Family holiday recipes are near and dear to our hearts! When we first talked cranberries, I shared my family’s much loved cranberry salad recipe. And I made it last week as did my sister!

 

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With our latest episode talking about my family’s traditions, I thought it may be good to share some of the other recipes our family has enjoyed for decades! My mom credits her mom Louise with all of these recipes, not sure where she found them or came up with them.

My mom & sister’s crumbling cornbread & biscuits for dressing.

Corn Bread Dressing

This is the absolute must-have with turkey. Mom says she remembers having it on the table as a kid in the 40s and 50s and it remains a staple for the holidays in my family. And we like to have enough for leftovers so you may see us double this family holiday recipe! We’ve found reheating it in the panini maker is perfect cause all of us like a little crisp to the edges!

Ingredients:

1  10′ skillet cornbread
3 cans biscuits ( app. 25-30)
1 1/2 qt. broth
2-3 onions chopped
6 boiled eggs chopped
hot water
3-4 pieces chopped celery
sage
poultry seasoning
salt & pepper

Bake and crumble corn bread and biscuits. Use broth from turkey. Mix all ingredients together, season to taste. If extra liquid is needed, add hot water until mixture is fairly soupy. Bake in greased  9 by 13 inch pan in oven at 350 degrees about 30 minutes or unit it browns.

Ambrosia

This is one of the fruit salads that was a constant for us and it goes incredibly well with pound cake the next day for breakfast!

Mom gives the shortest directions which may make you think this is quick and easy but remember you section oranges so it takes time!

Equal amounts of crushed pineapple and sectioned oranges ( I usually start with 2 cans of pineapple and about 7 or 8 oranges for a family dinner)

Add some shredded coconut and a little sugar. Blend together and chill.

We’ve made it with fresh pineapple too, chopping the fresh pineapple after you’ve cored it takes some time. It tastes great but not sure the extra effort pays off so much because you definitely want added time to let the pineapple sit in it’s juice for a while.

Part of my sister’s Thanksgiving table this year — mac & cheese, dressing, ambrosia and deviled eggs! We like the carb color pallette!

Malcolm’s Favorite — Jam Cake

This cake was a mainstay when my mom was growing up and through her early adulthood. It was my granddad’s favorite so even though it takes longer than most cakes, grandmom would give in and make it. My brother is probably the biggest fan in the family now and we have it sometimes but not every holiday these days. (If you listened to the episode you will see why I preferred grandmom’s pies!) But we all think of it when it comes to family holiday recipes.

4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
¾ cup shortening
1 tsp soda
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ cups blackberry jam
1 tsp nutmeg
3 cups plain flour
1 tsp allspice

Cream shortening and sugar until creamy. Add 2 whole eggs and 2 yolks beaten. Cream everything together. Stir the soda into buttermilk and add that to the mixture and stir. Sift the flour & spices into it, add jam and stir well. Bake in three layers at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Divinity Filling and Frosting

2 cups sugar
2 egg whites
¾ cup water
1 cup ground raisins (it takes a little less than 2 cups raisins to get the cup)

Cook together sugar and water until it threads when dropped from a spoon or forms a soft ball in cold water. Beat egg whites until stiff. Stir syrup into whites and add ground raisins.

My grandparents…. he was a butcher and she was a homemaker extraordinaire who put in the extra time for his favorite cake at the holidays.

The post Trusted Family Holiday Recipes — Dressing, Ambrosia & Jam Cake appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

When most folks think lavender, they imagine soaps, lotions, a few drops of essential oil on a pillow to help them sleep. Of course, I think of all of those things, too. I love lavender, and if something smells like lavender (actual lavender, not just weird and sweet and purple), I’m all for it. But I also like to keep lavender in my spice pantry because what a lot of folks don’t realize is how easy and delicious cooking with lavender can be!

Lavender is actually wonderful in a variety of dishes, both sweet and savory, and while I typically cook savory main dishes with it (keep reading for my pork chops recipe!), Janice brought back a couple of baking mixes from her visit to Long Row Lavender farm for me to surprise my family with over the weekend, and they were a hit!

Lavender & Chocolate?

