Ramsey Farms Ranch Dressing

Since Sonja asked for it, here is my Ramsey Farms Ranch Dressing recipe! Like all my recipes, it's really very easy to make! (I don't have time for fancy, hard-to-get ingredients or time consuming processes!) It'll taste even better if you grow your own dill and herbs! ❤💗 Farmer Chris won't touch bottled ranch dressing from the store anymore and there have been threats of eating it from the jar with a spoon! It's great on salads, for fresh veggies, even pizza crust or whatever you can put it on to eat it! It's that good! 😋

Ramsey Farms Ranch Dressing

Makes about one pint - mix it all up in a pint size mason jar. We save the plastic mayo lids to wash and use to close up the jars. Will keep in the fridge until the expiration date of your sour cream. This is a great base recipe, you can add your own ingredients, spices, herbs to get the flavor you like best. Be cautious about how much garlic you use, otherwise you'll be up all night with heartburn! You can find my original post of this recipe here. Thanks to The Pioneer Woman for the foundation for this recipe! 

Ingredients

• 1 cup (real) mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream* (see below for how to make your own quick sour cream!)
• 1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp+ sugar
• salt to taste
• dill (fresh or dry), to taste (I use about 1 tsp fresh or 2 tsp dry)
• a splash of buttermilk* (or lemon juice or vinegar) (I use about 2 tsp of the sour cream liquid mentioned in the sour cream recipe below)
• other herbs I use interchangeably: parsley, thyme, oregano, rosemary, cilantro, chives
• Optional: paprika and or hot pepper flakes and or cayenne pepper and or hot sauce

Directions

1. Mince your garlic and chop the herbs very finely. 
2. Mix the garlic, sugar, salt, herbs into the mayonnaise. Stir well.
3. Taste frequently and adjust seasonings as desired.
4. Add the sour cream; mix very well.
5. Chill for at least 30 minutes or up to a few hours for best results. 
6. Thin with buttermilk (or vinegar) or milk if needed.
7. Eat and enjoy!!

Make Your Own Sour Cream

This makes a thinner cream than the weird gelatinous stuff in a plastic carton from the store, but it gives a much more authentic flavor to your dressing! We very rarely buy the sour cream in the store anymore since this is just so easy to whip up in a minute and feels healthier to me without the additives. 

1. In a glass mason jar, add one cup milk. (Note the milk's expiration date, this is when your ranch dressing expires too.)
2. Add 1/4 cup white vinegar.
3. Place in coolest part of the fridge for 20+ minutes.
4. This makes approximately 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sour cream.
5. Scoop the cream of the top to add to your dressing!
6. The liquid that is left in the jar can be used as buttermilk!

You can check out all the recipes on my blog here! 

"One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things." ~Henry Miller

Georgia Butter Pecan Cookies

It's Georgia. There are a bazillion pecan trees around here and most everyone has tons of shelled nuts in the freezer. (Stop. Nuts in freezer. Hahahaha! Back to our regularly schedule programming.) So what better way to use some of the delicious pecans I had riding out in my freezer?! These are a perfectly delectable autumn treat (or winter, spring, summer! ha!) I bet these would be awesome with a big ol' bowl of butter pecan ice cream?!

Georgia Butter Pecan Cookies

Yield: About 5 dozen | Prep Time: 10 minutes | Bake Time: 15-18 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups finely chopped pecans
• Powdered sugar

Directions

1. Mix flour and salt; set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add molasses; mix until well blended.
3. Gradually add flour / salt mixture into butter mixture; mix well. Stir chopped pecans into dough.
   
4. Roll dough into 1-inch balls; place about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet(s). *I love my silicon baking mats!
5. Press a half a pecan into some or all of the cookies if you like. (See photo.)
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes.
7. Dust or roll warm cookies in powdered sugar.

This recipe adapted from the Southern Living cookbook (1982 annual edition) from Varniece R. Warren from Hermitage, Arkansas.

Check out all the recipes on this blog here!

October Popsicles

I realize it's autumn and that most of the civilized world has broken out their furry boots, sweaters, and scarves to rush out for pumpkin spice coffees, pumpkin patching, and romantic walks through a falling rainbow of leaves. Meanwhile, in south Georgia, there are some brown leaves falling off the trees and I do smell a hint of campfire in the air. AND it's a crisp 90 to 100 degrees outside during the day! Too hot for lattê, too chilly for the pool. What's a girl to do? Make popsicles of course! I recommend that you do try this at home!

