Baked Custard recipe: courtesy of my 9-year-old son!

Custard, made by my oldest son this evening (he's 9 and loves to bake). Thanks to our chickens for providing the best eggs in the world for this recipe!

Baked Custard:
-3 eggs, slightly beaten
-1/3 cup sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-dash of salt
-2 1/2 cups milk
-nutmeg (for sprinkling on top, as seen in this picture).

Combine all except nutmeg. Pour into one dish, or pie crust, or individual bowls like this picture. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Italian Sausage with vegetables simmered in tomato sauce

If you live on a working family farm like us, the work for this recipe began months ago! In fact, all the hard work of cooking this meal was in the growing of it. The delicious Italian sausages: from the heritage-breed pigs we raised this summer. The bell peppers, onions, and tomato sauce? Work on those began 9 months ago when the first seeds were sown into the greenhouse flats.

If you are a non-farmer & buy your meats & vegetables from someone else (hopefully a local farmer in your area!), this recipe will not involve months of hard labor.

Italian Sausage with vegetables:

-1 package Italian sausage (get the highest quality meat you can budget for, it really does make a difference)
-1 to 2 bell peppers
-1 to 2 onions
-2 jars tomato marinara sauce

Combine all ingredients & cook slowly. You can simmer on stovetop, crockpot, or on top of your woodburning stove (maybe that's just me!).

Serve over bread or pasta if desired.

Delicioso! Great blizzard meal here on our farm.
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Roasted root vegetables: recipe

Something magical happens to a vegetable when it is roasted. It gets a crispy coating on the outside, and a melt-in-your-mouth texture on the inside.

I roast a lot of vegetables here on the farm, most of what I grow can be roasted: from broccoli & sugar snap peas in the spring to all the wonderful root vegetables of fall. And the root vegetables is what I roasted yesterday. Roasted root vegetables are great to eat warm from the oven, but even better as a cold salad side dish leftovers (I eat my leftover roasted veggies with an easy balsamic vinegar dressing).

Unfortunately, this years continuing drought took a huge toll on our root vegetable crops. Instead of the hundreds of rutabaga that our CSA customers should have enjoyed, they got none. There were about 12 rutabaga that grew, and I picked them yesterday, along with a few carrots & beets.

To roast vegetables, cut them all the same size. Coat with olive oil & bake at 400 for about 30 min.

Enjoy warm or as a cold salad.

Bacon spinach alfredo over homemade pasta

The members of our farm's Community Supported Agriculture program received their final share of the year last week.  That means my workload has lightened a bit, and combine that with dreary, rainy, cool weather here at the farm... time for some cooking!

My husband made homemade pasta (whole wheat), featuring our farm's free-range eggs.  I was ecstatic, as he hasn't made his homemade noodles since we moved out to the farm (almost 2 years ago already!). My contribution to the pasta:  homemade alfredo sauce, our farm's bacon sauteed with our farm's sweet winter spinach.

Sorry to make you look at this picture without being able to taste it... yes it was delicious! So delicious!

The recipe for the whole wheat pasta and alfredo sauce can both be found on the Recipe page of this blog (link at left). Here are some direct links:

 -Homemade whole wheat pasta (scroll down below the ravioli picture to see the basic recipe):  http://all-natural-mama.blogspot.com/2009/09/stuffed-tomatoes-homemade-ravioli.html

-Homemade Alfredo Sauce: http://all-natural-mama.blogspot.com/2009/02/award-winning-alfredo-sauce_18.html

Oh, Yum!
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Last tomatoes.. means last bruschetta

The farm's tomatoes were killed by last weekend's first frost. A few dozen tomatoes still lingered, and after serving our farm's CSA customers, I took the leftovers & made the last bruschetta of the year.

The last tomatoes of the season may not be quite as big an event as the first, but it still deserves something special.

A simple bruschetta, made with our farm's red tomatoes, our fresh basil & garlic, and seasoned with salt & pepper. Simple & delicious. Served over grilled garlic bread.

Good food, the best quality local farm ingredients, prepared simply... a celebration unto itself!

Stuffed pepper soup (recipe & picture)

Sorry for the bad picture, I've been blogging with my cell phone for the past year & while it's so much easier for me, my dinky cell phone has a very bad camera!

