Old Time Fruit and Chocolate Chip Bars

Decades ago, I had the opportunity to watch my kids’ great-grandmother read through a little farm paper, The Farmer’s Friend and Rural Reporter. Every week when it arrived in the mailbox, she would turn to the back, past the updates on crop conditions and market reports, to the pages designed just for farm wives like…

Triple Fruit Upside Down Cake

Looking for a dessert or sweet coffee accompaniment that includes some of the rhubarb and strawberries so common this time of the year? Here is a cake/coffee cake/English style pudding that, along with some added apple, brings out the best of these spring fruits, with a cake layer that ends up being almost like a…

No Pectin Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Spring in the Midwestern garden seems to just require doing things with rhubarb. It’s a little early for local strawberries up here in Minnesota, but there are still specials that I can’t resist, and my rhubarb seems to peak earlier than that of many of my neighbors, so time to sit on the deck and…

Creamy Mexican Corn Soup

  Lots of wonderful cilantro remains in the refrigerator, along with half a can of green chiles–perfect start for a creamy soup full of flavor and suitable for a nice vegetarian supper. This is an adaption of a fresh corn soup and was made with super sweet farmers’ market corn I had frozen last summer….

Potato Pancakes as a Cinco de Mayo Entree? Really!

Happy 5th of May! I took advantage of some Cinco de Mayo specials this week, so I had plenty of cilantro, fresh jalapenos, and red onions. My first plan for breakfast had been some kind of breakfast burrito, but I realized that some russet potatoes needed attention…today! Potato pancakes have long been a favorite family…