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Some people read novels. I read cookbooks and cooking magazines. There is something so intriguing about new recipes. If a cookbook has good how-to photos, or beautiful photography, they rank higher in my to-read list.
My favorite cookbooks are the two that our church has published, and one that I put together for my sister-in-law shortly before she married my brother. Those cookbooks contain recipes that have been handed down for a few generations, along with a few “newer” recipes. Around the holidays, I have many cookie, Scandinavian, and German cookbooks that I use. There are always the good, specialty books as well. Scones, muffins, hand pies, bread, grilling, cakes, pressure cookers, crock-pot – oh the possibilities when I open my cupboards!
Jonathan and I belong to a dinner club, where the host sets the theme and assigns different courses to the other members. Talk about a challenge! After making a few recipes, I finally joined Pinterest so I could pin some of these recipes. So far, I think the favorite things that I’ve made have been a Rick Bayless Chocoflan cake, a Bobby Flay Coconut cake, and a tomato basil soup. Can I count Pinterest as a giant cookbook?
I am thankful for many types of cookbooks, and the ability to prepare a variety of foods for my family and friends. Since Thanksgiving is in a few days, I think I had better get a few off of the shelf, and figure out my grocery list!
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When looking for a good lettuce based salad to serve at our Century Appreciation Party, I immediately thought of the Marshall Salad recipe that was given to me by my sister-in-law, Sally. When you have the basics down, you can do some switching up to suit your tastes, or your crowd.
The dressing for the salad needs to be refrigerated for 3 hours, so a little planning ahead would be good. To make things easier for serving at our party, we skipped making the dressing, and had bottled dressings available.
The full written recipe will appear after the photos.
The very first step, especially if you are making this in the summer, is to prepare an iced coffee (or your favorite cold beverage). I would save the intoxicating forms for later…you’ll be operating with sharp knives.
MMM. Iced coffee
Next, you will need to make your salad dressing. Remember, it needs to chill for three hours (it can be left in the fridge overnight and be just as good).
Salad dressing ingredients
Does anyone else have issues with the markings washing off of your Pyrex glass measuring cups? That’s one reason why I like to measure liquid ingredients larger than 1/4 cup on a scale.
I like using a scale when measuring out liquid ingredients
After you have measured out and poured the oil and lemon juice into the blender, crush the cloves of garlic. If you don’t have a “bash and chop” style utensil, use a broad knife such as the chef knife shown here.
Place the knife flat onto the garlic clove, and strike the knife with the heel of your hand. It is super important to keep your fingers out of the way. We don’t want any emergency room visits while we are making supper!
After you have smashed the garlic, it becomes super easy to peel. Give it a rough chop, and add it to the blender.
Garlic Smash
Add the salt, and pepper…
Then blend. The liquid will turn white pretty quickly as the oil and lemon juice emulsify, just make sure you blend long enough to chop the garlic into itty bitty pieces.
Pour the dressing into a glass jar, and cover. If you have a small Mason jar with a lid handy, use that.
While the dressing is chilling, slice your bacon slices. If your knives are not sharp, a kitchen shears works really well for cutting bacon.
Fry the bacon until it is a golden brown.
Then drain the bacon on paper towels and let cool. I scoop the bacon out of the pan with a slotted spoon, and put it in a cereal bowl that has been lined with paper toweling. That way, I can throw some plastic wrap over the top, and put it in the fridge to cool while the dressing is chilling.
When I was about ready to assemble the rest of the salad, I took our Angus beef strip steaks (from our local Hy-Vee) out of the fridge and put them on a platter and lightly seasoned them with salt and pepper. We’re not huge pepper people, so I only seasoned one side with pepper. I set them aside until it was time to throw them on the grill.
Even pig farmers enjoy a good beef steak!
Using a clean cutting board (it is important to use separate cutting boards when making meals with meat and produce to prevent cross contamination. The chances of getting sick are low, but we all must practice food safety!), I brought out my Romaine lettuce, cut off the ends and removed the outer leaves before cutting the lettuce into bite size pieces. I ended up using all three heads of lettuce that came in the pack so none would go to waste.
