Cheater Chicken Florentine Pasta Bake

   

Every week I find time to do something new in my kitchen. 

It is the chance to catch my breath, be creative and find my happy. Growing up I was so blessed to have time being creative with my mom, making 4-H projects, working with my sheep projects, drill team performances, playing music, and swimming. In college, I found rejuvenation with my clubs, walking at Leed Rec Center, cooking for international student meetings at Memorial Lutheran, as a part of the 3 K's and doing random landscaping jobs for money around Ames.  

As an adult, I still find my joy with the 3K's when we can get together. I've learned to treasure my garden and yard time. Reading to the Minis and being at the farm with them. While I was adjunct teaching I loved seeing students ask questions to learn and figure out what they knew and didn't know. I loved learning along side them, too. I'm not teaching right now and I'm in a holding pattern on my graduate school classes and that is a huge joy sucker for me. The garden is frozen too, so I can't go out and yank on weeds to deal with my frustrations right now either. I'm finding I have to be intentional about searching for and seeing the instruments that can create joy. Being intentional about joy can be a lot of work.

My kitchen is my primary source of space where I can let go of the unknowns I face and be creative or even just copy what I know works to master a new technique. I find a sense of peace, when my hands are sticky with dough or I'm working on a crust dusted with flour and visible chunks of butter or lard that will become layers of flakiness and adjusting it into a pan.  I can imagine comfort and love filling the pans as the ingredients come together in a dish.

When I cook, I'm able to give to others without them even knowing what I'm giving... prayers, a meal to physically sustain them when I have little emotionally to give or have no words to uplift, a sense of celebration when something good has happened, a snack when I am not there to welcome them home after school or while they work. My kitchen gives me peace and a way to serve others. The food is the implement that takes me from harried to happy, if even for just a little while.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been fortunate enough to have some pie and bread orders to keep me occupied and paid while I’ve been in my happy place.  This weekend, I didn’t have any orders and I decided to put together a new pasta bake. 

I had a great grilled Chicken Florentine Wrap at our local bakery café when I was out for a lunch with a friend who has been part of my life since I moved to the Farmer's home turf.  I decided that I wanted to translate that sandwich into a hot dish.  It was hot, melty bliss with a thought of healthy protein and spinach.  It was the sandwich version of mouth candy.  Thanks Heavenly’s for that inspiration.

So this is what I made at home…

Cheater Chicken Florentine Pasta Bake

The groceries:

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 pound elbow macaroni, cooked to al dente

1 large bag fresh spinach

2 jars Lite Ragu Alfredo Sauce

2 C milk or 1/2 n 1/2

2 C shredded Mozzarella cheese

¼ t Ground Black pepper

The Process:

Cook the pasta and place ½ the spinach in the bottom of the colander when you drain the hot pasta.  Place in a large bowl with the rest of the spinach and toss together.  Pour in the Alfredo, 1 ½ C shredded cheese, pepper and milk.  Stir in raw chicken and pour into a well-greased casserole.  Cover with tin foil and place in a 350 degree oven for 60 – 70 minutes.  Take lid off and sprinkle rest of cheese across the top and let get melty.  Serve with a huge salad. 

This recipe will easily cut in half for smaller families and I think can handle even more spinach than what I put in it. I’ll probably double the amount of spinach next time, but I really like spinach…Not everyone does. I would not recommend putting this in the freezer with uncooked chicken, warm pasta and spinach and cream sauce. That could turn into a whole bacterial thing you don’t want to deal with.  

Cooking for Work - Black Cherry Sauce for Pork

Cooking for Work - Black Cherry Sauce for Pork

I don't usually talk in this space about my work off our family farm.  I do that for two reasons. First of all it isn't how I define myself. I am a woman in agriculture who struggles to keep her foot in the soil while working away from it.  My job also involves working with people who may not care to find their name or likeness in one of my blogs.

The work I do off farm is fund raising for a local community college. It has a title with six words that don't even begin to cover all the things that go on in my office. I started the job when the Mini Me was just 4 months old and it was a 20 hour a week job that was just 7 miles down the road and offered an attractive salary for professional part-time work. I thought I would be here until the kids went to school.  There is still plenty of work to do, so 11 years later I'm still learning something about charitable giving and our organization almost daily.

I'm fortunate to work with three governing boards, administration and staff and three affiliated groups that partner with the college.  I counted once and came up with over 70 board members that I could be working with through all of those groups.  That is a lot of people to answer to, but let me tell you...those boards are committed and get things done!

The college I work for is celebrating the campus' 125th anniversary this year.  That is a long-time commitment.

The state I live in is only 44 years older than the college.  The college has been everything from an academy, four year college, public junior college to now a part of a community college district.  To survive 125 years it takes the ability to adapt and change. The current world of on-line education, the investment cost of higher education and the need for vocationally trained workers means the college I work for can't sit back.  They have to be ready for change and actively evolving to meet the needs of students and employers.

I can say that what I do professionally off our farm matters to people I may never meet and takes a similar long-term vision that our farm also requires.

As a part of my job, event planning is a significant part of what I do.  Events educate partners and provide the ability for them to make connections to our students, programs and campus and most importantly it gives us a chance to say thanks to so many who continue to give in so many ways.

We just had our Annual Gala.  The center pieces this year were a nod to our anniversary year and the nostalgia of our history with vintage pictures of our students and campus.

