QUICK UPDATE: On the Popcorn Scale, weather that’s good for munching popcorn is a 10, and weather that’s suitable for non-popcorn pleasures – let’s say opening one gate valve and closing another, or hosing down a sap tank, or trotting up and down stairs to and from the sap shed to monitor the sap run… Read More
Maple-Miso-Loaf-Cake
On Monday, the day of the blizzard, Maple Trout Lilli wrote: I keep my eye out all year long for maple recipes that sound, well not just okay, but really, really, good. I came across this recipe from Dorie Greenspan just the other day and decided I’d give it a go. Finding sweet inspiration in… Read More
A Spring Chicken
Yesterday felt like spring. Master Boiler Christian discarded his hat and hoodie and worked in a T-shirt. Flies swirled around the syrup jugs on the picnic table. The entire sugarhouse took on a new smell, and for the first time the grade dropped from Fancy/Golden to Amber the color of the glaze on Maple Trout… Read More
Twice Roasted Carrots
Regardless the time of day a neighbor or friend walks into the sugarhouse and sets down a loaf of bread, a bag of chips, or a quiche, the crew circles at once to snack and snack again. On Tuesday mid-afternoon the surprise snack was a bowl of multi-colored carrots. EEFFSHH, they were gone. We dine… Read More
Back to Basics — It’s Just Bread… and Butter
It’s a delight to welcome Food Correspondent Maple Trout Lilli back for the 2023 sugar season on this morning when sky and earth merge in the thick white of falling snow – the kind “that stays on my nose and eyelashes” – and it feels just right to stay at home and bake bread, venturing… Read More
Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake
Cake is in the air. If ever there was a weekend for cake, this is it. I’m writing this post indoors wearing my thickest fleece jacket and a wool hat. Yesterday’s snow lingers; my daffodils huddle by the sap shed, still waiting to blossom. It’s May 10th. “Where there is cake, there is hope, and… Read More
Let’s Bake a Cake
Maple Trout Lilli writes: PARSNIP CAKE WITH MAPLE MASCARPONE CREAM “Where there is cake, there is hope, and there is always cake.” – Dean Koontz I was speaking with my sister the other day about the state of our world and she said “make a cake – you’ll feel better”…. So I pulled out my… Read More
Maple Trout LIlli’s Thai Curry Soup
Our beloved food correspondent Maple Trout Lilli is back! She nourished the crew on a recent boiling day with this fine soup. I couldn’t taste the maple but I could taste the difference. She writes: CUSTOM THAI CURRY SOUP WITH A hint OF MAPLE A light but warming soup for when it’s still light at… Read More
Throwback Thursday Recipe
While the crew fills the woodshed and the trout lilies thrust into bloom on the forest floor, our food correspondent Maple Trout Lilli offers her Pièce de Resistance du Printemps 2019. She writes: Spring is here, the grass is greening up and our wonderful local farmers up the road have been harvesting their spinach that… Read More
Maple Whiskey Pudding Cake – oh my is it good
Maple Trout Lilli writes: MAPLE WHISKEY PUDDING CAKES These wonderful desserts bake up with a gooey sauce beneath a layer of rich, tender cake. There are a few steps involved, but the result is so worth the 20 minutes of prep. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream. Do not stir the maple-whiskey… Read More
The Nebraska Knoll Blog 