I use a lettuce knife which is supposed keep the lettuce from turning brown. I don’t know if it works, but I like this little plastic knife. After the lettuce was cut, I washed it, and spun it dry in my salad spinner. I also washed the grape tomatoes and gave them a spin. If your grape tomatoes are approaching cherry tomato size, slice them in half after washing.
Then, it was time to put the steaks on the grill.
While the steaks were cooking, I assembled the salad in my fancy Dollar Tree bowl. On top of the lettuce I dumped the mozzarella cheese, shredded Parmesan cheese, grape tomatoes, and the cooled bacon.
I mixed the salad together with a pair of tongs before adding the dressing. Being the amateur food photographer that I am, I didn’t tidy up my work space before taking the next photo. But, really, who has time to be all tidy when you have steaks almost finished cooking, and your tummy is growling for this yummy salad?
After the dressing was added, I mixed the salad one more time with a large spoon. I don’t like soggy croutons, so we add ours at the table.
Finally, time to eat! The steaks were super tender, and didn’t need all kinds of treatment before grilling. The lightly seasoned meat paired very well with the salad.
A huge thanks goes out to my friend, Jenny Dewey, who helped guide my steak preparation.
Supper is served!
Marshall Salad
Dressing:
3/4 c (6 ounces) salad oil
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon salt & pepper
Blend in blender. Store in refrigerator for 3 hours. Toss with salad just before serving.
Salad:
2-3 heads romaine lettuce, torn up
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes
7 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup croutons
Mix together just before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator.
I’m sick. It doesn’t happen very often, and this cold is really making me feel cruddy. I am craving foods that give my insides a cuddle that only a warm, fuzzy blanket on a cold day can bring. Since my throat is pretty raw, and talking has become an issue, my first love has been tea.
When I was growing up, my mom would whip up a batch of Russian Tea mix in the fall. I loved coming inside from playing in the snow, and smelling the orange and spicy aroma of this tea. I still make a batch every fall, just to make sure I am prepared for the cold, snowy days of winter.
The ingredient list is pretty simple:
I have modified the recipe that is listed in our church cookbook, but that is the beauty of this recipe. You can tweak it to suit your taste.
Russian Tea Mix
2 cups Tang powdered orange drink (this works much better than orange Kool-aid)
1 1/2 cups sugar (I omit the sugar – this is sweet enough without it)
3/4 cup unsweetened lemon flavored instant tea
1/3 cup powdered lemonade (I use a couple packets of True Lemon instead)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Mix all ingredients…or, if you are like me, put all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until all particles are the same size. I prefer everything to be well mixed, and the same size so everything dissolves evenly. Store in an airtight container. Add 2 tablespoons of tea mix to an 8 ounce mug of boiling water.
I store my tea mix in a plastic airtight container.
Lately, I’ve been adding a splash of cranberry juice to my tea. If it’s before bed, I may add a splash of Prairie Vodka as well. It is my form of NyQuil.
What are some of your favorite comfort foods that you crave when not feeling well? Share your recipes, if you’d like. I’d love to try them!
When I am having troubles with inspiration on what to make for supper, I’ll ask Jonathan to bring a random package of meat in from the freezer. This time, he brought in a boneless pork loin roast. We put it in the fridge to thaw overnight, so I had a few hours to decide what I wanted to do with it.
The roast as it arrived in from the freezer.
Typically I like to use the Crock Pot, but since I wasn’t roasting any veggies with this one, I decided to use the oven. I have a Corning French White baking dish that we received for a wedding gift 24 years ago. It is the perfect size for most roasts.
This Corning baking dish rocks!
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. It is a good idea to spray the baking dish with non-stick spray. Unwrapping the roast is a little like unwrapping a Christmas present. You know that you are going to love what’s inside, you just don’t know exactly what it looks like. This one did not disappoint!
Beautiful boneless roast with an excellent fat cap
The layer of fat on top of this roast was beautiful! It wasn’t too thick, yet it covered nearly the whole top. When you are shopping for roasts, look for one with a layer of fat like this one. It helps keep the meat moist while it is roasting, yet isn’t so thick that your seasonings can’t flavor the meat.
Speaking of seasonings, I decided to go old school with a twist. I don’t know what is tradition in your area, but around this Scandinavian area, we don’t get too wild with the spice.