I didn’t realize what a perfect match lavender and chocolate are! The Lavender Brownies were phenomenal, with the lavender adding just enough brightness to the flavor to elevate the whole dish from plain after-dinner brownies to something that felt fancy. It turned our dull Tuesday dinner into a special occasion. Then on Saturday, I snuck out the Lemon Lavender Bread. What a bright, fresh breakfast! Topped with a lemon-powdered sugar glaze, it was like lavender lemonade on a hot day! A perfect start to our weekend.

Now here’s the thing to remember about cooking with lavender. It compliments sweet dishes, but that is precisely because it isn’t sweet. The flavor of lavender is bright and almost astringent, similar to fresh rosemary.

Cooking with Lavender

In fact, if you aren’t sure where to start with incorporating lavender into your cooking, look for recipes that include rosemary. Many times, lavender can make a good substitute for the more familiar kitchen herb. If you want to go even easier, grab yourself a jar of herbes de Provence! Herbes de Provence is a simple blend of herbs – usually things like rosemary, thyme, basil, tarragon, and of course lavender – that is great on everything from fish to chicken to pork to salads and pasta sauces.  You can make your own, but Long Row Lavender sells a blend that is made with culinary lavender, so you know that one will be delicious and fool-proof. A great, all-purpose spice mix that can make a simple meal feel so elegant.

And that is exactly what I use for my pork chops. These pork chops are one of my go-to recipes for when I need to get dinner on the table in a hurry after coming home from Taekwondo practice and before we head off to a band concert or Girl Scout meeting. It’s just as fast as frozen chicken nuggets and so much tastier.

Pork Chops de Provence

(Even the name makes it sound special!)

The keys to this recipe are the cast iron skillet and making sure you’ve got thick, bone-in pork chops. You can do this with boneless. Heck, you could even do it with chicken breasts. But the bone-in pork chops really taste the best. The other key is the brining. Brining the pork chops ahead of time ensures they are juicy and flavorful all the way through. Yes, it is an optional step, and one I sometimes skip, but the flavor difference is apparent. Brining makes an already good dish into a great dish.

For the brine:

• 1 cup boiling or very hot water
• 4 Tablespoons kosher salt
• 3 cups cold water
• Optional aromatics in any combination: a couple of smashed garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns, a piece of lemon peel, a sprig of fresh rosemary, a bay leaf, juniper berries, etc – feel free to get creative here, or just follow my standard of garlic, peppercorns, and bay.
• 4 bone-in, thick cut pork chops

Add the salt and aromatics to the boiling water and stir until the salt is completely dissolved. Add the cold water and cool your brine to room temp. Sometimes the cold water is enough to do this, other times an ice water bath does the trick. Once the brine is cool, pour it over your pork chops (I use a big casserole dish for this) and refridgerate for 30 minutes to a couple of hours.

To cook the pork chops:

• Olive oil
• Herbes de Provence
• Freshly ground black pepper

Place your big cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat to 4oo degrees. A smoking hot cast iron skillet ensures your chops will get that all important sear. Give it at least 20 minutes to heat.

While the oven and skillet heat, pull your chops out of the fridge and dry them thoroughly. If you leave them wet, they won’t sear. They’ll just steam and get weird. No one likes weird pork chops.

Rub olive oil all over your pork chops. You won’t be oiling the skillet, so make sure you get a nice thin layer all over the chops. Season with the herbes de provence and the pepper. Really rub those herbs in, even around that strip of fat at the edge. They are going to taste delicious when they sear. Now you can let your pork chops rest and relax until the skillet is ready.

Once the skillet is blazing hot, carefully pull it out of the oven and place it over high heat on the stovetop. Lay your chops carefully into the skillet in a single layer. Once you put them down, leave them alone. Don’t scoot them around or flip them or fiddle with them or peek at the underside. Just let them sizzle and sear. They will smoke a little. You may need to open a window. This is all normal.

Allow the chops to sear for 3-4 minutes. Use tongs to flip them. Not a fork. A fork will let the juices out that we’ve worked so hard to seal in. The chops should lift effortlessly from the skillet. If they stick, let them cook a little longer until they release.

Immediately after flipping the chops, transfer the whole skillet to the oven. Roast until the chops are cooked through, with an internal temp of 140-145 degrees F. This takes anywhere from 6-10 minutes.

Remove the chops from the oven and allow them to rest for at least 5 minutes. This will allow the juices to distribute through the pork and will allow the temp to come up another 5 degrees. Tent them with foil to keep them from getting cold.

Serve with a wedge of lemon, rice, and a side salad! Simple!

