I feel like we've been living in another century - or at least partly! - these past two weeks. Cooking on a woodstove, doing laundry in a wringer-washer, hand-cranked ice cream, hand-pressed apple cider... The other day, the guys cut the neutral line in the main electric circuit that went through our kitchen, and it didn't faze us a bit! We shut off the lights, the fridge grumbled and revved, and our lovely wood stove went right on cooking supper without a blink.
I love, really really love, (as well as thoroughly enjoy) cooking on a woodstove. Of course, it's very handy to have an oven thermometer - I wouldn't want to try it without. I didn't try making bread in it, but I did bake muffins and they turned out great. I can't really say I've done all that much personal cooking on it - though I made sausage gravy for breakfast - because most of the cooking has been someone else's plan, and I've just watched the fire and stirred and chopped as needed. But I did make both plum and chokecherry syrup, and applesauce all myself. (That makes it sound like I did no cooking either - that's not right...) Anyways, suffice it to say, I likes the wood stove. It's great fun, as well as warm and cozy, (ok, so I don't really want to try using it mid-summer either!)
AND, I think that Anna and I can justly claim to be the first ever to make caramel mocha macchiatos on a woodstove. :D Did I forget to mention I made Dorlene's caramel sauce? Or mostly did - it somehow ended up being thinner than hers. I don't know what I did wrong, Dorlene. It tasted good though! And ended up being just perfect for froofy coffee drinks. We made extra strong coffee, stirred hot cocoa mix into it, and heated the milk to steaming on the stovetop. Here's the recipe: 1 squirt of Hershey's chocolate syrup. 3 tsps of caramel sauce. Pour coffee in to about 2/3 full. Froth steamed milk in a 1 cup glass measuring cup with a teeny-tiny battery run frother, and fill the rest of the cup. Stir around a bit and serve. We got rave reviews.
Every day, I've thought of things that would be fun to post - but every night, I am too tired to type anything at all. Or think, for that matter. And the thinking's the difficult part. So... uh... I can't remember the best bits.
There's a bear that frequents the plum orchard.
Dan came flying out in his snazzy red helicopter (over which I drooled and drooled).
We slept outside several nights. It was gorgeous - I grudged having to go to sleep for wanting to watch the stars. I saw several brief shooting stars, and one that went across nearly half the sky.
Oh! And if you're wondering - we picked the apples and plums and chokecherries ourselves. :)
Now it's nearly done. Tomorrow, everyone who hasn't already left will be gone. And I should be packing - so this is nearly done too.
4 comments:
wowee..sounds like fun!...oh and work, too! thanks for the update!
OK, wait a minute! YOU made a coffee drink? And enjoyed doing so? Did you drink it? WOW! I never thought I'd see the day when you were so excited over anything coffee...heehee! Sounds like you've had quite the experience. Wood stoves, wringer washers, fruit pickin'...
I DID! No, I didn't drink any of it, don't be silly. ;) But I had a blast making it. (Now to be entirely and completely honest - without Anna's help and experience and basic coffee-ness, it would never have happened.)
Since Leilani didn't try one...I'll add this: they were delicious. Highly recommended :) Upon further research I've learned that a macchiato 'purist' would probably not add chocolate. But it was a delightful addition. Guess it'd be a caramel mocha macchiato?!
And for not being interested in the taste of coffee one tiny bit, Leilani sure did enjoy it! She's a dandy chef. I think she failed to mention that she also made some apple pies in the woodstove..?!
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