BANANA POPSICLES

yield: 6 to 8 popsicles

prep time: 5 minutes

total time: 5 hours

Banana Popsicles recipe made with fresh bananas and only four ingredients!

INGREDIENTS:

1½ cups milk
2 large ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
¼ cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place all of the ingredients in a blender and puree on medium speed until completely smooth.

2. Divide the mixture evenly between popsicle molds and insert popsicle sticks. Freeze for 4 to 5 hours before serving.

Check out all the recipes on this blog here!

Pumpkin Time!

Happy October! It's that time of year again...Pumpkin Time! Alas, we did not grow pumpkins this year (sad face) but will try again next year. BUT for those of you with some pumpkin puree (sure go ahead and buy some in a can at the store, I won't tell!) I thought I'd re-share my delicious pumpkin muffin recipe with you!

Read the original article here. Other pumpkiny posts: Pumpkin Pie & Pumpkin Processing. More posts I think you'll enjoy reading: Childhood Creeks, Muscadine Jelly, & Slow Pace / Hard Work.

Printable recipe card:

"There are three things that I've learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin." ~ Linus from The Peanuts Gang

Check out all the recipes on this blog here!

Ramsey Farms Potato Salad

Potato salad, the phrase evokes images of summer picnics, pot lucks, family reunions, and church gatherings. We harvested more than 400 pounds of Ramsey Farms Reds and Ruby Lane Whites this year. I never have a problem finding ways to prepare potatoes (do we need a book on 101 recipes for potatoes? I'll write one! Don't make me!)

Potato salad is so easy, versatile, and is most welcomed at any meal or anyone's table. Try varying the type or flavor of mayo or mustard (or omit the mustard) and test out a various variety of vinegars too and always sprinkle in your own favorite or preferred herbs and spices.

I'll share this soon on the Facebook page if it's better to download from there.
Be sure to check out all the posted recipes here. Leave comments in the box below!

"What I say is that, if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow." ~A.A. Milne

Summertime Pickles

Pickles! Sweet pickles, sour pickles, bread 'n butter, dill pickles, lime pickles, frigerator pickles (that's short for refrigerator if y'all didn't know that word!) There are so many different varieties, types, and flavors of pickles out there! There are even pickled ocra, pickled green beans, pickled eggs, and my favorite, pickled pigs feet! (Nah just kidding, I wouldn't eat pigs feet fried, boiled, grilled, steamed, or pickled. No thank you ma'am.) Maybe we have a pickle obsession?!

Our cucumbers did not yield as much this year as we saw in 2015. I think I was only able to make about seven jars of cucumber pickles. I also made squash relish and spicy squash pickles! My mom fell in love with the cucumber lime pickles (made from lime the mineral, not lime the citrus fruit) during one of her visits here. These lime pickles are sweet yet not syrupy, and the crispest, crunchiest pickle you've ever had grace your mouth! Plus they stay a really lovely bright shade of green, not the dark overcooked sogginess that some pickles get.

Different pickles have different seasonings. When I first made the cucumber lime pickles, the instructions on the bag of lime said to use "pickling spice". So of course I had to google it to see just what this was and how I could make it at home (right now) to continue forth with my summer pickle fiesta.

To make your own pickling spice, here are your necessary ingredients.

Pickling Spice

• 2 tablespoons whole mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon whole allspice berries
• 2 teaspoons whole coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 bay leaves, crumbled
• 2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
• 6 whole cloves

Place mustard seeds, allspice berries, whole coriander seeds, and red pepper flakes into a small glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake to combine. Add ground ginger to seeds and shake again. Sprinkle crumbled bay leaves over spice mixture and place cinnamon stick halves into the jar. Seal and shake to combine. Mixture can be stored in the tightly sealed jar for up to 1 month without loss of flavor.

Check out all the recipes on this blog here!

If you have never tried making your own pickles, I encourage you to try it! Come on over and we'll do 'em together! If you grow cucumbers or can get your hands on some fresh, homegrown cukes then by all means - do it! Even if you've never canned anything before, you can make pickles! Start out with a fairly easy refrigerator pickle that requires no canning - just make the pickles, put them in the jars, and make room in the fridge!

We have cucumbers growing in the garden right now, so I hope the fall season will produce many more cucumbers and many more jars of pickles in my pantry!

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the blue sky, is by no means waste of time."

