Few things are as well-known in Minnesota history as Laura Ingalls Wilder and her dugout home in Walnut Grove. Last weekend our road trip through Southwest Minnesota brought us along Highway 14 to The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in downtown Walnut Grove. We were the only people wandering the grounds on a quiet Saturday morning. The perfect time for extra photos and lingering over the exhibits.

The kitchen partner and I have spent this spring re-reading the Little House series, reliving our childhood through titles like Little House in the Big Woods and On the Banks of Plum Creek. As a child I completely missed how food winds through the series, just like Plum Creek. Now it’s what I enjoy most about the stories. Laura describes bland, wintertime meals along with cheery memories of maple sugaring and a roasted Thanksgiving goose.

The First Minnesota Locavores

I think Laura and the pioneer families of her era were the original Minnesota Locavores. The family hunted and foraged the prairie, grew plants that would survive the harsh native landscape, and celebrated simple meals with simple ingredients. Truly the original locavore diet.

A replica sod dugout at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum – Walnut Grove, MN

As a 21st Century locavore, reading the stories and visiting the museum made me grateful for how easy local eating is now. If I’m looking for local meat or dairy I send the kitchen partner to the co-op. Not out on the prairie with a gun or to the barn with a pail.  Instead of growing and preserving every ounce of food we eat, I can sign up for a CSA or visit the farmers’ market for fruits and vegetables. I choose to can and freeze because I enjoy it, not because it’s the only way we would have enough to eat. Local eating has become a buzz word trend, but for the Ingalls family it was a means of survival.

I’m not sure where that leaves things for me now. Can we still claim the local food title if we’re not really living from the land? How can we honor to those who ate this way–not by choice but for necessity–especially if without the land to hunt, forage, and grow everything I eat? Is taking advantage of more convenient local food “cheating?” Is working towards a pioneer-style self-sufficiency the end goal of the locavore life? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

Cooking the Little House Way

While we were in the gift shop, I picked up a copy of The Little House Cookbook by Barbara Walker. It’s filled with food-related passages from the books and recipes to recreate the same meals Laura and her family ate. Some of the pioneer recipes like strawberry jam and hashed brown potatoes are the same family recipes I use now. Others like codfish balls, pot of roast ox, and home-churned butter take some more creativity to recreate.

I’m slowly cooking a few things from the book this week. I fell in love with Ma Ingalls’ dumpling recipe, but passed up making the famous

 vanity cakes after reading some not-so-good online reviews. Then I made the simple heart-shaped cakes Mary and Laura open on Christmas morning in Little House in the Big Woods. 

The palm-sized cakes have no eggs and only a touch of sugar, but they are perfect with maple syrup, honey or a drizzle of strawberry sauce. I replaced the lard with butter (a girl’s gotta have limits and lard is one!!) and made the cakes smaller than the original recipe called for. When they came out of the oven–warm and crumbly–I think the kitchen partner’s smile was as big as Laura and Mary’s on Christmas morning.

Maybe that’s the biggest lesson about local eating:  if the local food you eat puts a smile on your face what difference does it make?  The Little House series shows us that whether it’s 2013 or 1913, eating local is about celebrating simple ingredients, made into simple and delicious meals. And sharing those meals with the people you care about most.

Heart Shaped Cakes
Adapted from The Little House Cookbook

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups white flour, plus more for dusting
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup butter, cut into tablespoons and well-chilled
1/3 cup buttermilk
powdered sugar

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 425°F and grease a baking sheet with non-stick spray.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda and nutmeg in a large bowl. Using your fingers, mash in the tablespoons of butter in the flour mixture until it forms pea-sized pieces.
3. Form a hole in the middle of the bowl. Pour the buttermilk into the hole and gently fold into the flour. Combine until a dough forms that is flexible (but not too sticky) to roll out.
4. Roll out dough on a floured surface until 1/2″ thick. Cut dough into triangles. Gently push each triangle into a heart shape with your fingers (exaggerate the middle indentation a bit as the finished cakes will puff out after baking).
5. Place the triangles on the baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Place on a cooling rack and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve warm with sweet toppings.

Yesterday afternoon, 12 baby chicks arrived in a cardboard box in our kitchen. They’re en route from Eggplant Urban Farm Supply in St. Paul to my parents’ chicken coop in Wisconsin. With a two night stop over at our place. We’re baby chick sitters.

Today I have the day off to keep an eye on water and the heat lamp. I’m also supposed to be working on laundry, homework and cleaning the house for a Cinco de Mayo get together tonight. None of that is happening with the tiny ‘chirp-chirps’ coming from that box. Every time I turn around I’ve wandered back over to see what they’re up to.

How could you resist this?

Or this?

See what I mean?

Baby chicks are contagiously cute.

And a reminder that YES. Spring is coming. No matter how much snow falls in the month of May.

I’m planning a great weekend hanging out with these girls. Hope you enjoy yours as well!

Someone forgot to tell the chives in the Little Acre Garden on our patio that we’re having a mixed up spring. That’s right, these poor little green things are trying hard despite another 4″ of snow last night.