Our local newspaper (the Iowa Falls Times-Citizen) gave great design support to our vision and  took my concept from Pinterest of this photo runner and some circus  lettering and gave us a great invitation and visuals that I was able to use around the event.

The lanterns that table sponsors took back to their businesses were Libby 10 inch clear glass vases and a tabloid sized sheet of translucent velum paper  cut to size. My coworker used the scrap-booking adhesive runner product on the two edges of the paper to adhere it to the glass vase. We put canning salt and votive candles in the bottom. On each table we used a 12 inch square of colored card stock and scattered 13 different pictures around the edges of different events, periods of students and special events that we had pictures for.

The stars of the night were the two students who talked about what scholarships have meant to their education. Both spoke authentically and appreciatively.  I loved hearing their stories. It reminded me after the stress of coordinating the event, why the Foundation's work matters.

A secondary win for me was a new-to-me recipe that we served attendees on their smoked pork chops that we purchased from our local Fareway meat department.  Sweet and Savory Black Cherry Sauce was a winner-winner-pork-chop-dinner!  I wish I could say that I came up with this one, but I didn't.  I accessed it on AllRecipes.com and I found a similar one on the New York Times recipe site. It would be great on a baked ham or even as the glaze for my favorite hamball recipe.  We served it on 3/4 inch thick smoked chops that were heated in the oven for serving.  Mmmm!  Mmmm!

Sweet and Savory Black Cherry Sauce for Pork

The Groceries:

1/4 Cup Butter
3/4 Cup minced Shallots or Onions
1 1/2 Cup Frozen Sweet Black Cherries, roughly chopped ( I like the Bella Gardens brand also found at my local Fareway)
2 T Red Wine (I used a Merlot)
1/4 Cup Beef Broth
1/4 Teaspoon Dried Rosemary Leaves, crushed

The Process:

Melt butter in medium sauce pan and saute onion and cherries until the onion softens.
Stir in red wine, beef broth, and rosemary and stir until the sauce reduces, thickens and becomes glossy.  It will take about 10 minutes of stirring to get to that point.
Serve warm or room temperature over pork.

Do-overs aren’t all bad

You either like leftovers or you don’t. 

I love leftovers because they mean I don’t have to clean up the kitchen other than the dishes we eat on and maybe the baking dish.  

I like to think of them as positive do-overs. No mistakes made, just a chance to redefine or recreate rather than waste food. On do-over nights there are no pots, pans, knives, mixing beaters, bowls or cutting boards to wash, rinse and put away. I can go to bed with a clean counter.  I may love to cook, but I hate to clean up.

 

I grew up in a house where leftovers were rare, because we were big eaters and if you have a hot dish that is protein, starch and vegetable or dairy or all the food groups you tend to eat more because that is the only thing on the table. My mom was also a stay-at-home mom until I was in upper elementary, so she had time to put a meal on the table and clean up after it.  

My husband did not grow up with leftovers because there were 6 in his family and four of the six were men. Their family could go through a 9X13 pan in one supper without anything left when all the boys were out of junior high and working at the farm.  His noon meals were made by his grandmother who was an amazing cook and who ate the single servings of leftovers for her solitary supper when the guys went home just down the road.

The Farmer was not a huge fan of leftovers when we married.  He has grown to appreciate them, because they can mean the difference between hot food and a bowl or cereal that may or may not have milk if I haven’t had time to hit the grocery store on the way to or from work.  I have also learned to reinvent leftovers so we aren’t eating exactly the same thing every time and so portions of pans of food don't become dog treats for her insulin shots or something to slog down in our trash bags.

Wasting food is not really a joke.  That line our mothers gave us about starving children in Africa is still true and sadly it is true in America.  One in four American school aged children is dealing with food insecurity.  They don’t know that they will have enough food and the majority of the food they eat is provided through the school lunch program (that’s not very comforting to me). 

This issue really bothers me when I think about how much our family throws away. Feeding America estimates that more than 70 billion pounds of food is going to waste every year. Read that again… 70 BILLION pounds of food.  They share these food waste statistics… “An estimated 25-40% of food grown, processed and transported in the US will never be consumed. More food reaches landfills and incinerators than any other single material in municipal solid waste (MSW).” That bothers me.

Our family is not food insecure, but I do know that too much of what I buy ends up in the trash and is a waste of my grocery budget. I love what Feeding America does, because while I do think we are obligated to share culturally appropriate technology, technique and opportunity with other countries, we are even more obligated to the residents of the country we live in. So I urge your family to think about a waste not,want not way to consume food. I use do-over meals as a way to reduce our food waste.

Today I got to share one of my favorite do-overs with a friend as we husked, washed, boiled and cut fresh Iowa sweet corn.  We are super fortunate to have several local producers of quality sweet corn which means great quality, fresh from the field and a way to support local economic growth.  

My favorite producers are the Hardin City Sweet Corn stands owned and operated by Todd and Allie Kjormoe.  They hire local young people to help harvest and sell at several locations around while extended family members are also involved in the daily grind of the business, too.  You can find them at Farmer’s Markets in Ames, Fort Dodge and at stands in Iowa Falls, Eldora and Hampton, Iowa.  

