Green salsa citrus stew

Hi, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a delicious recipe for you. It's like stew, but not. If you're like us, you're suffering with this heat wave. We've been eating cold everything. Sandwiches, pasta, cereal. No kidding, I've been letting my kids eat cereal for three meals because it's not ice cream (that's for brunch and midnight snack).  

But every now and then we have to have some real food, so my daughter asked if we could make this recipe she saw in a magazine.

Originally, it had potatoes, pork, green chiles, and chicken broth. But we also like to use what we have and mix it up, so here's the new and updated version!

Ingredients:

 3 cups tomatillos

one onion

3 cops chopped pork

3-4 cups chopped potatoes

5 cups broth

two oranges

four large mint leaves

 Instead of green chiles, we used a jar of home canned tomatillos. You can buy these little green tomato-type things at the store. Easy to boil until they get soft. So, a jar of tomatillos and five cups of broth (what I had stored in the freezer). Bring to a boil. It's tempting to start adding spices and seasoning but just wait because when you add the potatoes, you'll have to start all over.

 Chopped potatoes. We used about ten, but we were cooking for a crowd. I'd say as a rule for this stew to make sure your tomatillos, potatoes, and pork are in equal amounts.

 Fry up some pork chops. Ugh. not attractive before they're cooked but so good after!

 Now, chop the pork into small cubes, add to the potato and tomatillo stew. Adjust the broth if necessary. It should be pretty soupy because it has a while to boil down. After letting it boil until the potatoes are soft, squeeze two large oranges (watch for seeds). The sweet citrus is a great addition to the tangy green salsa. It gives it a balance and keeps it from being overwhelming.

 Last step, add four or five large mint leaves. Mint and pork always go together, but my husband adds mint to his stews because he says it's good for digestion. Not sure if that's true, but I LOVE the smell of mint/citrus stew. He even adds it to chicken soup, and it gives it such an exotic flavor. After the mint has cooked for a few minutes, add salt and pepper and maybe some hot sauce to taste. Depending on what heat level you like, you can leave off the hot sauce altogether, or serve it individually.

 A dollop of sour cream, some tortilla chips and some cilantro completes the dish!

That's all for now! I hope everyone is surviving the heat! I've just passed a deadline and am diving back into another series, so I'm feeling like life is AWESOME. Lol. You can tell I always love starting more than beginning a book. Or maybe both? Anyway, stop by my Mary Jane Hathaway author page, or my Virginia Carmichael page (soon to be resurrected pen name!), or my blog at The Things That Last. Until next time!

Quick and Easy Veggie Burritos

by Missy Tippens

When I tried to figure out what to post about, I realized how little cooking I've done lately (beyond throwing a sandwich together or making my standbys of spaghetti or tacos or grilled chicken). So I went searching for photos of food in my phone. I had to look back to mid-June, right before our move. I found that I had made a quick and easy veggie burrito that turned out really good!

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

1 or 2 zucchini, chopped

1 can black beans

1/2 bag frozen corn (or open a can if you prefer)

tortillas (I use the low carb, high fiber ones)

grated cheddar cheese (or any kind of cheese)

Any other veggies you'd like to add

Sauté the onion in some olive oil until translucent.  Then add in the zucchini and cook until starting to get tender.

Add in the corn. Then once that's heated through, stir in the beans. Cook until heated.

Fill the tortilla and sprinkle on some cheese of your choice.

Serve with a little sour cream or salsa if you'd like. Enjoy! This is great for making dinner in just a few minutes.

www.missytippens.com

Ruthy's Homemade Four-Berry Jam

NEWSFLASH!!!

Years ago I read an article that talked about how freezing berries makes them "juice" better once thawed.

Well, I wasn't born yesterday, and when Big Box stores moved into town, I realized I could buy a ginormous bag of individually quick frozen (IQF up here) sliced strawberries, Triple Berry Blend and sour cherries.

Now sour cherry jam is a family favorite, a recipe my mother-in-law loved and shared a long time ago.

And each year I buy a 40lb. bag of IQF frozen sour cherries and I pour those little fellows into 1 quart or 1 gallon freezer bags and pop them in the freezer. I make sour cherry jam, and cherry pies and whatever else seems fitting...

The point is... I love fresh fruit, and I loved the fun of going off and picking berries, but here's the
4-1-1... I'm crazy busy now with two jobs, an amazing writing career, 6 kids and 14 grandkids and a farm...

So if I can find a way to create amazingly good things on less time and even less money?

DONE!

This jam is based on the reduced sugar recipe version on the Ball Classic Pectin

A batch makes 2 eight-ounce jars. I quadrupled it to get 8 eight-ounce jars, or 4 sixteen-ounce jars...

