Iron Chef Bake-Off

As you know Ott, A from A latte with Ott, A has kept me on my toes this year in the kitchen with her monthly secret ingredient Iron Chef Challenges.  It has been a lot of fun to work with some familiar and some new ingredients in the kitchen with these challenges.

Much to my surprise, I was named the winner of not only one, but two of her monthly Iron Chef Challenges.  I actually won the artichoke Iron Chef Challenge in October and the turkey Iron Chef Challenge in November which led me to this month's Iron Chef Bake Off.

Instead of a secret ingredient, the monthly winners are competing in a Bake-Off sponsored by Taste of Home.  Each of us were asked to make the exact same recipe of Cinnamon Raisin Bread and then take that bread to the next level by incorporating it into another recipe.

Believe it or not as soon as I saw the Cinnamon Raisin Bread recipe, I knew what I was going to make.  My mother-in-law makes a bread pudding that puts most others to shame so I thought it would be the perfect thing to make for this bake-off challenge.

Aunt Nettie's Famous Bread Pudding 
Ingredients
French bread to cover the bottom of 9x13 pan or 1 loaf of Taste of Home Cinnamon Raisin Bread
1/2 cup melted butter
8 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
5 1/2 cups milk

Directions
Tear up bread and cover the bottom of a 9x13 pan.

Pour 1/2 cup melted butter over the bread.

Beat 8 eggs well.

Add sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat well.

Add 5 1/2 cups milk and mix well.

Pour over the bread and let rest 15 minutes or until bread is soaked.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until center is set.

Serve warm with the whiskey sauce.

Whiskey Sauce
Ingredients
1 cup melted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 T. whiskey
1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans (toast pecans at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes)

Directions
Melt butter on the stove top.

After butter is melted, remove from heat and whip in powdered sugar and eggs.

Add whiskey and pecans.

Drizzle over the bread pudding.

Enjoy!!!

I hope you not only enjoy the bread pudding, but also the cinnamon raisin bread as by following the recipe for it, you will end up with 2 loaves... one for the bread pudding and one to enjoy for breakfast or a snack.

Thanks again to Ott, A for all of her awesome Iron Chef challenges in 2011!

Christmas Tradition #2 from the pigpen

It is no secret that we love to bake at this pigpen when we can find the time.  As if the Christmas season wasn't already busy enough, we try squeeze in lots of baking in the coming month.  From puppy chow AKA reindeer chow to peanut butter balls, we love to bake during the Christmas season.

This is a tradition I picked up from my amazing mother-in-law.  Usually during the month of November and December, she bakes up a storm of Christmas cookies that we then share with family and friends in addition to our family farm's landlords.  (We rent some of our farm ground from local land owners that don't farm themselves, but want to keep their land in production agriculture.  This arrangement is really a win-win for all as it allows them to retain ownership of their farm ground without having to farm it themselves and it allows us to farm more ground without having to own it all.)

My mother-in-law usually makes around 10 different kinds of cookies.  Many are the same cookies she made the year before, but each year we do try to find a new recipe.  This is one reason why I was so excited to be a part of The Real Farmwives and Friends In the Cookie Kitchen partnership with Gooseberry Patch as it allowed me try out a new recipe, Graham No-Bake Cookies.

Big Sissy gave them a big thumb's up!

After all the cookies are made, we package them up in cute containers and then deliver them around the countryside.  This is a really fun family tradition and one that I'm glad my mother-in-law shares with me and the kids.

So Christmas Tradition #2 is baking Christmas cookies for our family, friends, and landlords.

What is your favorite Christmas cookie?

Father's Day Desserts

For our family's Father's Day celebration this past Saturday night we had some really yummy food as I'm blessed to have a mother-in-law that is an amazing cook and baker.  She really could have her own restaurant.  Additionally, my sister-in-law and future sister-in-law are pretty talented themselves.  So if you go hungry at one of our family celebrations, it is definitely your own fault.

In addition to some great appetizers and sides, we had quite the assortment for dessert.  I made my father-in-law's favorite Robert Redford, tried out a new Gooseberry Patch recipe, and then my sister-in-law, Auntie E, tested all of our taste buds with her new creation... bacon ice cream.  (You might want to check out her blog as I'm pretty sure it will be making an appearance in the near future.)  I can't say I would want to have bacon ice cream every night, but it was definitely interesting and added a good combination of sweet and salty all at the same time.

The new recipe I tried came from Gooseberry Patch's Quick & Easy family favorites and from the 5 ingredients or less section, which is becoming my favorite.

Magic Bars
Ingredients
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 1/3c. graham cracker crumbs
14oz. can sweetened condensed milk (I used fat free)
1 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate as I didn't have enough semi-sweet on hand.)
1 1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Stir together melted butter and graham cracker crumbs.

Press into a 9x13 baking dish.

Pour milk over crumb mixture.

