Homestyle Cooking

 I have a bookshelf filled with cookbooks, but there are two that sit right about my Kitchenaid.  Simply in Season, published by Herald Press, is one of them.  I recently discovered that Herald Press had also published a cookbook titled Mennonite girls can Cook and a second Mennonite Girls Can Cook Celebrations.  

I was blessed with a chance to look through these two cookbooks and try out some new recipes.  I started with Mennonite girls can Cook.  In the forward, I discovered that all author royalties from the cookbook

will be donated to charity to feed hungry children.  The cookbook was compiled by a group of mennonite women who came together with their favorite family recipes.  These are everyday type of cooking recipes.  The table of contents shows that it will tackle breakfast, soups and salads, suppers, breads, and desserts.  This is a very "homestyle" type of cookbook.  The recipes are filled with comfort foods that you'll recognize.  From the breakfast section, I made the Blueberry Crumb Muffins.  My girls do not like nor eat blueberries.  But, eat these muffins they did!  In fact, Sami requested them the next day again when we had run out.  She was so disappointed that I set about making another batch.  They tasted like bakery or restaurant blueberry muffins made at home.  Next, I made the broccoli salad recipe.  I have to admit that I altered this recipe a lot.  I found the recipe far too sweet for my tastes so I cut the sugar in half and added some small cubes of cheese (1/3 cup).  It wasn't specified whether the onion should be red or white so I stuck with white, but decreased the amount called for by about half just to be safe.  The salad was very good and a friend and my mom both gave it high praise when they were called upon to taste test it.  The rest of the cookbook contains a lot of recipes that you'd find in restaurants in Pennsylvania Dutch country.  There's a mixture of older comfort foods and new ones.  

I was impressed that there were so many gluten free recipes included.  I appreciated the one page discussion of celiacs and gluten free foods at the back of the book.  I hadn't understood why some oats are gluten free and why others are not.  The explanation here is that some oats are grown in fields where wheat has recently been grown, hence a chance of contamination.  Hmm...  interesting.  

If you like Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, you'll really like this cookbook.  There are great pictures and a good variety of recipes.  I know the blueberry muffin recipe will be a permanent part of my repertoire from now on.  Scattered throughout the cookbook are also short devotionals.  I read a few and enjoyed the thoughts these women had to share.  The thoughts in Simply in Season are shorter and quicker to read, but I still enjoyed the thoughts of these women--which are essentially part of their testimonies of what God is or has taught them.

The second cookbook in this series is coming out in May.  It is titled Mennonite Girls Can Cook

Celebrations.  The women came together this time with their favorite "special" recipes.  There are recipes for holidays, outdoors, birthdays, weddings...  My mom and I both enjoyed looking through this cookbook.  I started out with the Chicken Cordon Bake and my mom fixed the tomato rice soup.  I added steamed cauliflower to the Chicken Cordon Bake and was very pleased with the result  I wanted to get a little more vegetables into my family!  My mom made the tomato rice soup and was satisfied with the result, although she felt the soup was quite tomatoey.  My husband, on the other hand, just opened it up for lunch today when he discovered it and had a hard time putting it away after one bowl.  I also fixed the Ham and Cheese Pinwheels.  These were a complete hit with my kids.  There are not many recipes that I get an unequivocal thumbs up on from all three kids.  But, I did with these!  They are little ham and cheese rolls that are baked and look like pinwheels.  Normally, you'd have to buy crescent rolls to make rolls like these, but the dough was quite easy to make and the rolls turned out well (albeit not as pretty as the pictures since I'm not very exact in my cooking).  My husband thought these rolls would be awesome for kids' birthday parties.  

Like the first cookbook, there are many gluten free recipes (which are better labeled in this cookbook!).  I'm excited to try the baked rice pudding the next time our gluten-free friends are over!  There are also many pictures for all of the recipes.  Pictures make cooking so much more appealing!

