Home Cooking with our homesteading Tennessee friends, the West Ladies, is a beautiful 218 page book with over 150 tasty and unique recipes.  Amongst the pages you will find original art work by Vicki, essays on country living by all the ladies, countless home cooking tips, many beautiful full-color photos of life on the farm and even the sheet music to their hit song, “Green Beans in the Garden!”

Focusing on wholesome, healthful foods, the introduction is packed with information on healthy substitutions for harmful ingredients such as white sugar, hydrogenated oils and pre-packaged foods.  However, there is no substitution to great taste!  So, country favorites like, Cecilia’s Cornbread Dressing or Jasmine’s Chicken Pot Pie are sure to please hearty appetites.  Unique, wild harvest recipes such as Violet Jelly and Wild Sumac Lemonade will get you out in the woods discovering these gems.

So, heat up the cast iron and join the West Ladies in their homestead kitchen for some cooking fun.  It's such a blessin'!

BUY The HOMESTEAD BLESSING COOKBOOK

:: Resources ::

Homestead Blessings DVD Series

Farther Along CD by the West Ladies

Farmer's Daughter CD by the West Ladies

Thanks to an extended summer harvest season, I'm getting my canning groove back after a month hiatus.

I certainly wasted no time in putting up... it was time to put up or shut up!  No more dawdling (well, not that I WAS but ... )

Our second crop of later summer tomatoes are loaded with green tomatoes so a friend brought me a big box of canning tomatoes which needed to be processed immediately.   60 lbs turned into 30 quarts.

I figure another batch like this should keep with plenty of tomato sauce us till next Summer and nothing, NOTHING, beats homemade tomato sauce, especially sauce made with fresh, homegrown herbs and vine ripened tomatoes.

BASIL TOMATO SAUCE

from Ball Blue Book of Canning --  BTW I LOVE this book. I've had mine for years and use it ALL the time!

Makes about 7 (16 oz) pints

20 lb tomatoes (about 60 medium)
1 cup chopped onion (about 1 large)
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup finely minced, fresh basil  (I love herbs, the more herbs the better so I and add another 1/4 cup mixture of herbs from the garden - rosemary, oregano)
1 Tbsp Bottled lemon juice per hot jar
7 (16 oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions:
1.) PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
2.) WASH tomatoes; drain. Remove core and blossom ends. Cut into quarters. Set aside.
3.) SAUTE onion and garlic in olive oil until transparent. Add tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4.) PUREE tomato mixture in a food processor or blender, working in batches. Strain puree to remove seeds and peel.
5.) COMBINE tomato puree and basil in large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until volume is reduced by half, stirring to prevent sticking.
6.) ADD 1 Tbsp bottled lemon juice to each hot jar. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
7.) PROCESS filled jars in a boiling water canner for 35 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check for seal after 24 hours. Lids should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

Like to start canning your garden's bounty?  Complete CANNING KIT

Homegrown ingredients

Moving to California really opened up a whole new world of exciting eats to a kid who grew up in the South (no offense) where foods were mostly American traditional.  California  cuisine abounds with the exotic influences  from other cultures from around the world.

Ever since I was introduced to this Mediterranean salad back when I was a teenager, Tabouleh has become  one of my favorite summer salads.    Especially using the fresh homegrown ingredients that are growing in our garden, I could easily polish off a whole bowl myself.

I like to be creative and add a bit more “stuff” than what’s in a typical tabouleh dish. Tabouleh salad is traditionally made of bulgur, finely chopped parsley,  mint, tomato and spring onion, seasoned with lemon juice and olive oil.

To liven the dish up, I like to put a bit of purple and green basil, along with cucumbers (gives the salad a nice cool crunch)

Mmmm good.

Summer salad

 TABOULEH

Ingredients

2 bunches of fresh parsley (1 1/2 cup chopped, with stems discarded)
2 tablespoons of fresh mint, chopped
I medium onion, finely chopped
6 medium tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup bulghur, medium grade
6 tablespoons lemon juice
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Romaine lettuce or grape leaves to line serving bowl (optional)

Method

oak bulghur in cold water for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until soft.
Squeeze out excess water from bulghur using hands or paper towel.
Combine all ingredients, except for salt, pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil.
Line serving bowl with grape leaves or romaine lettuce, and add salad.
Sprinkle olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper on top.
Serve immediately or chill in refrigerator for 2 hours before serving.

