September 24, 2010 - Kitchen Drawers
I like to think my kitchen drawers are in pretty good shape right now. I moved into this house less than three years ago, so I haven’t had all that much time to junk them up. And I’m older and wiser and more mature than I was in my younger days when my kitchen drawers...
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September 23, 2010 - Peanut Butter and Jelly “Sushi”
Tell the truth. Have you ever, in your whole life, seen a kiddie snack this adorable? No. I’m sure you certainly have not. Come with me. I’ll show you how to make them yourself. Start with the basics: Bread Peanut Butter Jelly Cream cheese Load 3 pastry bags – one each with jelly, cream cheese,...
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September 22, 2010 - My First and Last Banana Cream Pie
It was 1961. My eighth grade foods class teacher, Mrs. Pankratz assigned two girls to each mini-kitchen to cook some basic stuff. She tutored us while we created scrambled eggs, brownies, muffins, tuna casserole, and more. She was all business, but nevertheless inspiring. Each session she handed out mimeographed copies of her favorite teenager-doable recipes...
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September 21, 2010 - Making Zucchini Cake
Zucchini. Cake. Delicious. We are vegetable lovers around here, which is a good thing because without them I would starve. But this isn’t just a veggie, it’s a veggie cake. This recipe is also the one that I use for carrot cake, or a carrot/zucchini combination. I wrote it down on a recipe card about...
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September 20, 2010 - Making Cultured Buttermilk
Hubby loves buttermilk but buttermilk is expensive, unless you can find it on sale. With this in mind, I have been looking into making our own. I came across a reference to homemade cultured buttermilk by accident about a month ago and that started the chain of research on the subject. Why should culturing buttermilk...
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September 19, 2010 - They ARE Quick & Fudgy
Almost 1300 recipes have been uploaded to Farm Bell Recipes by our wonderful members and my recipe box is overflowing! Some days I just flit around clicking on member names to see what they’ve uploaded recently, ‘cuz sometimes it’s just hard to keep up and I miss recipes as they come in! The other day...
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September 18, 2010 - The Great Hot Dog Experiment
My husband adores hot dogs. A-D-O-R-E-S. He is meticulous in how he prepares them, too. He’s not one for a soft hot dog bun, as I am. He lays a piece of bread on a plate, slices a couple of grilled hot dogs in half and lays them on the bread, then slathers it with...
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September 17, 2010 - The Old Flour Measure
Every Sunday morning, Mom would pull her huge granite bowl out of the cupboard and start her weekly bread making marathon. She made 7 loaves of bread every single Sunday for 20 years until I was a junior in high school. My parents divorced that year and we kids couldn’t wait to have store bought...
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September 16, 2010 - Honey from the Steam Juicer
I steam-juiced some very small peaches from a neighbor’s tree a few weeks ago. The juice was beautiful and I canned some as is and some as peach jelly. I had the peach pulp left and couldn’t bear to toss it – what to do, what to do? Then I remembered that I had a...
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September 15, 2010 - Southwest Pork Skillet Supper
It seemed like a meal that wasn’t meant to be. I had houseguests, and they were of an age where meals must be served on schedule for health reasons so blood sugar levels didn’t slip and the agony of bedtime reflux could be avoided. The kitchen was hot, but the oven was cold, and so...
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September 14, 2010 - Flowers on the Menu
Malva Moschata is a well known and common perennial. While it is popular in the flower garden, did you also know that it is edible? The leaves are a good addition to salad. They are mild tasting and have more vitamin A than spinach! The seeds are edible, as are the pods and the flowers....
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September 13, 2010 - Kitchen Magic
How do you go from this? To this? Or this? To this? It’s magic. Pure magic. Just kidding – but it sure can seem like it. With the help of a few pieces of kitchen equipment you can participate in the oldest method of food preservation – dehydrating. I grew up eating dehydrated apples all...
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September 12, 2010 - The Great Gampy Farmer
It was the depression. We had a small farm with such good soil that we could grow anything planted. We had potatoes, corn, beets, turnips, broccoli, cauliflower, and lots of good things. We had an orchard with trees laden with apples, pears, plums, and cherries. We had a few cows that gave us milk to...
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September 11, 2010 - Vanilla Salted Peanut Cookies
I am a cookie lover, so I’m always on the look-out for new cookie recipes that inspire me and make me drool. When I was a kid, my mother never made a lot of different cookies. She had her repertoire, especially around the holidays, and it was always the same cookies. My mother loved to...
