Cook County Fall/Winter Festival Guide

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A boarder catches air during Jib & Jam at Lutsen Mountains.

“Don’t hibernate–celebrate!” If you ask me, that should be the winter motto of Cook County.

Not only are we Minnesota’s winter playground, what with Lutsen Mountains, 120 inches of snow annually, and hundreds of miles of snowshoe, snowmobile and cross-country ski trails, we also keep things hopping all season long with festivals to suit every interest.
Art? Check. Family fun? Check. Adventure? Check. Music? Double check.
But don’t take my word for it. Here are some of the big events we’ve got in store this winter:
A North Shore Holiday
Countywide
Nov. 16-Dec. 25
Thanksgiving Festival
Lutsen Mountains
Nov. 21-24
Jib & Jam: Rail Jam
Lutsen Mountains
Dec. 1
Snowball Music & Ski Festival
Lutsen Mountains
Jan. 9-12, 2013

Winter Arts Festival
Grand Marais
Jan. 26-Feb. 1, 2013

Winter Tracks Festival
Countywide
Feb. 1-10, 2013

Recipe: Hint o’ Maple Hot Chocolate

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Recipe inspired by TasteofHome.com

Cook County boasts two award-winning maple syrup producers, Caribou Cream (pictured) and Wild Country.

For when you want a tummy-warming dessert with a north woods twist, here’s a recipe for homemade hot chocolate kissed with maple. Serves 2.

What you need

  • 1/8 cup sugar
  • 1/2 Tbsp cocoa
  • teeny tiny bit of salt
  • 1/8 cup hot water
  • 1/2 Tbsp butter or coconut oil
  • 2 cups milk or non-dairy milk such as soy, almond or soy milk
  • 1 Tbsp pure maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 6 large marshmallows

How to make hint o’ maple hot chocolate

Mix sugar, cocoa and a microscopic amount of salt in a saucepan, then add water and butter. Heat to a boil. Add milk, maple syrup, vanilla, and four of the marshmallows. Heat, stirring, until marshmallows melt and desired hotness is attained. (I like my cocoa scalding-hot, while others prefer it warm.) Pour into two mugs and plop a marshmallow on top.

 

Fall Bucket List #5: Peer into the Devil’s Kettle

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The word “spooky” is not typically used in conjunction with the word “waterfall.” But then, Devil’s Kettle Falls in Judge C.R. Magney State Park isn’t your typical waterfall.

Half of the river–the thick flow on the right–spills over another drop into a pool and then continues downstream. But the other half…

Look closely at the smaller, topmost flow in the photo below. See how the water appears to be pouring into a hole? The water is pouring into a hole, and nobody knows where it goes. 

Efforts have been made to locate the outlet, of course, with Ping-Pong balls and dye traces, but these efforts were unsuccessful. No wonder Devil’s Kettle Falls merits its own entry on AtlasObscura.com.

How to see the Devil’s Kettle
Reaching Devil’s Kettle Falls involves a scenic 2.5 mile hike (round-trip) with one fiendish set of stairs. The park offers other hikes, too, plus access to the Superior Hiking Trail. For the bird-minded visitor, here’s a printable bird checklist for Judge C.R. Magney State Park.

You can take a virtual peek into the Devil’s Kettle (and the rest of the park) courtesy of the Minnesota DNR.

Fun fact: The park was named for Judge Clarence R. Magney, who as mayor of Duluth and as an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court helped establish nearly a dozen of Minnesota’s state parks. He famously said, “Our state parks are everyman’s country estate.”


Fall Bucket List #6: Become a Know-It-Owl

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Releasing a northern saw-whet after banding. Photo courtesy of Kate Nicoletti.

Cook County is home to 5,218 humans, 4,230 moose, and 8 species of owl:

What does an owl sound like?
Different species have different calls. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has click-and-listen pages for many owl species. Start with the boreal owl and the northern saw-whet owl (which has been described as sounding “like a truck backing up”).
Brush up on your knowledge of these mysterious night birds, some of which migrate in the fall and winter, and you just might be lucky enough to hear or see one. Bundle up one clear night, find a dark and wooded area, and listen. You can stargaze and look for northern lights at the same time!

 

Fall Bucket List #7: Listen to Live Music

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Hear that? That’s the sound of live music–from local artists and up-and-coming Twin Cities bands to national acts, from classical to bluegrass to cutting-edge rock–and you’ll hear it all year in Cook County.

In the heart of winter (January-March) we’ve got live music seven days a week. 

To find out who’s playing where during your stay, check out the countywide events calendar and filter by “Music.”

Major annual music events in Cook County

 

Recipe: Great-Aunt Lulu’s Buttermilk Cookies

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Raw turbinado sugar has big, flavorful crystals that add a bit of crunch to these soft cookies.

My grandma Dot always made these soft, rich, buttery, nutmeg-spiced cookies around the holidays. She got the recipe from her great-aunt Lulu, which means the recipe dates back to the 1800s. Serve with coffee for an old-fashioned morning treat.

Also, these cookies keep well–making them perfect road-trip fuel or snacks for your stay up north. Pack in an airtight container.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup shortening
  • 2 eggs
  • 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 4 cups flour (+ half a cup if mix won’t hold peak)
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • extra sugar or turbinado cane sugar (for sprinkling)

 

1.) Cream the sugar, shortening, eggs and vanilla.

2.) In a separate bowl, mix the baking powder, nutmeg, salt and flour.

3.) With a mixer on low-medium speed, mix the dry mixture, creamed mixture and buttermilk until the dough holds a peak.

4.) Cover and chill for at least 1.5 hours, or overnight.