I would say that this year’s crop is one of the sweetest and most tender sweet corn that I can remember. Today’s corn was so good it didn’t even need butter or salt and pepper. It was amazing.  Buy it while you can! 

I will be hoarding the 30+ bags of sweet corn that was my take from our working bee.  I loved having help with the clean up and my kitchen honestly looks better after all that corn than when she arrived. I enjoyed that my working conversation with her was about experiences, not people and her  14 month old daughter was a great diversion for the Mini's. Today was a blessing all the way around.

This recipe uses either fresh sweet corn or frozen and can be made ahead and frozen after the corn pudding on top has been baked. The Farmer likes to garnish this with Doritos and extra sour cream.  Enjoy!

Do-Over Taco Sweet Corn Casserole

The Groceries:

1 pound of left over Taco Meat (You can find our favorite taco seasoning here)

1 ½ C your favorite salsa

4 C Sweet Corn kernels divided in 2-2 cup portions

3 C shredded Cheddar Cheese

1 pkg corn bread mix (we like the Betty Crocker brand, but any kind that will make an 8x8 pan is fine)

1 large Egg

1 stick butter melted

1 C sour cream or plain Greek yogurt

1 C Sweet or hot pepper, roughly diced and seeds removed

The process:

Preheat oven to 375 and grease a 9x13 glass baking dish.

Combine the meat, salsa and 2 C of the corn kernels. Spread across the bottom of the baking dish.

Top with the 3 C Cheddar Cheese and set aside.

In a bowl combine the corn bread mix, egg, butter, sour cream, final 2 cups of corn and diced pepper just until well blended.

Spread the cornbread mixture across the meat and bake at 375 degrees F for 1 hour or until the corn bread topping is well set and lightly browned.

Let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Cherry Berry Crumb Cobbler

Cherry Berry Crumb Cobbler

Last week I enjoyed the Mini Me’s second year as a 4-H exhibitor at our county fair.  I take a week of vacation from my off-farm job to be at the beck and call of my kids and their projects and fair obligations.  It is the only week of the year that I unplug from my work and it honestly isn’t a week of rest for me.  It is a week that I do cherish, because I see my daughter grow and develop as a human. It also provides me with the deadline to make time to teach her life skills that I think she will need and personally benefit from having as a functioning adult.

This year we discussed presentations and participation.  She wasn’t immediately excited about doing a presentation this year.  I was a mean mom and made her do one, because I know that the ability to speak and interact in a crowd is a life skill.  She adjusted one of her Visual Arts Projects – a yarn print – into a working exhibit. She did well enough that she will be taking her presentation to the State Fair. She is excited and nervous and I’m thrilled for her and hopeful we can make it work.

This year the conversation in the car and barn was if my daughter would to do her own calf fitting. The Mini-Me made the decision and clipped her replacement heifer project 90% herself. It was a good first shot and I enjoyed watching her surf my phone to find videos of how to clip breeding heifers. We didn’t find that many, but she concentrated on the front legs, top line and tail.  Next year I’m hopeful we can take in a clipping clinic or find some additional resources online.

This year she was the only calf in her class and had to stay for the Champion Commercial/Cross-bred Heifer.  Her class had some really showy calves and one family had what I would call a groomer in the ring with them.  All the calves waiting were parked in the ring facing North and the groomed calf and another were parked facing West.  I counted the number of times that the groomer bumped into the Mini-Me’s calf.  Her calf was easy going and handled it well and he apologized once when he saw me give him the show mom stink eye, but my daughter dealt with it just fine. She didn’t lose her cool in the ring and she had prepared her calf well enough that it just came closer to her every time its space was invaded. It wasn’t the ideal situation, but I saw my daughter hold her ground in the show ring politely and without dissolving into tears for the Farmer to come save her from his place on the fence about 10 feet away from her.  That experience prepared her for times when coworkers or even mentors question or poke at her beliefs or values.

 

 I tried something new at this fair, too.  I entered some canned cherries in the open class.  I had never done that before and earned a blue ribbon and some helpful critiques.  A friend from church was kind enough to share some of his prolific cherries. I have 14 pints of pressure canned cherries that I can now use for pies, cobblers and other treats.

Lots of folks like to think that Iowa is only corn and beans, but our plant growing capacity is far more diverse than one might think. In every area of Iowa there are pick your own berry farms and orchards.  Before the accepted use of 2,4-D to control weeds in row crops, grape vines were almost an invasive species in Iowa’s fence rows.

Today, you can find producers of grapes, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, all kinds of melons, as well as apples, pears and some varieties of peaches along with the more traditional corn and beans. There are also commercial sweet corn and green bean, pea and other vegetable growers across the state.  

I’m fine with buying fruit at the store, and have bought fruit direct from the producer, too.  I like the ripeness of fresh produce. I love it when it is cheap and on my own ground but I don’t mind cheap from the store or direct from the producer.  My food philosophy is more about food security for the masses, spreading production out over different geographies and micro climates and serving those who are looking for local food production. 

I don’t claim that my gardens or selling what I grow there makes me a farmer. But, I am a food producer all the way from the hogs and cattle, to the row crops, to our gardens that feed several local families. I am realizing that the more we sell direct to the consumer, the more risk we take on and the more profit we have potential to net.  Farming is all about risk and profit and non-traditional crops may be an area where there is more profit per square foot for our family.

This is one way to look at it...