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September 10, 2010 - Rockin’ in the Kitchen
“I wear my sunglasses at night…” plays in the background as I work at cutting up and cleaning tomatoes. My kids tease me at first, but they pretty soon get used to my “old” music. Time goes much faster. Soon Josh Groban and Allison Krauss also have played. At the end while waiting for the...
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September 9, 2010 - The Science of Bread-Making
If you have already mastered the art of making yeast bread, you might want to browse Farm Bell Recipes or read stories on Chickens in the Road. This post is for cooks who have less experience with bread. You’ll find this interesting if you want to learn what role each of the ingredients has. I...
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September 8, 2010 - Gluten Free Cooking
Hi! I’m Lauren. I’m not only the painter of adorable donkeys, but I like to cook. My sister and I have to continue to learn to cook because we’re gluten intolerant. Gluten is the protein in certain grains such as wheat and barley. Some people can’t digest that protein and it makes them sick. There...
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September 7, 2010 - Fresh Peach Popsicles
Can’t think of much that beats a fresh, juicy peach. We have, however, come up with a close second with this lovely little peach smoothie on a stick. Cold, crisp, and slow to drip-–as if it would ever have the chance! How to make Fresh Peach Popsicles: 8 fresh peaches–-peeled, pitted and cut up 1...
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September 6, 2010 - Elephant Ears – Not Just for the Fair Anymore!
Deep fried bread, cinnamon and sugar, mmmm! Our county fair was a couple weeks ago and I wasn’t able to go — I really missed the elephant ear that is always my last stop on the way out of the gate to eat walking to the car. And you know, I smelled them every time...
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September 5, 2010 - Pie-Making Memories
My fondest memory of baking is the summer I spent with my grandparents and my grandma taught me to bake pies. I was forever hooked. Grandma and Grandpa lived in a suburb of Pittsburgh right next to the train tracks. In the ’60s, there was a lot of train traffic, lots of soot and you...
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September 4, 2010 - Making Organic Wine at Home
In our search for a more self-sustaining lifestyle, we are changing the way that we shop for food, grow our food and prepare our food. Organic has become the byword for a healthier choice. Why not include wine in the journey to be more organic? The stores are full of wines from all over the...
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September 3, 2010 - Cream of Anything Soup
My husband loves soup. Cream soups are some of his favorite. There is Cream of Broccoli-Cheddar Soup, Cream of Celery Soup, Cream of Spinach Soup, and many more varieties. It’s become a bit a joke for me to ask him if he’d like a bowl of “Cream of Anything Soup” in the evening when he...
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September 2, 2010 - Camp Jam
The summer of 1956 family vacation was one to remember. Mom and dad packed up my big sister, big brother and me, hitched up our travel trailer to the car, and headed away from Los Angeles, our typical m.o. Vacations, in those days were more about the journey and less about the destination, so exactly...
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September 1, 2010 - In a Gadget World
As I was cutting cucumbers for yet more pickles, my mind went to kitchen gadgets and salesmanship. I reflected on such things as Ginsu knives, juicers, fryers, flippers, egg cookers, microwave specialty cooking items, special frying pans, vegetable and fruit peelers, new tabs on the baking soda, perfect pasta drainers, special cloths for wiping up...
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August 31, 2010 - Redeeming the Dandelion
I admit I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for dandelions. Their childhood charm never quite released me. When I see them, I’m flooded with carefree memories of endless summers. They make me happy! So when I came across a recipe for dandelion jelly, I knew I had to try it! Although it’s...
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August 30, 2010 - Make A Late Summer Veggie Stir-Fry
On hot summer days when you don’t feel much like cooking, a quick vegetable stir-fry can get you in and out of the kitchen in a hurry. The food’s fresh, filling, and not too heavy. I particularly like this recipe for front porch cooking on days when I don’t want to heat up the kitchen....
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August 29, 2010 - Growing Kitchen Herbs Fast
I love growing herbs. I have an herb bed where I have been collecting various herbs for a few years now. I have grown herbs from seed, but it is a slow process. One way I have managed to enlarge my herb bed quickly this year is by rooting herbs from the grocery store. I...
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August 28, 2010 - Tin Caps and Apple Pie
Today, as many apple trees drip with fruit, I pay homage to Johnny Appleseed (1774 (?) – 1845). Prior to Appleseed’s birth, the English colonists, who first arrived on our North American shores in the 1600s, found only the native crab apple tree. As settlement in the new world grew, Europeans brought favorite foods with...
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