Easter Recipe Box

Happy Easter, everyone!

It was a beautiful day here at DewKist. A record THIRTEEN eggs were waiting for us in the coop, and after our Easter dinner, my hubby, youngest son, and I saddled up the horses for a ride around the hay fields. The usual Easter egg hunt was replaced with a hunt for morel mushrooms - which turned out quite well.

Knowing that my family would like to have a nice spread of food on the table, I went looking through my recipe box for old favorites and a couple of new ones.

I'm sharing them with you for two reasons. First, I know you would love to have some new recipes for yourself. Second, I want to have them recorded somewhere else so I can't say that I lost them.

Summer Salad

Summer Salad

          7 oz. ring pasta, cooked and drained                               1 cup broccoli, finely chopped
          1/2 green pepper, chopped                                              1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
          1 cucumber, peeled and chopped                                    1 cup mayonnaise
          2 cups shredded cabbage                                                 1/2 cup sugar
          1/2 cup onion, chopped                                                   1/4 vinegar
          1/2 cup celery, chopped

Mix everything together in a large bowl. Add more of the dressing until it suits your taste. Cover  and chill until serving time.

Cheesy Potato Casserole

Cheesy Potato Casserole

         2 packages Country-style has brown potatoes                 1 16 oz. container sour cream

         1 14-16 oz. can chicken broth                                          1/2 cup butter, melted

        4 cups shredded cheddar cheese                                        2 cups crushed Corn Flakes

In a 9x13 pan, mix the hash brown potatoes, 2 cups of the cheese, sour cream, and broth. Once thoroughly stirred, top with the remaining 2 cups of cheese.

In a separate bowl, mix together the butter and Corn Flakes. Place on top of cheese layer. Bake at 350º for one hour. Allow to set and cool for an additional 10 minutes. Tip: You may want to sop up some of the grease from the cheese on top before serving. That's what I did.

Green Beans w/Tomatoes

          1 lb fresh green beans, but diagonally into 1" slices          1/2 tsp salt

          1/4 butter                                                                            1/2 tsp dried oregano

          1/4 cup finely chopped onion                                             1/8 tsp pepper

          1 garlic clove, minced                                                        2 ripe tomatoes, cut up

          1 T brown sugar

          1 T lemon juice

Steam the beans until crisp-tender. Drain. Saute onion and garlic in butter. Stir into the skillet brown sugar, lemon juice, salt, oregano, and pepper. Add tomatoes. Stir everything into the green beans. Serve while hot.

Of course, there was more food on the table. I suspect we'll have leftovers for the rest of the week. There's enough ham, deviled eggs, and fruit pizza to go around as well.  :)

Enjoy!

Farm Skillet Bake - Breakfast is Ready!

I thought maybe I'd take a day off of from blogging, but breakfast was sooo yummy, I decided to share the recipe with you all. This was an attempt to use some of the eggs we're accumulating, so I threw some stuff together last minute. Usually, that doesn't work out so well. This time it did! 


You can thank me later. 

FARM SKILLET BAKE

Ingredients

One bag (20oz.) frozen Potatoes O'Brien (potatoes, onions, green peppers)

12 eggs

2 cups milk

1 pound bacon (cooked and crumbled) - save some of the drippings

1-2 cups of shredded cheese (I used mozzarella, but sharp cheddar or Swiss would be good)

2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. Lawry's seasoning

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1 tsp. dried parsley

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350º, and grease a 9x13 pan. (You may make ahead & cook in the morning.)

In a skillet, heat a small amount of the bacon grease. Add the frozen potatoes and Lawry's. Cook over medium-high heat until the potatoes just begin to brown.

Place the browned potatoes in the 9x13 pan. Top with half the cheese and all of the bacon crumbles.

Technically, I could eat this as it is! hahaha

In a separate bowl, use a wire whisk to beat the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and garlic salt.

Pour mixture over the potatoes, and top with the remaining cheese.

For added color, sprinkle the parsley over the top.

If making ahead, cover and stop in your refrigerator overnight. Remove covering and bake in the morning.

Otherwise, bake at 350º for one hour. Remove from oven and let set for 10 minutes.

Served on my Great Aunt's (Tante Anna) dishes. 

Let me know if you try it, and remember to play around with the seasonings a bit. You probably have things in your cabinet that would make it wonderful (rosemary, thyme?)

Off to start my day now that I've been well fueled!

Friday Discovery!

I don't know what possessed me to sit and watch the chickens lay their eggs this morning, but I did. Here's what I learned...

It takes a loooong time for a chicken to lay an egg. I'm really not sure why they mosey into their nest almost thirty minutes before the egg arrives. This poor hen doesn't stand a chance to relax when her friends keep bugging her. They must all want to use the same nest. It kind of reminds me of when my kids were toddlers and they'd follow me into the bathroom. Never a moment of peace!

Excuse me, could I PLEASE have some privacy?

Egg laying is a contagious sport. Apparently, the urge to nest is quickly learned by other animals such as Junior, the cat. Should he produce an egg, I'll be sure to post pictures.

Junior the Cat takes the coop rules seriously.

God literally gives signs to people who need them. My youngest son and his friend went exploring on the farm property woods today and found this old metal bin full of fallen leaves and produce tags. I was wondering what to plant this spring. It will be so fun to use these in this year's garden to mark the rows of vegetables! Do you think God wants me to plant ALL of these things?

A sign from God as to what I should plant in my garden this year.

There's a sweet little antique store in town that's full of booths from various vendors. I found this chicken-shaped egg basket to collect the daily eggs. Since the girls JUST started laying, I'm finding six eggs per day. That means there are still eight chickens who aren't pitching in yet.

An appropriately-shaped egg basket.

Cornbread Cupcakes & Scarlet Chicken Droppings

So...I like to challenge myself. Sometimes when I'm home and I'm feeling super unmotivated to do the same things I've been doing for nearly twenty years (load the dishwasher, wash the laundry, plan dinner), I set the timer for fifteen-minute intervals and see how much work I can get done before the timer buzzes. You'd be surprised with what I can accomplish. One time, I fed the chickens, cleaned up all the twigs and branches in the yard, AND started a load of laundry...with one minute to spare! Yes, it was a good day.

This week's challenge is all about the cupcake. My husband reminded me the other day of how much he looooves cupcakes. Then he made the mistake of mentioning that a coworker of his (who used to work in a bakery, mind you) brought in the most delicious cupcakes. Grrrrrr....

Challenge on!

I can make cupcakes. However, the only cupcakes I've made have come from a box. I wanted to be better than that.  I wanted to prove to myself (okay...and to my husband) that I could make a cupcake as yummy as ol' bakery girl. 

Day #1 of the cupcake challenge led me to find an online recipe for "the best vanilla cupcakes ever." Since when is a cupcake supposed to taste like cornbread? I mean, had I made chili for dinner that night, I may have welcomed the cornbread side dish, but that wasn't the case. So, as any good farmer girl would do, I fed them all to the chickens.

Day #2 of the challenge presented itself with beautiful red velvet cupcakes. I thought it was a nice touch for Valentine's Day. If you like buttercream frosting on Wonder bread, then you would like these. Luckily, the chickens were still hungry. 

Day #3 (I couldn't help but notice all the bright red chicken droppings in the coop today. Red velvet manure, anyone?) Third time's a charm in this crazy challenge with myself. I settled on the chocolate cupcake recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa canister and some homemade cream cheese frosting.  They're addicting! Make them at your own risk. 

And here they are....

I'm still in search of the PERFECT vanilla cupcake recipe. Got one to share?