Sprinkle with chocolate chips and walnuts.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until edges are browned and bubbly.

These didn't make it past last night so perhaps they really are magic.

Enjoy!

Easy Mandarin - Spinach Salad: Recipe #1 from Sunday Dinner at Grandma's

The Real Farmwives of America and Friends are always up to something in the kitchen, at their house, and on their farms and I am so proud to be one.  Earlier this spring, they announced their In the Kitchen partnership with Gooseberry Patch.  Thanks to that partnership I received not one, but two of Gooseberry Patch's Sunday Dinner at Grandma's cookbooks.  One for me to cook 10 recipes from over the coming months, and one to give away to one of my lucky readers after I've made my 10 recipes.

Well for our Mother's Day celebrations with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and our respective families, I was able to make not one but two recipe from Sunday Dinner at Grandma's.  The first one came from the Garden Patch Sides & Salads section:  Easy Mandarin - Spinach Salad

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs. baby spinach
2, 11 oz. cans mandarin oranges, drained
2 1/4 oz. pkg. sliced almonds, toasted
Italian salad dressing to taste

Combine the spinach, oranges, and almonds in a large salad bowl.  Before serving, drizzle with salad dressing.

It appears this salad was a hit as this was all that was left.

 Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and share with you.  If you would like to purchase this or other cookbooks, please visit their store. 

If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com .

A Book Review or Two from the pig pen

Buying good presents isn't always one of The Farmer's good traits.  Now I love him just the same, but he either knocks it out of the park like he has several times with jewelry and we all know diamonds are a girl's best friend or it can often be a big dud.

Well, this Christmas, he really knocked it out of the park and I was completely surprised.

Since Martini introduced me to her Kindle 2 years ago, I have secretly wanted one.  I never really discussed it with anyone but her and I just kept telling myself that my reading binges didn't justify me buying a Kindle.  Plus when I do read, I usually check the book out from our county library as opposed to buying one.  

Well much to my surprise, I opened up a Kindle on Christmas morning from The Farmer.   I was in complete shock especially since we had just given one to his mom the day before for Christmas from us and his younger brother and his girlfriend.

Come to find out, The Farmer had ordered my Kindle right after Thanksgiving and everyone had been keeping the secret since then even Big Sissy.

Needless to say, I was excited and couldn't wait to start using it on the drive to my mom and aunt's later on Christmas Day.  On the drive there, I downloaded a few free books; however, I didn't start reading on it right away as just before Christmas I had checked out 2 Christmas books from our county library that I wanted to finish first. So I hurried up and read them so I could start reading from my Kindle.  (The books I checked out from the library were The Gift by Nora Roberts and Skipping Christmas by John Grisham.  I would recommend them both for a quick Christmas read.)

Since Christmas, I have read The Potluck Club by Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson and Fireflies in December by Jennifer Erin Valent on my Kindle.  

The Potluck Club follows a group of women that get together once a month for a potluck lunch to pray; however, things don't always go as planned.  A nice touch to this book is it even includes some of the recipes they make for their potluck lunches.

Fireflies in December is set in 1932 in Virginia during segregation where the Lassiter family, a white family,  takes in Gemma, a black girl, after her parents are killed in a fire and raise her as one of their children.  This decision, which was the right one, changes everyone's life forever.

Although these books were very different, I really liked both of them and would recommend them.  The real extra bonus is both of these books were the first one in a series so I can continue my reading adventure with The Potluck Club and learn more about the Lassiters and Gemma on my Kindle thanks to my in-laws as I got an Amazon gift card for Christmas to buy books for my Kindle from them.

What book recommendations do you have?

What a difference a week makes...

What a difference a week makes...

Last Sunday, the 3 kids, myself, and my mother-in-law ventured out to Kelsay Farms to Experience the Farm thanks to tickets that Amy and Liz from 2 Maids a Milking and Kelsay Farms gave us.

You may be wondering why we would want to Experience the Farm when we live on a farm.  Well much to Bubby's excitement, Kelsay Farms is a dairy farm which means they raise cows.  Although we love being pig farmers, we love dairy products especially milk, cheese, and ice cream at this pig pen so we wanted to see the cows of course.

So why does a week make a difference?  Well last Sunday, Fall weather was definitely here.  We wore several layers, scarves, and even took hats and gloves for our adventure last Sunday.  As I sit here today, I would think it was still summer if we didn't have a combine running today on our family farm as it is over 80 degrees probably 20 degrees warmer than last Sunday.  So either way, fall or summer temperatures, we would all recommend that you visit Kelsay Farms this October and Experience the Farm. 

Bubby's favorite part was visiting with the cows and the milking parlor tour.  Big Sissy loved the 5 acre corn maze and bale mountain, and Little Sissy loved the Moo Choo Express.  My favorite part was just seeing the smiles on my kids faces and having a fun family day.