Joy in the Kitchen!

Mmmm!!!   Fresh!   This week the weather has cooled off.  We've had rain and the leaves are turning to a beautiful yellow and orange celebration of fall!  Most of my garden is finishing up but the tomatoes and cucumbers are still producing well!  We live in a cooler climate so we are thrilled with any tomatoes that have time to ripen!  I have had a terrific crop of cucumbers this year, but not fresh dill to can dill pickles at this point.  That's ok as I love the crisp texture of a fresh cucumber from the garden! This little salad is easy to fix for just one, or for a crowd.  It is quick to arrange and if covered with plastic wrap, will hold a few hours until time to serve.  If desired you could add mozzarella balls or some type of olives to your plate.  Lately I love Kalamata and Castelvetrano olives.  I've had a struggling basil plant in the garden that is finally starting to thrive and I'm happy to have fresh basil to use ri...

  Summer is winding down here and one of the best parts is that it is time to enjoy the fruits (or vegetables!) of our earlier summer labor planting a garden!  I love garden harvest season!  We are harvesting cucumbers right now.  So far I've canned several pints of Sweet Sticks and several quarts of my Mom's old recipe for Dill Pickles. The recipe I'm sharing today should really be named Linda's Fresh Dill Pickles.   I got the recipe from my Mom and her neighbor Linda gave it to her.  I have no idea why it is called a dill pickle as there is no dill in the recipe and there is sugar in it.  However, it does not have the usual turmeric, mustard seed, and cider vinegar that is often in sweet pickles.   The mystery may continue as neither Linda nor my Mom are around to ask.  If you prefer a traditional sweet pickle taste check out my mother-in-law's recipe Shirley's Sweet Refrigerator Pickles . Today I only mixed up a half batch so I c...

I have fond memories of growing up near many of my cousins and Aunts and Uncles!  My Grandpa had let his kids purchase 5 acre lots of land to build on from the acreage he farmed so there were four of my Dad's siblings in a row on the road I grew up on.  The other four of the eight children lived further away, but still close enough to visit often, and until I was 8 years old, my Grandma lived just over a mile from us "in town". Each summer there was a family reunion held, often at Uncle Lloyd's house, which was just through the field from my house.  Tables laden with each Aunt's fried chicken and favorite potluck salads and desserts were the highlight of the day!   Adults visited and children played together in the shade of the old apple trees there in Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Gilberta's yard.  By late afternoon everyone parted ways and returned to their own homes, except Uncle Von and his family who often stayed with us for a few nights since they lived 4 hour...

  It has been cold and snowy white as far as the eye can see where I live!  This week the temperatures are supposed to be above freezing for the first time in several weeks!  I mean high 30's!  Absolutely balmy!  When we're this far into winter, I'm always ready for some peeks into spring.  Though we are several weeks away from the snow melting enough to see the ground, I enjoy including this colorful, fresh salad in my menu!  It's a lovely reminder of the garden harvest I'll enjoy this summer.  This is more of a throw-it-together sort of dish rather than one needing exact measurements, but I have some guidelines I use as the base of this dish.   I make it in this quantity for myself for lunch, or I leave the garbanzo beans out and add another cucumber and a little more olive oil and lemon and use it as a side dish for the family at dinnertime.   I've never been a fan of vinegar and oil dressing on salads, but I love, love, L...

Several years ago I inherited my Mom's old yogurt maker from the 70's.  Well, to be truthful, I borrowed it for so long she forgot where it was until I confessed.  She let me keep it!  (Wish I could "borrow" her 100 year old upright grand piano! LOL)  I've made many batches of yogurt in this machine.  It has been well worth the money Mom paid for it.  :) You do NOT, however, have to have a neat little machine to make fine yogurt!  The only thing that machine does, is keep the yogurt at a constant temperature while it incubates (I know that makes it sound like it's going to hatch, but it's the only word I can think of to describe it at the moment!) .... around 100 degrees.  There are several other options for keeping it warm but I'll just share the two I've used. There are a few items that are useful for making yogurt:  a cooking thermometer the one I use looks like THIS .... a larger, heavy bottomed pot.... glass jars, quart, p...