~John Lubbock, "Recreation," The Use of Life, 1894

Make the most of today!

Cheers,
Ramsey

Lemon Balm

Lemon balm is a great plant to have around. It grows well in containers, pots, inside, outside, herb gardens and any spot outside you have some dirt! :)


The plant can grow two to three feet high and makes a nice green clump of leaves among other herbs or flowers in the garden. And unlike other mint, it does not send out underground runners and become invasive. It is so easy to grow! Just give it a little water every now and then and when it gets too big, trim it up. But be sure not to waste those awesome leaves!


It's fantastic planted on or around your patio, porch, or deck because the delightful lemon aroma attracts beneficial insects such as ladybugs and pollinating honey bees and actually repels mosquitos and annoying gnats! Smells nice AND keeps the bitters away?! YES, PLEASE!

Ancient Herbal Folklore

It was used in ancient Greece and Rome as a topical ointment to treat bug bites and insect stings.Lemon balm was traditionally utilized to uplift spirits and to enhance memory. It was utilized in spells to heal broken hearts and attract love. It was also believed that a bag of fresh or dry lemon balm leaves under one's pillow promoted sleep. In ancient Middle East, a bath in lemon balm leaves was said to promote heart and skin health. Lemon balm is a particularly soothing herb that will help bring relaxation to most people. 

Culinary Uses of Lemon Balm

Lemon balm is a member of the mint family yet smells like sweet lemons! I love fresh lemon balm leaves in my ice tea, cocktails, steeped in hot tea or just floating in a mug of steaming honey-sweetened hot tea. In the summer, I love to take a pitcher, add lemon balm (and or mint leaves), a few lemon slices, add cold water and keep in the fridge. More flavor than plain water and so refreshing on sweltering hot summer days! Alternatively, freeze fresh-washed leaves into ice cubes for use in any beverage. The leaves are delicious chopped in fruit or green salads, is the perfect herb to season fish, and is a great accompaniment to roasted or grilled chicken. Lemon balm enhances any culinary dish! Here is a link to an easy chicken recipe with lemon balm.


Like many fresh herbs, lemon balm will lose flavor in cooking so it is best to add near the end of cooking a dish. Use up as much of the fresh leaves as you can during spring and summer (growing season). When dry, the lemon balm leaves lose much of their flavor but are still very fragrant and so make a wonderful addition to potpourri.

Herbal Remedy & DIY Uses for Lemon Balm

Chris’s Happy Birthday Chocolate Cream Pie

This is my husband’s favorite pie! I wanted to make it for him without using a box of pudding and a tub of hydrogenated vegetable oil (aka cool whip). This old-fashioned chocolate pudding pie is unbelievably rich, delicious, & creamy! You will not be disappointed. We used a homemade piecrust and our own recipe for chocolate sauce, but you can use any type of pre-baked piecrust, a crumb crust, and unsweetened melted chocolate.

Yield: 8 Servings   *   Prep Time: 35 minutes   *   Cool - Chill Time: About 2 ½ hours

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup plus 2 tsp corn starch
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 3 cups milk
• 3 oz. unsweetened melted chocolate
• 1 ½ Tbsp. butter
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 baked 9-inch pastry shell
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar

Directions

1. Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a heavy saucepan; stir well. Combine egg yolks and milk; gradually stir into sugar mixture. Add chocolate. Cook oved medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla.
2. Immediately pour filling into pastry shell. Cover filling with plastic wrap*. Cool 30 minutes; then refrigerate until firm.
3. Beat whipping cream at medium speed with an electric mixer until foamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until soft peaks form. Spread whipped cream over filling. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings, sprinkles, coconut, chocolate chips, etc. if desired. Chill thoroughly for one to two hours.

Notes

*Apply plastic wrap directly to the surface of the filling to avoid a skin from forming. Remove wrap before adding whipped cream topping. Also, if you can’t find actual whipping cream in your grocer’s dairy case, you can use heavy cream as a substitute.

Printable Version: 

Check out all the recipes on this blog here!

Lemon Bars

These lemon bars are an old-fashioned favorite! It had been years since I had eaten these, remembering them from family reunions and church potlucks. Just as easy as using one of those mixes and so tasty! The crust is a delicious crisp shortbread-like texture and the ooey-gooey lemon bar will hit all your taste buds at the same time! Rich, sweet, and sour...these are not just ordinary cookies! These will become one of your family's favorites.