As if today’s weather wasn’t tough enough, then came the news that the St. Paul Farmers’ Market is delaying their open this weekend. The first time in the market’s history the summer market open wont happen on time.

This time last year, our patio garden looked like this:

And I was making meals like this:

Not exactly the case this year. So what’s a locavore to do when spring just wont show up!?!?

Answer:  Go on vacation.

This week the kitchen partner and I are headed on an extended weekend trip to the southwestern part of the state. With his MBA and my writing projects this summer, an extended out-of-state vacation wasn’t in the cards for us. Instead we’re jumping in the car to take in some of the Minnesota sights. 2013 is the summer of our “local” vacation. Minnesota is not just crammed with lakes, there are fun sights and bits of local culture everywhere. Did you know we have close to 20 “World’s Largest” roadside attractions in the North Star State? I’m on a mission to have my picture in front of as many as I can this year!

Minnesota’s also full of locavores, farmers, and everyday people eating local food. That’s why you’ll be seeing posts from our road trips all summer long in my “Locavore on the Road” series. Whether it’s a glass of local craft beer or an award-winning raisin cream pie, if there’s a good local food experience to have–I’m adding it to our list. Have a suggestion for your road trip hot-spot? Be sure to pass it along so we don’t miss anything in Greater MN.

Spring may not show up at all this year. No worries. We’ll just jump straight to summer and road trips and food trucks and all the things that we love about Minnesota. Looking forward to seeing you all out on the road…

No one has complained more than me about this miserable spring we’ve had, but there’s one group of people around Wisconsin and Minnesota that can’t get enough of this weather. Maple sugarers around the area are having a bumper year compared to the warm temperatures and dismal maple syrup season of 2012.

Last weekend we headed back home to Wisconsin to take part in a long tradition in my husband’s family. The thick maple forests around the area where we grew up are some of the best maple syrup producing areas in the state. His uncles, cousins and friends can all be found strapping on snowshoes to haul buckets and steel taps through the deep snow. Then it’s onto the sap shack at Sippl’s Sugarbush in Aniwa, Wisconsin operated by his cousins Andy and Mark Sippl.

The Modern Sap Shack

In the few hours we were at the sap shack there was plenty of hustle and bustle. The bright sunshine and warm 40+°F temperatures signal to the sugar maple trees that spring is on the way. The weather also signals to maple sugarers it’s time to start tapping trees. Although the Sippl’s Sugarbush used to tap trees and hang collecting buckets by hand, in the past few years the operation has expanded to commercial tubing.

In this system the trees are tapped and then connected to a complex webbing of thin blue tubes strung around the woods. These tubes feed into a larger vacuum pumping system that sucks all the sap out of the woods into large holding tanks. Not only does this system prevent having to filter rain water and debris from the sap buckets, it also allowed Sippl’s to tap a whopping 15,000 trees this year. Collecting by hand is the more traditional method, and it certainly changes the landscape of the woods to see blue tubing spider-webbed around. However tubing now makes more sense given the costs of fuel and man-power (not to mention hiking up and down the rolling hills and ridges maple trees love to grow on!) needed to trudge between 15,000 trees each day for the few weeks of sap season.

It takes a Village

Not only are Sippl’s collecting from their own maple trees, they also buy sap from others in the area. It’s not economical for everyone in the area to have large commercial-grade cooking and bottling equipment, especially if they only have taps in a hundred or so trees. On the day we visited the sap shack, these smaller collectors lined up out the driveway to pump their sap into Sippl’s larger holding tanks.

When it’s dropped off, Mark and Andy use a hydrometer to measure the sugar content of the sap; higher sugar content means less cooking needed to evaporate the water from the syrup. The higher the sugar content the lower the cooking time. The lower the cooking time the lighter the golden color and more premium the syrup. Sap from nearly 30 different collectors in the area will combine this year in Sippl’s Sugarbush bottles.

Turning Sap into Syrup

Once the giant holding tanks are full, the cooking begins. As a kid I learned how to make maple syrup with my dad in a shallow homemade pan on an outdoor camp stove. The five or six trees we tapped in my grandparents’ woods would produce enough syrup for our family for most of the year. Each day after school, he’d haul my sister and I bundled in our winter clothes through the woods to dump each bucket into a larger tub pulled behind a sled. We would hold out our fingers to catch a drip of sap off the end of a tap, stick it on our tongues and wonder how the watery liquid could ever turn into our favorite pancake topping.

From the woods he’d bring the buckets home and sit patiently in the backyard with a homemade cooking set-up, carefully evaporating the water from the sap until it became thick and golden brown. The cooking temperature must be monitored at all times; boiled too hot and the sap will burn. Too cold and the evaporation time increases. Good syrup making weather requires daytime temperatures to dip back below freezing at night to force the sap back out of the maple tree branches. Often my dad would be huddled outside in his winter clothes bearing the cold temps after my sister and I had long gone inside to warm up. He’d come inside a few hours later with a smaller pot of syrup to be “finished” on the kitchen stove. “Finishing” is the process of bringing the syrup to the perfect sugar content. Our gas kitchen range allowed more control than the outdoor camp stove to give the syrup the perfect color and thickness.

