My Farmhouse Kitchen

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

When we were little kids we lived in Santa Barbara and we had a lady who came to the house to help my mom with my little brother. The lady's name was Bessie..and she looked exactly like Mrs. Doubtfire. Exactly. Every afternoon we would sit down and pick out something to make for supper. Bessie is the one who introduced me to Vincent Price's " A Treasury of Great Recipes". But she had lots of her own recipes a well. One of our very favorite was the Dilly Casserole Bread. I made it last night to go with my swiss steak and mashed potatoes. It smelled of days gone by. I love dill in summer, so as the late afternoon sun sank over Mission Mountain, I flipped on the kitchen light, turned on the stove and slid in the cast iron skillet filled with the promise of warm bread for supper.

Dilly Casserole Bread from Bessie

1 package yeast
1/4 warm water
1 cup large curd cottage cheese
2 T. sugar
1 T. minced dry onion
1 T. soft butter
2 t. dill seeds
1 t. salt
1/4 t. baking soda
1 egg
2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups flour.

Sprinkle yeast over warm water and dissolve.
Heat cottage cheese till warm.
Combine in a bowl with sugar,onion,butter,dill seeds,salt,baking soda, egg and yeast and water. Add flour to make a stiff dough. Knead into a ball. Cover and let rise 60 minutes till doubled.Stir down and put in a well greased 1 1/2 quart round 8" casserole. ( I use a cast iron skillet). Cover and let rise about 40 minutes.
Bake 350 degress for 35 minutes. Remove bread from oven and brush with butter and salt. Maldon or a fleur de sel is nice. Cover with foil, return to oven and bake 15 minutes more.

Monday, August 24, 2009

The First One

Sunday afternoon I found myself home alone with nothing but a basket of apples to keep me company. Everyone else was off either camping,at the beach or working. It was cool for a late August afternoon and I wanted to be nowhere else but home.

The apples were the ones I had gotten on Saturday afternoon when Buddy and I took a ride up See Canyon. I tied on my apron and got out my favorite pie cookbook "Country Pies - A Seasonal Sampler" by Lisa Yockelson.copyright 1988. I guess it is offically vintage now that it is over 20 years old. I turned to the Autumn Country Pies section. It starts out saying "Just about the time children go back to school, I am in the kitchen making batches of dried fruit and spice mincemeat to use in pie fillings with apples,pears,cranberries and quarts of apple cider syrup."

The recipe I use is actually for a cinnamon pear pie with a walnut streusel, but I just substitute the apples for the pears, and the walnuts were ones I had in the freezer from last fall that I had gotten at The Avila Barn.

So we made the pie and had it still warm after supper. And yes, it did taste like fall.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Second To The Last

As I am sure you all know, after this weekend, only one more left in August. So to celebrate we made pancakes with fried ham this morning. I got the blackberries yesterday at Gopher Glen. Buddy was restless late in the afternoon so we rode up See Canyon, it was windy and leaves were blowing all over the road. We had big dark thunder clounds here and as we rounded the bend, I could smell "the smell." That first rain of the season smell. Buddy and I went into the little shed where the apples are for sale and then..we heard it. Rain on the rooftop. Everyone got so excited. We had the lady bag some Burgundy apples. They have such a short season and are one of my favorite apples. Skin so dark and a very tart apple. Great for baking. We got back in the car and searched for the windshield wipers. Swipe, swipe, swipe they went...wind blowing and skies rumbling. When we got home I gathered a few pieces of fire wood, lite my pumpkin spice candles, and John and I ran outside to watch the show. We smiled as we watched the woodsmoke curl around the top of our pine tree. And we smelled the air. Woodsmoke and rain. And we were happy.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Heart of my Home

As some of you know, I have a thing for squirrels..and owls..well, all birds really.
A long time ago a friend of mine who is a collector of early american antiques found a primitive hooked rug. (We always called her "the good"... cause her antiques were the real deal.) They came from the "fancy" antique shows. The ones put on by Baker and Co. (if you or your pocketbook are into that sorta thing). Wow, that is way out of my world. My house is filled with old things, cottage-type stuff, farmy stuff, things you'd find in Maine or Vermont...NOT museum quality....you can be sure of that... But one day along came this primitive hooked rug. WAY our of my league. But I wanted it bad. I knew if we got it,we would be eating macaroni and cheese for a long time. The macaroni and cheese in the blue box. You know the one. The one you can get for 2 for a dollar at "The Dollar Store". Well, we sprung for that rug. And we ate macaroni and cheese. Alot. Are we crazy? Well, I still love the rug. And ya know what else? I still love macaroni and cheese.