Cornbread

The co-conspirator and I are both nursing colds so this afternoon a pot of chili developed on the stove. As time for dinner approached I decided a good chili deserved some good corn bread. I turned to an old stand-by recipe, Skillet-Sizzled Buttermilk Cornbread from Crescent Dragonwagon's (I'm not making that up) Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread cookbook. You'll see why.

I started out with some pretty course cornmeal. This stuff has some tooth to it but it's wonderful in everything from cornbread to waffles. I love the texture of a good cornmeal as much as the flavor.

It got incorporated into the dry ingredients with my secret ingredient, some kernel corn. Use some fresh, home grown stuff if you can but frozen works well, too.


Since I didn't have any traditional buttermilk on hand I fell back on a good alternative. Dry, powdered buttermilk is a great staple to keep on hand for occasions like this. And I could go on more about what Organic Valley has meant to the county of my birth, but I'll save that for another day.

To make up for the lack of liquid buttermilk I just added the correct amount of water to the dry ingredients and whisked them well. Maybe a little too well. Aw, what the heck. Those bubbles will just make the finished product lighter!


Now comes the fun part that sets this recipe apart. I warmed up a cast iron skillet and melted some butter in it, swirling it around to coat the inside.


Working quickly I then dumped the wet ingredients on the dry...


...and then just stirred enough to bring the ingredients together.


Next I poured the batter into the buttery, hot skillet. This is where the sizzle comes in! You can see the browning butter and creamy batter meeting in some really great kitchen alchemy.


In a fit of inspiration I sprinkled some smoked paprika across the top and put it in the oven. The result was moist, tangy, and flavorful!

Funny How Time Flies

This year--and part of last, I guess I should say--gatherings with friends and family for the holidays left my co-conspirator and me with New Years Eve as our only opportunity to spend a holiday with just the two of us. We elected to do what we've done in the past. We cooked and ate. Recently I found a thick South American cookbook in a used bookstore and had been reading it and selecting recipes I wanted to try. We decided this would be our opportunity to make a few of them.

The event started with making dough for the caldudas which are the Chilean version of empanadas. The dough needed to rest and the filling needed to cool before they were assembled so I got on those tasks early in the afternoon. The filling was made with my new favorite ingredient, achiote oil. It's made by boiling annatto seeds and dried pepper in oil yielding a deep golden red oil with a little heat and a hint of nutmeg flavor. We cooked the onions for the calduda filling in a combination of achiote oil and butter turning them a glowing gold.



Ground beef, beef stock, spices and a chopped hard-boiled egg rounded out the filling.



Later in the afternoon I rolled out the dough, which was very firm and had me worried whether it was right or not, and assembled the caldudas.



With that prep work done we were ready for the fun to really begin. We started Happy Hour with pisco sours with some cheese and olives. A drop of bitters makes the colorful spot on the eggwhite foam.



For an appetizer the co-conspirator assembled these roasted peppers stuffed with tuna salad. They were delicious!



It was really starting to feel like a tapas kind of night when the next small plate rolled out. We made mini sandwiches with some leftover cold roast beef with arugula and a horseradish mustard sauce on mini pitas. People who complain about leftovers are clearly not "leaving over" the right foods.



Next we whipped up a batch of one of our favorite foods, tortillas de Cangrejo--crab cakes! I don't think I'll ever get tired of crab cakes. This recipe was different from the ones I've made in the past in that it used thick white sauce as a binder rather than eggs.



I think it was about this time that our "guest" Don David arrived from Argentina. I'm not sure. Thinks were getting a bit fuzzy by this point.



When the caldudas came out of the oven I was happy to discover that the crust had indeed been correct and the filling was flavorful. I made the full batch and froze all but a few before baking them for future meals.



Following this we decided to move on to preparing the main courses. An atamalado is a stew made with meat or seafood and a grain or small pasta. We chose to make ours with chicken and quinoa.



And what would a South American meal be without potatoes? We elected to simply boil ours to preserve their innate flavor and then topped them with a sweet pepper and hazelnut sauce making papas sancochadas con salsa de avellanas. I'll admit the plate looks a little empty, but if you've read this far you know we weren't going hungry.



Normally I don't eat desserts. But the co-conspirator rightly decided a meal of this magnitude called for something to top it off. The choice was little chocolate cakes in ramekins. We groaned happily and called it a night.



Have a happy and bountiful 2010!

Twitching

I'm a little embarassed to admit we went twitching today. Twitching is a birding term for traveling some distance just to get a look at a rare bird. I'm not crazy about the idea for a couple of reasons. First, it's not exactly ecologically sound to drive a great distance for something so frankly frivolous. Second, it can be harmful for a rare bird to be mobbed by eager birders anxious to get it on their life lists. Just last year, I believe it was, a Burrowing Owl lost it's life in the Chicago area because of too much attention.