I think what's fun about this cookbook is that it made me want to make "pretty" food.  Most of the time I am just concerned with making good food fast--as fast as I can.  I whiz around my kitchen.  But, sometimes I want to enjoy cooking.  I want to slow down and make something that tastes good and looks good, too.  I was happy with the pinwheels (even when they didn't turn out as pretty as the picture) because they were fun and I did slow down while making them.  I am very excited to try the swan cream puffs.  My mom has made cream puffs for years and I thought that the swan idea was just one more little step that looks doable.  

I'm glad I had the chance to try these cookbooks.  I know they won't be ones I will pick up all the time like Simply in Season, but I know that they will definitely be used.  I think the pinwheels will be a good addition to my son's birthday party in two weeks and the swans will definitely be added to my daughter's birthday party in the fall!

Please note that I received complimentary copies of these two cookbooks for review from Herald Press.

February Doldrums

It's February and I can feel it.  We were without a furnace on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I really felt it then.  usually it's my husband who misses spring and the warmer weather.  Right now, it's me.  One of the things I look forward to is picking strawberries at a farm nearby in May.  There's nothing like fresh, homemade jam.

When I was a kid, my grandma always made jam and jellies.  My mom learned how, but I never did.  I wish I had.  I've honestly been very intimidated by canning.  So, I have been looking for a good cookbook to help me learn how.  Two years ago I reviewed a canning cookbook published by Storey Publishing.  The recipes were good and it had a ton of information, but many of the recipes used Pomona pectin--which happens to be quite expensive.  One of my prerequisites for a cookbook I'll use over and over is that the recipes use affordable ingredients.  That one didn't fit the bill.  So, I've continued to look for a solid canning cookbook that would fit easily on any cookbook shelf (since the cookbook space in my kitchen has filled up) that would help me feel like I can tackle canning jam and be successful at it.  

So, I was excited to discover that the publisher of Simply in Season, Herald Press, published a canning cookbook:  Saving the Seasons: How to Can, Freeze, or Dry Almost Anything.

This book is a nice size.  It's a thin volume, but it's just the right size for all the information that I found on the pages inside.  

I asked a friend of mine to look it over and give me her opinion of the cookbook.  She is an expert canner who is well known in my church for her jams, jellies, salsas, and condiments! She liked it.  She loved the pictures and was very interested to find out who the photographer was.  She was tempted to purchase the cookbook just for the photographs!  Her opinion is that is a great book for beginners - clear directions, good explanations,  The step by step pictorial directions are easy to follow.  The recipes are a good selection and are almost identical to the recipes she already uses--which have worked well for her for years.  She also thought there was a good selection of tomato based canning recipes.  The Farmer's Market Salsa recipe looked interesting to her.  She did try the marmalade recipe and it turned out just the recipe said it would.  

When I opened up this cookbook, I was immediately reminded of all the things I love about Simply in Season.  Both cookbooks are simply written and are easy to understand.  I did love the photographs.  The photographer did a wonderful job of capturing candids, portraits, and still lifes.  Saving the Seasons has the basic recipes that I want and more.  I don't have tons of time to look all over the internet for good directions and illustrations of how to can.  I need all the information in one place.  In the back of the cookbook, the author biographies reveal that Mary runs a CSA from her family's farm.  Susanna is her daughter.  Susanna is now involved in urban community farming in Pittsburgh, PA.  Mary has had lots of customers over the years ask for canning recipes.  This cookbook was the fruit of her effort to provide them with a good place to start.  I think the authors succeeded in doing just what they set out to do.  I am even inspired to seriously consider purchasing a dehydrator.  The information included answered one of my big questions--like the financial cost of using a dehydrator vs. an oven.  

This cookbook isn't as large as many canning cookbooks, but it's a lot more useable than many I've seen.  It will have a place in my kitchen for many years.  

If you're interested in canning and haven't done much before, I'd highly recommend this cookbook!  It is one that will be easy to use and follow.  And-- there's always the great pictures to look at!

Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this cookbook for review from Herald Press.