Here's the super simple recipe:

Four-Berry Jam

4 1/2 cups frozen triple berry mix (thaw in microwave and mash to equal 3 cups)

4 1/2 cups frozen sliced strawberries (thaw in microwave and mash to equal 2 1/3 cups)

6 Tablespoons Classic Pectin

2 tsp. butter

5 cups sugar

Put mashed berries in 8 quart kettle. Cook over medium-high heat. Stir in butter and pectin gradually. Stir and bring to rolling boil, stirring constantly, a boil that cannot be stirred down.

Add sugar all at once.

Stir sugar in quickly, bring mixture back to a full rolling boil and boil one minute.

Ladle into clean, hot jars.

Top with hot lid and screw band. Place jam in water bath canner, cover with water and boil for ten minutes.

Remove jars from boiling water bath, allow to cool. Lids will seal as jam cools.

We are in love with this jam! It is so good, and I made up a dozen 8 ounce jars to use for Christmas presents. How much fun is it to have delicious homemade jam in a Christmas box or basket?

Yes! This is truly Christmas in July!

And here is some summertime crazy fun for you... The first is Logan. Do you love that somewhat crazy but  charming grin? He built me a HOUSE with a chimney and a blue pond with a fish and a frog... He made Grammy's house! And the second pic is... me. A Play Doh version of me. Stunning resemblance!!!

And then we've got this:

Artist MacKenzie at work, photobombed by cinnamony Watermelon Rind Pickles!!!!

And Friday the girls decided to GET DIRTY:

  Spa day with mud packs, anyone????

And then my weekend project with Mandy and Casey... Mandy used her power washer to wash the front porch concrete floor.... Casey painted the railings..... And I etched the floor with acid, then applied the "bonder" and then two coats of paint... So here you have the before:

And the after!!!

LOVE IT! This week we'll put the swing back and the flowers and then we'll do the same thing to the side porch. There are never enough summer weekends to fit all the summer projects and parties... but we're doing our best to stretch things out!

So that's it from the farm. We've just rolled the big produce stand out to the road, yellow squash, zucchini, beans and cucumbers are ready, and soon tomatoes and corn will join them... And while Mother Nature has been a little stingy with rain, we've been paying young folks to help fill and distribute gallon jugs of water. And we'll leave you with one last picture of what summer's all about... sleepy babies at the town fireman's parade...

And life is good.

Ruthy Logan Herne is living her dream writing sweet inspirational stories that make folks laugh, cry and sigh as they turn the pages... she lives on a farm in upstate New York and loves God, her family, her country, dogs, cats, chocolate, coffee and flowers because if you live up north, your flower season has inborn limitations!

Follow her on Twitter, friend her on facebook at Ruth Logan Herne or stop by her website ruthloganherne.com to see what's coming up in Ruthy's world!

What to Cook when the Temps are Cooking?

It's hot!

Really hot.

Since I had a meat thermometer out the other day, I decided to check the temp in my kitchen - 95degrees

Which is just my wimpy way of explaining why there's really not much cooking going on at the moment. The heat wave and the fact that I was at a writing workshop for teachers for the past two days.

But we still have to eat.

Honestly, I'd probably rather eat a bowl of cereal -

This one was on sale for $2.99 last week. It's already one of my favorites, but load it with a pile of fresh blueberries??? Oh yum!

It's really kind of scary how many blueberries I have eaten in the past few weeks!


But man (or woman) cannot survive on cereal alone, no matter how tasty.

So I've done a few quick meals this week that gave me nutrition and taste without a lot of oven time.

The first is similar to one I've done before. I had the most amazing plum tomatoes from the farmer's market plus my basil, so what better to do than fresh pizza.

All I did for this was hollow out a loaf of Italian bread - you don't have to but I like the crust better than the doughy part.

 

I sprinkled shredded cheese and garlic powder on the bread, then added some oregano and fresh basil leave. I topped it with those luscious tomatoes.

The concoction went into the oven just long enough to melt the cheese. DIVINE.

Oh my goodness!  I could eat this stuff all day!

In fact, I made it again tonight on mini pitas instead. I left the tomatoes off one.

Fenny's hoping I'll drop a shrimp.

But last night we were in the midst of crazy storms so I was late cooking. I sure didn't feel like cooking when I had to close the kitchen windows on top of the 95 degree h


Saved by the leftovers.

I made fried haddock for my husband a week ago. Brilliant me thought I would forego my usual egg batter and try the milk soak that Ruthy described for fried onions.