Would you believe I have never taken a picture of these pork chops? Probably because I’m so focused on getting them on the table so we can get the kids fed and off to their evening activities. In fact, I’ve got this meal on my meal plan for this week. Tomorrow is another one of those crazy days, so we will be having these simple, but elegant-tasting pork chops. Way better than mac and cheese and freezer chicken nuggets!

If you try this recipe, let me know in the comments! Or if you have a favorite way of cooking with lavender please do share! I love new food ideas, and Janice’s lavender farm visit got me thinking about all things lavender. What do you think about a roasted chicken with lavender? I usually use rosemary and lemon, but I bet I could sub in the lavender for the rosemary. Or a garlicky lavender foccaccia! My imagination is running wild with all the ideas here. What ideas have you tried?

The post Cooking with Lavender? Absolutely! appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

There’s not a simple single reason I became a cookbook lover and find myself with shelves and stacks of cookbooks. And I have found a vast community of cookbook lovers too.

In fact, a colleague who hosted us for a holiday party a few years ago has an entire vault filled with cookbooks! The amount of time this takes on a tour of the house…. it can singularly derail a tour!

And I have so many friends who have collections of cookbooks that go on and on.

Too many cookbooks? Is that possible?

I mean, I have too many books but the number of cookbooks…. well, I am not sure I’ve ever thought to myself I need to cull through them. But recently I did have to face it has gotten to be a bit much as I had to get a new refrigerator and in my current house, I have a shelf for cookbooks on top of the fridge. but every inch of the fridge was covered with cookbooks… stacks alongside the shelf, some books tucked under it too.

The shelf is now nice and somewhat organized to the books I’m most likely to want to flip through. There’s a bunch more in a box that may never be taken to the basement cause I keep getting back into it. Still others on a bookshelf in another room.

As I talked to a colleague earlier, she mentioned having planned a trip to Spain and my thoughts immediately went to the cookbook that I rely most on when Spanish cooking comes to mind and the family & friends who have shared paella and gazpacho recipes.

But I confess, I use a few cookbooks rather often and some cookbooks I have don’t serve as a guide for my cooking much at all. In fact, I’m sure I have a few that I have never cooked something from.

Why do cookbook lovers have such big collections?

I can’t speak for everyone, but I have a range of reasons for the ever-growing stash of cookbooks — and to be clear, I added one within a week or two of getting the new fridge!

Touchpoint with Family

So many favorite childhood memories of holiday parties or baby showers are inextricably tied to food. The most used and most loved of my cookbooks are the ones I’ve gotten that include family recipes. My mom’s recipes, her Aunt Ginny’s, our cousin Dot’s…. There are those cooks in your life who provided for you on a daily basis or at celebrations. When I can’t find the recipe I’m looking for a text string starts and I’m guided to the right place.

And mom just typed up a bunch of recipes so she could give all of us copies… As I opened it, I immediately was drawn to the marinade I remember my Aunt Ginny using for a party when her grandkids were home for a visit (they lived overseas a long time). It was a party that stood out for a few reasons, but I also remembered that chicken coming off the grill and loving it. And they have notes about which cake and pie was granddaddy’s favorite and the like which makes it beyond special. And our family’s favorite lasagna that we had for Christmas (thanks Leslie!) is there too!

The Church Ladies’ Cookbooks

Getting cookbooks from churches is definitely one of those IYKYK (if you know you know) kind of things. And in the south, it has been a thing since I was a kid! I remember mom & the women’s group putting one together when I was a kid. It’s forever been my favorite. A few years later the second edition was created and I have lost count of the subsequent count.

The thing about these cookbooks is they not only include some of the recipes your family becomes known for in a church congregation but if you are a connoisseur of church potlucks, you know who else’s recipes to look for!

Friends Know SO MUCH About Cooking

The reason my mind went straight to my cookbooks when a friend mentioned Spain is I have friends who wrote a book on paellas! The geographic differences, the spices, when you use seafood versus pork — all things paella. And I think I’ve probably bought dozens of copies. In fact as we talked I searched for another as it is out of print.

I have lots of friends and acquaintances who have written cookbooks. So many that now I wonder if I should write a series of posts on them all! (I’ve already shared about a friend’s book on foods in different regions of Mexico!)