Lemon Bars

Yield: 2 dozen   *   Prep Time: 15 minutes   *   Bake Time 55 to 60 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• ½ cup sifted powdered sugar
• ¾ cup butter
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups sugar
• ½ tsp grated lemon rind
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• Powdered sugar

Directions

1. Combine 2 cups flour and ½ cup powdered sugar; cut in butter with a pastry blender until crumbly. Spoon mixture into a greased 13x9-inch pan, press firmly and evenly into pan, using fingertips.
2. Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.
3. Combine remaining ½ cup flour and baking powder, set aside. Combine eggs, 2 cups sugar, lemon rind and lemon juice, stir in flour mixture. Pour over prepared crust.
4. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until lightly browned and set. Cool on a wire rack. Dust lightly with powdered sugar, cut into bars.

Check out all the recipes on this blog here!

Pumpkin Pie

So I had never made a "real" pumpkin pie with an actual pumpkin versus a can of pumpkin etcetera. Have you? And to be honest, the last pie crust recipe I made...well we scraped out the pie and threw away the crust. That's how that went. My philosophy is, if you fail at something the first time get a new recipe and try again. So I did and made a perfect cinnamon graham crumb crust.

That went exquisitely with our homemade homegrown pumpkin pie recipe. Of course, we harvested and cured the pumpkins a back in late summer. Then processed, cooked, pureed, canned and froze the pumpkin meat in September. (Pumpkin processing post.) My daughter made a huge batch of iced pumpkin muffins and I knew we just had to make a pumpkin pie (it's our fave) once I found a pie crust that was actually edible.

Creating the pumpkin pie was just as easy as using a can of pumpkin (well mine was in a jar by this time). But the outcome? Well worth the extra time and effort, I can tell you for sure! I don't know that I've ever tasted a better pumpkin pie than this. We are saving the rest of the frozen pumpkin from the garden for Thanksgiving pies!

Sprinkled graham cracker crumbs on top of the pie, too!

Served warm and topped with butter and fresh homemade sweetened whipped cream. This pie did not have a long life. It was all gone by the next day!

"If you fail at something the first time get a new recipe and try again" ~ Ramsey

Pumpkin Muffins

If you missed the Pumpkin Processing article, be sure to check out the first part of the pumpkin story there. By the way, I just wanted to say "thank you" - this little blog is nearing the 3,000 visitor mark! I don't do any advertising or use this to feed my income at all. I just enjoy sharing some cool stuff with you in a journal-like style and so my mom can see what I'm up to! :) This blog is my fridge art to my mom! Thanks for checking it out! Now back to the pumpkin...

La cuisiniere!

I wrote a few weeks ago that the original oven here in the farm house quit baking or broiling or cooking. So viola! Meet una cuisiniere! We are enjoying the newer, larger, more modern oven. It wasn't a planned purchase, but I don't regret it. We have cooked 30 dinners, a dozen loaves of bread, dinner rolls, bagels, two pies, and yes...some pumpkin muffins in the new oven and so far it's my favorite oven ever. I am so excited about cooking the thanksgiving feast in this beauty!

Our frozen stash of pureed, cooked pumpkin has nearly been depleted! We couldn't contain ourselves...the draw of the pumpkin was huge. Are you ready to get your own pumpkin on? You can use homemade, fresh cooked, or store-bought canned pumpkin for these recipes. You will not regret it for a moment if you use fresh pumpkin versus canned! (I promise.)

The Ramsey Farms Pumpkin Muffins 

This tasty treat actually started culinary life as a recipe from Food.com called "Mom's Best Pumpkin Bread" (MBPB). My mama didn't make it and the smaller muffins work so much better than a big loaf. So MBPB is now "My Daughter's Awesome Pumpkin Muffins"! She added the frosting that didn't appear in the original recipe. You know, we get a little wild and crazy around here sometimes!

Ingredients

• 3 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup oil
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2/3 cup water
• 29 ounces (3 2/3 cups) pumpkin
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix ingredients together in the given order.
2. Scoop out into greased muffin pans; filling about 3/4 of the way into each muffin cup.
3. Bake at 350 degress for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
4. Frosting: Mix 1 1/2 Tbsp milk with 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp vanilla. Mix well then drizzle over cooled muffins.

In the next post, we'll take a look at PUMPKIN PIE! Just in time for Thanksgiving!