Nope. Didn't work. Made a mess.

I had more of the haddock so I fried that up normally for him and saved the rest in the freezer.

So one night when I had no culinary inspiration whatsoever, I  remembered that haddock. I took it out, added some pre-cooked shrimp from COSTCO, covered with a breadcrumb topping, some lemon and butter, and stuck under the broiler for a few minutes. Soooo very good.

If it wasn't summer, I probably would have paired it with rice or noodles, but this was perfectly light just as was.



Nice things about summer -

When I'm in Maine, I love summer sunrises. But this year, stuck in the city, I'm really appeciating all the vivid summer sunsets. The camera really doesn't do the brilliant sky justice.

This doesn't even begin to capture the colors, but I took it through my window so not too bad,

 

 

 

 

 

Sunrise in Maine.

 

 

Roasted Cauliflower...umm...Steaks?

I ran across this recipe on line somewhere recently, and had to try it.

We've talked about roasted veggies here in the Cafe before, but this...oh man...you have to try it!

Start with a head of cauliflower. Doesn't it look beautiful?

Slice it into "steaks" about one inch thick. I did three (one was quite small) because this was going to be the main course for my lunch. If you're using it as a side dish, make one slice per person.

Lay the "steaks" on parchment paper that you've prepared with cooking spray or lightly coated with oil. Coat the top of the slices with oil, also. (I used coconut oil.)

Season with salt, pepper and garlic. Roast at 450° for 45 minutes.

Be sure to choose a coolish day!

After 45 minutes, take the "steaks" out of the oven and add whatever toppings sound good. I used shredded cheddar, but don't you think crumbled bacon would be great, too?

Put the pan back in the oven and turn off the heat. Leave it be for 30-45 more minutes.

I left mine in for a full hour - a bit too long - but so scrumptious! The cauliflower was soft and creamy, and the cheese was toasted and yummy.

And yes, it was a delicious lunch!

In other news, it's tourist season in the Black Hills (or anywhere, I guess!). We spent some time being tourists over the weekend. We visited one of our favorite spots in Custer State Park: The Badger Hole.

I wrote about this quaint cabin and the prolific poet who lived there last year (you can read that post here), and I fell in love with the place and the man all over again on this visit.

After all, how can you not love a man whose walls are lined with bookshelves?

And looking at that post from last year, I am reminded that I gave up on my sourdough! But no worries. I'm going to try again...I'll see if I know what went wrong last summer. I think I have it figured out.

How is the summer going at your house? Do you have tourists in your area? Or are you the one who travels to far destinations?

Jan Drexler loves her family, her home, cooking and just about anything made by hand. But she loves her Lord most of all.

Stop by Jan's website to learn more about her books: www.JanDrexler.com

Double Chocolate Pound Cake with Ganache topping

Hi everybody! Here's the recipe I promised last week when I was still unpacking. We had so much fun this week trying new recipes and making cakes, but I'll share those in the coming weeks. For now, it's double chocolate pound cake!
But first...

 It's apricot season!! Oh my yum. These are so delicious. We can pick twenty lbs and they're gone in days. Okay, we do share them but still... So much fresh deliciousness!
                                               
And I love this picture. I had a reluctant reader who decided he WOULD NOT READ. I believe in leading kids to education, not shoving it down their throats, so I told him that was fine. He was only six after all. And so the months went on and he repeated how he would never read and didn't want to. But it happened anyway. You just can't NOT read when you're read to for an hour a night (oh, the wonderful books we've read!), spend hours in a library every week, live in a house where books outnumber people 100-1, and are surrounded by people reading ALL THE TIME. So, I had to snap this picture of my reluctant reader who now reads at a fourth grade level. In fact, he was reading the Redwall series by Brian Jacques last night. Makes my mama heart happy. :)

 So, the cake. A friend sent me her recipe after I taste it at a BBQ. It was SO GOOD.

You'll need these ingredients:

 1 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

 1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp espresso powder

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup milk

1 cup plus 2 tbs flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

 1/2 tsp baking soda

For the ganache topping:

3/4 cup heavy cream

4.5 oz dark chocolate

Sorry I don't have pictures of the process. I know I took some, but I was also cleaning out my phone from the trip and somehow... That's why I love facebook. At least there was one photo of the cake!

Mix the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla together. Mix all dry ingredients. Mix sugar butter mix and dry ingredients together, then slowly add sour cream and milk. Cook at 350F for about 40-50 minutes. Check often because the color is so dark you won't be able to tell by looking and that last ten minutes can make or break a cake!

So, here's our recipe for next week! Goes right along with Ruthy's Christmas in July collections!

