Cabin Baking: Cheddar Cheese Sourdough Biscuits

I refreshed my sourdough starter and decided to try a new recipe, Cheddar Cheese Sourdough Biscuits. These biscuits combine sourdough starter, baking powder, and baking soda as leavening agents.  The result is denser than biscuits made only with baking powder, but the tang of the sourdough makes them a tasty treat with a soup, salad, or chili dinner.

I found this recipe in my favourite sourdough recipe book, Sourdough Cookery by Rita Davenport.

Cheddar Cheese Sourdough Biscuits

1 cup wheat flour
2 1/2 teaspoons making powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon herbs
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
1/4 cup margarine

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in margarine until the mixture looks like fine crumbs.

1 cup sourdough starter
Extra milk as needed

Stir in starter. Add milk (if needed) until dough leaves the side of bowl (it will be sticky)

Stir in 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese.

Drop biscuits by the spoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Let rise for 15 minutes in a warm place. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan quickly. Serve warm with butter.

Do you have any favourite sourdough recipes you would like to share? -- Margy

Titan Missile Musuem

As Canadians are oft to do, we follow the geese south for the winter. When temps get cold and skies are gray for days on end, we hunger for the sun. Wayne and I've made our way to Tucson, Arizona. In addition to some great USC Women's Basketball Games, we visited the Titan Missile Museum in nearby Sahuarita.

Underground command center.

The tour includes a video presentation about the Titan II Missile program that lasted during the height of the Cold War.

Double locked launch codes and keys.

The museum guides (some of whom worked in the silos during their military careers), take you down into the missile complex underground. You follow the same entry as officers and enlisted men from years past. The tour is handicapped accessible using the former supply elevator.

Cableway between the command center and missile silo.

The first stop is the underground command center. There the guide leads you through a simulated launch, explaining what life was life below ground during a standard 24-hour tour.

Looking up at the nosecone where the nuclear warhead would be housed.

A walk through the cableway tube leads to the silo. You see the Titan II missile as it would have looked, ready to go, armed with a nuclear warhead. Of course, that part has been removed.

Looking down into the 150 foot deep silo.

I grew up in the 50s and 60s, experienced the Cuban Missile Crisis, and all the drop and cover drills in school. Now with worldwide tensions somewhat lessened, nuclear arsenals have decreased. But they're still there, acting as deterrents. I pray that works. The alternative is too horrible to imagine.

Looking down from above through the open retractable silo door.

Here is a YouTube video by Wayne Devin about the museum tour.

If you ever get to Tucson, it's only about a thirty minute drive south. It's a piece of history that needs to be remembered.  Want to know more? Try Command and Control by Eric Schlosser and Titan II by David Stumpf. Both authors researched their books in the archives of the Titan Missile Museum. -- Margy

Olsen's Landing

On sunny days up the lake, we like to explore. In several places there are logging docks. During off hours, you can use them to access shore.


Last week we headed up to Olsen's Landing. In the early 1900's, families who lived in the remote Olsen Valley would bring garden vegetables down to Powell Lake. From here, they would take them by boat to Powell River for sale.


Today, the landing is used by logging companies to extract logs and cedar shake blocks to transport down the lake to Block Bay.


We've had minimal snow so far, but the rising Coast Range has a small base. See the pointed peak on the left? It's called Beartooth Mountain.  Have dinner at the Shinglemill Pub at the south end of Powell Lake and get a piece of Max Pagani's Beartooth Pie. It's a delectable ice cream pie big enough and tall enough for two to share. -- Margy

Frost Beards

Several years ago, Wayne and I discovered an unusual phenomenon while on a quad ride. It's called frost beard or flowers. In our area, it's most often seen on fallen alder trees and branches.

The frost formations occur in freezing weather before the ground is frozen. Moisture trapped under the bark or rising in the stem expands, causing long, thin cracks to form.


Water is then drawn through these cracks and freezes. As the process continues, it pushes thin ice strands further from the stem, causing the beard or flower appearance to form. Here's an interesting video by Chris Karrow on YouTube of how frost flowers and beards are formed. Have you ever seen a frost beard or flower? -- Margy

Farther Up the Lake

Wayne and I took our Hewescraft farther up the lake (now you know where the book title comes from) last week. At our cabin, the sun sets behind the trees at 11:30 am. Yet, the sun was shining bright out beyond the narrows.

Out on the lake, there was still plenty of "warm" sunshine to enjoy. We headed to the dock at Olsen's Landing to take a short hike up the logging road. At the bridge over Olsen Creek, we could see some of the the results of recent winter rains heading for Powell Lake.

We sure need it! The lake is the lowest we've seen for any January. -- Margy

Back Where You Belong

At the cabin, we monitor the weather,.  We keep a log so we can compare month to month and year to year. This December we had about 10 centemetres (4 inches) of rain.  That's about half of what we got last year.  For this time of year, the lake level is way down!

When we got home, we discovered the large floating log that forms the boundary of our "swimming pool" between the cabin and the granite cliff had gone aground. Wayne got busy with a crowbar to nudge it back in place.

It helps keep floating wood and leaves out of the "pool." Plus, if it got any more stranded on shore, it would have to stay in place until enough rain came to float it on its own. But now it is where it belongs, floating in the water and on the job. -- Margy

Rain Times Two

One of the things I love about living at the float cabin is weather watching. This time of year we get lots of rain, so that's a no brainer.

One thing I've never noticed before is two types of rain happening at the same time. I was watching out our sliding glass door and saw a fine mist hitting the water beyond our deck. At the same time, huge drops were falling and making large rings on the water's surface. Rain times two.

It was hard to capture the two types of rain in a photograph. The fine misty rain was coming from a low hanging layer of stratus clouds. This is because the moisture falls as soon as it forms into droplets int he clouds. The large drops that made giant rings were from higher level cumulus clouds. They grow in size because they are carried in updrafts through the towering clouds until they become too heavy and fall. If I didn't live facing a watery front yard I might never have noticed this unusual event. -- Margy