Hungry for more? Be sure to also see the posts about Pear Butter and Muscadine Jelly. Check out all the recipes on this blog here!

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. ~Henry David Thoreau

Homemade Pear Butter

My beautiful mom brought a huge bag of pears grown in her neighbor's yard in NC. Using my apple butter recipe, we made pear butter in the crock pot! The aroma was warm and inviting while the pears slow cooked for over 12 hours with cinnamon, nutmeg and other flavors. It's the smell of fall in my house (usually apples, but pears smell the same). Since we don't have an orchard yet and there aren't any pick-your-own orchards around here, I was so grateful for the gift of the pears!

We canned about 100 ounces of preserves for the winter. Haven't even tasted it! Oh, I did lick the spoon when I was done and let me tell you...that my friends was gold in a spoon! Gold I say!

It isn't difficult to make your own apple or pear butter. The toughest part of the chore is peeling and chopping. I outsourced that part of the job to my Chief Farmhand Chris. Then I took over with the seasoning, cooking, stirring and canning. I used the pear cores and peels to start a batch of pear vinegar fermenting in my cabinet. (Oh did I tell you about the muscadine vinegar?! No? Oh my gosh, I will have to do another write-up on my homemade scrap vinegars - it's a very exciting thing to make!) I need to check on my vinegars today.

After you wash, peel, and slice your pears toss them into the crockpot with the cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and other spices. Turn on the crockpot to low and let it go. Don't disturb it too often - opening the lid lets all the heat out and slows down the cooking process. But stir about every two to three hours. After 12 hours, mash the pears (or apples) with a potato masher. Stir. Continue cooking a few more hours until the fruit is soft and the preserves are a rich dark golden brown color. Ladle into clean, sterilized jars. Then you can process the jars for five minutes in a water bath canner OR you can simply put your jars of homemade fruit preserves in the fridge!

We haven't popped open a jar yet (we still have an open jar of muscadine jelly!) but I know that when we do those pears are going to taste so good on a piece of toast (or cooked on pork chops)! Making my mouth water just thinking about it. That will be an awesome treat later on this fall or in the winter.

A little fresh summertime love in a jar!

Don't miss our muscadine jelly article, recipe, how-to by clicking here! The Pear Butter and the Muscadine Jelly go perfectly with my copycat recipe of Bojangles Buttermilk Biscuits!

Muscadine Jelly

I can honestly say that we really never have "store bought" jams or jellies. I've been given a few gourmet jellies in the past that we ate with gusto, but I cannot bring myself to write "jelly" on the grocery list. Why buy a jar of high fructose corn syrup with flavoring, coloring and pectin? I want fruit!

Chief Farmhand Chris picking the muscadines

Below is a list of the ingredients in a jar of Smucker's grape jelly:
CONCORD GRAPE JUICE, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, FRUIT PECTIN, CITRIC ACID, SODIUM CITRATE.

Some of the grapes from our first haul

Below is a list of the ingredients we used in our Ramsey Farms wild muscadine jelly.

• Fresh picked, fresh smashed wild muscadine juice
• sugar
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice

That is it! No corn syrup, no high fructose corn syrup, no pectin (all presumably GMO), no sodium citrate and no citric acid (lemon contains natural citric acid). Well I do add just a pinch of love and heritage to my jars, is that okay? And the taste? Oh my goodness, I cannot even begin to describe to you how this jelly tastes! It is like a muscadine flavor taste bud explosion in your mouth! It's so good you can eat it from the jar (try to restrain yourself).

[Side bar: Smucker's does have a line called "Orchard's Finest" that does not contain corn syrup or preservatives.]

Smashing boiled grapes through a chinois to get grape juice!

Growing up, my grandmother, aunt and mom spent hours making homemade jams, jellies and preserves from home grown or locally grown fruits. I honestly never recall seeing a jar of store-bought jelly at my grandparents or my childhood home. If there was, it was more of an exception I bet. So to this day I really cannot fathom purchasing a jar of flavored corn syrup at the grocery store. Just can't do it.

We spent the better part of two days picking, washing, cooking, squishing our muscadines to get juice. Boil the juice and add sugar and two tablespoons of lemon juice, bring to 220 degrees until the jelly passes the "spoon test". Ladle into clean, sterilized jars and process for 10 minutes in a water bath canner.