Still, the co-conspirator and I didn't have any big plans today so we threw some optics in the car and took off for Wisconsin's East Coast to see a Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla.) It's a pretty little gull that has been present in the harbor at Port Washington for nearly a month.

We watched it sitting on the water.



We watched it flying around.





We watched it catch and eat a fish!



All this made us hungry so we stopped at a local Mexican restaurant and had lunch before returning home. So, I guess you could say we combined two activities into one trip.

Garden Hopes

I've gotten in the habit of going to the same set of trails to go hiking lately. While I like variety in the places I visit, it's also interesting to watch a single place change as the seasons pass. One of the views from the trail is this large community garden where I'm hoping to score a plot this coming season.



Looking at it now it can be hard to believe in a few months it will be a hotbed of people doing what we've been doing for millenia--working with the soil to bring forth something to eat. I look forward to chronicling my gardening adventures here. The place is called Eagle Heights. Today it lived up to that name. A little farther east I was treated to the sight of a couple of immature Bald Eagles flying over and then this one as I was getting to the gardens themselves.





Unfortunately it was headed away from me at a good clip so the pictures aren't as nice as they could be, but it was an exciting encounter anyway. I also found this imprint in the snow at about the same time. Something happened here involving a bird but I can't tell what. Maybe it was just making a snow angel for fun.

Frosty Prairie Morning

Contrary as ever, I've refused to completely readjust to the most recent time change. Getting to bed "earlier" lead to my own pursuit of old Ben's prescribed health, wealth and wisdom when I woke up equally early and decided to rise. Even though I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast I got to the prairie just after sunrise. There was frost on the ground and the sky was completely clear. I had barely stepped out of the car when I started hearing Sandhill Cranes calling from the direction of the marshes. Multiple flocks passed over, all heading north. Maybe it's really spring after all.



A lone hawk glided over, possibly in pursuit of his own breakfast, though if I were a rodent on the prairie this morning I would have been tempted to stay in the nest until it warmed up a bit.

Since I had gotten such an early start, I decided to walk all the way to the top of the hill that dominates the prairie. On the way I passed the area where I most often hear Ring-necked Pheasants crowing. This morning one of them was announcing his presence in the vicinity of this great old Bur Oak, but I never saw him.



From the top of the hill the view is wonderful--provided you can block out the suburban sprawl that wraps two sides of this tract. Looking south I could see the marshes where some cranes were still circling and calling.



And here, to the northwest I found where the cranes were headed. It's not spring after all. They were just flying to their own breakfast in a field of corn stubble.



I'm managing to love autumn--for the moment--and yesterday I resolved to try to love winter as well. It's not like I have any choice in their coming and going. And, like what I think of as the more comfortable seasons, there's still something wonderful to see if I take the time to look.

A Walk in the Neighborhood and Another Lifer

It's a bit of a stretch to say this morning's walk was actually in my neighborhood, but it's so close I like to think that it is. The weather wasn't the greatest at first, so the only halfway decent shots I got of some Common Loons (Gavia immer) are kind of on the dull side.



A half mile or so into the hike it actually got darker. Fortunately this White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albocollis) was cooperative for a minute or two. I really like this species even though I associate them with autumn which is not my favorite season. Be sure you notice the distinctive yellow spots by the eyes. Once you start really looking at sparrows you realize they aren't just boring brown birds.



By the time I was on my way back the sun was coming out, thanks to the chilly south breeze that was blowing. It cleared up enough that I had no trouble seeing this Swainson's Thrush (Catharus ustulatus) when it hopped up on a log looking very alert.



Fortunately it was completely sunny and bright when I happened upon this trio. They are Horned Grebes (Podiceps auritus), a species I've not seen before. Wow! With the Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata) I observed on the way to work one drizzly morning the other day that makes two "Lifers" in one week.

Woodpeckers

Last year the first cake of suet I put out for bird feeding disappeared in a matter of days. I was so glad to see that they were eating it that I bought several more so I wouldn't run out. The next cake hung untouched for weeks. Eventually I took all the suet to my parents. They live in the country and go through all kinds of bird food faster than I do. I suspect that the first cake may have been eaten by squirrels but I never witnessed them in the act.

Consequently, it wasn't until recently that I decided to try offering suet again. I put it in a standard cage feeder that I'd modified by adding a board at the bottom for a tail prop. Woodpeckers like having something to brace their tails against when they perch. I'm happy to report that in only a few days I saw the occasional Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atrocapillus) feeding on the top of the cake. Then I started noticing woodpeckers stopping by for a snack. First, we have a Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens.) This one is a female. They lack the red spot on the back of the head that males of the species have.



Downy Woodpeckers are sometimes hard to distinguish from this species, the Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus) which is a bit larger and has a noticeably longer bill. This one is a male with the bright red spots on the back of his head.



Finally and much to my delight I've seen a Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) visit as well. This is probably one of my favorite local bird species.