The Large-Scale Maple Syrup Process

Sippl’s Sugarbush definitely isn’t finishing their syrup on a kitchen stove. In fact, their commercial-grade maple syrup evaporator is larger than most SUV’s. When the system is fired up and cooking down sap, steam billows out the tall chimneys and tells the neighborhood sap season is in full swing. Before it begins cooking, raw sap is run through an RO (reverse-osmosis) machine. Typically RO machines use a membrane to purify water and drain away unwanted minerals and debris. In maple sugaring, RO machines separate 75-90% of the water from the sugar in the sap to speed up how much water must be evaporated later.  The water is piped back into the ground supply to support the maple trees for the next season. The sap continues on into the evaporator.

I bet Andy’s explained the parts of the evaporator to me each of the 10 seasons I’ve visited the sap shack and I still don’t know what each of the parts do. It’s a complex system of knobs and buttons and trays that each play a part in the cooking. But the basic idea is the same as my dad’s makeshift pan in the backyard. Sap comes into the rear of the evaporator, is brought to a specific boiling temperature using a high-tech thermostat and circulated until it cooks down into rich, golden syrup. The syrup is cooled slightly and then transferred into barrels for shipping or bottling.

 There’s nothing more local than maple syrup

Die-hard locavores love living in the Upper Midwest because of maple syrup. It’s the best organic sweetener produced in the region because of its versatility and affordability compared to honey. 3/4 cup of maple syrup for every 1 cup of sugar is the most common substitution ratio and the one we use in our kitchen.  It’s perfect for baking, often giving breads and desserts an extra nutty richness. Just be careful to turn down the oven temperature by 10-15 degrees as baked goods tend to brown faster when made with maple syrup.

We don’t stop there for cooking with syrup either. Maple-glazed pork ribs and ham steaks, salad dressings and maple-walnut ice cream are all favorite ways we like to show off the family business when friends come for dinner. Check out all of my maple syrup recipes here: Maple Syrup Recipes

We locavores also love maple syrup for its terrior characteristics. Just like wine, subtle flavors vary region to region. Locavores that buy syrup from their neighborhood producer are truly tasting what the maple trees in their area have to offer.

A Changing Family Tradition

Maple syrup season may have started in our families as a few tapped trees and a small backyard cooking pan. Although the technology has evolved at Sippl’s Sugarbush, the hard-work and care needed to transform sap to syrup remains the same as it has for hundreds of years. It’s a local food tradition celebrated by our grandparents and great-grandparents just as much as we locavores enjoy it today. To see all of the images from our visit – click over to the Facebook gallery.

Have you enjoyed the first signs of spring as much as I have? There’s nothing like a few 50° days in a row to get you thinking about planting. With frost still in the ground and snow covering much of Minnesota, it’s going to take some extra patience not to bust out the trowels and rakes. However, there is one tool we all can use this time of year to help jumpstart our gardening – a tablet or smartphone. In the past few years, several useful (and free) gardening apps emerged on both the iPad and Android app markets. Below I’ve jotted down a few that I think you should check out this spring as your waiting for planting season to begin.

Worried about taking your iPad out to play in the dirt? Put it in a zip-top plastic food bag. It will still be touchscreen sensitive without risking any encounters with dirt, water, or nasty scratches.

GardenTime Planner by Burpee - If you’re brand new to gardening this year or looking for planting times in your zip code, this app is a great resource. Plants are limited to the Burpee brand, so if you’re looking for heirlooms or unique varietals this might not be the choice for you.

Fine Gardening’s Tomato Match - Have a thing for tomatoes? Looking for the best variety for canning or slicing on sandwiches? Tomato Match allows you to search common and unique tomato varieties by use, color, planting schedule. When you find one you like, it links to sites where you can purchase seeds and plants. 

Permaculture -  Permaculture continues to be one of the fastest growing gardening trends in the United States. This app has articles, links to permaculture blogs, and videos to give the novice and experienced gardener a good overview of permaculture. It’s not the most dressed up, but for a free app the available content is well worth it. 

Garden Minder by Gardener’s Supply -  I’ve used the Gardener’s Supply online application for planning my garden sketches for the past 3 seasons. This year, I’ll be transferring to the iPad for my planning, including creating my own sketches for square-foot gardening and notifications when plants should be started, maintained and harvested according to zone. Although there’s no way to retro-actively add data, there’s a great section for journaling and adding photos to track your progress season to season.

MyGarden.org -  Have you ever wanted a Facebook-like experience for gardeners? Mygarden.org is a free website that combines social networking with gardening. Their mobile application allows you to search more than 6000 plants and connect with more than 5000 other green thumbs. My favorite feature is the ability to upload photos of unknown plants to the site for other gardeners to help identify. The app is free but it does require signing up for an account on mygarden.org.

