I call it Winter Storm Food, traditional dishes  that fill us up, give us energy, keep us warm in brutal cold and heavy snow. I’ve started with my pizzas, meant to be light, healthy and tasteful. Light cheese, fresh vegetables,  no heavy sauces.

And lately,  I’ve opened a new vein of cooking – I am loving cooking for me and Maria these days (one of us has to do it, yes?) recently, thanks in no small measure to a small business family start-up called The Vermont Spatzle Company, founded and run by Marty and Julz Irion.

(Julz is a member of Maria’s Belly Dancing Group, that’s how I learned of her Spatzle recipe, now sold locally all over New England.) I’m also experimenting with several ways of cooking big fat scallops.

Marty was born in  Germany, where he ate the Spatzle noodle, made in the traditional way with wheat flour and eggs. Eight years ago, the couple needed to go gluten-free, but they missed their Spatzles.  Julz had the idea of coming up with a new Spatzle recipe.

She worked for seven years to come  up with a new recipe, and failed repeatedly until March of 2017, when she tried one last time and scored, she re-imagined the Spatzle, using local Milk, Farm Fresh Vermont Eggs, Cornstarch, Tapioca Flour, Canola Oil, Water, Potato Flour, Xanthan Gum, Kosher Salt and Nutmeg.

Their Spatzles are gluten-free. They are light and flavorful.

I love this Spatzle story, it reminds me that the American spirit of enterprise and determination and family can accomplish remarkable things. You don’t have to be a corporation to be creative and successful, that is still possible in America. Every time a couple of people succeed in this way is a miracle in the time of the Corporate Nation.

These Spatzles have altered my own sense of cooking. You can make a lot of things with their Spatzles, they mix with vegetables and meat, or as a side dish.

They  tend to take on the flavor of the things they are mixed with. Julz  changed my life a bit.

I am cooking Spatzle dishes two or three times a week, including tonight, they are perfect Winter Storm meals. I’ve prepared Spatzle and several different kinds of vegetables, including Spinach, Kale and Broccoli.

I find them especially useful for quick and tasty lunches or if there’s time, a more carefully thought out dinner.

Tonight, dinner for two at Bedlam Farm: One half pound of Spatzles, a half-pound of lean, (90 per cent) grass-fed hamburger, a cup of Kale, pesto, Parmesan cheese, some pine nuts.

I cook the Spatzles in a skillet with some olive oil and butter, and grind up the beef and cook in in a separate pan. These re-imagined noodles cook quickly and brown nicely, if you cook the a bit longer, some will turn crispy. I cook the burger and drain it, along with the Spatzle in separate calendars.  (There are no preservatives added, so Spatzles need to be frozen or used within a few days.)

I add three teaspoons of pesto, four teaspoons of Parmesan cheese, one-third cup of pine nuts, stir up the Spatzle and the ground beef and add the Kale, fresh and uncooked.

Maria and I both love these  meals, they’ve led me to another dimension in my winter cooking. Next week, some Scallop experiments.

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Thanks but there will be no recipe book for me. For one thing, I’m just not that good and for another, this is not something I want to write a book about, it is just another way to try to be creative. Besides, one of us has to cook.