Tapping Maple Trees

I woke up today thinking about the smile that would hit my face as soon as I smelled that first whiff of morning coffee. I am definitely of the opinion, that coffee is most enjoyed in the morning, and although, also enjoyable in the afternoon, or late evening, if I’m drinking it then, it most likely means I have to stay awake for some reason. Which I’m not a huge fan of.

Smelling coffee is nearly as good as drinking it in my book. So, I sat in front of my bay window upstairs, drank my coffee and slipped into contentment. The sun was coming in at just the correct angle that I could lay my head against my chair back and have to shut my eyes because of brightness. The sun is rising earlier every morning. It’s beginning to smell like Spring outside, although, I’ve lived through the February thaw ruse too many times to believe it. It’s difficult to ignore the smells of the season though. I have that odd sense that I should be walking through the woods tapping maple trees.
I lost the morning like that.

I’ve been a bit lonely lately. Not, I’m so depressed I don’t know what to do lonely, just that nagging sense of wanting something that isn’t here. I suppose it makes me more introspective than usual. Normally, I spend the sunny part of the morning spoiling my pepper plants and whispering them sweet nothings. Today, I spoiled, well, me.

I sat in the sun with the window open. I smelled the not-quite-Spring air, and wondered what blustery weather it still had in store. I stoked the fire in the stove, and listened to the wind travel through the pines. For the first time in my life, I didn’t think. About anything. I reveled in the moment that stretched into an hour.

I came out of it when I realized I had to pee. But, it was nice, that hour. It’s amazing sometimes what can recharge you, and make you think about the things that you have to fill you, and not the things you have lost that threaten to sweep you away.

On The Menu Tonight

My favorite time of Winter is when seed catalogs begin pouring in.  Usually in late January, and early February, is the best time to curl up on the couch and dogear multiple pages of what the Spring will bring you.

I’ll admit, I’m the biggest garden junkie that doesn’t have a garden that exists.  Every year, I plan it out, fill out order forms, and never send them.  I always end up having to go back to work, meaning anything I plant would wither and die before I got home.  So, instead of luscious gardens, I have notebooks about them.  And what wonderful successes they will become on that one lucky Spring, when I get to stay at home.

Just thinking about it makes me a bit antsy, I’ll admit.  My seed catalogs haven’t yet found me at my new address, but I have faith that they are indeed coming.  It really makes me want to walk downstairs to my frigid kitchen, and warm it with dessert in the oven, and dinner in the crock-pot.

I tend to get really excited when the cooking urge hits me.  It’s something I really enjoy doing, and do in fact do every day.  It’s just different somehow, when I really feel the need to be mixing things together and making something that has the potential to be wonderful. 

Like my mother, I don’t usually measure anything or use recipes, I just make things up according to what I have in my cupboards at the time.  (I recently grew a window herb garden which vastly improves the meals in our home.  Everything’s better with a little taste of freshness to it.)  What I’m really getting at though, is when I explain what exactly I’m doing, it won’t be very conventional.  A handful of this, or a pinch of that, or what I think is a cup of something else in a pan.  Sorry I’m not more helpful, but, really, what’s life without a little variety. 

I like to start with dessert.  Really, who doesn’t?  I’m going to make a peach and huckleberry cobbler.  Which will be really easy, and gives me an excuse to turn the oven on.

Filling:

One Quart Jar of Peaches (That I hope you remembered to can last fall tsk tsk..)

Two handfuls of Huckleberries

¼ c. ish of sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice
Topping:

3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

2 Tablespoons softened butter (or margarine.  I’m old school, I like butter)

1 Tablespoon Cinnimon

1 teaspoon Cardamom (you don’t really need this, I just like it)

1 c. rolled oats
I prefer to heap the filling into an 8×8 greased baking pan (or any pan that is clean and at hand.  I just add or decrease filling size to match the pan). Mix up the topping in a separate bowl until the butter isn’t in chunks, more like the size of small peas, and put it on top of the filling.  I like to bake it at 350 degrees and I take it out when the fruit is bubbling a bit, and the topping is slightly brown and crispy.  Usually about 30 minutes, give or take quite a bit.  I live in a high elevation zone… it tends to wreak havoc on some people. 
For dinner I am going to slow cook a pork loin in the crock-pot, seeing as how the oven will be busy.   I tend to buy pork loins in bulk at Costco, so before I freeze it, I cut it into crock-pot size chunks.  Which obviously, will vary according to your slow cooker.  The real trick though, is what you cook it with.  I slice mine down the middle, and line it with a thin layer of apple butter.  I chop up an average size onion, and put half of it in the slit, and save half for the juices.  Use a few drops of lemon juice down the center, and then slice an apple (skinned or not, depends on your preference) and line the center as well.  I like to then, mince two cloves of garlic, and sauté it in a bit of butter, adding, about a tablespoon of basil and a few pinches of time and rosemary to the mixture.  Pour it over what is already in your split pork, and tie the whole thing up with kitchen string.  I like to use vegetable broth, or a bit of chicken broth (about a cup, or enough to fill an inch of your slow cooker) for the base.  You can just as easily use water, I just like chicken broth. [Editor's note: Apple cider maybe??]  Add the rest of the onion to it, and if you have it, a few sprigs of mint.  Fresh grind pepper over the entire mixture, put the lid on and cook.  How long, depends on how much meat you put in.  I usually cook until the apples and onions are tender, and make a test cut in the meat to make sure there isn’t any pink left.  (I haven’t died of E.coli yet).

      So, in a nutshell, there you have it, dinner with Kevin and Jess.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.
P.S.- don’t forget to make mashed potatoes, and your favorite vegetable.  Then you’ve got all the food groups in one fell swoop.