These apps are all free on the Apple and Android app market. If you’re interested in giving up some of your other “green stuff” for paid gardening apps, the New York Times has a good review of apps priced from $0.99 to 9.99. No gardener should live without a good weather app either. Check out the NYT reviews for the best data-based weather apps to keep your plants in the best condition all summer long.

Two years ago today, this little blog began. In that time, I’ve met great people, shared some ridiculously good meals and done my part to spread the word about local food. I’m delighted (and honored) that you’ve stopped by and owe you all a great big thanks! Thanks for sharing in the adventure and thanks for supporting your local growers. I look forward to much more in the months and years ahead.

Thanks also to those that entered in the (because who doesn’t LOVE free stuff!) giveaway last week. Congrats to Becca Griffith for her randomly selected winning comment:

A t-shirt from the Locally Grown Clothing Company will be arriving in her mailbox shortly!

This time next week, Minnesota Locavore will be officially 2 years old. In order to celebrate the great people and great local food of the past 2 years – we’re hosting a giveaway this week with the motto “(because who doesn’t LOVE free stuff?)”

On Friday – I’ll be giving one lucky reader one of my favorite things ever: their choice of a t-shirt from Locally Grown Clothing Company. Two great things about these tees: the company is based in Des Moines, Iowa about 250 miles from St. Paul, and they are screenprinted with the coolest locavore-inspired designs:

I bet you’ve seen their rooster icon at the co-ops, farmers’ markets and boutiques around town. If not, check out their online store and see what you’ve been missing: http://locallygrownclothing.com Want one of these to wear this farmers’ market season?

Here’s how to register for our Blog-aversary Giveaway: 

1. Comment on this post about why you support local by Sunday March 24.

2. For a second entry – click over to our Facebook page and ‘Like’ us for more locavore updates. (Already a friend? No problem, like this post and we’ll count that too!)

3. For a third chance to win – share this post on your own Facebook page and let your friends know too “(because who doesn’t LOVE free stuff?)”

When I talk to people about food blogging, they always assume the cooking is the hardest part. How do you come up with new stuff to make all the time? How do you take a bag full of stuff from the farmers’ market a make it look like that?

For me, time in the kitchen has always been the easy part. And the writing comes better some days than others, but that’s more related to how many episodes of New Girl are available on Hulu than difficulty. No – it’s not the recipes and it’s not the words. It’s the photos that drag me down in the blogosphere.

I can’t tell you how many amazingly tasty meals I’ve made and photographed, only to wake up the next morning and realize every single image is slightly out of focus. Or how many times I’ve gone out for a farm-to-table dinner, snuck in my camera for a few discrete shots only to find they are blurry and underexposed when I get home. I bet I’ve had a few hundred blog fails since this site began.

I’m pretty hard on myself when I’m trying to come up with photos for posts. I like to think of Photoshop as a mini-wedding dress experience every time I plug my SD card into the computer. Images have to “sing” to me in that “this-is-totally-the-one” way every girl feels when the dress is absolutely perfect. It bugs me if the composition’s not great, if the lighting’s less than perfect. Sometimes everything will look put together, but the photo just doesn’t “feel” right.

It’s sad to say, but in our “like it – tweet it – share it” world, words mean a lot less than the images around it. What could be one of my favorite meals of the year is likely to get buried somewhere in the halls of the internet if I don’t have the right photos. Plus, when it comes to local food, there’s not always much to make into a flashy – wowza – photo. Seriously. There’s only so many ways you can pose a head of cabbage and an onion before you get that “been there – seen that” feeling.

Today’s post is a PERFECT example of my good post, bad photos problem. At the same time I planned a spot on how to make an easy, no-hassle corned beef for St. Paddy’s Day–I’ve been dreading it too. What was a tender, perfectly seasoned and slow-roasted brisket came out as a nasty, sloppy looking hunk of pink roast beast in the pictures. I’ll be honest, a piece of local grass-fed corned beef from Mississippi Market set us back a few bucks. Then to have it not appear appetizing enough to share with all of you was like rubbing all that salty corned beef, briny goodness in deep wounds.

I did my best to arrange it, slice it, plate it, prod it. I promise. As I snapped away I was certain all my shots looked like this:

Image by Lara Ferroni at KitchenDaily.com

when in fact, everything I took looks more like this:

It’s hard enough to convince people to turn away from a the supermarket and choose a local food lifestyle. A pile of once-green now turned slimy gray-yellow cabbage certainly is not helping. Where’s that extra $600 and 3 months of time to for pro-photography classes when I need it?

For now, you’ll just have to trust me. Corned beef made in the crock pot with cabbage and served with a side of boiled potatoes and carrots is truly the best way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The prep and cooking is hassle-free. The smell is heavenly. The flavor is immense. None of which I effectively communicated in these pictures. Just take my word for it (not my images) and add this to your celebration!