Chunky Black Bean Salsa is so fresh and light, if I close my eyes I can almost imagine it's summer.  After this long, cold, winter, I could use some summer - even if it's imagined! The Super Bowl is coming up and this salsa will be part of our festivities.  We always have Super Nacho's (you can find the recipe HERE ) but Chunky Black Bean Salsa will be a fun addition for those who want a little bit lighter snacking.  Mix this up the day before or an hour ahead and then chill until ready to enjoy! Chunky Black Bean Salsa 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed 1/2 C. onion, diced 1 1/2 C. tomato, diced 1/2 green pepper, diced 1/2 C. corn (canned and drained, or frozen and thawed) 1/4 C. chopped cilantro 1/2 jalapeno pepper, minced  (more or less as desired!) 1 tsp. salt 1 lime Mix all of the vegetables and beans together and then sprinkle the salt over the top.  Add cilantro and salt.  Squeeze lime over all and toss until well mixed. ...

Born and raised right in the middle of Idaho potato country has allowed me to enjoy potatoes almost every day of my life.  We can grow potatoes in our garden but when there are fields and fields of them all around us it's so easy to buy bulk potatoes from a nearby farmer and store them for the winter.   This year I bought from my cousin who has a field just a mile from me.  This field is part of a farm my grandpa bought and farmed with his boys many years ago. Good soil for growing potatoes and families.  I grew up hearing stories of hand picking potatoes out of the rows in the fall harvest but with modern equipment harvesting is much easier!   There's nothing like the earthy smell of potatoes fresh out of the ground.   Freshly dug Idaho Potatoes heading into the cellar for storage. Big beautiful spuds!!! I like to store 200-300 pounds of potatoes through the winter.  If I pull them right out of the field and put them in gunny sacks or box...

Dinner meals when I was a child most often consisted of four items on the dinner plate; meat, potato, vegetable, and a salad.  Very seldom did we have casseroles or dishes like spaghetti or rice.  (My Dad ate a LOT of rice while he was in the Navy during WWII and Mom rarely cooked it because of that.)  Mom made meals from things we had on hand, meat that we raised or vegetables that we grew. Sometimes cream, butter, and eggs that were produced at home were available to use as well. This vegetable dish, Green Bean Spanish, was a fun accompaniment for the meat, potato and salad that was so common. I was going through my recipe cupboard a few weeks ago and came across a newspaper article I had saved that featured my Aunt Lois's "best recipes".   She had included this recipe of Green Bean Spanish with those.  Though she called it String Bean Spanish. Rumor has it, that this recipe was handed down from my great-grandfather who lived in Mexico for a while as...

Yum!  If you live nearby and go to the Eastern Idaho State Fair or if you've gone to the corn maze in Blackfoot, you may have had Mexican Crazy Corn.  It is delicious!  This is similar.  Essentially you're coating corn on the cob with mayonnaise and Cotija cheese.  They offer chili lime and another seasoning to sprinkle on and I love the chili lime...  just a little though. Our garden still has a few nice ears of corn left in the patch and that's what we used tonight.   If you still have corn on the cob available near you - give this delicious twist a try! Mexican Corn on the Cob Husk as many ears of corn as you'd like to serve.   Boil corn on the cob for about 8-10 minutes.  Remove and pat dry.   Spread each ear of corn with a generous amount of mayonnaise (not salad dressing!) and then spoon grated Cotija cheese on each ear of corn until it is completely covered.  It should be fairly heavy.   Sprinkle with chi...

This Savory Garlic Pull-Apart Bread was a terrific accompaniment for the Turkey Pasta salad we had for dinner tonight. I wanted to make a garlic bread of some sort.  I used the dough recipe that my friend Pat uses for her cinnamon rolls (I had just printed it off and it was still on the counter!  Nice and handy!) though I did cut that recipe in half.  I did add a tad more salt, and a tad less sugar.  I dipped pieces of dough from that into melted butter mixed with garlic powder.    Next time, I will use more garlic and a little salt with the butter.  I included those changes with this recipe. I was pleased over all with how these turned out!  They did almost grow out of the pan though!  My favorite part to eat was the crisp outer edges.  Mmmmm!   Definitely making these again!  I can't wait to try these with soups later this fall and winter! Savory Garlic Pull-Apart Bread 1 3/4 C. warm water 1/4 C. oil 1/3 C. su...

