Snowed In with Food and Blacksmiths!

What do you do when you're snowed in for the weekend with two blacksmiths? .....eat of course! 

On Saturday Zach and I, and our two friends, Nate and Stacey went to a blacksmith demonstration in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The forecast predicted lots and lots of snow, but they're usually wrong so we decided to chance it.

The blacksmith meeting was really cool!

The host, Scott Lankton of Lankton Metal Design demonstrated a railing technique, and how to forge with silica bronze.

His shop was amazing, (as most blacksmith shops are) full of nooks and crannies, project ideas, tools, metal stuff, several forges and 3 Nazel power hammers.

Zach got to try out the 2 B Nazel

The snow never let up all the while we were at the meeting, and by the time we were ready to leave, we had about 8 inches.

We tossed around the idea of stopping at a restaurant for a bite to eat, but we were afraid to be out in the storm any longer than we had to. So we decided to make a quick stop at the grocery store and have diner at home.

Now, when Stacey and I are presented with the opportunity to make dinner together, we take it seriously. We both love to be in the kitchen, and she is an excellent cook! Check out her blog at Investing in a Delicious Tomorrow.

One recipe that her and Nate enjoy is spaetzle, but it's a tedious recipe without a spaetzle press. Stacey and I thought between the two of us, we could knock it out.

Spaetzle is a long, thin German dumpling, traditionally served in a gravy with breaded pork cutlet. The spaetzle dough is very sticky and is formed in a press and squeezed immediately into boiling broth. Neither of us have a press so we had to make the spaetzle by hand.

Stacey's recipe was delicious!!! We also made breaded porkchops and green bean casserole.

While dinner was cooking Nate, Zach and Oliver shoveled and salted the drive, cut paths to the barn and coop, took care of the animals and made a fire in the wood burning furnace. By the time they came in, dinner was almost done. 

Nate and Stacey decided that it was too dangerous to venture out so they stayed the night.

That night, I needed to make two pecan pies for Zach's dad's birthday party the next day. So Stacey helped. I wanted to try the Miss Kay's Recipe for Honey Pecan Pie. We decided to make one with honey and one with maple syrup. Both were delicious, and recipes are coming soon!

The next morning we woke to a winter wonderland. Zach's grandpa read that our area received 16 inches of snow.

I feel like our yard had more like 12-14, but still, it was a lot.

That morning we made biscuits and gravy.

Stacey makes the most amazing biscuits I've ever had.

Just look at those babies! They're beautiful...flaky and buttery!!!

 Served with Iron Oak Farm honey.

We made the sausage gravy with our own homemade sausage, recipe here.  
And fried potatoes.

While the weather took us by surprise, it made for a fun and delicious weekend!