Slow-Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage 

Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker’s Bridal Edition Cookbook

Instructions

3-4 pounds of corned beef brisket – trimmed
1 onion
1 small head of cabbage

Instructions
1. Place brisket and seasoning packet into a 4-6 quart crock pot. (You can also use a Dutch oven for this, but cook times will vary). Pour enough cold water in the pot to cover the brisket by 1-2″.

2. Cut the onion and cabbage into halves and then each half into large wedges. Stack the onion and cabbage around the brisket until the beef is completely covered.

3. Cook on low 7-8 hours, or until beef reaches an internal temperature of at least 165°F. Remove from crock pot and allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve cabbage and onions with beef.

Why is it that a German/Polish/Czech gal like me cannot get enough of St. Patrick’s Day?

Guinness reigns as my favorite beer of all time, and will always be the first thing I asked the bartender for the day I turned 21. Green is my favorite color. I’ve eaten up all the Irish themed blog posts this week (check out these here - here – and here!) I wait all year long for the traditional St. Paddy’s Day fare.

This week I’ve got a few of my favorite Irish dishes to share to celebrate the holiday. First up is a revised recipe I posted a while ago for Borenkool Stamppot. It’s a traditional Dutch dish made with mashed potatoes and kale. Turns out the Irish also make Stamppot, only it goes by the name Colcannon. Stamppot. Colcannon. One in the same. How cool is that?

The kale and potato combination make up a perfect locavore dish this time of year. Local kale and potatoes are still available at the co-ops and winter farmers’ markets if you look hard enough. It can be made with other root vegetables like celeriac or parsnips instead of potatoes. Other greens (endive, spinach, turnip greens) and other meats (smoked or fried sausages, brats, stewed meats) are also good options.

Colcannon (Irish Mashed Potatoes with Kale)

Ingredients
3 pounds potatoes, scrubbed and peeled
1 lb. kale
2 Tbsp. sunflower oil
2 cloves garlic
2-3 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper
Instructions
1. Quarter potatoes and place them in a large pot with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook 8-10 minutes or until tender. While potatoes are cooking, wash kale and remove leaves from thick stems. Roughly chop.
2. Heat oil in a sauté pan with garlic. Add kale and cook 1-2 minutes until tender. Immediately remove from heat and set aside.
3. Place potatoes, butter and garlic powder in a large bowl and whip using an electric mixer until smooth. While mixing, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until potatoes reach desired consistency. If you like chunky potatoes, use less milk. For smoother texture and consistency, add more milk.
4. Gently mix in kale. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.

Minnesota may be covered in 10+ inches of fresh new snow, but local farmers around the state are busy with spring preparations. Many of the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farms already have seedlings under grow lights and their reservation books waiting for sign-ups. March and April are common months for CSA registration, with many farms filling slots completely by May. If this is your first season signing up or if you’re searching for a new farmer, I’ve put together some questions and a worksheet to help guide your choice.

I’ve had good–and not so good–experiences with CSA’s. Our first year was a big bust because our expectations didn’t match what our share ended up being. We purchased a ‘salad share’ expecting eggplants and pumpkins and instead got a summer of gourmet heirloom greens. Not a bad thing, just not what we anticipated. It was a lesson in how a little research goes a long way. These questions are not comprehensive, but should help you in researching the best fit for your summer CSA!

First things first: Are you sure a CSA is right for you?

CSA’s are one of the single best ways to have regular interaction with your local farmer. Keyword of caution in that statement: regular.  A new delivery shows up every week all summer whether or not you’re ready for them. Having a plan and knowing your eating habits is important when choosing a CSA. If summer already means time in the garden, at the farmers’ market or in the kitchen, you’re probably ready for the regular weekly planning it takes to use up a CSA share. But for some of us who keep busy schedules June through August, CSA shares can cause more stress than enjoyment. If you’ve got 13 weddings this summer or are planning that month-long backpacking trip, this may not be the most cost-effective summer for a CSA membership.

Speaking of cost, how much should you pay for a CSA share?

The cost structure for each CSA runs on basically the same principle. Each shareholder pays for a portion of the farm’s expenses and in return receives a regular produce delivery. That being said, there’s a ton of variability in the cost of shares. I’ve seen shares for Twin Cities delivery sites from $150 to $900 per share. The best way to calculate your costs is to divide the price of the share by the number of weeks of delivery (e.g. $300 per share X 20 weeks of delivery = $15 per week). Some CSA’s provide an estimate of the amount of produce delivered which helps calculate the cost even more closely. If you consider your typical summertime grocery bill and it totals about the same, the CSA is probably a good fit for your budget. Remember you’re also directly supporting a farmer. For some of us we’re willing to pay extra to know we’re doing our part to keep it local.

Here’s a CSA research worksheet I’ve created to help you evaluate your options this year: 

Download the .pdf CSA Buying Guide Worksheet

I don’t care what you believe, snow days are a gift of divine intervention. It’s been 2 years since the cosmic weather + traffic + school calendar stars aligned to give me a day off of work for weather. This morning the alarm went off to “the heaviest snow bands are moving over downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul right now.” I sat straight up and fumbled around in the dark to find my phone. Could it be? Could today be the day? I dialed up WCCO and started scrolling down the list. Anoka Hennepin cancelled. Eden Prairie cancelled. Both are big metro districts. That’s a good sign. Slowly, slowly paging down and then just like that–there it was. Rosemount Eagan Apple Valley: my ticket to pajamas and a hot cup of tea for the rest of the day.