Hardin County Iowa Average Corn Yield 173 bushels /acre * 4.28/bu= $740/Acre income or $.02/square feet gross income ($740/43,560 ft2/acre)

Garden income over 16 weeks $1,125/2,700 ft2 in my garden= $.41/square foot and a lot of handwork and personal marketing. You work hard for those extra 39 cents.

Corn and beans are far more profitable on large scale production and when producers have loans out on land and 100's of acres to cover, labor costs for intensive food production quickly impacts net income per square foot.  At our farm we have close to 5 acres and a lot of free labor, so it makes sense to use our land resources to generate what income we can, how we can.  Our garden share will produce enough to cover input and marketing expenses, pay our property taxes and provide about 30% of our annual grocery bill.  I'm okay with those payouts, but a larger landed person wouldn't be okay with the amount of labor needed to weed or harvest and the time it takes to market the products.  That is just fine. There is a spot for everyone in ag.  It doesn't have to be one way or another.  Agriculture is a free choice haven, just like purchasing food is a free choice market.  If someone if going to pay me extra to do it one way or another, why wouldn't I consider the better paid option and weigh the costs and benefits?

Back to those free canned cherries and the county fair… The canned cherries were added to some fresh blueberries for a microwave friendly desert for a family fair supper at my parent’s camper. They were delish, especially with a big chunk of ice cream. The recipe is an adaptation of my mother-in-law’s recipe.  I’ve increased the flour to adjust to microwave cooking.

Berry Crumb Cobbler

The Groceries:

Crumb Topping

2 C All Purpose Flour

1 1/3 Cup firmly packed brown sugar

¾ C Almost Melted Butter

1/8 t Cinnamon

Berry Filling:

2C fresh Berries or frozen

1 Pt or 1 can cherries with 60% of juice drained off

¼ C Flour

¼ C Sugar

Dash of Cinnamon

Process:

Lightly grease a glass baking dish ( I like the size just smaller than a 9x13).

Toss berries together with flour, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

Pour into the baking dish.

Combine Flour, Brown Sugar and Cinnamon.

Stir in butter until crumbly.

Top fruit with crumb topping.

Cook at full power in your microwave for 3, 5 minute intervals or until the topping is crisp.

Spinach & Beef Spaghetti Pie

Spinach & Beef Spaghetti Pie

  

The garden has started producing again and my first spinach salad harvested from our garden plot just made my soul and my stomach happy. 

It looks like it will be a gangbuster season for spinach, so I decided to look at recipes that I could sneak a little – ok maybe a lot of spinach or Swiss chard – into.  The Farmer and the Mini Me like cooked spinach with lots of butter and a generous sprinkle of apple cider vinegar. I like it best in salads with hard boiled eggs, French dressing and a generous sprinkle of crushed Ritz crackers.  The Mini Farmer Boy has decided this spring “that he’s probably not going to like spinach … ever.” His words, not mine.

The food gauntlet was laid down with that statement. I think after serving this for super last week we can safely say the spinach score for Mom vs. Mini Farmer Boy is Mom 1, Mini 0.  I can’t wait for the next time he says that he doesn’t like something. I’m going for a nutritional three-peat on spinach with that kid this summer. I’m anticipating conceding a meal or two, because honestly I don’t have a lot of spinach recipes and I will probably make a meal or two that even I don’t like.  I’ll let you know how the next rounds go. 

I combined and adjusted two recipes for this dish.  I had developed a beef and spinach stuffed pasta shell recipe a few years ago and saw this recipe for a spaghetti pie and thought we should be able to pull it all together into something that everyone will like.  Seconds were had by all of us. I think it passed the family approval test. I should note that this is a best-when-hot-meal.  It warms up okay, but it loses a bit of the creaminess in the pasta layer after it sits in the fridge overnight. If you aren't a big family think about doing it in an 8x8 and freezing the second one or just cutting the recipe in half. 

The Groceries

1 Pound Ground Beef, well browned and drained

1 C Onion, finely chopped

½ T Minced garlic

1 C Sweet Peppers (yellow, red), finely chopped

1 pound fresh spinach, washed and rough chopped, you can leave the stems in your rough chop

1 container Ricotta Cheese

2 C Cottage Cheese

4 Cups Mozzarella Cheese Divided 1 C and 3 C

¼ C Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

2/3 C Milk

½ box of Angel Hair Pasta, cooked and drained according to directions (reserve 1 c of the cooking water)

1 Qt jar of your favorite Spaghetti Sauce – I love my recipe that was shared by my cooking friend Andrea, but when I run out of that I like Ragu’s chunky vegetable sauce

The Process

Sweat the onions, peppers and garlic in the ground beef       .

Add the spinach and sauté until it is wilted and the juices have evaporated.  If everything seems too dry you can add some of the pasta water.

Stir in the ricotta and cottage cheese and 1 C Mozzarella.

Set Meat mixture aside.

Beat the eggs into the milk.

Toss the noodles with the egg and milk mixture and Parmesan cheese.

Pack the noodles into the bottom of a greased, 9x13 glass baking dish.

Spread the meat mixture on top of the noodles. 

Top with the spaghetti sauce.

Bake uncovered at 350 for one hour or until the sauce is bubbly. 

Top with remaining cheese and bake for another 15minutes until the cheese is well melted, but not browned.

