Pork Chop Delight: Recipe #9 Sunday Dinner at Grandma's

This recipe intrigued me from the minute I received my free copy of Sunday Dinner at Grandma's thanks to Gooseberry Patch and their "In the Kitchen" series with The Real Farmwives of America and Friends.  It sounded super easy and used the same ingredients I use to make my sloppy joes:  chili sauce and brown sugar.

So after I found a package of pork chops, possibly from our pigs, on sale at the grocery, I thought it was a sign that we should try these chops and I'm sure glad we did as we'll be making them again at this pigpen.

Pork Chop Delight
Ingredients
8 boneless thin-sliced pork chops
1/3c. water
1/2c. chili sauce, divided
1 1/2c. brown sugar, packed

Place pork chops in an ungreased 13x9 baking pan.  Add water to bottom of pan to prevent sticking.  (I added the water before I put the pork chops in my baking pan.)

Top each pork chop with a tablespoon of chili sauce.

Sprinkle brown sugar over all.

Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees for one hour; do not turn pork chops over.

Enjoy!!

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 .

What a weekend with a recipe or two for you

What a weekend it has been...

The three kids and I packed up on Friday afternoon and headed to my mom's (3 hours away) and went pretty much non-stop until just now.  In a 48 hour time span, we all four got our haircut, attended a baptism and a baptism brunch for a special little girl (my cousin and godchild), hit the swimming pool at my Aunt's, went to my cousin's high school graduation party, went to church, out to breakfast, and attended a 4-H meeting this afternoon.

Needless to say everyone is a bit more tired than usual and we didn't get any baking done at the pigpen this weekend.  So I thought I'd share the recipes for the 2 loaves of bread that Bubby made last weekend.  They also just happen to be recipe #7 and #8 from Sunday Dinner at Grandma's which means I only have 2 more recipes to go until it is time to giveaway a copy of the cookbook to one of you thanks to Gooseberry Patch.  And I'e actually already made recipe #9 which means I really only have one more to go.  Woo hoo!!!




Banana-Nut Bread

Ingredients
2c. all-purpose flour
1c. sugar
1t. baking soda
1/4t. salt
1/2c. canola or safflower oil (we used canola)
2 eggs, beaten
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1c. chopped walnuts or pecans (at this pigpen this ingredient is optional especially when the kids and I are baking.)

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; mix well and set aside.

In a separate large bowl, mix oil and eggs; add bananas.

Add flour mixture and mix well; stir in nuts.

Pour batter into greased 9x5 loaf pan or two, 7x3 loaf pans.  (We used a 9x5.)

Bake at 350 degrees, 45 minutes for a regular loaf pan or 25-30 minutes for 2 smaller pans.

It got a bit more brown than I would have preferred on the outside, but it still tasted good!

Cinnamon Bread

Ingredients
1/2 c. shortening
1c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2c. all-purpose flour
1t. baking powder
1/2t. baking soda
1/4t. salt
1c. sour milk or buttermilk
3T. sugar
1t. cinnamon

In a large bowl, blend shortening and sugar.

Stir in eggs and set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add to shortening mixture alternately with milk.

Mix sugar and cinnamon in a cup; set aside. (Big Sissy helped with this step.)

In a greased 9x5 loaf pan, alternate 4 layers of batter and sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

Cool on a wire rack.

Both of the breads were a big hit here.  For being a quick bread, the cinnamon bread was very light and yummy.

And thanks to my Gooseberry Patch cookbook, I gained a new tip for the kitchen: "Quick breads will have a better flavor if you store them overnight before slicing and serving them."

Hope you all had a great weekend!

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 .

Our Bucket List for the Summer

Even though I'm a full-time, off-farm working momma that still has to go to work 5 days a week despite the fact that the kids are on summer break , I've tried to craft a pretty good bucket list for our summer.  This will be our last summer for many years that no one at this pigpen is in 4-H.  Big Sissy will be a first year 4-H member next year and in Indiana you can be a 4-H member for 10 years.  So needless to say our summers are going to get real busy after this year.