The best part about snow days are how they always happen when I need them the most. I’ve struggled to balance homework, work-work, the household stuff, and my writing projects with an ever declining success rate. Too much on my plate, not enough time in the kitchen. Just like the snow gives the ground a fresh, white start, today’s snow day was an unexpected chance for a fresh start. The extra time at home to catch up on laundry, paired with the hours saved not battling traffic on I-94 are a luxury item I’m not often afforded.

As a kid, my snow days meant extra hours to build forts and hang out at Grandma’s. Today it means filling the house fresh cranberry muffins and my favorite Jack Johnson songs on shuffle. Given I still can’t leave the driveway, I had to bake with whatever I had on hand. Cranberries were the first thing to catch my eye on my trip to the freezer. Paired with walnuts and a tiny hint of citrus, the bright red berries are the perfect flavor to cozy up with on a snow day.

What was that about citrus on a local food blog during a Minnesota snow storm? Darn. Thought I could slide that one through. Normally, I skip out on oranges, grapefruit and lemons because there’s not one local thing about them. But this winter I’ve picked up a bag or two at the co-op. I’ll be the first to admit when the going gets tough (and busy. and frozen under 10″ of snow), my locavore diet starts to relax a little. Call it necessity, call it priorities, call it whatever. If I’m stuck between buying a fast food lunch between appointments or packing an organically grown orange in my lunchbox alongside my local entrée, I think we’d all agree on the orange. Maybe not though. Where do locavores shake out on this?

Today when I stirred up the muffins, they needed just the tiniest bit of orange zest. If you’d like a more local muffin, leave out the zest. No harm done. Besides, I’m sitting down to enjoy a warm muffin while watching the flakes come down. On a snow day. In the busy month of March. What could be the harm in than that?

Cranberry Walnut Muffins 

Adapted from the Betty Crocker Bridal Edition

Ingredients

For the topping
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbsp. cold butter

For the batter
3/4 C. milk
1/4 C. sunflower oil
1 egg
1 Tbsp. grated orange peel (zest)
2 cups flour (use whatever proportion of whole wheat to all-purpose flour you prefer in baking)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup cranberries, halved
1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

Instructions
1. Mix together topping ingredients: flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Using a pastry blender or two forks, combine butter in mixture until it forms a crumble. Butter should be in pea-sized pieces or smaller. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 400°F. Prep a muffin tin with 12 baking liner cups.

3. Mix together milk, oil, egg and orange zest until well blended. Add flour, brown sugar and baking powder until just moistened. Batter will have lumps, but don’t over beat it or muffins will be tough. Gently fold in cranberries and walnuts.

4. Pour batter into liners (filling until at least level with the tops of the muffin cups). Sprinkle the topping mixture evenly among the tops of the muffin cups, about 1 1/2 Tbsp. on each muffin. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of each muffin.

5. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the muffin pan for 5 minutes. Gently remove from the pan to a baking rack. These are best served warm with a little dollop of whipped butter.

Today my big sister Kim–and Abraham Lincoln–are celebrating birthdays. I always thought it was neat she shared a birthday with an American President. And that her birthday was in the same week as Valentine’s Day. Double the cake, flowers and presents. Her birthday is just the beginning of all the things I think are great about her.

Lately, my favorite big sister thing is her Pinterest account. Kim’s pinned about 400 more things than me, including some really tasty recipes. Whenever I’m looking for something to make for dinner or want to drool over a gorgeous cake, I just have to check  out her boards. Not only can she pin like nobody’s business, she’s always trying, testing, and tweaking the recipes she finds. She’s a cook that loves to experiment in the kitchen.

Today when I called to wish her a happy birthday we talked for about 2 minutes before talk turned to food. Topics: Her red velvet birthday cake, what she was making for dinner, and if it’s okay to put bacon in Alfredo sauce. In fact, I’m not sure we ever talk on the phone without mentioning bacon.

When I texted her to ask her for a recipe last week, she responded link + Merlot Chicken. Clearly she knows I just installed one of those signs in our kitchen that says “I cook with wine…sometimes I even put it in the food.” What better way to make dinner at the end of a busy day than slow cooked in local red wine and tomatoes.

Delish! Happy Birthday Big Sis!

Slow-Cooker Merlot Chicken 

Adapted from Taste of Home
Ingredients
1 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 3-4 pound boiler fryer chicken, cut into pieces
15 ounces diced tomatoes
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup Merlot or dry red wine
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 additional tablespoons cornstarch
Hot cooked pasta

Instructions
1. Spray a 5 quart slow-cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Place 1/2 of the mushrooms, onions and garlic in the bottom of the slow-cooker. Layer chicken pieces on top.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together tomatoes, broth, wine, cornstarch, basil, salt, and pepper. Pour over chicken. Top with remaining mushrooms, onions, and garlic.
3. Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 180°F.
4. Remove chicken from slow cooker and allow to cool for 5 minute or until able to be easily handled. Shred chicken and remove any bones.
5. Whisk additional cornstarch into the sauce in the slow cooker until no lumps remain. Return shredded chicken to the slow cooker, replace cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until heated through.
6. Serve over hot cooked pasta.