Let sit for 5-10 minutes and cut into squares to serve.

Mexican Stuffed Peppers

Mexican Stuffed Peppers

When I was engaged to the Farmer Boy I lived in a tiny apartment over a stairway just a block from my job selling advertising in a farm newspaper. It had three rooms.  A kitchen with a stove that barely fit a cake pan, a bathroom where I could stand at the sink and flush the toilet or start the shower and one all-purpose room.  I slept in my all purpose room, but it had a closet that I could stand in and do a full circle without touching a wall.

I loved that I could run to my place over the lunch hour to eat and could even take a nap or run some errands on the main business street. I didn’t love that the apartment walls were paper thin and I could hear every step on the stairs or as people walked down the hall.  I wasn’t crazy about the fact that I could smell really weird smells from the previous renters.  My landlord thought they had been building engines in the all purpose room…I suspect from the film on every surface and that the window blinds had been melted that they were probably cooking meth or something else in that apartment.  It was in that price range. 

That space was my own, but it sometimes felt like it was an isolated island in a town where I didn’t know many people and I was in lo-o-o-ve with the Farmer Boy so most evenings I would drive out to his house and make supper there.  It was probably one of my favorite times in our dating relationship.  I wasn’t responsible for anything other than the mess I made cooking and we didn’t have to hurry to eat.

I discovered how much I loved to cook real meals for someone who was hungry and that playing around with recipes was a great way to decompress from a job that was stressful.  I also started to learn about the food traditions my Farmer Boy was bringing to our relationship and future marriage.

I learned about stuffed meatloaf (I haven’t gotten that one down yet), cooked peppers, tenderloins, chicken noodle soup, fried potatoes, dried beef gravy and Welch’s Grape juice (the thick Concord grape kind) on vanilla pudding. These were foreign foods to me and they weren’t presented anywhere in my stash of church and community cookbooks. 

I’ve tried to learn how to make some of these family meals because they preserve part of my husband’s family tradition. I don’t think that my recipes or technique are always like the original recipes because I came to this marriage with my own food heritage. As I learn new techniques and dishes, I think that I’m developing a unique food heritage for our kiddos.

One recipe that has morphed from the Farmer Boy’s heritage is Mexican Stuffed Peppers.  This is a great make ahead dish that can be done a day ahead or weeks ahead and frozen.  It is a great way to use leftover taco meat or a crush of peppers from the garden and can even be done in smaller sweet or hot peppers for a hot appetizer. If using gluten free salsa and my taco mix it can be a great main dish for gluten sensitive guests.

Mike’s Mexican Stuffed Peppers – Makes 6-8 servings

The Groceries:

3-4 Bell Peppers

1 pound taco meat (you can find our family’s favorite homemade taco seasoning mix here)

1 can Black Beans, rinsed

1 cup cooked rice

2 Cups of your favorite salsa

2 Cups Fine Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese

For garnishes, green onions, corn chips and sour cream

The Process:

Make your taco meat with your favorite seasoning mix (you can find ours here).

Stir together the meat, beans, rice and salsa.

Cut the bell peppers in half from the stem to the bottom and clean out the seeds and membranes.

Fill the pepper cups with the meat mixture and place in a lightly greased baking dish.

Top with shredded cheddar cheese.

Spray a sheet of tinfoil so the cheese doesn’t stick and cover the baking dish.

Bake at 350 for at least an hour.  If you like a firmer pepper texture this may be enough, we usually cook ours for 1 ½ - 2 hours if they are unfrozen because we like our peppers to be pretty soft.

Garnish with sour cream sliced green onion and corn chips.  We serve ours with a lettuce salad.

Celebrating Iowa Beef month and May at our farm

Celebrating Iowa Beef month and May at our farm

May brings a few things to celebrate at our house.  May Day treats from and for the neighbors start the month off.  We go low input… Microwave popcorn, dry roasted nuts and M&M’s in a clear cup. We only hit three houses, but two were neighbors we haven’t reached out to much. I think it was a win.

Another celebration for me is the day the garden is finished. The first thing we harvest just helps to chase the last of winter away from my soul, too. I think we all breathe a collective sigh of relief when the last bag of corn or soybeans is poured into the planter.  I love watching the markers fold up and leave the field for another season.  It reminds me that I have some serious praying to do over the next three to four months.

The best part of the month for me is really the return to gardening and pasture walks.  Our ladies have been patiently gestating in the dry lot at the main farm. I think they are ready to move out to greener spaces! Our heifers are starting to drop calves so they will be ready to go to pasture with the more experienced cows who will calve out on fresh grass.  The Farmer Boy comes home with almost daily feed bunk stories about how #405 (a very protective momma and a bit of a feed bunk bully) got her come-ups from one of the older cows. Another pushes the ladies down the bunk to keep more food to herself, but she spends so much time trying to get more that she doesn’t end up with as much as she tries to. If you wait you can sometimes see an unborn calf wiggle or kick in that space between the hip and rib line. It amazes all of us to see that promise of coming life.

One of our oldest girls waits patiently at the end of the bunk for her daily head and back scratching and will soon make her way to the pasture at our to calve what will probably be her last calf in our herd.  She will keep the MiniMe’s 4-h breeding heifer company while they both keep the grass down. 