Once upon a time, when I was bored of the food I was eating I launched an effort for an unofficial cookbook that ultimately our office in Scott published! It wasn’t sold of course, but the employees enjoyed it and years later as we joined another company, copies were made for others to enjoy.

That book is where I go for an infamous gazpacho recipe that tells not only how one colleague makes it but how his mom and mother-in-law’s recipes differ. It always grabs my mind in the depths of summer but there are also a bunch of other dishes that grab me with a “remember when.”

And a friend in Malaysia who helped me explore the ins and outs of Southeast Asian foods while in college, I loved learning some of her recipes but after we graduated and headed our separate ways, over some time I lost them since we never wrote anything down. Two decades later I visited her home, as I left she insisted I take some of the cookbooks she used routinely and had made notes in. They are cherished even more so as we recently lost her to cancer. And

Travel & Gathering Memories

Whether it is somewhere close by or somewhere much further afield, there are some cookbooks that when I pick them up, I can be transported to that diner or restaurant where we ate whatever it was. Maybe it was a gift from a friend sharing foods of their home or a book bought because I visited a certain restaurant and now needed more of that type of cuisine in my repertoire. (I especially remember a Turkish friend being so shocked I had a book on Turkish cooking years before we had met. But they have such great flavors and there was this great Middle Eastern market…. Yep, had to get it.)

And some of the smallest cookbooks came from various cooking classes I’ve taken over the years with friends. I’ll never forget one class in the home of Viking ranges where we had such a big group we were broken into two smaller groups, each making the same recipes. Someone missed one tip on how to prepare the pepper that was going in the curry and holy moly the difference was obvious in looks and flavor! I still shudder on that. One more recently gave us a great green goddess recipe that I have referred to over and over again.

Another big set of cookbooks have come because so many work trips took me to food conferences. In some, I met chefs like Kevin Gillespie of Red Beard Restaurants in Atlanta or celebrities like Freddie Prinze, Jr. who were exploring food more & writing a book.

Inspiration Readily Available

I cannot overstate this…. cookbooks can provide inspiration for folks like me! I’m not a great cook, probably not even a good one most days. And I go through periods where cooking feels a lot more of a chore, but when I’m going to a party or having friends over. Have mercy do a range of cookbooks get off the shelf as I consider what may be fun. I also watch YouTube yes.

Great Reads in Some

Now and then, you just There are some books that are part cookbook and part something else. Maybe you read up on nutrition, or cuts of meat, or gardening, or whatever. I really like those books whether they fall into the cookbook category or not!

Series on Cookbooks?

Thinking aloud on whether this is a way to spend some time in the coming weeks and months…. are there other cookbook lovers out there who would want to share?

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You remember how I love fresh peppers and got all inspired by the interview with Randy of Bailey Farms that I started using all of the specialty peppers for all of the things? Well, I recently had a chance to sit down and chat with Adriana Martin, chef and influencer at Adriana’s Best Recipes, to talk about the shift from blogger to entrepreneur and to discuss her new cookbook, Best of Mexican Cooking (affiliate link). And having been in pepper, tomato & melon fields together, I had to ask about the fresh ingredients she focuses on. 

One of the things that stands out in her book is her explanation of the various ingredients essential to Mexican cuisine, everything from simple onions and potatoes to more exciting like epazote (an aromatic plant) and nopales (grilled cactus).

What really stood out, though, was her description of the pepper varieties most commonly used in Mexican cooking.

Choosing peppers can feel a little overwhelming if you aren’t sure what you are looking for to fit the flavor profile of you dish, but Adriana does a great job breaking down the five most popular chile peppers in Mexican home cooking with how hot they are and where they are best put to use as you cook.

You know, it used to be hard to find anything beyond green or red bell peppers and jalapenos in the grocery store. Nowadays, though, most of us have fairly easy access to a wide variety of peppers, everything from dried New Mexico chiles and cans of chipotles to shishito peppers, habaneros, poblanos and more. 

Reminded of the Pepper Farm Tours!

Seeing all these peppers being put to such delicious use in this cookbook got me thinking about my visit to Bailey Farms back before covid was an issue.The Baileys grow a range of peppers from the hot (like serranos, Hungarian, and habaneros) to the sweet (like cubanelles and shishitos) to their special mini-bell peppers and the extra-sweet peppers. When I visited the Bailey’s pepper farms, nowhere is the vast diversity of their peppers more evident than inside their North Carolina warehouse and packing plant.

