A Friday meal,

 

inspired by Sue

 

 

Puff pastry with goat cheese, sautéed onions and tomatoes.

Yum.



 



And in Other Food News...

 

Perhaps you can make pasta without a handy glass of wine nearby,

But not I.

The filling was made with my own ricotta, sauteed

Virginia Ham from my favorite farm store  nearby with spinach and garlic from my garden and a little grated nutmeg.

It was wonderful. The flavors that is.

 I need a bit of practice with the skill of making raviolis look as pretty as they taste.

Thank goodness we have the term "Rustic" to adorn to our cooking endeavors.



Breakfast

As a young learning-to-cook-wife, my Mother-In-Law was at the ready to teach me the old ways and tell me the food stories of her native Germany. 

Oma often spoke of a farmer's cheese she pronounced 'quark'.

She said "you just can't get that here in America"

"As kids we loved it when our mother mixed a little sugar into it with some strawberries."
Opa readily agreed.

I asked, "is it like cream cheese?"

"Ney, you just can't get it here."

"Is it like ricotta?"

"Ney, Ney, You just can't get it here."

I found a package labeled Farmers Cheese in the dairy section of a grocery store once.
But that wasn't quite right either.

So I gave it a try.
 Although it's not quite the cheese of Oma and Opa's memory, I am happy to have learned a new skill.

But if any of you know how to make really good Farmer's Cheese, German style...
Please...past on the secret!

{Sharing with Homestead Blog Hop}
~~~
Linking with
Farm Fresh Friday

Farm Food

At this point in my life, I rarely buy new cookbooks.

 I'm a dump and stir kind of a cook. Always have been. Measuring spoons are nonexistent in the kitchen.  I do like to look at recipes for inspirations though. I am just really bad at following the directions.

But when I was pointed Ian's Knauer's 'The Farm' by a special friend I could not resist.

It is beautifully written and photographed.

 Knauer's story so reflects our ever evolving philosophy of  food and gardening.

 

{making sauce from last summer's canned tomatoes}

~~~

For more inspirations go to Rural Thursday Blog Hop

Apple Pancakes

 Oma'a Apple Pancakes.

My go to breakfast for years now. Always a favorite during the elementary school sleepover days, the large gathering beach trip days, and the Hi mom...I bringing home 15 buddies from college for some home cooking days.

So it is no surprise how excited I am that we bought this...

 (and the acreage, outbuildings and home around it)

...To watch it grow

and then send a very willing niece and nephew up the tree

 to pick a basket of these

to slice up

and add to a milk, egg and flour batter

to have this to enjoy!

Food traditions passed on through generations are key to family lore and connect us in a very profound and satisfying way. I am honored that they are called Marme's pancakes, or Aunt Joan's pancakes or Mrs. K's, or the very special Mama K's pancakes. But I, and my children, know that they are really Oma's pancakes. Many thanks to my mother-in-law Anna for teaching me this special treat at a time when I barely knew how to whisk an egg.

Now if I only knew how to make my grandmother's baked beans...

Country Cooking

I love cooking when there are lots of folks around to eat. I love cooking even better when I can stop by the farm store and pick up my dairy products from a creamery right here in the Shenandoah Valley and turn them into a yummy pound cake (with a little help)

Or decadent biscuits,

and serve them with Apple Butter made in nearby Stanley, VA

A favorite is to stop by Wilson Farms and stock up on meat, including chicken perfect for frying

or making stock.

 Adding onions, carrots, parsley and dill right from the garden into the chicken stock really makes it worthwhile.

Completing the meal with some fresh picked green beans and sauteing a few patty pan squash from the garden with garlic and olive oil make for some pretty darn good eats.

But no dinner is complete without wonderful people to share it with. Kate's fabulous friends from her high school days visited The Farm this weekend. I so enjoyed cooking for them and their graciousness made me so happy.

Yet another reminder that motherhood lives on.