Come Sunlight - After Snopocolypse 2012

In the course of three days, beautiful Puget Sound went from that to this:

My power went out early this morning, but thankful has since come back on.  Some folks in the area have been without theirs for the last couple days.  We had a good dose of snow, then bombarded with a rain/ice mixture, and finally are looking out for urban flooding. 

And unlike the Midwest which anticipates snow like this, the lovely Pacific Northwest just does not have the infrastructure to deal with this type of storm. 

The worst part was knowing there are folks who have been out there trying to make the streets safe and the power is turned back on for shifts lasting over 36 hours.  I pray for those folks and their continued safety.

The second worst part, for a foodie at least, is not having electricity to my refrigerator and stove.  I could not even make toast this morning.  The horror!

The third worst part, is going to the store and seeing them throw out carts filled with food that went "bad" when the refrigerators lost power and the back up generators could not keep them running.  I was nearly in tears thinking about all the waste.

So to brighten the day, enjoy the musical styling of a fantastic Danish chap named Thomas Siem who I met during my travels over the summer.  He wrote this gorgeous song for our little group of Americans, and just hearing it cheers me up.  It's called "Come Sunlight" and Washington State could use some of that right now.


Seriously, this guy is going to be big one day, and you heard it here first folks.

Macaroon Coin Purse

I have been trapped inside my home for the last two days during the Pacific Northwest's version of Snopocolypse 2012 raged on outside.  First the unprecedented snow, followed by the freezing rain, and tomorrow we will battle urban flooding.

And here I thought the weather situation would improve once I moved out of the Midwest.

With all this extra time on my hands, I could not help but catch up on a few of my favorite blogs, most of them foodie, fitness, or crafty related.  It was when I saw a combination of the foodie and crafty that my heart started thumping a bit faster.

Macaroon coin purses!

How awesome are these?  The folks at Craft Passion designed them, and I think I am in love (instructions are available at the link).  I kind of want to make one to store my grandmother's engagement ring in.  Something that is sweet that I can use to pass it along to my niece one day.

Thanks to Jessica at How About Orange for finding this gem.

Butternut Squash in Cream and Cinnamon - Judith Jones

There is something about a well-written biography that entraps me. Even if the author does not reveal all of his secrets, the tone and direction it takes often reveals a great deal. While the snow has continued to fall in the Pacific Northwest (worthy of this Mid-westerner's nostalgia) I have thoroughly enjoyed discovering Judith Jones' The Tenth Muse.

Although not as famous as the chef and cook book authors she has edited, such as Julia Child, her journey is inspiring and filled with bits of humor.  Perhaps my favorite bits of the book are the nuggets of foodie wisdom woven through, such as the lesson she learned from  Madhur Jaffrey;

I was struck by how one lamb korma can taste so different from another lamb korma when many of the same ingredients are used, but it became clear that the difference came from how each ingredient was treated.

How true!

Even more lovely, is that Judith includes her favorite recipes from all of the cookbooks she edited at the end of the biography.  Inspired by her willingness to test and the boundaries of her own culinary abilities, I was inspired to pick up my pans once again and try out a seemingly simple dish: Butternut Squash in Cream and Cinnamon.

The recipe is truly simple and delightful.  After giving it a try I love that it is not overly sweet and understandably something that Judith, "...served the most frequently at dinner parties, and always for Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts, over the years.  Everyone seems to love it--and it couldn't be simpler, particularly after the food processor came along to make the grating a snap."

The Shopping List:

• 1 large butternut squash (weighing in at about 2 lbs)
• a dash of salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup heavy cream

The Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Cut the squash into half and remove the stem and seeds.  Use a vegetable peeler to remove the outer skin (all this is going into my kitchen compost bin).  Grate the squash using the coarse holes of a grating blade on a food processor.  Spread about half of this grated squash in a 9x9 inch baking dish.  Sprinkle some salt on top, and sprinkle about half a teaspoon of cinnamon on top as well.

Add in the remaining squash on top and repeat adding salt and cinnamon.  Pour the heavy cream over top of the squash, making sure to distribute it evenly.  Bake covered for 40 minutes, then uncover and bake an additional 10 to 15 so it becomes golden on top and the squash becomes tender.

This is something I am truly enjoying as the snow continues to cover the Pacific Northwest!