Yes, a pepper warehouse. 

I wish that I could share with you the incredible fragrance of this place. It is a full-on sensory experience, and when Paul, a member of the Bailey Farms team, took me on a tour, the rainbow of peppers there, in that one space, was mind-blowing. We saw those beautiful BellaFinas, hot cherry bomb peppers, shishitos, and so much more. They were all eye-catching, and you can see a video of the pepper warehouse tour here on the blog.Pretty early on in the tour, Paul steered me away from the deep green of the poblanos, to the bright flash of the more glamorous peppers. But those peppers are an absolute workhorse in Mexican home cooking, and nothing showcases their rich, comforting flavor better than chiles rellenos. Adriana has made these plenty of times, and shares her family recipe in Best of Mexican Cooking. So if it’s been a while since you’ve had good chile rellenos, go ahead and flip to page 102 in the cookbook. And if you don’t have a copy yet, you can get on here.

The post Focus on Fresh Peppers & Flavors for the Best Mexican Home Cooking appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

As mentioned in the episode where we interviewed Wisconsin cranberry farmer Amber Bristow, both her family and mine have favorite recipes that are made for the holidays every year! I also discovered a new one last year that I may need to enjoy more often. We wanted to share those recipes here.

Amber’s Crandma’s Cranberry Sauce

Amber makes lots of cranberry puns, one is calling her grandma her crandma. Crandma makes a fresh cranberry sauce for the holidays.

4 cups fresh cranberries

2 cups sugar

1 cup liquid (Amber likes orange juice but you can use something else)

optional bit of cloves or cinnamon

Mix, put in a 9 by 13 pan and cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

She points out that the cranberries will remain whole and have a really beautiful glossy appearance.

My Grandmom’s & Mom’s Cranberry Salad

1 can of crushed pineapple (20 oz)

1 lb fresh cranberries (rinsed)

1 cup of pecans (we break into pieces)

1 package of gelatin

2 cups of sugar

1/4 cup of water

Drain pineapple well and bring juice to a brisk boil. Add cranberries and cook until all pop. Turn off the heat and stir in sugar. Dissolve gelatin in water and add to the cranberry mixture. Add pineapple and nuts. Chill. Keeps well.

 

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Cranberry Reindeer 2-2-2 Sangria Recipe

This is a recipe I picked up last year at a great specialty shop called Fezziwig’s in O’Fallon, Illinois last fall as Matt and I were taking in popcorn harvest! It was a perfect holiday drink!

2 Bottles of Cranberry Snow Wine

2 liters of white soda

2 cups of vodka

Float some whole cranberries, orange slices and some ice in it to make pretty while it chills!

The post Cranberry Recipes Tested on Farm and in the City appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Since we are talking with rice farmer Matthew Sligar this week, we wanted to make sure you knew how to make good use of some of that rice you have in the kitchen!

Don’t forget, as Matthew explained in the podcast episode on rice, you want to be sure you are using the right kind of rice for the dish you are making.

Using Medium Grain Rice

Sushi has become a bit of a family tradition for us. My sister lived in Japan for several years and with all the loved ones we have there as well as Japanese friends and family in the U.S., it provides us a great touchstone. Besides, we’ll take almost any excuse to eat great food.

Love this video where Matthew and his wife Clara took time to learn to make sushi and thought some of you may be interested in giving this a go.

Long-Grain Rice Recipes

More of the recipes I have typically use long-grain rice…. it’s used in casseroles, salads, as a side and more. Growing up, my family would just put a little butter on it… maybe some salt & pepper. But here are some ideas for getting that rice out of the canister.

Red Beans & Rice

My go-to recipe is red beans and rice…. I make that pretty often and just love it! It’s also a favorite for several friends and family members– in fact a 5-year-old friend is a total fan! I started making it years ago with a crock pot red beans and rice recipe a friend’s wife shared — just a few ingredients in a crock pot. Some Hillshire Farms sausage, red beans and sauces (A1, Worcestshire, and Heinz 57) in one pot and cook rice in another. A friend helped me convert it to the instant pot too, and I think instant pot red beans and rice is even better!

Slow Cooker Beef Stew & Rice

Sarah is the farmhouse blogger at Farmwife Crafts and she has a slow cooker beef stew recipe that is served over rice making it more for a plate than a bowl! I love that as a farm family she starts by explaining stew meat, where it comes from on cattle, what you may substitute and more. She also talks you through cooking it in the oven verses the slow cooker!