5.) Heat oven to 375-400 degrees. Drop rounded spoonfuls of dough onto greased cookie sheets. Sprinkle sugar–I suggest raw turbinado cane sugar, which has big, crunchy crystals–on top of the unbaked cookies. Bake 8-10 minutes, until edges are golden brown.

6.) Cool cookies on a wire rack. Bon appetit!

Note: While I grew up eating these cookies plain, with just the sugar topping, many people prefer to ice their buttermilk cookies. Try a lemon icing for a fresh twist.

 

Fall Bucket List #8: Watch a Gale on Lake Superior

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Waves gilded by sunset-light roll into the Grand Marais harbor.

Here’s a pocket-size guide to Lake Superior gales for all you storm junkies out there…

In the fall, frigid low-pressure systems from the Arctic swing down over Lake Superior and bump into warmer systems fed by the jet stream. These collisions can spawn ferocious gales, with howling wind and titanic waves.

(The storm that sank the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald may have spawned peak waves upwards of 40 feet tall, according to a drily terrifying 2006 analysis published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.)

If you get a thrill from waves and wind, Cook County communities offer plenty of snug harbors for storm-watching. Hunker down in an eatery or lodging option with a Lake Superior view, cuddle up with kids or a sweetheart, sip a warming beverage, and enjoy the show.

Want to get closer? Don wellies and rain jackets and go outside to feel the power of the wind firsthand. Just remember—storms can be unforgiving. Keep an eye on the weather forecast and road conditions and use your common sense.

Check the storm forecast:
NOAA–National Weather Service–Storm Prediction Center
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/

Also check the wind-and-waves forecast:
National Weather Service–Nearshore Marine Forecast
http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=DLH&product=NSH&issuedby=DLH

Scope out this map of Minnesota’s Lake Superior shipwrecks:
Minnesota Historical Society–Minnesota Shipwrecks Map
http://www.mnhs.org/places/nationalregister/shipwrecks/map.html

View a mangled lifeboat recovered from the wreck of S. S. Edmund Fitzgerald:
NASA/Universities Space Research Association–Earth Science Picture of the Day
http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2003/11/the-wreck-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald.html

 

Fall Bucket List #9: Look for Northern Lights

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Aurora borealis captured in Cook County, July 2012. | TRAVIS NOVITSKY

You don’t have to travel to the Arctic Circle to see the northern lights. Thanks to our location and vast, dark skies, we in Cook County are lucky enough to see the northern lights fairly often.

Northern lights viewing tips

–The best viewing is during clear nights. The less moonlight, the better.
–Bundle up and bring blankets and a Thermos of hot chocolate. Northern nights get chilly.
–Find a spot with a good view to the north, without hills or trees blocking your line of sight.
–Try the south shoreline of one of our larger lakes.

When can I see the northern lights?
Northern lights can appear year-round. For reasons not yet fully understood, northern lights appear most frequently in the late fall and winter.

To find out if northern lights are predicted to appear during your visit to Cook County, check the aurora borealis forecast:

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/NorthAmerica/

 

 

Fall Bucket List #10: Make Pumpkin Pancakes (Recipe Included)

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Okay, so clearly I’m not a food photographer…

This post is the first in a special series spotlighting fall Way North “bucket list” items. That is, twelve things to do, see and try this fall. Here is #12…

What happens when you combine pancakes and pumpkin? Breakfast magic, that’s what. This fall, try making pumpkin pancakes.

These buckwheat pumpkin pancakes are hearty, tasty, and easy enough for kids (or cooking-challenged adults) to make. Perfect for a lazy Sunday morning in October or for fueling up before an afternoon of November skiing.

Plus, they’re good for you. Really! Pumpkin is packed with alpha- and beta-carotene, and buckwheat is a whole grain bursting with fiber and protein.

 

Buckwheat Pumpkin Pancakes

Adapted from Healing Gourmet by Simin Liu, Kathy McManus and John Carlino 

Dry ingredients:

  • 1 c buckwheat flour
  • 2 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp allspice or pumpkin pie spice
  • .25 tsp salt
  • 1.5 tsp baking powder
  • .5 tsp baking soda


Wet ingredients:

  • 2 eggs
  • .75 c canned pumpkin
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1.5 c buttermilk

 

Directions

1.) Mix dry ingredients well.

2.) In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients.

3.) Stir wet and dry ingredients together until just mixed (do not over-mix).

4.) Heat lightly oiled skillet until drops of water spattered on the surface sputter and hiss (like the crackle of frying bacon). Pour .25 c batter on skillet. Wait until bubbles form in the middle and along the edges of the batter, then flip. Repeat until all batter is used.

5.) Serve with farm-fresh butter, blueberries and Cook County  maple syrup. Om nom nom.

 

Early Fall Hiking Near Grand Marais: Cut Face Creek

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One of the advantages of hiking in the fall–besides the cool temps and lack of bugs–is that there can be even more hiking spots available than at other times of the year.

Why? The water levels in rivers and streams are often low toward the end of the summer. Hence, the surefooted and adventurous can actually hike up the creek or riverbed. In the Grand Marais area, try Cut Face Creek (just south of town), Devil Track River (just north of town) and Kadunce River (also north of town).

Be cautious near running water and crumbling cliffs.

Yesterday, Cut Face Creek was nearly dry except for a sweet, melodic series of pools and mini-waterfalls cascading over mossy rocks:

Other snapshots:

This mossy boulder didn’t look like it came from the crumbling cliffside beside it. My guess–although I’m no geologist–is that it is a glacial erratic. That is, a boulder picked up, moved and left behind by glaciers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heart-shaped crystal shines in a mossy rock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These mushrooms looked almost exactly like toasted marshmallows.