Recipe courtesy of http://www.expatrecipe.com/2010/08/23/tabouleh/

Serve as a side dish on top of leaf lettuce or stuffed in a pita bread.

If you wanna do right by your appetite,
If you're fussy about your food,
Take a choo-choo today.....

And we'll put you in the happiest mood. with:
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
Makes your eyes light up,
Your tummy say "Howdy."

-- Song "Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy"  Guy Wood & Sammy Gallop. 1945

Blame it on the humid weather last week and the smell of wet pavement when the humidity broke or the  Gillian Welch tune “Dixieland” rolling around in my noggin,   I got a hankering for good ol’ southern cooking.

Time to wrangle up some

Peach Pandowdy

Ingredients

6 cups thickly sliced peaches
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Place the peaches in a medium bowl. Sprinkle lemon juice over them. Mix together 1/2 cup of sugar and cornstarch. Sprinkle over the peaches, and stir to coat. Spoon into a 2 to 2 1/2 quart casserole dish.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, 2 tablespoons of sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter with a fork or pastry cutter until it is in fine crumbs. Make a well in the center, and pour in the cream. Stir with a fork until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Roll out dough on a floured surface until it is just big enough to cover the baking dish. Cut a 2 inch cross in the center. Place over the peaches, and tuck in the dough around the sides. Turn back the corners of the cross to reveal the filling.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until filling is bubbly, and top is golden brown.

Recipe courtesy of http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/peach-pandowdy/detail.aspx

What the heck is a “pandowdy”   May sound a bit “hickish” like a dish right out of “Aunt Bee Taylor's” Mayberry kitchen.  It’s sorta like pie but without the bottom crust  - and, BOY, is it good!

Cut peaches go in a cast iron skillet

Hot out of the oven

What’s your favorite summertime treat?

Sunset Magazine has put together 16 Ways With Fresh Peaches

With a  have a huge elderberry bush in the corner of the property, every summer I always enjoy making preserves and  syrups.

Elderberries are extremely high in vitamin C.  The berries contain more vitamin C than any other herb except rosehips and black currant.   The bush and berries are steeped in folklore and offer many a remedy for a slew of ailments.  Not only growing your own food but "pharmacy" too!

The syrup is great to take during the flu season and there's no need for a "spoonful of sugar" to help this "medicine go down!"

Elderberries are known to have "antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, improve vision, boost the immune system, improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsilitis." - HerbWisdom.com 

This year, I tried a more "European" style preserve that doesn't require straining out the seeds and skins (I believe the skins are the healthiest part!).    And with our very own small orchard of apple trees, I used  homegrown apples instead of pectin.

ELDERBERRY PRESERVES

Ingredients

450g (1lb) elderberries, stripped from stems
225g (8oz) cooking apples, peeled and chopped
150ml (1/4 pt) water
juice of 2 lemons
2 sprigs of lemon balm (I substituted Lemon Verbena)
675g (1 1/2 lb) sugar

Put all the ingredients into a pan and simmer until a small quantity, put on a plate, wrinkles when cold. Remove balm. Pour into hot sterilized jars and cover.

Recipe courtesy of

http://www.grouprecipes.com/85273/elderberry-jam.html

When you can mosey out into the garden and  pick sun- ripened fruit, then  take a few steps back  into the kitchen to prepare a simple, but delicious fruit bowl, I feel soooo "rich."  I am extremely thankful for the blessings from the good earth.

One of the joys of summer eating is fresh herbs.   Herbs make dishes "pop!" Mixing herbs like mint, pineapple sage and lemon verbena with fruit are fireworks for your taste-buds.  Herbs can turn an ordinary fruit bowl into a gourmet dish that will leave family and friends ooohing and aahing.

For our summer fruit salad, I adapted the recipe below with what we are harvesting now- apples, strawberries, blueberries, peaches and apricots.   Also, instead of sugar, I like to use honey.

Summer Fruit Salad with Infused Lemon Herb Syrup

This is a light and refreshing dessert, the use of the vanilla bean makes these fruits seem exotic. Lemon balm, verbena, and lemon grass, even some orange mint, are all good in this recipe. Other fruits such as any melon, mango or papayas, berries or cherries, plums or apricots, or bananas can also be used.