Porcupine Meatballs

Not gonna lie, when Nicole from Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom shared this recipe in my thread asking about farm recipes including rice, I shook my head. But rice is both part of the porcupine meatballs but you serve them over rice too!

One Skillet Chicken Rotel & Rice

If you have seen our other recipes, you probably were already wondering what Jent from Farmwife Feeds would be adding to the list. The wait is worth it with this one skillet chicken rotel & rice!  I love one pot meals, especially these days when it seems like cooking and washing dishes never stops! And if you have rice, cheese and tomatoes with some sort of protein I am there for it. She also has an instant pot recipe for chicken, rice & peas I’m going to check out.

Best Ever Turkey Layered Hotdish (Casserole)

I giggle just typing in hotdish as I can remember wondering what that was, but it is a casserole. (Although Midwestern friends like Val Wagner who feed big families swear hotdish is so much more appetizing than casserole.) I can’t lie though, I love a good casserole and in my experience, rice contributes to a lot of the really good ones! Lara with My Other More Exciting Self has this best ever turkey layered hotdish that will have you checking your local grocery meat counter for turkey breast you can cube up.

More Great Recipes from Farm Families

We hope you have been enjoying some of the recipes farm families have shared for you to make up yummy dishes with mushrooms, wheat, avocados and we have more coming!

The post Rice Recipes that Will Fill You Up and Make you Smile appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

As I talked with Michelle Jones about her family’s wheat farm, I craved all the wheat-based recipes and comfort foods. And with the way so many of us are accessing the food system differently, although this is the first spring I’ve felt compelled to bake and I am far from alone. Some of my friends on the farm have some amazing recipes to share. Go ahead… make sure you have all the flour… you are going to want to fire up the oven!

Since my family craves bread enough that babies will cry hysterically ruining their first birthday photos if you dare try to pull a yeast roll from their clutches, I’m sure my people will be taking note.

Having Dessert First with Beyer Beware

When I looked through some of the recipes that friends sent when they heard we would be talking about different kinds of wheat, I couldn’t help but think this almond danish puff pastry from my friend Leah Beyer at Beyer Beware needed to lead the post. After all, I’m a grown up and can start with dessert if I want LOL!  And I can so see Leah sneaking a piece of the danish when she was younger and her mom fixed it for guests.

Bread with My Fearless Kitchen

You may remember Marybeth Feutz of My Fearless Kitchen…. She showed us around her cattle farm and talked to us all about how to pick steaks out and ways farmers take care of their cows and the planet. Well, she likes to bake too!

Easy Homemade Bread

When a recipe puts the word easy in the name — like easy homemade bread — I can say hope lights. This recipe offered not only the hope of an easy recipe but as it is raining here, seeing the photo of Marybeth I took years ago as we soaked up vitamin D in Florida, I found myself hoping for the warmth of the sun too.

Blackberry Bread 

This is one of many recipes that you will see in this recipe post that I haven’t only not eaten, but I hadn’t thought of at all! And blackberry bread? I am a life-long lover of blackberry and we are poised for blackberry season… I need this in my life. Seriously when I saw it, I ran to Instacart to put blackberries on the list!

Farm Wife Feeds Baking Breads

When we share recipes, often Jennifer Campbell (who I call Jent a lot of the time) of Farm Wife Feeds is usually spot on. She feeds the Indiana crew and enjoys sharing lots of recipes. Her mom (and her Kitchen Aid mixer) got her hooked on homemade bread, so you won’t be disappointed.

Honey Wheat Oat Bread

Jent says this is a Gooseberry Patch recipe her family has worn out and just the name honey wheat oat bread…. well it makes my mouth water! And the photo? Stop it.

Two Ingredient Beer Bread

Not going to lie as everyone else was desperate to find yeast, I asked a few folks why they didn’t just make beer bread and you’d think I’d straight laid voodoo on them. Two ingredients? Since this post is all about wheat-based recipes and has beer in the name, you can easily guess the two ingredients! Jent talks us through it and just give it a look… it pairs with beer.

Homemade Rhubarb Donuts

Sharing a recipe for rhubarb donuts means putting my life in the hands of others… my sister has discovered a deep love of rhubarb but lives in the rhubarb-less south. She’s going to want this tasty treat. Hope someone else can find it so she can get cracking on this wheat-based recipe.

