Snow Cuisine Includes Moose, Deer, Salmon, and Jam Bars!
So, what do you cook when the snow hits hard in your region? Seattle is getting its first storm of the season. Schools were closed yesterday. They are closed again today. Roads are icy. The snow is falling right now. Temperatures are chilly. The wind is picking up.
Yesterday, I opted to stock up on some basics, such as eggs, milk, bread. I also hauled out my large Le Creuset Dutch oven and cranked out a large pot of beef and carrot stew. Served with mashed potatoes last night, it got a thumbs up from the crowd.
When I lived in Anchorage a few years ago, I often baked during a snowstorm...we had lots of storms that winter so I baked a lot. I started making my Jumbleberry Jam Bars back then. And, I often had hot cocoa and Abby Mandel's food processor millet cookies ready for the kids in the afternoon. In Alaska, the kids go to school whether there is snow or not. So, having homemade baked goods for the children after they trudged through the snow was always fun.
While watching the events unfold in Cordova this month, I began to wonder what everyone was cooking and baking up there. Cordova is a small remote town. There are very few restaurants and grocery stores. Homecooking is alive and well in this small town, so I began to think about how the residents were managing to shovel that much snow and also feed their families.The snow situation got so bad that the National Guard was called in to assist with snow removal.
Beth Poole of Copper River Marketing told me that everyone was cooking and eating well. Even with the crisis at hand, homecooking prevailed. I honestly don't know how they managed to do it. Impromptu menus included Moose Sirloin Roast, Deer Stew, Coho Salmon and Eggplant Curry, Homemade Pizzas, and Roasted Red Pepper Soup. Michele Buckhorn, a PhD Fish Ecologist with the Prince William Sound Science Center, also contacted me. She also confirmed that she, too, was cooking at home, cranking out pork carnitas and savory beef burgers.
So, what do you cook or bake when the snow begins to mound outside your door? For the latest video on the snow removal in Cordova, check this out!
Photo courtesy of Beth Poole
--Melissa A. Trainer
Richard Jeffery on January 19, 2012 at 03:11 AM
Having never been in snow it looks great we bake when it is hot slow rotated meals especially now as it is summer it was 40c the other day and I set up some sloe cooked dishes after we did pizzas in the wood fired oven ... I would love to see what you are going through is it open to tourists?