The first batch of jelly did not set up even after 48 hours. We fretfully wanted to avoid store-bought pectin. So I bought my very first candy-jelly-deep fry thermometer!!! (It's the little things folks. The little ordinary things that, if viewed through the right eyes are extraordinary.) We reboiled the jelly and added two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice (okay so next time I will find away around this too). Reladled the syrupy delicious smelling jelly lava into freshly cleaned sterilized jars and repeated the 10 minute water bath.

Pectin is found naturally in many fruits and is especially high in orange peel, apples, lemons and the seeds of raspberries and blackberries. Pectin has been available commercially in the US since the 1920s, obviously our great grandmothers weren't buying a pack of Sure-Jell at the Walmart. Typically they made jelly using other fruits (such as apple or lemon) to create a natural pectin.

The flavor is like summertime exploding in your mouth. Every taste bud you have will wake up alerted to the sweet-tart taste of this homemade muscadine jelly. Homemade jelly is all the flavors of childhood summers rolled into one delicious sweet concoction. You can almost feel your treehouse, smell the honeysuckles, and taste the wind in your face as you fly down deadman's hill on your bike. Yeah, homemade jelly is that good. What emotion does store bought jelly emote? What memories are conjured when you eat that?

Homemade jellies, jams and preserves tastes like Grammaw's jam. A little bit like heaven I imagine and a lot like home. ~ Ramsey

Don't miss our Pear Butter recipe. Both these fresh fruit preserves taste awesome on my copycat of Bojangle's buttermilk biscuits!

Squash, Zucchini, Cucumber, Potato: Field to Fork

A bountiful harvest has filled our table thanks to the hard work of Chief Farmhand, Chris and all our farm helpers. Oh my gracious, the delicious veggies and foods we've been eating lately and most of it comes straight from our own garden!  Here is a list to water your mouth! I'll continue to update this with links and recipes to these soon so check back often!

Squash & Zucchini 

• Fried squash (Delicious alone but to-die-for dipped in Ramsey Farms ranch dressing!)
• Squash-Zucchini Casserole
• Sauteed onions, zucchini, and squash - simple just saute sliced onions for 3 minutes or when they onions start to brown, add minced garlic saute for 1-2 more minutes, then add your sliced summer squash and saute for about 3-5 more minutes. Sprinkle with salt & pepper, grated parmesan, herbs, hot sauce, or flavored vinegars if you like or eat as-is!
• Zucchini-Potato Frittata
• Crab / Tuna - Zucchini Cakes
• Beef-Zucchini Pasta
• Zucchini-Squash-Onion Saute
• Stuffed Zucchini

Cucumbers

• Tilapia tacos with cucumber radish dressing
• Quick cucumber sauce
• Cucumber spread / dip / sandwiches
• Cucumber Salad
• Cucumber Slaw
• Cukes in Vinegar
• Bread & Butter Pickles
• Kosher Dill Pickles
• Refrigerator Pickles
• Lime Pickles

Potatoes

• Chicken n' Dumplin's
• Beef Stew with Kale and Potatoes

• Sausage, Potato, Kale Soup (We haven't actually eaten this since winter, but it is one of our family faves and uses potatoes and kale in a scrumptious way!)
• Roasted Potatoes - Simply toss sliced potatoes in melted butter or olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and seasonings of your choice, bake in casserole dish for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees.
• Steamed New Potatoes - Oil a lidded glass casserole dish, add a small amount of water to the bottom, toss in small, tender new potatoes, add butter and seasoning. Bake, covered, in preheated oven at 350 degrees. Alternatively, add to steamer basket inside a stock pot. Simmer, covered, on medium-low heat until potatoes are tender. 
  
• Potatoes and Green Beans - Add whole small potatoes and larger potatoes cut into chunks to stock pot with butter, salt, and pepper and side meat (a piece of raw bacon). Bring to low boil, reduce heat, simmer on low for about 10-15 minutes then add green beans and heat on medium-high to low boil. Reduce heat to simmer, simmer another 20 to 30 minutes until beans are crisp-tender.
• Grilled Potatoes - Wrap seasoned potatoes in foil, grill 15-20 minutes.

Eat dinner together as a family, know where your food comes from...enjoy every bite! Send me your favorite garden-fresh recipes!

Vinegars!

Until a year ago I had no idea you could make your own vinegar! What?! Yes! You can and even if the thought has never crossed your mind, it's a fun experiment. I'm still fermenting and my previous attempts failed in mold but this time things seem to be going better in my kitchen laboratory!

