Double Up Farm

I love Indian cuisine. I never tried making it myself until I met my friend Hamsika and her mother, Lalitha, and my friend Vani. They have given me so much encouragement, I find myself trying things I would never have attempted before. Although I still like it much better when they cook FOR me, it turns out they have their own lives and cannot quite manage to be at my beck and call. I am slightly embarrassed to say that with all of the incredible dishes, my favorite Indian

Many years ago, when we lived in San Leandro, a friend introduced me to a little snack called "Linguica Bread". Linguica is a Portugese sausage. There It has been a family staple ever since we first ate it, and I am forced to turn a blind eye to the commercially produced pork, and processed ingredients. Once we moved away from the San Francisco Bay Area, I have had to order the linguica from the Bay Area, because you can't get it here in North Carolina, and most of the big

I am pretty fussy about lasagna. Don't get me wrong, I will eat and enjoy ANY lasagna, but I am constantly looking for the next best thing. Imagine my shock when crockpot lasagna turned out to be so delicious that I will never bother with a pan again. This could not be easier, and it was just wonderful. Crock Pot Lasagna Ingredients: 1 lb ground beef 4 cloves garlic, minced ½ lb lasagna pasta 4 cups of marinara sauce 1¼ cup cottage cheese 1½ cup Italian cheese blend 1 tbsp

I went to visit a farmish friend (Whisper Creek Farm). I meant to go to their house and visit, but I was distracted when I got out of the car by Mr. Darcy (a breathtaking rooster), and started wandering toward the chicken area. Fortunately, my friend came and found me, and we had a wonderful visit (I never did make it to the house, because, well....chickens and ducks and quail - why would I want to go to the house???). I was gifted with some quail eggs, and while I know I

One of Dave's favorites - I had some puff pastry in the freezer and these where very easy and delicious. It doesn't seem to matter how many I make, that is how many we eat. INGREDIENTS 1 egg 1 tablespoon water 1/3 cup sugar 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 package (17.3 ounces) Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets(2 sheets), thawed DIRECTIONS Heat the oven to 400°F. Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork. Stir the sugar and cinnamon in

Crock pot that is - see what I did there, kind of misdirected a bland cooking post like it was something exciting. Well, for me, the cooking IS exciting so I feel good about it. Anyway, I like to do most things from scratch. But with the recent medical hoopla, I confess to taking an easy way out. This was absolutely delicious, so fast, so easy - so doing it again and again and again!!! It makes a Chicago style, deep dish pizza. Crock Pot Pizza 1 can refrigerated pizza dou

I am very fond of those York peppermint patties - so when I saw this recipe on the Facebooks, I had to give it a try. I am always on the lookout for a new item to sell at the market. 1. These are absolutely delicious - like, I had no idea they could be so much better than the ones you buy at the store, although really, I should have known. 2. There is a huge learning curve when it comes to dipping chocolates. I do not think this is something I would want to tackle for the

We love cranberries - I make cranberry apple relish in quantities to eat all year, not just Thanksgiving. I make fresh cranberry salad, I put craisins in just about everything I make. So, running across a Facebook recipe for Cranberry Cake was pretty much a no-brainer. I try a lot of recipes, most of them do not make the cut. But this one? Oh yeah, this goes into the files to make again and again and again. The presence of the whole cranberries makes each bite a little e

I am feeling a little bit like that never-ending pot of soup story. No matter how many apples I process, there are still more. Today, I put some of the apple pie filling to a test. Now this is my idea of pie - all of the work has been done, so I just made a crust and dumped a jar of my filling in (well, and I also sprinkled some craisins in because, well....it's delicious. So sad it is just Dave and me to eat this entire pie. #Foods

Uh....no!!! I have now processed all of my own apples, and have moved on to two bushels of apples from the mountains. Today, thanks to my friends at Whisper Creek Farm, I made six quarts of apple pie filling. Oh yeah, baby - I am making more of this. And since I have another 70 lbs or so of apples, it looks like Apple Pie for everyone!!! INGREDIENTS 6 lbs apples 4 1/2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1 cup cornstarch 1 teaspoon salt 10 cups water 3 table