This is a family heirloom recipe, one of my favorites. I don't know how many generations back it goes, but I do know my great-grandmother made it, and she immigrated from Croatia, so she may have grown up eating it there. It really is traditional "peasant food". This soup was always eaten by my family served over broken up pieces of bread (and sometimes mashed potatoes instead of the bread). Simple but oh so delicious. Growing up, my grandmother made it with canned tomato juice. I've taken this soup to a whole new level by using fresh tomatoes picked from our farm gardens.

8 cups chopped tomatoes
1 cup chopped sweet bell pepper
1 pound ground beef
salt & pepper

Wash & chop tomatoes, cook down until soft. Puree (I use my stick blender). Add chopped peppers & meatballs, cook until done. Season with salt & pepper.

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Artful Beauty in Winter Comfort Food - Pot Roast with character!

Beef pot roast ready to simmer in our dutch oven on top of the wood stove. 

Simple & easy to make!

Toss a roast into a pot that is oven-safe.

I added some of our farm-grown vegetables, pulled from the root cellar (cool temp basement): rutabaga, potato, onion, garlic, and baby carrots which I left whole for the beauty of it! Water added until it reached the bottom of the top layer of vegetables. Salt & pepper are the only seasonings - this will be so delicious!

 I will let it simmer on top of our wood stove for several hours (you can use your stovetop or a hot oven, or even a crockpot). All the flavors will blend together, the veggies will be so tender they'll melt in your mouth, and the beef roast makes it all mouthwatering!

Winter comfort food at it's best!

Recipe: Buffalo Chicken sandwich (the local foods way!)

Recipe: Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. I made mine open-faced.

-bread or roll
-2 green onions (I harvested them from our hoophouses in January!)
-1/2 to 1 cup cooked shredded chicken (I used leftover meat from one of our farm stewing chickens cooked a couple days ago)
-1 spoonful hot sauce of choice
-cheese of choice (I used bleu made in a nearby cheese factory)
-optional: cream-based salad dressing of your choice (such as ranch)

Layer ingredients on sandwich. Eat cold or warm in oven.

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Pie

Butternut Squash Pie

• 1 medium butternut squash or 2 small butternut squash
• 1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice
• 1 9-inch deep dish pie crust

Directions:

1. 1
   Pierce the squash with a knife in several places, and place in a baking dish in a 350 degree oven.
2. 2
   Bake until the squash is tender and easily pierced with a knife (about 1 hour) ALLOW TO COOL COMPLETELY.
3. 3
   Cut the squash in half, and remove the seeds.
4. 4
   Scoop out about 2 cups of the pulp and place in your blender or food processor.
5. 5
   Add all remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.
6. 6
   Pour into prepared pie crust.
7. 7
   Bake 45-50 minutes or until the center is nearly set, and the pie is starting to slightly pull away from the edges of the pan.
8. 8
   Cool on a wire rack.

Buffalo chicken pita pizzas

On today's menu:

Buffalo Chicken wheat pita pizzas. Made with our farm-raised chicken, farm-grown onion, peppers, spinach, and green onions. Bleu cheese from a nearby cheese factory supplier.

Delicious!

Roasted sliced beets

Simple Roasted Beets

-beets
-olive oil
-seasonings of choice (this recipe used garlic powder, salt, and pepper)

Wash beets, cut off stem & tail end. Cut in half, then quarter each half (so that each slice is about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch thick).

Toss in a roasting pan or glass pan with enough olive oil just to coat. Sprinkle with seasonings & stir to blend.

Roast in a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes, turning once or twice. When they can be easily pierced with a fork, they are done.

These can be eaten warm, and are also great cold on a salad with vinaigrette dressing.

Enjoy!

RECIPE: Homemade chicken & dumplings

Chicken & Dumplings soup is a winter favorite in our house. I made this batch with chicken stock from our first farm-raised & processed chicken!
Make the soup base first. I made this batch simply with carrots & onions because they're still fresh in the root cellar. Recipe:
-chicken stock
-onion
-carrots
-whatever else you prefer (celery, peas, etc)
-salt & pepper.
Simmer the soup until all vegetables are tender. Then you'll add the dumpling dough.
Dumplings:
-3 tablespoons lard
-1.5 cups flour (I mix whole wheat & white)
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-3/4 teaspoon salt
-3/4 cup milk
I usually double the dumpling recipe because I make a big batch of soup.
Cut lard into dry ingredients until mixture resembles crumbs. Stir in milk. Drop by teaspoonful into soup (which you have kept simmering). Cook uncovered for 10 minutes. Cover and cook for 10 minutes more.
Enjoy! You can visit our farm web site at http://www.wishfulacresfarm.com/.

