With garden tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro available in lots of our gardens or at the farmers markets or roadside stands, now is the time to rely on fresh salsa for some quick meals. We all know that salsas gain from being prepared ahead so the flavors have time to blend, but you can still enjoy…
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Zucchini Part IV–Enchiladas too?
One of the things I’ve been trying to learn for this blog has been the art of food photography. Since I only have my simple kitchen and a pretty basic camera, the results I’m sure have been mixed. The photo in this entry shows I still need to work at the process. I have had…
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…
Spring Pea Soup
For many people, “pea soup” means a soup made with dried split peas, perhaps pureed into a thick creamy soup (like the kind in the old fashioned red and white can). However, Grandma Laack welcomed the early summer season with a fresh pea soup that is a lot lighter and a good dish for spring….
Garlic Bread Spread
A close member of my family (who shall remain nameless for now!) says she always loved having spaghetti and (vegetarian) meat balls for dinner because that meant they would also have garlic bread, one of her favorite dishes. If your family enjoys garlic bread as much as this, you may have been tempted to pick…
Sweet Leftovers
Though it may be hard for some to believe, I ended up with an “extra” cake this week. Some changed plans for a dessert potluck meant that I had an unfrosted, plain from the box mix white cake, with no immediate purpose for it. Thinking it would make a good basis for a trifle, I…