Hy-Vee dry onion soup mix, Vegetable Stock, and Red Wine – simple seasonings
I love the Hy-Vee brand of dry onion soup mix. It is inexpensive, and has a great flavor. Emeril’s Vegetable Stock has a good flavor, and isn’t too salty. The red wine may break some rules, but I really have no clue what wine is supposed to go with what meat. I just use what I like…as you should! If you don’t like wine, use apple juice.
Wine and Vegetable Stock poured over roast
Pour the liquids over the roast to get the surface moist. I used just under a cup of liquid total. After the liquid is in, sprinkle the dry onion soup mix over the top. It should look like this:
Dry onion soup mix sprinkled over the top
Cover the whole thing with aluminum foil, and place on the middle rack of the oven.
The middle rack is the best to make sure heat circulates evenly
This roast was still slightly frozen when I put it in, so I set the timer for 2 hours. I took it out about 5 minutes before the timer went off, and let it rest while still covered. If you are using a meat thermometer that you leave in while it is cooking, set your timer for 145 degrees. This is what it looked like after the rest period:
Fresh from the oven. It smelled so good!
I’m always a little nervous when I make the first cut into a roast. I don’t want to mess it up with a bad slicing job! I should mention – it is okay for the center to have a bit of pink in it if the meat reached 145 degrees. The first few slices revealed a slight pink, and lots of juice!
This roast was tender and juicy.
I sliced the roast into 3 ounce portions, or one slice per serving. If you are weight conscious – as I am – one serving of lean pork roast is an excellent source of protein.
Each slice is about 3 ounces, or one serving.
I went traditional with our sides. We love Bird’s Eye Baby Sweet Peas, mashed potatoes, and homemade gravy. One final photo before Jonathan and I devoured our supper. The meat was moist, and tender…sooo good!
Time flies when you are having fun, right? I can’t believe how fast the last month has gone!
Jonathan and Laura returned from Tanzania full of stories, videos, and photos. I’ll let Jonathan tell you about his experiences in another blog.
After the travelers returned home, we jumped right into a full schedule. Laura wanted to head back to college right away to try and catch up on more assignments, so I took her back to USF just a day after they returned home. A day later, Jonathan and I had an organic farming seminar to attend a few hours from home, so he basically hit the ground running as well.
The following week was Thanksgiving. We were hosting this year, so I was able to plan the event how I wanted it. My rule this year – nobody brings anything, and everyone stays out of the kitchen until time for dishes. The exceptions were Christina, who made the dinner rolls, and Laura, who was my sous chef. The day was awesome. It was the most stress-free Thanksgiving I have ever hosted!
Our menu was partly traditional, and partly not. As in, we didn’t have any cranberry anything, and no marshmallows made an appearance on sweet potatoes.
We started the meal with a Squash Soup appetizer. While our guests were eating their soup, Laura and I set the rest of the meal on the table.
After our meal, everyone pitched in on dishes, and then we relaxed. We took our Olson family photo (minus one nephew who is currently studying in India) so Grandpa could send out his Christmas letter. It was nice to celebrate with Anita and Charles, who will be heading back to Canada in a couple of days to celebrate Christmas with Charles’ family. They will be heading back to the mission field after the New Year.
I am so thankful for my family, my in-laws, the outlaws, my friends. The list could go on forever. I have been so blessed this past year! Thank you, my dear readers, for being a part of my life for the last two years. I look forward to sharing more stories about my family, my farm, and successful ventures in the kitchen.
Fly Off the Plate Dinner Rolls
1 egg
1 1/2 cups warm water
4 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons instant dry milk
3 Tablespoons oil
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
Mix egg with fork. Add ingredients in order recommended by your bread machine manufacturer. Put pan in bread machine. Select dough cycle, push start. After about 10 minutes, push finger into dough. If it is sticky, add more flour. When bread machine is done, shape into buns. Allow to rise about 20 minutes. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake 10-15 minutes
The 2012 harvest season has ended for us. The guys are wrapping up the tillage, and should be done some time this afternoon. Many of our friends and family ask us, “Now what?” Some may assume that we kick back and take it easy until spring work starts again. While the most physical part of the work is finished for this crop year, we are not done with our work.