The past two weekends the kitchen partner and I have hosted family for overnight stays. I love being the first one up in the morning on these days, sneaking down to the kitchen for a cup of tea and some quiet time before everyone’s up and ready for a day of fun. I also love having an extra special breakfast ready when our guests wake up. We almost always have Whole Grain Milling Pancakes, eggs and bacon, but on days when I’m awake extra early, I’ll even throw together a pan of homemade cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon rolls are one of the many foods we Americans sacrificed taste and nutrition for a little more convenience. A few bucks will get you any of the pre-packaged, processed tubes of cinnamon rolls in the supermarket now. And yes these cinnamon rolls are ready in under 25 minutes, but they’re also full of sugar, preservatives, extra sodium, and artificial flavoring. Homemade cinnamon rolls take a little more time but the finished product is well worth it.

Our guests love sitting down to a fresh pan hot out of the oven. It’s a reminder of a time when we weren’t too busy to make a hot breakfast for family and friends. A time when homemade was the only way, and always better than pre-packaged. That breakfasts prepared with fresh, local ingredients are the best way to start a day.

Don’t trust all this warm fuzzy nostalgia? Follow these steps and make a pan of cinnamon rolls the next time you have family or friends overnight. In the morning I promise you’ll be getting rave reviews while your guests are peeling back the flaky layers and licking the last bit of gooey frosting off their fingers.

How to Make Cinnamon Rolls 

Recipe adapted from Taste of Home & Betty Crocker 

1. Preheat your oven to the lowest setting (no higher than 200°) to prepare a warm surface for the dough to rise. While the oven is heating, place 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 package) of active dry yeast in a large bowl.

2. Warm 1 cup of skim milk in the microwave to 110°F to 115°F. Yeast is fussy and needs to be babied with the perfect temperature. Any warmer than this and the milk will kill the yeast, and cooler than this and the yeast wont be warm enough to activate. Add the milk to the yeast and stir for 1-2 minutes or until the yeast is dissolved.

3. Add 2 egg whites, 1/3 cup of sugar, 3 tablespoons of sunflower oil, 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of whole wheat flour, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the mixture and beat with an electric mixer until smooth.

4. While the mixer is running, add flour 1/2 cup at a time until it forms a soft, firm dough. This should take 2 1/2 to 3 cups total depending on your measurements. Dough should not stick to the sides of the bowl or your fingers.

5. Knead dough for 6-8 minutes on a well-floured surface (or use the bread hook on the electric mixer to knead dough) or until it is smooth and elastic. Don’t worry about over-kneading, this type of dough can stand up to a firm walloping.

6. Place dough in a large bowl sprayed lightly with non-stick spray. I use a large mixing bowl that’s marked with measurements. This helps to figure out when the dough has indeed doubled. Turn the ball over once in the bowl to coat the top of the dough and cover with a light towel. Allow dough to rise on the warm stove top until doubled. This typically takes about an hour depending on how warm your stove top surface is. If your kitchen does not permit this location, choose a warm dry place away from any drafts or cooling air flow.

7. While the dough is resting, prepare the filling. Combine 1/2 cup of brown sugar with 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon. I also add 1 cup of chopped walnuts to the filling if my guests enjoy nuts.

8. When dough has doubled, punch it down firmly in the middle to release any gas buildup. Divide the dough into 2 large pieces and prepare each one separately using the following: Roll the dough into a 12″ by 9″ rectangle using a rolling-pin. Brush the flattened dough with a few tablespoons of melted butter and sprinkle with filling mixture.

9. Carefully roll up the dough in a tight jelly roll starting with the long side. Place the edge seam down on the table. Using dental floss or a piece of thin string, cut each roll into 1 1/2″ slices.

10. Place the slices in a greased 9 X 11″ baking dish, cut side down to maintain the shape. Cover again with the light towel and allow to rest for another 35-40 minutes.

11. Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Do not allow edges to burn. While rolls are still hot, apply a frosting made from 1 cup of powdered confectioner’s sugar and 2-4 teaspoons of skim milk whisked together. Drizzle over rolls and serve warm.

Is everyone ready for snow-ma-geddon? I’ve watched the reports all week about the East Coast storm of the century and to be honest I’m sort of jealous. We’re only expecting a few inches in the Twin Cities with the most falling up north beyond Duluth. This weekend when you’re all hunkered down watching the blowing snow and praying for a snow day on Monday I have only one recommendation: dessert.

I could eat apple pie every day during the winter (come March my jean size can testify). Major comfort food. As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing better during a blizzard than warm gooey apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. There’s just one tinsey-winsey problem with my apple pie plans:

I completely suck at pie crust.

