast cells out of the air. Kind of gross when you think about it. But a group of quaders in town for the afternoon enjoyed sampling my bread fresh out of the oven with a little butter and honey and pronounced it “good”.

While making our Watchman walkabout around town this week we discovered that one of the houses had suffered some rood damage from the fierce winds we have been intermittently experiencing. Most of the roofs here are covered with tin panels and given enough wind abuse they eventually wiggle lose and can flap around a bit. The homeowner’s panel was so old and rusty that the wind simply flipped it up and bent it back upon itself…nothing to be done but to replace it. Jake dutifully called with the bad news and since he/we cannot get up on roofs (a condition of our employment designed to keep us safe), Jim came to the rescue and replaced the panel. His karma must be excellent from all the good works he does.

During the course of the week and into the weekend Jake and I enjoyed spectacular sunsets that rival any we have seen. They are a benefit of living in the mountains of the high desert. The skies have been mostly clear during the day (good for our solar panels) and then a bit cloudy in the evenings so we have seen some wonderful shows. What a luxury to have time to watch the sky in all of its magnificence. But we have also been watching TV…more than we did at home, for sure…and have enjoyed reliving our childhoods by watching all the Christmas classics. Hmmm…did they know they would become classics when those shows were produced?

Friday evening we got a surprise…a group of Boy Scouts arrived in town around 7:00 and planned on spending the night in the campground. Since temperatures were in the teens this idea seemed a bit odd to us but we had heard of Scouts camping in the snow and figured this was just one of those types of outings. What was surprising is that they didn’t bring enough firewood! Isn’t the motto of the Scouts “always prepared” or something like that? They wanted to buy some of our wood but that didn’t feel right so we just told them to take what they needed from our meager pile. Take, they did.

Jake and I walked down to the campground the next morning to make sure everyone had survived the night and walked into a camp that was simply a disaster. Not to worry, everyone was okay, but there was trash, food remains, and bottle rocket sticks all over the place. The boys were out whooping and hollering on a buggy pulling a couple of sleds and the adults were huddled around the fire trying make scrambled eggs in bags…the kind you drop into boiling water to cook. They had a good fire going and interestingly enough a bundle or purchased wood sitting off to the side. Jake and I both lost a bit of faith in humanity that day. I kept waiting for them to say “hey, thanks for the wood” or maybe to drop by their extra stuff on the way out, but they did neither of these things. What is most disappointing, I suppose, is that those adults missed out on a great opportunity to teach those boys something about gratitude and generosity. Sigh.

Now it is time to make some sourdough biscuits so they are ready in time for the 3:00 break that the guys take everyday. The 3:00 break is a tradition up here so I have been trying to do my part by making hot cider and taking over a snack to warm the guys in these cold temps. It also gives me something to do and look forward to each day! Such a domestic diva…