Don't you just love those hometown cookbooks?

I mentioned that I still have winter projects to finish. Happily, one of my winter projects that actually is completed is our currently-being-published church cookbook called First Lutheran Favorites.  

Like most little churches, we are always looking for fundraising ideas and opportunities.  So last fall those in charge began collecting recipes from church and community people.  Our goal was to have them ready by the Lutefisk Dinner back in December.  When that didn't happen, we made our next goal this coming May for the start of our weekly Saturday Markets...and I think we're going to make it!

Here are a couple of proof copies--front and back covers.  I put the recipe for Egg Coffee on the back cover.  That was a tradition in years past to make the coffee in the big enamel coffee pots using coffee grounds mixed with an egg...sometimes using the eggshells, too!

We wanted to be sure to include recipes from our Swedish heritage, so there is a whole chapter with favorites such as lefse, potato sausage, limpa rye bread, sylte, fruitsoup, and more.  I went to our town museum and found some old pictures of the church through the years.  And to add to the historical interest, we were lucky to receive a document from the family of one of the older women from the church, born in Port Wing in 1913, with a collection of her memories of the early days in Port Wing.  So some of her memories are interspersed through out the cookbook.

We decided to go the self-publishing route with this cookbook rather than a regular printing company.  Several people had told me about the website called lulu.com, and it seems to be working out very well.  I think I have finally done the last round of proofreading and editing, and now I have just put in our first order of 30 books.  I started with just 30 because that was the first price break, and I don't trust that all of the little picky errors are fixed.  It brings out the OCD in me!

I was involved in one other cookbook project back in my past in another church.  We had all kinds of problems printing that one--the printer left out pages, transposed pages - it was a nightmare.  I said never again to doing another cookbook.  Hopefully this one will have better results! (knock, knock)

Posting #200 or Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Wow, I didn't know it was blog post #200, but how would I know since I've only looked at my blog admin page 4 or 5 times in the last year!  It's not that I haven't thought about it; I just didn't think I had anything to say.  So, coulda, woulda, shoulda!

But now spring is springing so that can only be good news.  And do you know about barn quilts?  Well, our resident quilter Leann heard about barn quilts and decided we needed one.  A barn quilt is a quilt square painted onto a square piece of lumber and attached to a barn.  Oh wait...we don't have a barn anymore.  So we put it--actually WE didn't put it - a friend helped us put it--on the side of our maple sugar shed.  Fun!

And after a relatively mild winter, some of our flowers are popping up, if the deer don't get to them first.  We planted a bunch of daffodils last fall with the understanding that deer don't like them like they do tulips.  Wrong!  The deer don't seem to have the same understanding.  So we have some crocuses and some still-undisturbed daffodils.  Hang in there little pretties!

And the rhubarb and garlic are coming up again.  Last year we could have sold all kinds of rhubarb at our Saturday Market so Leann is already planning on adding more plants to our rhubarb patch.  For you who aren't fans of rhubarb, it may be surprising that it was a big seller!

And our garlic is coming up!  This is already a 100% improvement from last year when we had a harvest of about 10%.  We moved them to a different garden bed so we'll see what this year brings.

So spring is here, and it's great, but I still have winter projects to finish!  And I have Garrison Keillor in my head saying that with the mild winter, we haven't suffered enough yet.  Must be the Lutheran in me

Valentine's Day at the Bear Paw Cafe

Last July we were all pleased to see that our little restaurant in town was opening up again.   Under new management it is now called the Bear Paw Cafe, and it's become such an important addition to our town.  

They began with a breakfast and lunch menu, but have since began offering some daily specials, including chicken dinner on Sundays!  Monday mornings at the Bear Paw are especially busy, complete with a cribbage game in the corner.

Today Valentine's Day provided a reason to add something special to the usual fare--a choice of shrimp or prime rib, along with a salad, smashed baby red potatoes, a sparkling drink (no alcohol at the Bear Paw), and a perfect ending with a brownie, ice cream and fancy cookie.  And...only eating half of it gave me leftovers for tomorrow.  It was delicious. We hear they may decide to do this once a month!  (Shrimp was good, too.)

I'm not always a fan of posting pictures of meals;  sometimes they really don't look that great.  But they did such a great job today and I wanted to share.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The seasons are a-changin'

September 29, 2015

Early this evening I went outside for something and realized that it was really pretty cold outside.  This afternoon we had gathered up all of the old blankets and sheets we use to cover plants, but I really didn't think we'd need them.  It's been so nice!  

Since we've had SO many tomatoes and cucumbers this fall, we decided whether we really needed to cover plants or to just let them go--a hard thing for me to do.  So first I took some last pictures:

These flowers were great all summer, and those spikes just went crazy!

Cucumbers and some crowded out carrots on the left, and some really tired tomatoes on the right.  I covered the cucumbers.  Just couldn't let them go just yet!

[13February2016 Update:  I see I never clicked "Publish" on this post last fall.  Better late than never.]