I speak the brutal truth when I say my pie crust is naaaa-sty. I’ve tried a dozen different recipes, butter vs. shortening vs. oil, used my mom’s “secret” of frozen flour. I’ve rolled, squeezed, kneaded. Someone once even gave me the tip to try vodka instead of water since it evaporates faster in the oven. If it promised to make the best pie crust, I’ve tried it. Still my pie crust falls somewhere between shoe leather and corrugated cardboard. For someone who loves pie more than any other dessert on the planet it’s pretty devastating.

So when life gives you sub-par pie crust talents (and a blizzard), you make the next best thing: Warm gooey apple crisp with a crunchy oatmeal topping.  No crust required. Best of all, this recipe calls for only 6 ingredients.  It’s way easier than pie and the items typically live in my pantry anyway. No need to risk a trip to the grocery store in the blinding snow if you don’t have to!

This time of year I’m using up the apples frozen from last fall. It works great with freshly sliced apples or another fresh or frozen fruit too. Blueberry peach and raspberries both work well with this 6-ingredient set up.

6 Ingredient Apple Crisp
8 C. sliced frozen apples -choose a sweeter, baking variety like Honeycrisp, Cortland, or Jonathan
1/2 C. plus 2 Tbsp. brown sugar, divided
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 C. whole-wheat flour
1 C. oatmeal
2/3 C. unsalted butter at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare a 9 x 13″ baking dish with non-stick spray.
2. Spread apples in an even layer in the baking dish. In a separate bowl, mix together 2 Tbsp. brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over apples and gently toss to evenly coat.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, oatmeal, and 1/2 C. brown sugar. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut butter into flour mixture until only pea sized pieces remain.
4. Evenly spread crumble topping over apples. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until apples are soft and bubbly.

Don’t forget to serve with ice cream!

I think we’re having our first true Minnesota winter in a long time. Days so cold I cross my fingers and crunch one eye in hopes the car starts. Mornings where I  wake up to a ground again covered in white and I run to the television in hopes of a 2 hour delay from work. (Still waiting SPPS…) I’m a winter-freak. I love every part of it, with the exception of slow traffic. Snowshoeing. Skiing. Extra large snowbanks. All this winter stuff we’ve got going on this year is spectacular. (I’ve been told this enthusiasm is because I’ve never actually had to pick up a shovel since I moved to Minnesota. Not sure I entirely agree.)

Want to know what I think the very best part about winter in Minnesota is? The food. It’s no coincidence that Minnesota is famous for the casserole. There’s nothing better on a cold, snowy evening than a warm hot dish out of the oven. Okay, so maybe that’s a stretch for those of us who ate tater-tots with ground beef or tuna casserole our entire childhoods. But it is true that Minnesotans know how to warm up the house with a soup, stew or casserole better than anyone around.

My cast iron dutch oven has had one form of soup, stew or hot dish a brewin’ almost non-stop this month. Beef and barley have become our favorite warm up ingredients. My in-laws raise Black Angus cattle and graciously fill our freezer with chuck roasts and round steaks perfect for long Saturday afternoons of simmering on the stove. Last Saturday I made a beef barley stew with one very special local ingredient: Brau Brothers Moo Joos Oatmeal Milk Stout. Brau Brothers is located in tiny Lucan, MN (population 220), where the grow their own hops and source as much of their ingredients locally as they can.

That’s right. I make my beef stew with beer. Let me tell you there’s no better way. It only gets better with dark beer.

Wait. That line describes me too…

Brau Brothers Beef and Barley Stew

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil
3-4 pounds of beef – (I used round steak, chuck roast or any beef shank cross-cut for this recipe)
For the Stock
1 1/2 bottles of Brau Brothers Moo Joos (or your favorite stout beer)
3 cups cold water
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups carrot, cut into 1″ chunks
1 cup celery with leaves, cut into 1″ chunks
1 large onion, cut into 1″ chunks
1 teaspoon black pepper

For the Stew
1 cup uncooked barley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup frozen peas
1 cup carrot, chopped into coins
1 cup celery, sliced into 1/4″ pieces
1 medium onion, diced

Instructions
1. Heat oil in dutch oven over low heat. Add whole cut of beef, beer, water and salt. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam (This will reduce the remaining fat later).
2. Reduce heat, add remaining stock vegetables and pepper. Cover and simmer 3 hours.
3. When beef is tender, remove broth from heat. Spoon beef out and allow to cool slightly. Using a knife and pincers, cut the beef into 1″ pieces. After the beef is cut, skim any remaining fat from the top of the broth. You can also skim out the stock vegetables if you wish, but this is not necessary.
4. If stock has reduced to less than 6 cups, add in additional water to equal 6 cups. Return beef to the pot and add in barley and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, add in remaining vegetables. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer 30 more minutes until stew vegetables are tender.

Note : The stock steps can be made the night before and refrigerated. Return the beef to the pot and follow step 4 up to 3 days later.