Snowy Cabin Cookbook Works All Year!

(Gerry Furth-Sides) Good news: The Snowy Cabin Cookbook is still in season! For us that lasted into April (my dad’s birthday) and we always spent it skiing in the rocky mountains. These days the extreme urban weather patterns means March temps that dip down into the low 40’s in LA.  

Co-authors, Marnie Hanel and Jen Stevenson, are as entertaining as the old SNL pair of Delicious Dining. he Delicious Dish sketch, about an NPR show hosted by Margaret Jo McCollen (Ana Gasteyer) and co-hosted by Teri Rialto (Molly Shannon) is hilarious. Two women host a show in deadpan fashion, where they discuss eating and making food and are amused easily by simple puns.

This is not at all to say that the IACP Award–winning duo is anything but serious. Their presentations are playful. The work is serious. The techniques and recipes work. Artist Monica Dorazewski painted the hearty, appealing dishes in watercolor.

The Snowy Cabin Cookbook has interesting and easy-to-prepare themed menus. The list ranges from snacks to pass the time during “hibernation” and a snowed-in dinner party to a hearty breakfast before a long day of skiing, sledding, or ice-skating.  

Soups such as Lemony Lentil Soup and Off-Piste Orangettes drew us in as soon as we opened the book. But once we saw the authors demonstrating how to carve up a squash on their lively video, it was Roasted Kabocha Squash Soup for us.

We also tried The Snowy Cabin Cookbook recipe for delicious Roasted Kabocha Squash Soup in a couple of variations. Melissa’s Produce Organic Butternut Squash (Courge Musgee) was also delicious and has a slightly deeper flavor. Squash is so versatile and as a root vegetable stays usable for a long time.

Cocktails and desserts are included in the book, such as Blood Orange Negroni alongside Almond Tangerine Trifle. And there are fun and games that you would expect in such a book

The endlessly creative authors of The Snowy Cabin Cookbook don’t disappoint when it comes to an entertaining book for bedside or fireplace reading. They offer 99 Ways to Use a Mug (think sleigh valet tip jar), a flowchart on how to find the right winter lodging for anyone, and tips on how to build a better snowperson—and when the cabin fever sets in, readers can turn to Reindeer Games for entertaining ways to pass the time. 

Chapters and Recipes include:

Slope Snacks: Whip up Foolproof Fondue; Five-Spiced Candied Cahews; Sambal Spiced Chicken Wings with Yuzu Yogurt Dip; Sausage Rolls with Sultana-Pear Chutney

Sides and Salads: Pair your favorite roast or hearty veggies with Carrot Kohlrabi Slaw with Ginger-Sesame Dressing; Warm Cabbage and Butternut Squash Salad; Coal-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Whisky Butter

Mains : Go All out with Root Vegetable, Red Chard, Rosemary Galette; One Pan Sausages with Roasted Grapes and Shallots; Slow-Roasted Salmon with Burst Tomatoes and Broccolini

Desserts: End on a sweet note with PBJ Skillet Brownie Sunday; Calvados Apple Cake with Cinnamon Crème Fraiche; or six sweets made from Freshly Fallen Snow

Fortifications: Toast to the season with a Cranberry Margarita; Grapefruit Rosemary Spritzer; Blood Orange Negroni

Morning Meal: Start your day right with Pumpkin Ginger Waffles with Cider Syrup; Buckwheat Thyme Biscuits with Shitake Gravy; Corn Cakes with Brown Sugar-Blueberry compote
Plus six themed dinner party ideas complete with full menus and dessert and cocktails pairings

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:Marnie Hanel is the coauthor of The Snowy Cabin Cookbook; Summer: A Cookbook; The Campout Cookbook; and The Picnic, winner of the 2016 IACP Award for Best General Cookbook. Hanel is a journalist who writes about the wild, wonderful way we live. Her essays and articles have been published by The New York Times Magazine, Food & Wine, and Vanity Fair. She lives in Portland, Oregon.Jen Stevenson is the coauthor of The Snowy Cabin Cookbook; Summer: A Cookbook; The Campout Cookbook; and The Picnic, winner of the 2016 IACP Award for Best General Cookbook. Stevenson eats and tells on her Portland food blog, Under the Table with Jen, and is the author of Portland’s 100 Best Places to Stuff Your Faces. She lives in Portland, Oregon.