Wheat-Based Recipes on Plowing Through Life

Another friend named Jennifer Osterholt has been Plowing through Life in Ohio for a while. She named the blog at a time when there were some adversities and she’s definitely had challenges, but loving wheat… if that is wrong, I don’t think Jennifer wants to be right with the wheat-based recipes she shared! I have to say these options make me rethink banana and pumpkin bread.

Farmhouse Peanut Butter Bread

I’ve never even thought of peanut butter bread, which Jennifer changed that. As a household that has included multiple jars of peanut butter and lengthy debates on brands and textures that are best, I’ll have to give this one a whirl. Maybe make it next time I visit my nephew too. And I think I’ll have to have it with the Nutella spread option!

Carrot Bread (Farmhouse Style of course!)

There are more than a few carrot cake folks in my world, but carrot bread? That seems like such an obvious choice but I’ve not made it. The orange flecks makes it perfect for a niece of mine too!

Who’s ready to bake some wheat-based foods now?

Seriously. My pantry is stocked and all of these ideas…. well, the grocery list will be growing to include a few components I need to make one or two friends on the farm recipes this weekend. Really glad talking about all things wheat led me down this path!

The post Wheat-Based Recipes You May Want to Give a Go appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

Last week my family had a funny conversation about mushrooms recipes. It immediately brought up the podcast conversation about mushrooms with Scott at J-M Farms. And I realized it was just a year ago that I toured a mushroom farm for the first time.

Suffice it to say one of our dear ones is not only a fan, but can sniff them out like nobody’s business! Most of us enjoy or are neutral on mushrooms though and they offer a lot of great nutritional value. And they do well solo, as well as pair with a range of meats and vegetables for great taste too. With that in mind, it seemed like a good time to find recipes from farm families who find mushrooms a good add to the menu.

Mushroom Appetizers & Side Dishes

I love mushrooms as a side dish and frequently find myself sautéing them with some garlic and butter. With these ideas, I can also see myself putting more mushrooms on my shopping list!

Marinated & Roasted Mushrooms

No lie, when I saw that my friend Jennifer who writes Plowing Through Life has roasted mushrooms in her air fryer, I thought that sounded genius. Air fryers cook so fast and the early prep is perfect.

Mushrooms can take on a range of flavorings and garlic, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar makes a great combination. Jennifer points out that you want the marinade to have time to really sink in and she sometimes prepares the marinade and lets them sit in it all day. I can see these going fast. Love that she said she’d used an 8 oz package and realized she needs double that as she makes this mushroom recipe.

Stuffed Mushrooms in the Crock Pot

Stuffed mushrooms are a near constant in restaurants and I love the look of these cheesy stuffed mushrooms Jennifer makes. With sausage and cheese, what’s not to like? She says they make a great appetizer or a party food… I can see these at some picnics this summer for sure. And the sign of getting a recipe done well is also learning what can go wrong will… appreciate the tip on cooking then keeping warm rather than long cook times and helping gaming out which cheeses seem to work best.

Mushrooms Pair Well With Meat

So many of us these days are omnivores and look at ways to add more vegetables to the plate. Because mushrooms pair so well with various meats, there seem to be a lot of farm mushroom recipes in my circles.

Hamburger Steaks with Mushroom Gravy

The first time I went to J-M, I remember clearly asking Terry Jurgensmeyer his favorite way to eat mushrooms and he said with a nice steak. I laughed but understood since I have eaten more than a few with steak myself.

But mushrooms aren’t just for steaks! My friend Jent at Farmwife Feeds makes some cast iron skillet hamburger steaks that scream comfort and seriously made me drool. She quickly cooks the mushrooms and onions, then adds the burger patties and gravy.

Mushroom Gravy that’s Golden on Pork

The love of good gravy is something my dad definitely taught me and I think Jent’s family has that same background. This crock pot recipe has a mushroom-based gravy for boneless pork chops. I really haven’t cooked pork chops in a crock pot before, but since her family raises hogs, I figure I should try.  Besides she reminds us about using a meat thermometer to avoid over-cooking the pork.

Pasta Recipes with Mushrooms

If your family is like many, pasta is among the go to recipes when everyone has been going in different directions. Mushrooms seem to take the most simple pasta dish up a notch. Farmers shared few recipes with us.

