Backyard Farmgals

Sing with me now: "For the first time in forever"... I don't have to study for the GRE.  I have an unusual amount of free time, and apparently am feeling so free like Elsa on Frozen.  I have been studying for months, no exaggeration, and I took the test on Monday.  Five hours of pain and torture later, I emerged from the testing cave at the U of U, blinked in the unfamiliar sunlight and set out on my path back to normalcy.  My scores so far are acceptable.  I ran out of time on a math section and it hurt me, but I still passed.  All of this crazy studying is so I can grow up and be a pomologist.  A what?  Pomologist - it's a fruit sciency kind of person.  And no... sciency is not a word, but I am using it in blatant disregard for all of the grammatical rules and massive amounts of vocabulary I have had to endure for the last unending months. In between Disney princess karaoke sung into a wooden spatula, I am making chili for dinner which...

I lived in Taiwan as a little girl, I don't remember everything about the place, but some things never have left my memory.  The smell of the place, the Buddhist monks chanting and walking up the street the night we got there, my friends, Chinese New Year, and the flavors.  Taiwan is where my taste buds became adventurous.  I tasted everything.  I had my first sip of wine, tasted my first caviar (which I loved and still do), and developed a palate that was traveled and a bit sophisticated for a child my age. One thing I can't shake is the smell of beef noodle soup at The American Club.  My parents used to gobble the stuff, bowl after bowl.  There was a very distinctive smell and flavor to it.  My mother recently came to me begging for me to find a way to make it.  She had lived without it for thirty years and she literally couldn't go one more day without it.  Funny what we will do for a flavor that is attached to memory. So I s...

'Tis the season for a good book and being curled up in front of the fire.  It is also the season for soup and lots of it.  It gets quite cold in Utah, and soup somehow makes me think it's not so bitter outside!  What can I say, I am easy to fool... This is a pretty simple way to put together a great meal.  I use homemade chicken stock, but you could easily buy a quart and no one would know the difference.  I made croutons quickly with a few slices of challah bread and a little butter and sautéed some bacon to top it all off.  According to my 8-year-old farmhand, bacon makes everything better.  I think he might be right... Hearty Chicken, Lentil, and Butternut Soup backyard farmgals 2 chicken breasts (bone in, skin on gives you more flavor) Olive oil 1 clove garlic, minced 1 quart chicken stock 1 1/2 cups uncooked green lentils 1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed into 1/2-inch cubes 2 parsnips, peeled and sliced 2 carrots, peeled...

It bothers me that my children don't love mushrooms the way that I love them.  They have this kind of earthy intensity about them that I love.  I adore them, give me mushrooms, and I am one happy farmgal.  So what's the deal with my kids?  I think that everything about mushrooms is wrong for them, the texture, the earthy flavor, the color, so I set out to rock their mushroom-free world with a little sneak attack of fungi awesomeness. I decided to make a mushroom cream sauce that I could put over pasta, but I had to disguise the mushrooms, there could be no resemblance of the shape or smell, I had to use a mild mushroom, but with enough flavor to make me and the hubby happy too.  We are talking big time ninja skills were needed.  What resulted was fabulous, and I am pleased to say that my farmhands are now mushroom eaters! This is seriously the simplest recipe.  It is great for a busy weeknight meal.  Although not a light meal, it is d...

I am obsessed with different colors of potatoes.  I know, completely crazy.  I remember watching a documentary on sweet potatoes (which are nothing similar to potatoes) and a man with no teeth kept saying, "Nobody knows them 'taters like I know them 'taters".  I am sure I don't know 'taters like him, but I sure think they boast some beautiful colors.   I was roasting some 'taters just the other day, and they struck me as so pretty.  I had to share them with you.   See, gorgeous, huh?   This is a mix of Rose Finn Apple Fingerlings, Peruvian Purple Fingerlings, and another mystery potato.  See why you need to keep good records, if you don't you end up with mystery potatoes.  I have to tell you, digging up those Purple Peruvian Fingerlings, you wonder for a minute if a large population of cats have been doing their business in the potato beds.  They are so pretty when cut open, you won't even remember that you thought they c...

I had to share how our cookies and goodies turned out this year.  I was really very pleased with the cookies, the presentation, everything.  I love doing this!  Every year it gets more fun to search out new recipes, find different ways of putting things together, and create something fun for those we love.   The cookie line up this year consisted of Chocolate Stars, Jumbles, Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread, Mexican Wedding Cookies, Chocolate Crackles, Fudge or Marshmallows (links to recipes provided at the bottom of the article).  Not anything too elaborate, but lots of fun and really tasty cookies.  The hubby does a lot of work for a few large and well known food companies, I don't know what possessed me to send them cookies and fudge.  It's a little intimidating to send food to people who win oodles of national awards for their salami, cheese, waffles, sandwiches.  Eeek!  What was I thinking??? We also did granola in ...

Christmas cookie season is here!  Oh, the butter laden joy!!!  I love baking for the holidays, and every year we make an assortment of cookies to give to our favorite people.  We start a few weeks before Christmas baking and freezing until the freezer is stuffed and our hearts are full.  We bake some old favorites and some new finds.  My little farmhands get into it.  They love sampling and are the first to offer their opinion of what should stay on the list of recipes for next year.  They love delivering the cookies to friends and family, spreading Christmas cheer. This is a recipe right out of the new Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  I love Smitten Kitchen.  I have followed this blog for years, and now I get to thumb through the delicious pages in the first cookbook.  These are called Brownie Roll-out Cookies in the book, and they really do taste like little slices of brownie.  Instead of cutting them into rounds, we went for st...

It is cookie making weekend here at the farm.  We make all kinds of goodies in stages, freeze what we can, and get everything made as much as possible for cookie deliveries this next week.  It's a lot of butter and sugar, and no matter how much I try not to nibble, there is always something new to try, something irresistible to take a tiny bite from, I inadvertently eat butter and sugar this weekend!  But who can blame me, I mean really, I make some fierce cookies!!! To counteract all of that butta' and suga', I try to eat really healthy meals that nourish and keep me from nibbling so much.  I also drink a ton of water; it seems if I have good water with lemon, I sip instead of bite!!!  All these little tricks to keep that farmgal figure tough, ripped, and ready for the dirt next spring!  (I have a really awesome figure in my dreams... move over Sex in the City, who needs that when there's a Farmgal nearby???) This is so fast, and easy to whip up in ...