Jonathan and our youngest daughter, Laura, will be headed for a 16 day missions trip to Tanzania next week. They will be working at the Kikatiti school – a place that our church has sponsored for many years. They will be bringing many used eyeglasses with them, and some of the team will be matching vision needs with the glasses we bring. Others on the team will be doing some maintenance work. Laura and a few other women will be teaching girls how to use the sewing machine the was purchased for the school. They will work on the basics of sewing, with the hopes of teaching them how to make things to sell. After they finish their work at the school, they will be going on a safari. How cool! I am very excited for them, yet a tad nervous about keeping things going here by myself.
In the winter, we still have pig chores to attend to, and a lot of paperwork. It is also the time of year when we take a serious look at what varieties of seeds we want to grow next year. We have a yield monitor in the combine, and we’ll print out the yield maps to see what varieties we want to plant again and what varieties we will drop. We store all of our crops in grain bins, and will be selling throughout the fall and into next year. We work with our buyers to arrange hauling dates that work well with both of our schedules – although sometimes it would be nice if the weather would cooperate on the cold winter days!
Both Jonathan and I will be attending meetings this winter. They are sort of like our continuing education classes. So far, we have the Minnesota Farm Bureau Annual meeting, and three organic conferences on the schedule. I will also have a few meetings for various other committees I am on. I love winter meetings, and networking with other farmers. The education components can really help set the tone for the coming crop season as well. It doesn’t matter what kind of farming you do, it is always helpful to see what is the latest and greatest thing.
Winter is also when I get to have fun in the kitchen. I have been collecting recipes from blogs over the past year, and am excited to have the time to try ones I haven’t gotten to yet. When the kids all went to college, I warned Jonathan that I may be trying out all kinds of new recipes. He is pretty game to try what I come up with, fortunately!
One of the first recipes sent to me by my good friend is one I have posted above my stove. I see it every day, and have been patiently waiting until I have the time to whip up a batch. This is one that will require an event to bring them to, otherwise I will want to eat them all!
This blog is written in a combination of Swedish and English. The writers culinary passions are rivaled by her photography. This blog is a treat for both the eyes and the taste buds! The first recipe I want to try is her Perfect Expresso Chocolate Cupcakes. Call Me Cupcake
Another blog that I thought was fun, and had a yummy looking recipe for Mocha Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream Frosting, is the Brown Eyed Baker. (Notice a theme here?) Her blogging style is one I enjoy reading. Brown Eyed Baker
On the savory side of things, since we cannot live on cupcakes alone, is a Gratin recipe from Dairy Carrie. This is another blog that has a writing style that I really like, along with some great recipes and awesome information about her dairy farm.
I love, love, love reading cookbooks. I read them like some people read novels. I picked this one up on a shopping trip with my girls, and can’t wait to try out many yummy looking recipes. This should keep me busy for the winter!
Okay, I’ve given you three blogs and one book to find. I would love to hear about your favorite blogs and cookbooks!
While I no longer have kids in high school, the school lunch issue has my attention. I can’t help but think that the new directives that have come down from the USDA is missing the mark.
We all need to pay attention to the calories we take in on any given day. The quality of those calories must also be taken into account. If I were to eat a 500 calorie meal of Twinkies and soda, I don’t think I would feel as good as if I ate a 500 calorie meal of meat, potatoes, vegetables, and milk. Our bodies were designed to require nutrients found in the foods we eat. Our bodies were also designed to move.
I have been wearing an electronic pedometer for the past few weeks. I thought that I was being fairly active, but I have had many days where I cannot seem to reach the 10,000 step goal for the day. I don’t work in an office where I have to walk from a parking lot, into the building, and up a couple flights of stairs to my desk. My computer is 14 steps from my bed, three steps from the kitchen table, and five steps to the meal prep area. Not a lot of calorie burning going on in my mornings. I have to be very deliberate to get exercise in, or I will gain weight.
So, what about just controlling the amount of calories in? I tried that. I was thinner, but I wasn’t healthier. My triglyceride levels were still higher than my doctor wanted them, and I was borderline anemic. I was also a wimp. I couldn’t run as much as I wanted to because I didn’t have the stamina or muscle tone to endure a good workout. When I started exercising with the calorie control, I felt so much better.
