Cooking from scratch: healthier, cheaper, and a great creative outlet
I can't say we ate any crab cakes on the farm. Back then, grocery stores were a bit limited in the seafood department and even frozen seafood was pretty much limited to fish sticks (we did eat those). I don't remember ever having crab cakes or clam strips and certainly never lobster. Deep fried clam … Continue reading How to make Crab Cakes
I decided to use up some apples today before they turned toward spoiling. Pie sounded good. In a spelt crust - I mean spelt is whole grain and apples are healthy, so maybe it's a "good for you" dessert? LOL, I convinced myself. And I didn't want to do my Caramel apple pie. While I … Continue reading Apple Pie with Almond butter sauce
Growing up, one of the first things I learned to bake, and baked a lot of, was white bread. I know, bread is not usually one of the things a child bakes at age 11 or 12, but I did, along with other things like cookies. But I had this bread recipe my family really … Continue reading Farmhouse White Bread, with a Cinnamon Twist
My mom used to make this chocolate cake, with the secret ingredient of salad dressing, quite often. In fact, I also have versions of it as a Spice cake . I've updated a little, and my 8.5 x 10.5" pan is perfect. You can make it into 2 round layers, or a 9 x 12 … Continue reading Mom’s Salad Dressing Chocolate Cake
I found a recipe for a meatball dinner many years ago, and have modified it over time to meet the preferences of my family. It's comfort food for sure, and makes the house smell terrific. It's a good weekend night meal, which you can make in advance and either refrigerate or freeze. It's almost a … Continue reading Easy Weeknight Meatball Casserole
Beef stew was a favorite thing in our family growing up. It took a little meat, usually something that needed a long cooking time to make it tender, a cheap cut of beef. Or whatever my mother had left int the freezer from a slaughtered cow. Daddy had a specific way to eat it - … Continue reading How to Make The Great Fox Pines Beef Stew
My mom was always stretching food, and never wasting anything. Once in a while (once every GREAT once in a while), there would be left over cake. So this trick works with any cake - frosting, no frosting, any filling. Sheet cake, layer cake, bundt cake. Cake that's slightly dry or starting to get stale. … Continue reading Make a quick dessert from leftover cake and pudding!
I have fond memories of helping my mother cut up (with a hatchet!) the Hubbard squash she grew each year in the garden. If you've never seen a Hubbard squash, read this. They are huge, and can make dozens of pie from just one squash. And we always had more than one! My mom used … Continue reading Fox Pines Pumpkin Pudding
Bread pudding was a dessert my mom always made on the farm. On the practical side, it was inexpensive to make for a large family, it used up stale bread, and it was easy to make. from ingredients always on hand. On the down side, as much as I loved it,, it was commercial white … Continue reading Make a Posh Farmhouse Bread Pudding
Flour is really a pretty generic term, even though we most commonly use it to mean white wheat flour. At it's most basic, flour is a powder, finely ground from roots or grains. It can be made from many things. Native Americans made flour from acorns! My mom only had one kind of flour, and … Continue reading Just how many kinds of flour are there?