Turkey wild rice soup

Turkey wild rice soup is a great way to use a turkey carcass. We were gifted the turkey carcass (bones) after Thanksgiving Dinner at my parent's house.

I tossed the carcass into a crockpot container, filled it with water, put the lid on, and placed it on top of the woodstove all night. It was hard to sleep smelling turkey broth simmering all night long!

In the morning, I removed the carcass and pulled any bits of meat off to put back into the soup (be sure to remove all bones). I also added some of our farm-grown carrots and onion along with 2 cups of brown & wild rice, 1 tsp poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. It simmered on the woodstove all day. Delicious!

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Recipe: healthy Chinese food in 5 minutes

How about healthy Chinese food in 5 minutes?

We have beautiful Tot Soi growing on the farm (a version of Asian bok choy). Our CSA customers have received it and we have plenty more for sale.

I chopped it up & tossed it in a pan with a bit of olive oil, red pepper flake, and garlic. I had a few slices of steak leftover so that went in too. Sauteed for 5 minutes then sprinkled with Tamari soy sauce.

Awesome!

Thanks for visiting our farm blog, and you can visit our web site at www.WishfulAcresFarm.com .

Arugula Pesto Recipe

The arugula pesto recipe from this week's CSA newsletter is delicious! So easy, too.

2 cups arugula
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
dash of salt

Combine all in food processor until smooth.

Enjoy!

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Recipe: Asian Vegetable Chicken Soup

This soup is so darn good! I came up with this recipe for this week's CSA members based upon what's in season this week on our farm.

Asian Vegetable Chicken Soup
-8 cups chicken broth
-1 cup chopped cabbage
-2 cups chopped tot soi (asian green)
-5 green onions, chopped
-4 cloves garlic, chopped
-1 cup chopped mizuna (asian green)
-1 cup chopped cilantro
-salt to taste

This soup is so versatile. You can add more or less veggies, omit some, add different types, add noodles or egg... it's hard to mess this recipe up! :-)

Enjoy!

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Asian Stir Fry recipe & pictures

Rainy days send this farmer indoors to the kitchen! Today for lunch is Asian food.

Using the Asian Greens Mix that we're selling & sending to the CSA customers, I made a delicious stir fry with the farm's retail sale beef (also available for purchase).

I sauteed our onions & garlic, added a thinly sliced sirloin steak, then tossed in the greens for the last few minutes. Seasoned with red pepper flakes and tamari soy sauce.

It will be served with cooked long grain brown rice. Yum!

Thanks for visiting the farm blog!

Recipe: Fall Vegetable Layered Salad

A delicious layered salad made with our farm's fall vegetables! Here 's the recipe.

Fall Vegetable Layered Salad:
-Lettuce
-Chopped Raw Rutabaga
-Chopped Raw Broccoli
-Dressing (mayo, vinegar, a little sugar)
-Chopped cooked bacon
-Shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Other fall veggies I could have used: green onion, radishes, spinach, arugula, baby greens, etc.

The little kitchen helper is optional. :-)

Thanks for visiting our farm blog!

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Recipe: Make chips from healthy greens!

"Chips" can be made from any green leafy vegetable - kale, collards, turnip greens, mustard greens. Pictured here are Mustard Greens Chips.
Healthy, slightly crunchy, delicious, and fairly easy to make.
Take your greens, tear the leaves into pieces (2-3 inches each). Toss in a roasting pan (glass or metal, either works fine). Toss with olive oil - enough oil to lightly coat the leaves but don't soak them. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes (check frequently, these can burn easily). Remove from oven, sprinkle with salt.
Enjoy!

CSA Ingredient Omelet

Smells like Italy in our farm kitchen! I made an omelet using the current seasonal vegetables being received now by our CSA customers.
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic
1 cup chopped kale
2 small summer squash, chopped (about 2 cups)
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped basil
6 eggs
Cheese (optional)
Saute vegetables, then remove to a plate when tender. Add whisked eggs to pan, allow to cook until no longer runny. Add veggies back to pan on half the eggs. Top with cheese. Flip over to close omelet. Top with fresh chopped basil.
Enjoy!