Last summer the MiniMe faithfully tended the bucket calf from the previous summer.  She fed and watered the calf named Sugar multiple times a day.  I was proud to see her in the pen caring for the calf and talking to her dad about things that concerned her for Sugar’s well-being.  She and the Farmer Boy compared Sugar to other calves in the lot and talked about the role Sugar would play in our herd and if her genetics were what we needed. Sugar learned to love her regular baths with a hydrant hose and the really big tub of Orvis livestock soap.

Watching and working with the MiniMe, I learned a lot too.  I had raised sheep and hogs for my 4-H and FFA projects, but I had never been brave enough to show anything that I couldn’t jump over if it charged.  I had an uncle who would have been willing to help me start a show herd and has great Black Angus stock, but cattle intimidated me and I didn’t face my fears.  I regret not facing my fear, but I respect my eleven year old daughter for doing what I didn’t. 

I also appreciate my husband for guiding her on that journey and know the days they walk pasture, talk about genetics, preg check heifers and cows and work on the semiannual vet checks will become part of how she will measure the relationships she has and the value of the people she works with. I know he is giving her a gift that will build her sense of self and her value as a part of the chain of beef producers who are helping to feed the world.

We are blessed to have great quality beef and pork in our freezer.  I know that is a luxury not every family enjoys. 

We especially love meals that are easy to prepare.  This recipe for homemade Taco Seasoning is a family favorite and we use it in dishes like Taco Pizza, Mexican Lasagna and Taco Tots. This could be the Iowa farmer version of a Cinco de Mayo buffet.

I like to make a double or even bigger batch and freeze the meat so I have a jump start on one of those homemade meals. Enjoy!

My Farmer’s Favorite Taco Mix

The Groceries:

1 T Chili Powder

½ t Salt

¼ t Garlic Powder

¼ t Cayenne Powder

1/8 t Cumin

1 T Potato or Corn Starch

1 pound lean ground beef, well browned with 1 C chopped onion and well drained

¾ C Water

The Process:

Combine all the dry ingredients while the beef browns.  Return the beef to medium heat after draining the grease.  Add the spices and toss with meat over the heat to get the spices to bloom. Pour water into the pan and simmer until thickened.  Serve hot with salsa, lettuce, sour cream, cheese and taco shells.

Note: This recipe is gluten free if your Potato or Corn Starch are noted to be wheat free.  You can serve with wheat free hard corn shells or tortilla chips.

A Farm Mom's Perspective on the School Lunch Program

A Farm Mom's Perspective on the School Lunch Program

Note: I've sat on this blog for several months, because I didn't want to offend the hardworking folks who serve my kids and all the students and staff in our local school district. I'm sad that nothing is changing and that our state is engaged in a arm wrestling match over even funding our schools. Things need to change, I understand food...so that's where I will start.   

I’m not generally a person to buck what my local school district does. I am usually very happy with the results I see in my children’s education.  

I am also usually content to supplement what is being taught and experienced by the Mini Me and Mini Farmer Boy with daily experiences on our family farm, in our garden or by talking and praying with them at bedtime.  I have engaged outside private service providers when needed by either of my kids, because the school cannot be everything to everyone. I see education as a process I am primarily responsible for.

The school lunch program is the exception.  I am a staunch supporter of renovating the New School Lunch Guidelines and this guideline compliant menu entry is the reason why…

Soft Pretzel with processed cheese sauce
Trix yogurt
½ cup cooked or raw vegetable option
½ cup fruit
Carton of milk (chocolate or white)

This menu served my daughter and son a whopping 80 grams of carbohydrates if you go with the conservative estimate that the pretzel was only 30 grams of carbohydrate in the meal and they drank plain milk, not the chocolate milk that was also an option. I suspect the pretzel was actually was actually closer to 60 grams of carbohydrate (after eating this meal with them and seeing what my blood sugar did) which means that meal could have ended up with 115 grams of carbohydrates on one plate.  Holy Husky Pants!

Just a point of reference...A four piece chicken nugget Happy Meal from the Golden Arches, with a juice box, kid fries and apple dippers is about 52 grams of carbohydrate according to the McDonald's website. I don't think a Happy Meal is the model for healthy, everyday eating eating by the way - I'm just giving this as a market comparison for us all to consider here.

These are my concerns:

• American Diabetes Association education tells us that eating an excess of 60 grams of carbohydrate per meal is a recipe to gain weight for adults.  The average person will be able to maintain weight somewhere between the 45-60 grams of carbs per meal.  If you are eating less than 45 grams of carbohydrates per meal you will likely lose weight.  We are complaining about the obesity epidemic in America. These meals are fueling that epidemic.

• Lack of quality protein and limits on total protein and good fats being served.  Animal protein…Aw protein in general provides a way to extend feelings of fullness and helps to build growing bodies and brains.  Our schools are not allowed to add these great sources of protein to school meals – lean cooked meats like shredded chicken or turkey or roast pork loin or ham, even seasoned tofu, hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese or shredded or cubed lowfat cheeses. They aren’t even available on the school’s salad bars because current guidelines limit the amount of protein offered per meal…total. If you offer it as an option on the salad bar, it impacts the protein on the plate offerings.

This graphic is from the USDA. 