So that being said, I'm trying to squeeze in as much as my work schedule will allow as summer is about spending time with the family and letting the kids truly be kids.

Swimming lessons, vacation bible school, 4th of July with my family, the county fair, the State Fair, and soccer camp have been on our list the last couple years; although, this will be the first year Bubby can attend soccer camp.  (It is just a one week program for 1 1/2 hours each night about 5 minutes from our house.)

This year we also have a pretty exciting family vacation planned; however, The Farmer and I have only told the kids that we are going on vacation.  They don't know where or when, but let me just say we may or may not be visiting a mouse and his friends.

So, I'm pretty pumped about this year's bucket list which is why I was excited we started working on one of our items today.  Another one of our annual summer bucket list items is our county library's summer reading program.  Growing up I loved the summer reading program and I have tried to instill this love of the library and in particular the summer reading program with Big Sissy, Bubby, and Little Sissy.

Today we made the first of many trips this summer, I hope, to the library to officially sign up for the summer reading program and enjoy the library.

Big Sissy hit the computers.

Bubby loves looking for books and movies about farming, building, and trains.

Little Sissy lined up the dinosaurs.

So here's to reading this summer and enjoying our summer bucket list.

What's on your summer bucket list?

Sour Cream Drop Cookies: Recipe #6 from Sunday Dinner at Grandma's

Big Sissy, Bubby, and I went on a cooking binge on Sunday afternoon making recipes #6, #7, and #8 from Gooseberry Patch's Sunday Dinner at Grandma's as part of Gooseberry Patch and The Real Farmwives of America and Friends "In the Kitchen" series.  This means I only have 2 more recipes to go until it it time to give-a-way a copy of Sunday Dinner at Grandma's to one of my lucky readers thanks to Gooseberry Patch.




So with the Sour Cream Drop Cookies recipe in hand, Big Sissy got busy.

Sour Cream Drop Cookies

Ingredients
3/4 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. lemon or orange extract
8 oz. sour cream
3c. all purpose flour
1t. baking powder
1t. baking soda

After figuring out the mixer was not plugged in, Big Sissy got started on blending together her butter and sugar.

Fold in sour cream; set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets (we linked our baking sheets with parchment paper instead of greasing them).

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Enjoy!!


 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 .

Farmer Fridays - Some things are more important

I have really struggled with this week's Farmer Fridays as not much as happened on our family farm this week which is honestly quite depressing this time of year.  We are usually trying to finish up planting season by Memorial Day and applying anhydrous ammonia to our corn this time of year.  Much to our dismay, Mother Nature has not been real cooperative so far this spring and our time in the fields has been extremely limited.  I try to be an optimist so I just keep reminding myself it could be worse.

I was reminded of this in black and white today when I received an email from a friend and professional peer, Joe.  Quoting the Daily Livestock Report, his email started, "Some things are more important than markets and policies and prices."  Joe then went on to encourage us to learn more about the upcoming Memorial Day holiday.  He also reminded us that "even though this is a difficult planting season, please take time to enjoy and observe Memorial Day."  "The challenges we face today are minimal compared to those who went before us and it is fitting we remember them on Monday."  "Please keep in mind that we still have family, friends and neighbors defending us around the world as well as in Afghanistan and Iraq."

Although we are starting to reach some critical time lines to get our corn and soybeans planted, Joe's words really hit home for some reason which is why I asked him if I could share them.  I hope that they have struck a chord within you as well.

Wordless Wednesday - Daddy's little girl

It is such a pleasure to watch each of our children learn to love the farm.  Tractor and combine rides are always loved by all; however, tractor rides have been at a premium so far this planting season since our number of days in the fields has been extremely limited due to the rainy weather.

Saturday night, Little Sissy got her first tractor ride of the season and it didn't take long until she wanted to be just like her dad...

Linked to the following Wordless Wednesday parties:

Project Alicia

Pinke Post

Supermom

Live and love...outloud

Dagmar*s momsense