Pickled beets are one of the most colorful additions to a relish tray that you could ask for!  I like sliced pickled beets on salads.  I like them as a side for a holiday or special occasion meal.  On an old fashioned relish plate, along with pickles and olives, they brighten any gathering.   I can eat store-bought pickled beets, but I MUCH prefer home canned ones.  These are easy to make and tasty!    I got this recipe from my Mom.  I remember her making pickled beets for several years.  Turns out it is my sister-in-law Lanette's recipe. (The very same Lanette of Lanette's Cinnamon Rolls that I've posted a few years ago!  YUM!  You can trust Lanette!)  It is not spicy, which I love, and the process is simple.  You only need to water bath these as they have plenty of vinegar in them.  Golf ball or smaller sized beets are nice for these if you want them whole, but I quarter, sixth, or cube if my beets have ...

Our garden is finally coming on nicely!  One of the things we look forward to the most from our garden is creamed potatoes and peas.  My Mom used to make these a few times every summer from the first digging of potatoes and the first nice picking of peas.  Mom never had a measured recipe and neither have I, however, my kids and others have asked several times how to make them so this last time I made them I measured ingredients so I could write a recipe. :)   This should be more helpful than "add more milk until it's the thickness you like" or "until it tastes right". If you don't grow a garden or have access to a nice farmers market, you could use small red potatoes and frozen peas and have a dish that is still tasty.  It isn't nearly as wonderful as fresh from the garden, but it is still good. Creamed New Potatoes and Peas 3-4 lbs. of new red or gold potatoes 2 C. freshly shelled green peas Wash potatoes leaving skins on. Cut potatoes in...

My Dad grows a beautiful garden!  Every years since I can remember he has planted all the basics for our area and then a few less common vegetables.  One of those I love is parsnips.  If you've never heard of a parsnip, there's a wealth of information on the internet.  A quick explanation is that parsnips are a member of the carrot family, they are much more sweet, and a white color.  Parsnips can "winter over".  You can begin harvesting in the fall after the first frost, but you can leave them in the ground and dig in the spring as the ground thaws as well.   They sweeten more with the frost.  Dad usually digs his in the spring. These parsnips have wintered over and are a bit large.  Ideally they'll be the size of a large carrot. Mom always fixed parsnips by peeling, cutting in large chunks, and boiling until almost tender.  Then she would cool them, slice, and fry them in butter.  They were delicious!  I found I...

I'm not sure where Mom got the recipe for this relish, but it was written on the back of a 1960 TV listings sheet.   Reading what was on TV in 1960 was pretty interesting!  Did you know there was nothing on until 8a.m. and the last programing was done by 10:30p.m.   Ah... those were the days!  (though it was before my time so I don't remember it... just sounds lovely!)    Sometime I'll have to borrow that paper and list the programs.  So fun! Anyway - this relish was a staple in my house as I grew up.  It is great on hot dogs or with sandwiches or roast beef.  It's sweet like bread and butter pickles and nice and crunchy.  Mom has made some and shared with me through the years.  It's time I made it on my own!  I've got about a bushel and a half of green tomatoes to use! Mom used to borrow a hand grinder that ground fairly course.  You can't put the veggies in a blender or it will be too fine....

I'm not sure where this recipe came from, but I remember eating them and puckering when I was fairly small.  The recipe calls for tiny cucumbers, about the size of your little finger.  It is a great way for me to control my cucumber patch right now since it's producing more cucumbers than I need for other pickles!  These are quick and easy.  They do make you pucker up though.  Very tangy and the horseradish adds some bite. These are one of the reasons I love to can.  You won't find these pickles on the shelf of any store, and they are a fun addition to a special meal!  (I especially love them with roast beef.) Sally Lund Pickles Enough finger-length cucumbers to fill 3 pints (or 6 half-pints if you prefer) Wash cucumbers being sure to brush off all the prickly spines.  Pack in to jars.   Mix the following together, heating enough to dissolve the sugar: 2 C. apple cider vinegar 1/4 C. brown sugar 1/4 C...

