My daughter, her husband and my grandson were the first visitors
to my cabin this season. They had a good time, but the place certainly isn’t
child safe, she told us, and it’s become infested with mice.
On the first score the cabin is a cabin in an old school sense
of the term – primitive. It’s not a rustic second home, nor a summer cottage.
It’s a nottage, a term coined by an old friend, who had a
nice piece property on Lake Michigan not far from Milwaukee. On it rather than
building a second home, he built a small cabin with an enclosed sleeping room
and a screened in porch. The footprint of this modest building might have been
12’ X 16’. There was an outhouse. He, his wife and two children happily camped
there for years on summer weekends.
He called it a nottage as in not a cottage. I took my cabin
building from his cue. When I applied for a building permit, I said it would be
a shelter for weekend camping.
Not an Entirely Safe Place
but One of Enchantment
Mine is a place that is hard to make perfectly safe for
children. It’s heated with a woodstove. Lighting is from various kerosene and
propane lamps. The sanitary facility is an outhouse. My two-year-old grandson
found the little wood splitting hatchet intriguing and began, I’m sure,
learning that some things are hot, some things are sharp, and the world is a
dangerous place. He was thrilled.
The cabin sits on about 18 acres along the Kickapoo River,
half woodland and half flood plain. The Driftless Area hills steeply rise more
than 500 feet above the river valley, mountains in a two-year-old’s eyes. And
better from a little boy’s eyes, these mountains rise across the road from my
cabin. A steep climb from there leads to the Turkey Ridge Orchard above. That
orchard is an organic, remnant old “hippy” like commune affair – interesting.
A quarter of a mile both north and south of my cabin, my
neighbors keep pastures populated with either horses or cattle. These animals
are not children’s book mythical creatures, but are live, huge and up close.
The neighs and moos are real and our expression of them is not even a close
approximation. They’re loud, much louder than the children’s books let on.
It’s a place of birds, a lot of birds and some of them are
huge – turkeys, sandhill cranes and eagles.
From my grandson, Sam’s point of view the cabin is in a land
of enchantment.
I told my daughter, “Well yes there are certain child hazards.
You just have to keep a diligent eye on him. That’s what parents are for, after
all.”
An Invasion of Mice
and the Mouse Warden
As for the mice, her assessment of an infestation was
something of a hysterical overstatement. Nevertheless, in a country cabin one
doesn’t have a mouse. It’s mice in the plural and a tiered abatement strategy
is called for. Tier one turned out to be
my bird dog.
She’s twelve, can’t hear and long romps through thick brush
in search of upland birds no longer interested her much. But she has found this
mousing business is an agreeable part time job for a mostly retired bird dog.
She ferreted out a mouse nest in large container of building
fasteners tucked under the cabin’s kitchen counter. Tail wagging and trembling
with excitement, she says they’re in here boss. I pulled the tub out, removed
the lid and she went to work, nabbing and killing seven of the eight mice
hunkered down in there. She is now the cabin and grounds mouse warden.
For years she has had a habit of pouncing on her dog biscuits
and throwing them in the air only to pounce on them again. Now I know what that
dog behavior is all about -- mousing.
The dog is only part of the solution. Part two is mouse repellent
and d-Con. I hope the mice will find being outdoors more attractive than lounging
in my cabin. There is nothing in there for them to eat or drink. Finally, I
know where they are getting in. Next time when we’re there, and this is tier
three, I’ll seal those entry points and then set conventional traps to control
any residual problems.
Such are the headaches of even a simple cabin and there are
others, but the pleasures far exceed them. One of those is the seasonal
varieties of food available in local farmer’s markets and roadside stands, and
the outstanding beef and pork for sale at the local butcher shops and meat lockers.
The Season of
Mushrooms
The Muscoda (oddly pronounced Muscadee) Morel Mushroom Festival
going on when we were their.. We went Sunday afternoon this year, as it was
winding down. There were only a few mushroom stands when we arrived. The late
and cold spring mostly ruined the three week morel season. The harvest was pitiful.
When we were leaving we bought the last half pound bag from the last vendor.
Half of these I used for a morel, butter and garlic sauce
for the flank steak we grilled that evening. The balance went into a morel frittata
we had the next day. It was delicious.
Frittatas: A Newly Found
Culinary Delight
Frittatas are as much about cooking scrambled eggs, a
method, as they are about a specific dish. Marcella Hazan devotes nearly ten
pages in Essentials of Classic Italian
Cooking on frittatas with ten recipes. I used a variation on her Frittata
with Pasta recipe. Like an omelet, any number of ingredients can go into making
it. Unlike an omelet, this can include pasta with a simple parmesan cheese and
butter sauce. I found the idea, of fried spaghetti with eggs, intriguing –
beyond the bounds of my natural culinary leanings. But, it certainly seemed
like ideal platform to highlight my beautiful morel mushrooms.
Frittatas because of endless variation can fit into variety
of settings, from breakfast to an appetizer to the centerpiece of a main
dinnertime meal. Hazan writes:
“Frittatas taste equally good when hot, warm or at room
temperature. They are at their least appealing cold out of the refrigerator.
When cut into pie-like wedges, a frittata or an assortment of them will enrich
an antipasto platter, make a very nice sandwich, travel beautifully to any picnic,
or become a welcome addition to any buffet table.”
A Morel Mushroom Frittata
This frittata is a centerpiece for a simple but delicious
main meal, to be served alone for two or with a salad and a little garlic bread
for four. I used my morel mushrooms, but shitake mushrooms would work equally
well.
For this you will need:
4 eggs
3 strips of bacon diced and fried
3 or 4 tablespoons of butter
½ of large bell pepper diced
¼ pound of sliced mushroom without
stems, sliced into strips
¼ pound of raw spaghetti
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
Dice and brown the bacon. While the bacon is browning bring
a quart pot of water to a boil, dice the pepper, and slice the mushrooms into
strips. Preheat the oven to 350o.
When the bacon is browned, sauté the mushrooms and diced
pepper in one to one and one-half tablespoons of butter. When the water begins
to boil add the spaghetti and boil to a firm al dente (it will cook some more
with the eggs). Meanwhile beat the eggs.
When the pasta is cooked and drained, while still hot, add a
tablespoon of butter and the parmesan cheese. Toss thoroughly then add bacon,
mushrooms, peppers and eggs. Again mix thoroughly.
Over medium to medium high heat, melt one to one and
one-half tablespoons of butter in a 10” sauté pan until it bubbles. Before it
begins to brown add the egg mixture. When it sets, generously grate pepper on
it and continue to cook on the stovetop until the bottom begins to brown, then
transfer to the oven and bake for about 10 minutes until the top firmly sets.
This recipe might seem like a whirlwind of activity, but it
can be pulled off in twenty-five or thirty minutes of only moderate concentration.
Slice into wedges, serve and enjoy.
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