Serves 8 to 10

1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar  (or HONEY!)
1/2 vanilla bean
1 large handful of fresh lemon herb leaves, bruised
Few strips of lime zest
1 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
6 peaches or nectarines, peeled if desired, and sliced
1 small, ripe cantaloupe, seeded, and cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 large honeydew or small watermelon, seeded, and cut into bite-sized pieces

Make the flavored fruit syrup by combining the water, sugar, vanilla, herbs, and zest. Bring the contents of the pan to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

When cooled to room temperature, strain the syrup and stir in the lime juice. At this point the syrup can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Toss fruit in a large bowl. Pour the syrup over the fruit. Toss the mixture well. Cover the fruit and chill it for at least 1/2 hour before serving. Serve at cool room temperature.

Recipe courtesy of Olney Farmers Market

Our family wishes you and yours a very Happy 4th!

Chopping up the pickles!

Quite colorful and tasty too

Anticipating the time in the future of adding some fish into our diet (see ETHICAL EATING),  we have been adding more tuna to the menu.

Since turning vegetarian in the early 90s, we’ve occasionally eaten fish.  So fish we is what we are  used to,  but it’s been awhile since we went fishing!  Actually, on our 10 acre homestead in Florida, we had a fresh water pond filled with bass.  I used to fish "Huckleberry Finn" style with a simple pole.  Sometimes, I got lucky!    Grandpa loved to fish and  he would take us kids with him on his fishing trips to Tampa Bay.    And Grandma would make a mean snapper dish that was famous far and wide.

We aren't fishing any time soon.   Canned tuna is cheap, so we figured we’d start with that.  We bought a couple cans of "dolphin safe"  from Trader Joes. I know there's probably a better (fresh)  fish selection at Whole Foods (or 'Whole Paycheck' as one of our friend likes to call it) but we've committed not to shop at Whole Foods since it  admitted to selling GMO's

Recently,  I decided I should make an easy peasy tuna pasta salad.  But, of course, my habit is tweaking recipes to fit what we have in our home canned pantry stock.

Opening up the cupboards,  I find sweet zucchini pickles and dilly carrots.   Hmmm, this could work!

PASTA TUNA SALAD
© 2011 Cooks.com - All rights reserved.

1 1/2 c. sm. pasta
1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen peas, thawed  (substituted a two handfuls of homegrown celery)
1 1/2 c. chopped carrots  (substituted chopped dilly carrots & sweet zucchini pickles)
1/4 c. finely chopped onion  (substituted homegrown green onions)
2/3 c. mayonnaise
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. dill weed   (too early for fresh dill in the garden yet, substituted fennel)
1 tsp. salt  (I used 'celery salt')
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 sm. can tuna

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain well. Cool (rinse with cold water to cool quickly; drain well). Thaw peas completely; drain well. Combine cooled pasta, peas, carrots, onion and tuna in a large bowl; mix well. Combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, sugar, dill weed, salt and pepper in a small bowl; blend well. Pour mayonnaise dressing over macaroni mixture; toss lightly. Chill. Garnish with paprika and serve on lettuce leaves if desired.

Happy to say, everyone enjoyed it!  Even Jordanne, who's not too keen on tuna.

Deep fry

Home cookin'

On my personal Facebook page, I lamented that the cold and dreary weather made me  develop this hankering… a craving for some warm, deep fried "vittles."  So out came the gallon of GMO free cooking oil and  cast iron frying pan to fry up some warm and sweet apple fritters.   The sizzling of fritters somehow got me humming this Zac Brown song.   There's something enigmatic about food and music!