Five years in the making - I finally have enough apples to do something! It has been a struggle. This is NOT apple country, and every pest known to man has apparently marked my house on their map as the place to go for apples. But this year, with some diligence, and I admit it, just a little bit of treatment, I have apples. My favorite thing to do with these apples is just eat one every morning - they are planted near the sheep pasture, so I like to pick one each morning a

One of my least attractive personality traits is a tendency towards smugness. Sure, some people would call it self-confidence, but I know what it is (as do my children!!). So when a customer asked me if I could make Elderberry Lozenges with honey, so she could mail some to her son, I thought it would be a snap. Wrong!! This week I have created so many nasty elderberry surprises that I am giving up for the season as I cannot afford to waste any more elderberry juice! First,

I can be quite impressionable - when I see someone doing something that looks good, I want to do it too!! Recently, this translated to jalapeno jelly in a dangerous way. My friends at Two Men and a Little Farm made some jalapeno jelly, and it looked great. I love jalapenos, although I cannot really take too much heat. My sons (by various means), Troy and Gus, however, says the hotter the better. So, I figured I would give it a go. It looks glorious, the natural green and

I am trying really hard to do the right thing. But this is just not happening..... In an effort to do better by my body, I am trying to cut back on my flour consumption. So when a lady was singing the praises of spaghetti squash at the Farmer's Market last week, I figured I should give it a try. I bought a lovely little squash from a vendor at the market, and brought it home. I have been staring at it for a week, and today was the day. Now, I pretty much hate squash unle

On Sunday morning, my husband said "what I want to do today is have you cook delicious things all day while I sit around and eat them." Now, he rarely comes right out and asks for something, AND I do love to cook - so kind of a win, win. First, I made a salmon noodle casserole with some salmon he had smoked earlier in the week. This recipe started life as a beef and tomato casserole, but you know how it is when you get to messing around with a recipe. This was really delic

Weird French word for a lovely, versatile food. Normally, I have way too many eggs, so I am always on the lookout for a dish to use eggs. Sure, the slacker hens have cut me off lately, but I broke down and bought some eggs at the Farmer's Market for the sole purpose of making this dish. It is like a custard, and was originally made with fresh, pitted cherries. But I had these lovely peaches, and it is great. Equally good for dessert or breakfast! I am going to run through

We all know I love a good dessert. And in fact, I have some amazing cannoli sitting in my kitchen right now. So you know the fruit is something else if I bypass the cannoli, and skip making a fabulous dish because the fruit is so delicious by its lonesome. Hands down, the very best part of summer! Also, I now have friends at the Farmer's Market and you have got to believe, that stuff is the best of the best!!! Peaches, Cantaloupe, and Figs. #Foods

My husband does most of the shopping (because, you know, I don't really like to leave the farm unless I have to). So perhaps I have just not been paying attention. But I noticed I am really going through the sugar more than I used to it seems like I am having to open a new bag every week. So when I asked him to get me a bigger bag, I stopped and took a look. The 5 lb bag of sugar is now only 4 lbs. When did that happen? It just really, really irritates me. #Foods

That's the sound of the winner's bell !! Have you ever wondered if it's possible to eat too many blueberries? Well, it is not. Armed with another few baskets of blueberries from my favorite blueberry man at Scott Howard Farms, I made what may be my favorite blueberry dish yet: I started with a recipe from The Elliott Homestead, but you know I cannot leave anything as is, so I have tweaked it just a bit. Berry Custard Cakes – 2 cups berries (I used blueberries, but can't wai

Ha!! Tricked you!! You thought you were going to read a classy post about wine, but nope, it's about Bean Salad!!! I am not sure when Bean Salad became something I craved, instead of something I scraped to the side of my plate and threw away when no one was looking. But sometime it happened, and I just want to eat it all the time. And since I always have a random set of canned beans in the house, it only takes a few minutes. I like two varieties, the sweet kind and the so