• This is the state of Iowa Recess and physical activity policy:General Physical Activity Requirement: Iowa Code 256.11(6) (2009)   and this is the Iowa Association of School Board’s  Wellness Policy  I’m thrilled my state has recess policy and encourages schools to offer recess right after lunch.  It doesn’t have an easily discovered policy on how many adults to kids on a playground though. I’ve found recess to be one of the least favorite times of the day for both of my kids because of playground politics. Yah I know it prepares them for the eventual adult turf wars and social niceties with difficult people that never really go away, but without exception every negative relationship they’ve experienced at school has been given free reign at recess. Teachers can’t be everywhere, not all families teach their kids to treat others kindly and my kids simply aren’t talented at leading others or inviting themselves into organized games. I’m sure my kids have said the typical mean kid stuff and sent others away from their first choice of playground equipment, too. Recess isn’t quality physical exercise.

• The number of students who can only count on the school to provide their meals is growing.  Let’s face it, food is expensive. It can be a luxury item. If our family of 4 ate just at home all week the Iowa State Extension service estimates it would cost $192.60/week to feed us (As of 8/26/14 USDA Low Cost Food Plan estimates). http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsavings/page/what-you-should-spend If you are working a minimum wage job you would have to work almost 26 hours each week just to feed your family of 4. There are many students in my kids’ classes who are struggling to put food on the table and meet their family’s needs. These meals aren't sustaining with their carb induced nutritional crashes and are adding fuel to the low cost, high carb meals their families can afford.

Our family is packing meals almost every day.  I try to encourage my kids to eat school lunch on days the carb load isn’t out of control, but I know that they will come home starving because the lunch hour is short and standing in line means there is less time to eat.  Here are some options our family has enjoyed taking to lunch…

Main course or protein rich options:

Cold Options for Icepack and insulated coolers:

Shredded beef and cheese tortilla wraps

Cold meat sandwiches or tortilla wraps

7 Layer Mexican dip with corn chips (not tortilla chips)

Hard Boiled Egg Pops (hard boil an egg and load two up on a wooden popsicle stick have ranch or blue cheese dip)

Cottage Cheese with seasoned Wheat thins

Hot options for an insulated thermos:

Meatballs in marinara

Soups

Beef and Noodles or Chicken and noodles

Hot beef sundaes

Any casserole we had for supper the night before

If you are concerned about this add your voice and bring this conversation back around. Contact your local representative and senator on the state and national level. click here to find place to tell your school lunch story. Tell them why you are concerned

Perfect and Easy Pork Tenderloins

Perfect and Easy Pork Tenderloins

The ingredients aren't exotic, but
boy are they tasty... in a county fair, good
bar food kind of way.  :)

There were a few dishes that I had not discovered until I met and married my Farmer Boy.  Fried hot dogs and potatoes, creamed dried beef on fried potatoes and the kind of cheesecake that you make like a cream pie with cream cheese and whipped topping. I also had not discovered homemade breaded pork tenderloins.

Tenderloins are an Iowa food tradition and identity. It kind of goes along with being the #1 pork producing state in the nation. They are served at almost every local diner. You can find them in most reputable gas station hot food cases over the meal hours. Some restaurants are better known as the winner of the Iowa Pork Producer’s Annual contest for the best tenderloin in Iowa than for any other dish they serve. Some folks will road trip just to try a new place’s version. I believe tenderloins are to Iowa what sour dough bread is to San Francisco, cheese curds are to Wisconsin, beignets are to New Orleans and poutine is to Canada.

Breaded pork tenderloins are certainly a favorite at the Hillcrest Farm table.  Tenderloins are right up there with sunny side up fresh brown eggs and raspberries still warm from the summer garden. They are one of several dishes I learned to make once I married the Farmer Boy simply because I knew he really liked them. When the Minis were little I would cut the tenderloins into strips that were little people friendly and would bread and fry them just like the big ones. We called them Pork Fries in this form. They were dipped in ketchup or ranch and devoured.  I knew when the kids were leaving their babyhood behind because they would ask for the tenderloin on a bun and added onions, pickles and mustard to their sandwich.

This week we entered a new phase of the adored tenderloin… the Mini-Me tweaked the recipe.  She thought that adding bacon to the breading would make it the next best tenderloin ever… We tried it. She made it along side of me. It was pretty good, but I can tell she thinks we can make it even better… They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

I’m giving you two versions for really good tenderloins. I’ll let you know that either method is great for pork tenderloins that are on sale in the meat counter or that package of Minute Steak that came with your quarter or half of locally produced beef.

Perfect Pork Tenderloins

The groceries:

6 boneless Pork Loin Slices (you can use butterfly boneless chops if your meat counter doesn't sell pre-tenderized pork loin slices)

1 C All Purpose or Bread Flour

1 t salt

¼ t Black Pepper

¼ t Garlic Powder

¼ t Cayenne Powder

¼ t Smoked Hungarian Paprika

2 Fresh eggs

½ C Milk

1 Sleeve each of Ritz and Saltine crackers, crushed fine

The Process

Pound the pork slices with the crosshatch side of a meat mallet until the slices are no less than ¼ inch thick.

Combine the flour and spices with the tines of a fork in a shallow dish or pan. 

Whisk the egg and milk together and pour into a separate shallow dish.

Combine the cracker crumbs in a 3^rd shallow pan.

Take pounded pork slices and thoroughly coat with the flour mixture. Then dip both sides in the egg mixture.  Carefully coat both sides with the cracker crumbs.