I don't remember when Mom started making Dilly Beans , but she has as long as I can remember and I've always loved them.  My kids really love them.  I save them for special occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Birthday's.   If I didn't limit them, they'd be gone before fall was over.  I don't count these as a vegetable much to my children's dismay. The recipe is simple and EASY.  They can be done with minimal equipment and canning skills.  My biggest problem in sharing this recipe is giving a quantity of fresh green beans.  When I do them, I just pick my patch of beans, save out the nice straight ones for this and snap and can the rest as regular green beans.  Then I do however many quarts of dilly beans as I ended up with straight beans for. :)  Yesterday it was 6 quarts.... today I had 4 quarts. Warning :  This vinegar solution is lower in acid that the currently recommended amounts.  It is the same reci...

Dinner tonight is White Bean Chili!   What better side dish fora steaming bowl of chili than a nice big piece of cornbread!   I love the way cornbread is porous and lets the butter and honey soak right in.  Mmmm! Now, I realize that some of you don't recognize this type of cornbread as the REAL stuff since it is sweet and light, but, it's what folks in my neck of the woods are familiar with.  If you're looking for a light, sweet, moist cornbread, you'll enjoy this one.  This recipe makes a 9x13 pan full.  It is moist, and delicious.  If you can't use it up when you first serve it, it reheats in the microwave really well. Cornbread 1 C. melted margarine or butter 1 1/3 C. sugar 4 eggs, beaten 2 C. buttermilk 1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 C. plain yogurt or sour cream 1 tsp. salt 2 C. all purpose flour 2 C. corn meal Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix the sugar and melted butter together.  Add eggs and...

  Living in the middle of potato country, we eat a LOT of potatoes.  One of our favorite ways to eat them is mashed with gravy.  Once in a while we have leftover mashed potatoes.  I don't enjoy them reheated as much as fresh since they are often dry, but this recipe using leftover (or fresh) mashed potatoes is so tasty I purposely make extra mashed potatoes now so we can have this later in the week!  I love all the delicious toppings on a baked potato, and that is what I added to create this dish.  I think chives would be good on it as well - but we'll try that in the summer when my chives are growing and fresh. "Real" mashed potatoes are best.... but in a pinch you could use instant.  Here in Idaho it's just a shame to not use fresh potatoes though.  Loaded Mashed Potatoes 3 C. mashed potatoes (leftover or freshly mashed) 1/4 C. melted butter 1 C. sour cream 1 1/2 C. shredded cheese, reserving 1/2 C. 1/4 C. fried & crumbled bacon, more i...

Scalloped potatoes are one of my comfort foods.  Warm and creamy, they are terrific for cool fall evenings, or freezing winter nights.  Mom used to make this recipe once in a while during the winter.  She often served it as a side dish to ham or chicken.  I like to use it as a side dish to ham, chicken, barbeque country style ribs, OR as a main dish by adding chunks of ham or chicken on the top before baking.   Mmmmm!  It is super easy to make pretty much an entire nice meal in one oven with this.  Scalloped potatoes (in a 9x13), a roast chicken or some ribs, and on the rack under the potatoes, some winter squash.  Easy! I'm sure we had these less when I was growing up because they use Cream of Mushroom soup, and Mom didn't buy that very often.  Sure seems like I use cream of whatever soup a lot these days!  I know there are plenty of recipes that use milk or cream, but this one is easy, and so creamy and delicious! Tonight I m...

Ratatouille! (pronounced "rat-a- too -ee") I love this wonderful blend of garden vegetables.  I took a minute and researched ratatouille online and found that there are a lot of ways people make this. Different methods of assembly and an assortment of different herbs and seasonings.  One way is to saute all the vegetables together (as my recipe does), another has you saute each vegetable separately and then add to a pot all together to simmer, and the third is to saute each veggie individually and then layer in a casserole dish and bake.   I tend to always lean to the easy preparation methods and this recipe does that! Mom gave me this recipe along with a little dish of freshly cooked ratatouille several years ago.  It tasted so good I had to make it for my family.  I've no idea where she found the recipe, but it was a good find! When I set this on the table the other night and told my younger girls the name of it, they immediately thought...