Cheesy Turkey with Penne

When you work with turkey farmers for years, you pick up a few things on cooking with turkey beyond the holidays. My friend Lara at My Other More Exciting Life pairs turkey, mushrooms, penne and a creamy parmesan sauce in what she calls Creamy Parmesan and Turkey Penne and she’s posted it for Instant Pot and Crock Pot. And although she prefers to also bake it a bit to get a good browning to the cheese and let the pasta soften as it soaks up a bit more liquid, she also gives the directions for Instant Pot that makes that optional.

Meaty Spaghetti Sauce

Jent tells us she makes big batches of meat sauce with mushrooms that she will use in a few recipes — spaghetti one night, lasagna another and some to tuck in the freezer for a really quick turn around. She dices the mushrooms really finely since she has a few folks in the house who aren’t fans of mushrooms but they never object to this and she knows it is getting adds nutrition.

What’s your favorite way to eat mushrooms?

The post Mushroom Recipes You Will Love appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.

It seems like avocado recipes were a good way to follow up the tour of an avocado farm and the interview with a farmer sharing tips on how to find the perfect avocado. Not only did I have a box of avocados at the house, I have friends who write about food all the time!

Avocados Recipes & Hard Avocados

Who hasn’t run to the grocery store and bought avocados wanting to make guacamole or something immediately. As Mimi Avocado told us in the podcast, avocados give us a chance to grow as people as we work on being more patient. She gives you a lot of tips on what to do with hard avocados (and what crack pot ideas she’s heard that simply do not work) on her site. She has another post that gives you all the tips on handling avocados at home and how to tell whether an avocado is ripe or not.

Making Guacamole

You can’t mention avocados without a lot of minds going straight to guacamole and chips! I can still remember my first visit to San Diego and sitting in Old Town enjoying it so much that i had absolutely no room for dinner! But there isn’t just one way to make guacamole and people get some questions, so I have a few guacamole recipes I want to share. I love that Mimi has so many to choose from but also have some other farmers who love guacamole too. Several great avocado recipes here!

A Good, Basic, Easy Guacamole

My friend Jent in Indiana shares a good recipe for fresh guacamole on her site Farm Wife Feeds that sounds really familiar to me. She says her daughter is the guac pro and every time they make it they munch it all up!

Making a Big Batch of Guacamole

Mimi’s story of how she met her husband and was captivated by his big bowl of guacamole for a potluck makes me smile. But seriously, making a guacamole for a crowd isn’t that easy unless you know how to get a lot of avocados at peak all at once!

The Fastest & Easiest Guacamole

Sometimes, you have a ripe avocado ready to go but maybe you don’t have all the other fresh ingredients? Mimi says the fastest & easiest guacamole which includes simply salsa and a season salt, fresh cilantro takes it up a notch. Some times she even adds proteins to it to make a heartier snack like these smoked ham guacamole bites.

Avocado Toast

I’m going to start by admitting I’m not a great cook but I love certain foods and learn to prepare those at the very least. Making avocado toast has brightened several days during quarantine.

While having the perfectly ripe avocado is the most important piece, I am also a bit of a bread fanatic. Many friends and family are busily tending a sour dough starter and baking bread, I love bread fresh from the over but admittedly, I’m not a regular baker. I love that I can get sour dough from my local grocery via Instacart. My options range from St. Louis’ own Companion Bakery or from Izzo’s in San Francisco.

I didn’t have any fresh cilantro, which I love with avocado, so I used just a little cilantro-flavored cotton seed oil. It was awesome!

Mimi Avocado tells us how they make avocado toast and it sounds like they do ALL THE THINGS since they have acres of avocado trees I toured in their back and side yards. She uses mashed avocado sometimes, slices the avocado others. And she talks about a range of toppings that go well with avocado. Since a friend is going to the seafood market today and dropping by a few things, I may have to try out some new ideas myself based on Mimi’s inspiration!

Avocado Frittata for Breakfast

My friend Jenny, met her true love and moved from California to North Dakota. Although she loves the prairie, she misses some of the local produce that was always so incredibly accessible. Of course, grocery stores and home delivery can cover most of us wherever we are. She talks about all of that and more as she provides a recipe for the avocado and tomato frittata that looks awesome and rounds out our avocado recipes nicely!

The post Five Avocado Recipes You Really Need to Check Out appeared first on Grounded by the Farm.