The one in the middle has just been flipped, the others are not
quite ready to flip. You can see the texture of the crumb coating, you don't
want the crumbs to be powder, but not huge chunks either. These
are just right.  I felt a little like Goldilocks writing that.

Fry in small batches in ½-1 inch of good quality vegetable oil over medium high heat.  They will only take 3-5 minutes per side since they are so thin. 

Keep warm in a 200 degree oven.  I place in a glass baking dish that has been lined with paper towels to drain some of the oil.

Serve warm with fresh buns, onion, dill pickles, ketchup and mustard for an authentic Iowa Tenderloin.

Cheater Tenderloins…for those days you just don’t feel like doing all 3 steps

2 C Krusteeze Complete Buttermilk Pancake mix

1 t Lawry’s Seasonin

Toss the ingredients in a ziplock bag. Dredge the pounded meat slices in the dry ingredients and fry in oil. 

Can serve either version with peppery white sauce and mashed potatoes for a chicken fried steak kind of meal. Welcome to Iowa food bliss.  :)

The Great Chili Treasure Hunt….

The Great Chili Treasure Hunt….

Soups happen to be one of my absolute favorite things to work on in my kitchen. 

I love the dicing of the vegetables. I feel the stress of my day melting away when I am cleaning, peeling, dicing and measuring vegetables.   I have wondered more than once what that means about me.  I mean using a sharp tool to chop things into tiny bits to eat can seem just a bit passive aggressive, right?

I’ve mastered the Farmer Boy’s Grandmother’s recipe for Chicken and Noodles, which morphed into a family favorite of beef and noodles. A chicken and wild rice recipe that I made after having a great bowl of something similar at a restaurant close to Cabela’s is a regular winter favorite with us. My favorite broccoli and cheese soup is from my piano teacher and pastor who I took Bible Instruction class from in junior high. I have access to amazing canned locker beef that is raised on our farm and can whip up vegetable beef and barley without too much effort.

I thank a close college friend who shared a recipe for Potato soup from the Iowa Machine Shed when the three K’s (Kim, Kristen & Kaitlyn) got together for a weekend onetime while we were still all single.  I have even learned how to make pea soup and an acceptable ham and bean soup… if you like those kind of soups.

I love how most of these have a story and have morphed into favorites in my kitchen. Fixing them is an acceptable substitute for seeing these people and places that matter to my soul.  I really love how soup can feed a bunch and is usually freezer friendly, too.  Which means…Supper presto! Soup is one of the few meals the Farmer Boy welcomes as leftovers.  Soup is my friend.

One soup I have struggled to master is the ever elusive Chili of Noteworthy Status. 

I grew up in a home where chili was a way to use up the bonanza of canned tomatoes Mother Bean put up every year.  It was a simple pound of ground beef browned with onions, added to a quart of those home canned tomatoes and a big can of Mrs. Grimes Chili Beans.  You ate it with saltine crackers.  It was basic.  It offended no one and ran true to my not so spicy heritage of Swedish and Norwegian ancestors.

I married a man who loves chili. The Farmer Boy loves chili with some spice and thickness.  He admits that chili is the one dish that his grandmother on the farm (who is known to me as a paragon of farmhouse cooking from my husband’s childhood and early adult life) did not own.  She was a chili maker who added sugar not heat.  He is willing to eat chili from a can. 

Insert shudder.

So for the 15 years we have been married, I’ve been trying to improve upon my chili recipe.  I think I’ve finally done it.  When I served this version of Chili, the Farmer Boy asked if I had written it down so I could make it again. 

Finally… I can move on to redeeming my reputation as a mediocre cookie maker…. 

Maybe I’ll just enjoy success with Chili.

Kate’s Chili for a crowd

The Groceries:

2 pounds Ground beef browned with 1 medium onion and mostly drained of fat  

2 Cans Chili Beans in chili gravy

2 Cans Black Beans, rinsed

1 Can Northern beans, rinsed

1 Can Red Kidney Beans, rinsed

1 Can White Kidney Beans, rinsed

1 Can Rotel tomatoes (I used mild, but you can spice it up)

1 Quart of canned or fresh tomatoes

1 Cup of diced Onion

1 Tablespoon of Minced garlic

2 Envelopes of McCormick Mild Chili Seasoning

¼ C Wahoo Chili Seasoning from Tastefully Simple

The Process:

Brown the ground beef with onion and drain off most of the grease, but don’t be all no-fat about it.  Chili needs just a little fat to make the spices bloom.

One of my favorite tools in the kitchen
is this Chopper from Pampered Chef.
It has become a favorite gift to give!
I'm not being compensated for
putting this up or the link to one of
 my favorite consultants. I just
wanted to share the joy.

Add meat and spices to a pot where you have dumped in the rinsed beans, chili beans in chili gravy, diced onion, garlic, tomatoes and Rotel.

Simmer for several hours or put in crock pot on low for 4-6 hours.

Serve with cheddar cheese, corn chips, sour cream, fresh diced onion. Our family loves a side of corn bread.  

Hint: If your crock has a removable container, you can put a liner in it and freeze the left overs and remove from the crock when it is frozen.  Place the soup puck wrapped in the crockpot liner in a gallon or two gallon freezer Ziplock and you are ready to just pop it in some morning before you head off to work.