These next pics are of my lemon vinegar. Simply pour store-bought white vinegar over a jar full of lemon scraps, peels, and slices. Let that sit for a two to three weeks, strain, dilute with distilled water, and use the lemony-scented vinegar for cleaning kitchen counters, washing mirrors and windows, dilute for mopping, scrubbing the shower or tub, I even spray it on my hair after the shower to help soften  my locks! I'll never add my lemon scraps to the compost pile again!

If you know me, you know I hate waste. I dislike tossing things out that still have good life in them. We reuse, recycle, reduce, and compost as much as we can. But I've been wasting my fruit scraps in the compost all these years! I love making things from scratch...

Vinegar is so fun and easy to make using these scraps of fruit we might normally toss. Save your apple peels and cores (I've also tried pears and read articles about other fruits like peaches, berries, and grapes, too). Allow your scraps to dry out for a few days. I simply lay them out on newspaper on a sunny spot on my kitchen counter that's out of the way and in about four days they're dry.

Add your fruit scraps to a mason jar or whatever glass container you need based on your volume. I have been making quite small batches. Cover fruit with distilled water. You can continue adding your dried fruit and capping off with the water until your container is full (or as full as you want it). Keep the jar covered with cheesecloth, a paper towel, or what I use, an unbleached coffee filter and secure with a rubber band. Note that plastics and metals interact with the vinegar in a bad way and should not be used. Let this sit in a warm spot out of direct light (top of the fridge or hot water closet) for about a week after you've filled your jar. Stir every other day or so to prevent molding.

After about one week of fermentation, give it a smell. Does it smell lightly vinegary? Has the liquid darkened in color? If not, let it ferment for another week (stir daily or at least every other day!). Strain into clean glass. Toss your apple and fruit pieces, peels, chunks, etc. in your compost - they've now done triple duty!

Pour your vinegar back into the original glass - the oozy, filmy, slimy, thickened "stuff" on the bottom is what they refer to as the mother. That's the "alive" part of vinegar and the most potent part. This "mother" also allows you to continue making vinegar without additional fruit - sort of along the same lines as a sourdough bread starter. Only this is a fruit vinegar starter!

Put your breathable lid (cloth, paper towel, or paper coffee filter) back on your jar and now place it in a warm (room temp is fine) dark place. I keep mine in a cabinet that is between the fridge and the oven so it stays warmer there and no sunlight reaches the cabinet either. Let it continue the fermentation process for up to 6 or 8 more weeks. Check weekly for color, smell, and taste. When it "tastes" ready for you (as vinegary as you want it) then it's ready to use!

When it's ready to use, strain mixture into a clean jar using a fine sieve. Keep the mother and at least 1 ounce of vinegar in your original jar. Put a plastic lid on the strained, clean vinegar and stick it in the fridge for longest shelf life. Use as needed! I use my fresh, organic vinegar in everything from sauce, condiments, broth, stew, and all sorts of dinner recipes plus it's an excellent natural hair rinse, facial astringent and toner, and apple cider vinegar (ACV) has tons of medicinal / herbal uses. People use ACV as a gargle to relieve sore throats, coughs, and colds.

My small batches don't last me very long! But now I'm ready to try making it from scratch using the mother as a starter! I also want to make wine vinegar and champagne vinegar, but never want to spare my drinking wines "just" to make vinegar! ;) Have you made vinegar before? Tell me all about it!

My Favorite Biscuits...2nd Place to Grammaw's

Well...I am not my Grandmother.  That's pretty obvious. That lady could make some biscuits that would put our southern fast food chicken n' biscuit places out of business! She didn't use a written recipe and didn't even measure her ingredients. But they were divine. She's gone now and of course so is her family-famous biscuit recipe. Try as I might I can't get 'em right.

So we try various recipes over the past few years and nothing fantastic. No world-stopping results that make us give up the search for the perfect biscuit recipe. But maybe I've found it? I can't be certain since I've only made them once so I'll have to try these again. And again. My daughter has been wishing for a Bojangle's biscuit so I googled that and found a recipe entitled "Bojangle's Biscuits"! Of course, I try them! They were a hit! They weren't quite as greasy as the fast food chain's but I feel that they taste so delicious!

So here's some pictures for you to get your mouth watering! I'll share the recipe soon.

Update: Here is the link to the recipe! :) Enjoy!

This post ranked #3 in our most-read posts of 2015!