This is where I feel the nutrition guidelines are missing the mark. We need to encourage healthy eating, but we also need to be encouraging physical movement. There is a great program, called Fuel Up to Play 60, which is sponsored by the National Dairy Council and the NFL. Click here to see what they are about. This program encourages healthy eating, and 60 minutes of exercise a day. They teach nutrition – the why of eating healthy – and make exercise fun. To see what makes them different, click here. This is a program model that I think would be a better way to address the childhood obesity issue than the nutrition standards that the schools are dealing with now.
There is one more area where I think we should focus on. Our school district has 175 student contact days. That leaves 190 days when the students are at home. For the students that eat both breakfast and lunch at school, they will eat 350 meals with calorie restrictions. Those same students will be eating 745 meals outside of school. We are sorely mistaken if we think that calorie restrictions at school are going to solve the obesity issue.
I loved running around my neighborhood when I was a kid. I grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis in the ’70’s and ’80’s. We played outside all summer, riding our banana seat bikes, playing H-O-R-S-E, and playing various forms of tag….along with tormenting the siblings then running like crazy to escape the wrath. We didn’t have home video games then. Is it any wonder that obesity rates have increased after the home video games and computers became household objects? We need to move. We need to make exercise a lifelong habit, starting at a young age…and as parents, we need to be setting a good example.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite workout songs on my iPod….
I love the movie, “When Harry Met Sally”. In it, there is a scene where Harry is describing low maintenance and high maintenance women..
Harry Burns: There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance.
Sally Albright: Which one am I?
Harry Burns: You’re the worst kind; you’re high maintenance but you think you’re low maintenance.
Sally Albright: I don’t see that.
Harry Burns: You don’t see that? Waiter, I’ll begin with a house salad, but I don’t want the regular dressing. I’ll have the balsamic vinegar and oil, but on the side. And then the salmon with the mustard sauce, but I want the mustard sauce on the side. “On the side” is a very big thing for you.
Sally Albright: Well, I just want it the way I want it.
Harry Burns: I know; high maintenance. I was catching up on a few blogs while making supper tonight, and they really made me think. One was talking about really listening to those who are asking questions. If we do not listen to what it is they are asking, have we already created a wall that will prevent effective communication? Is the consumer the Sally Albright in this situation? They just want it the way they want it? Or are we? I just want to farm it the way I want to farm it.
When we are the worst kind of listener – high maintenance, but think we’re low maintenance – do people stop trying to participate in conversations with us? Is that when we lose the consumer’s interest, like Sally does to the waiter when ordering a sandwich? How do we ensure that we are low maintenance, like the cool character Ingrid Bergman played?
As I paused to assemble the ingredients for supper, another thought hit me…
Supper tonight was semi-homemade pizza. The crust was a frozen ready to bake crust from Schwan’s. The tomato sauce was made with fresh tomatoes from the farmer’s market in our hometown and from my uncle’s garden. Since the sauce was a bit watery, even while reducing it on the stove, I added a can of organic tomato paste from my pantry. When the sauce was cooking, I diced some of our thick cut bacon that was left over from our dinner of BLT’s. I then sliced up some fresh mozzarella that was on sale at the grocery store. I’m not sure if that was the one I got free, or if it is the one that is still in the fridge. Anyway, it was a good deal on a food I don’t normally cook with. To top off the pizza, I picked a few basil leaves off of the herb planter just outside my back door, diced them up, and sprinkled them over the top. The pizza was now ready to go in the oven.
Just by looking at it, it looks like a gourmet pizza…sort of. If you look at the ingredient list, there is an interesting mix. Store bought (or delivered by the Schwan’s man in this case), organic, farmer’s market, garden fresh from a relative, one item I only bought because it was on sale, and something I grew myself. When I added the heat, all those varied ingredients became one delicious pizza.
This pizza is kinda how I hope all farmers and agriculture professionals can be. We may be representing all types, but when we add heat (like participating in social media discussions), we can become one awesome pizza. We need to be careful not to burn one part, or the whole pie will be ruined.