 Orange buttermilk pound cake in a Cathedral pan.
                                               
We actually checked out the pan from our library. How cool is that??

But a word of warning... it doesn't like all cakes. This poor lemon blueberry buttermilk cake was super delicious but not fit for company, hahahaha.

OK, see everyone next week! I'm at the end of a deadline and I ALWAYS cook like crazy. Stress relief... unless it looks like the cake above!

Stay cool and keep cooking!

Old-fashioned Oatmeal Cake with Broiled Coconut Topping, a Herne Family Fave... and Christmas in July SALE!

Happy Friday, all!!!

I feel like sharing some holiday fun today.

We've got all of our Christmas Collections on sale at Amazon for .99.

NINETY-NINE CENTS!!! That rocks.... If you love Christmas and a great deal, head on over and grab one... or all four! Four collections for under $4.00

Sweet deal!!!!   And here it is on AMAZON:

Don't you just love, love, love that cover? Sweet, bucolic, pastoral, all the things we love to embrace about homesteaders and pioneers and times gone by....

Those folks worked so hard, so long and in often unforgiving conditions and many of them gave up, called it a day, and went back home, back east, back to some kind of civilization.

Who could blame them? The ones who stayed, who settled in, who toughed it out were either made of grittier stuff (yes!), luckier (most likely!), prideful (uh, huh!!!!) or had a better working knowledge and endurance for making do.

We're a bit spoiled now... And sometimes we take for granted what others did to gain our freedoms, our lands, our growth and our government, but when I jump into a historical like "A Town Called Christmas" (Hope for the Holidays historical collection) or "Prairie Promises" (Homestead Brides) I stand amazed by how stinkin' lazy I am by comparison.

Imagine living in a soddy?

EEE GADS!!!!! And yet 160 acres of FREE LAND?????? Arable land, once you could figure how to get a pitchfork through ten inches of knitted prairie grass roots. Sod potatoes, tiny, measly things. Sod corn, struggling for life to give misshapen ears. No shade, little respite from the sun, few windows, bugs, mice, snakes....

We are so blessed! :)  I love a sacrificial nature, it's like the most amazing gift from God, but heaven help me I whine like a baby when the temps go over 85.... And I'm in deciduous forest land, there are shade trees everywhere, so what am I whining about?

I've learned that success in most anything comes down to this:

Do the best job you can at every job you're given and ...

Don't quit.

Because it's not about the talent or the skill as much as it's about the diligence, perseverance and work ethic. The smartest employees who take regular sick days for every little thing are NOT the most valued....

It's the worker bees!!!! The dawn-to-duskers, the ones who show up, regardless, plant their heels and go. And speaking of worker bees, here's the 2014 "Hope for the Holidays" Historical Collection:

So today we're going to do a fun, old recipe, something I've loved for decades and a favorite in our house.

Boiled Oatmeal Cake with Broiled Coconut Topping (and if I get done and discover this in our list, well... clearly it's worth a second look, but I scanned and didn't see it!)

350° oven (moderate oven)     

30-35 minutes (cake should be golden and dry on top, moist crumbs on toothpick test)  for 13" x 9" pan, greased and floured

Cake:

Mix together in small saucepan:  

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 cup quick oats

Let sit while making cake batter.

Cream: 1/2 cup butter

              1 cup brown sugar

              1 cup sugar

              2 large eggs

Divert invading baby's attention by feeding him peeled apple.

Cream until fluffy and smooth. 

Add in:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons.... (So then I had to wonder if the original recipe used Softasilk flour because this is the same ratio.... but I've used both and the cake is wonderful!)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

Mix dry mixture and creamed mixture. Blend. Add cooked oatmeal. Blend again. Bake until done, cool at least one half hour. 

Top with coconut frosting and broil.

Broiled Coconut Topping

Melt 9 tablespoons butter in saucepan or bowl.

Add:

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1 1/2 cups flaked coconut

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I forgot this, oops! Faded old recipe!)

1 cup of chopped nuts can be added if desired.

Stir together and then add 1/4-1/2 cup cream or milk until topping is of spreading consistency. Pour onto cake and place a few inches under broiler (it is helpful to turn the broiler ON....) :) and let broil until topping starts to turn golden brown.

One of my favorite cakes in this world, including CHOCOLATE VARIETIES!!!!! I love this old fashioned cake, and if I'm on a cakewalk.... This is where my eye is drawn!

And if you're after contemporary Christmas romance (and who isn't???) here are the contemporary collections on sale now!  A Heart Full of Christmas on Amazon:

And here is Hope For the Holidays, Contemporary Collection on the Zon!