I used up some chopped apples we had in the freezer and added a dollop of homemade apple butter to add a bit of spicy richness to the batter.   Oh, yes, fritters aren’t complete without some sugary glaze.  They don’t get any better than this… that is, unless it is from Cafe Du Monde

Apple Fritters (Recipe from The Picky Apple)

Fritter:

* 1 cup all purpose flour
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/3 cup milk
* 1 egg
* 1 cup chopped apple

Glaze:

* 2 cups powdered sugar
* 1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Directions:   Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon.  Stir in milk and egg until just combined.  Fold in apple.  Pour oil into skillet so that it is approximately 1 1/2 deep.  Heat oil on high.  Oil is ready when dough floats to top.  Carefully add dough to oil in heaping teaspoons.  Cook until brown, about 2 minutes, then flip.  Cook another 1-2 minutes, until both sides are browned.  Transfer briefly to paper towels to absorb excess oil, then transfer to cooling rack.  Make glaze by stirring milk and powdered sugar together in a small bowl.  Drizzle over apple fritters.  Wait approximately 3 minutes for glaze to harden, then flip fritters and drizzle glaze over the other side.  Best served warm.

How does the weather affect your eating habits and what hankerings are brought on by the change of weather?

Kumquats have been called "the little gold gems of the citrus family" and is the only citrus fruit that can be eaten "skin and all." The peel is the sweetest part and can be eaten separately. The pulp contains the seeds and juice, which is sour. When eaten together, you get a sweet and sour taste which is unlike anything else.  -Kumquat Growers.com

Living in such a mild climate we are spoiled rotten that we get to enjoy such tasty (fruit) treats in winter.    One of my favorite winter (tr)eats is the kumquat.  If you never had these sweet n sour delights, you are certainly missing out!   I can’t help but pull a few each time I walk past the trees - popping in my mouth for a juicy snack.  Of course, Justin scolds me because I didn’t weight what I ate.    Yeah,  so add a few pounds!

Kumquats are rather easy to grow (not real fussy) and we have ours in a few whiskey barrels that are placed on the back patio (great patio plants and they give fruit to boot).

Not only are these little gems tasty, easy to grow but they pack a nutritional punch

Ten tiny kumquats (about 2/3 cup) are loaded with vitamin C (140%), not unlike other citrus fruit.But where kumquats really stand out is in their 48% of daily fiber -- dramatically more than other citrus varieties.Plus their 4 grams of protein is about what you'd get in a handful of most nuts. - Crazy for Kumquats

This recipe caught my fancy and, boy, it sure was hard not to eat spoonfuls as I doled it out into the jars – can’t wait to try it out on some vanilla ice cream!

Candied Kumquats

Ingredients
•    4 cups of roughly chopped kumquats (roughly 1-1½ lbs.)
•    1 cup of water
•    2 cups of sugar

Method
1 With a pairing knife roughly chop the kumquats. Discard any seeds you can that are easy to get too, but they're edible so don't fret if some get chopped up or stay in the fruit. Feel free to leave any small kumquats whole.
2 Heat the water and sugar over high heat until it comes to a boil. Simmer for 4 minutes. Add the kumquats and simmer for 10 minutes.
3 Drain the kumquats through a sieve set over a bowl. Return the syrup to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes to reduce the syrup. Combine the kumquats and 1/4 cup of the syrup together.

Serve or jar and refrigerate. Can be stored for up to two weeks.

Recipe courtesy

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/candied_kumquats/

Some whoppers!

Before I write about food, our family wants to extended our concern and prayers to the folks in Christchurch, NZ who experienced another big and deadly earthquake.   We have a strong kinship with the land and it's people and hope that all our friends and "family" are safe.  Our prayers are with you all.

Meyer lemons & snow peas

Lemon pea pasta

One of my favorite early spring dishes is this quick and easy "Lemon Pea Pasta."  It combines the sweetness of the peas and zesty tang of lemons.

The recipe is simple, I don't really measure so here's what you use (adjust according to taste)

2 Meyer Lemons (peel and juice)   I like my pasta "lemony!"

4 tablespoon butter

2 cloves of garlic

4 cups of sliced fresh, raw snow peas

Some fresh herbs if you have it ( chives, parsley, fennel)

Salt & pepper

2 cups Parmesan cheese

While the pasta is boiling away,  melt butter add chopped garlic, herbs and the grated peel and juice of two large lemons in a large skillet.    Drain the pasta, reserving a bit of liquid.  Pour the pasta  into the skillet with the butter mixture, add a few tablespoons of pasta water if needed.   Add the sliced, raw peas (I never pre cook the veggies if I don't have to - healthier and tastier that way!) Toss the peas and pasta in the skillet mixing well.   Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.  Right before serving add parmesan cheese, toss well.

Enjoy!