One Giant Catch Up Post: Mother's Day, A Post from the Farm, and A Field Trip

I pulled an unintended disappearing act from the blog this week. First, I was out of town. Then I was back, but too busy. And finally when I sat down to type, Blogger was "down" for like, 2 whole days. Ugh.

I just can't seem to find the time to post my kitchen adventures lately. I have pictures of recipes from all the way back to Easter, just waiting to be written about. I planned to catch up the blog with those posts this week. In addition to catching up, I had every intention of posting the latest meal plan as usual on Sunday. As it turned out, none of this planning mattered. Here's what really went down:

Mother's Day began as I had planned. I woke up early because my daughter would be performing at 2 church services and I needed to get everyone suited in their "Sunday best" and out the door in a timely fashion. (I'm laughing to myself as I type this because leaving on time seems to be a huge challenge for us, no matter how early we begin.) Alone in my kitchen, I started the coffee, then pulled up the blinds to check the weather. I was instantly taken in by the view of our backyard. The rising sun was shining through the mist that had settled close to the earth. The effect was so beautiful. I grabbed my camera and headed outside to try to capture the scene.

It almost didn't look real. It was more like a painting....

I contemplated taking my coffee out to the deck for a bit as I snapped one last picture of the sun coming up (Hmm. As I read this, I think I'm starting to understand why we have such difficulty with leaving on time. I'm easily distracted...) Just then, I heard my phone beeping in the kitchen with incoming text messages. At first, I thought it was my husband wishing me a happy Mother's Day from work (he went in at 5:00 am that morning). Instead, it was a message from my younger sister letting me know that she was finally (now a week over-due) in labor and checking into the hospital. Yay!

Over the next few hours (discretely checking messages through 2 services and a choir awards ceremony), I received updates from the delivery room where both of my little sisters were keeping me posted.

With a busy week ahead of me, I had resolved to wait until next weekend to make the trip home and see the new baby. But as the texts flew, I realized that everyone was there but me, I missed them all like crazy, and I felt SO far away. It only took one request from my sister followed by my husband urging me to "GO!" to change my mind. By mid-afternoon, I had my daughters and an overnight bag packed into the car as I turned onto the highway.

By 7 pm I had 6-hour-old baby Graysen in my arms. What a Mother's Day!

Isn't he precious?! And he already has GREAT hair!

And now for a post within a post....

A Post from the Farm

Some of you are familiar with my summer "Posts from the Farm". This unexpected Indiana trip to meet my nephew created the opportunity for a spring post from the farm. Let's call this one, "The Morel of the Story".

Every spring of my childhood found my family in the woods behind our house (or behind my grandma's house) fervently searching the ground for the morel mushroom.

The morel, in my opinion, is the best fungus on the planet. It's God's gift to fungi.

The morel is absolutely delicious. I can't compare it with anything else that I have tried. With the combined harvest from my uncles, cousins, and my family, my grandma would fry up a whole "mess" of mushrooms and we'd have a big family dinner. It was a tradition that ranked right up there with Christmas dinner and I loved it.

Unfortunately, the last time I attended a Mushroom Fry was before I graduated from college. In the last several years, my husband and I moved to Ohio, then back to Indiana, then to Georgia, then to Ohio again. My visits home never seemed to coincide with mushroom season. I may have felt a pang of jealousy when I heard that my family was enjoying the mushroom feast without me, but I was okay with it. Until this spring, that is... On the few warm days we've had, I have felt my eyes searching the ground during hikes through the woods with my daughters. "I wonder if they grow mushrooms here?" I thought. I started asking around; first questioning my neighbors and eventually anyone who would make eye contact with me while I was out and about. Every inquiry of "Does anyone here hunt mushrooms?" or "Do morel mushrooms grow here?" fell short. Most people didn't have a clue what I was talking about. When I explained, they looked at me like I was a little crazy. You mean you walk through the woods, pick fungus up off of the ground, and then fry and eat it? How do you know it's not poisonous? Well, I just do. I learned to spot a morel before I learned to read....

My craving started small and then grew into a monster as I saw my hometown facebook friends posting pictures of their mushrooms. The craving eventually evoked a bit of suspicion: Maybe the people around here DO hunt for mushrooms and they are just guarding their secret hunting spots. I even "Googled" it. While Ohio isn't the leader in mushroom hunting, they do find them here.

Luckily, before I started tailing my neighbors into the woods, my sister had a baby smack dab in the middle of Indiana mushroom season.

The morning after arriving  in my hometown, I was helping to watch my two young nephews while their parent's were at the hospital with the new baby. I convinced my mom to watch the two youngest kiddos and I set out for the woods with my oldest daughter and one of my nephews. After a quick stop by my uncle's house, we were outfitted with directions to a hunting spot, a truck that would get us there, a tall pair of rubber boots, and insect repellent (word has it that ticks are out in full force this year). This was my daughter's first time hunting. I was happy to pass on the tradition. She and my nephew were happy to crash through the woods together and find vines to swing on.

After 15 to 20 minutes of walking, I spotted the first 'shroom. It was the variety that mushroom hunters call a "spike". Click HERE to see pictures of the other types of morels that we hunt.

Over an hour later, we made it back to the truck with a mere 7 "spikes" in our bag. While I was happy that I had found something, 7 mushrooms hardly make for a meal. I needed more...

That evening, before the sun sank down past the horizon, I loaded the kiddos into my parent's John Deere Gator and set out for the woods again. I reasoned that since tmy children are closer to the ground, they might be able to spot the 'shrooms better than me. I was right! While we didn't find a ton of mushrooms, we did find enough for a meal. We even found some of the yellow sponge variety. (While the grey sponge is my favorite, the larger yellow sponge is a great find!)

Our bag o' morels.

Back at the house, I washed away the soil and removed any visible insects from the morels. I cut most of them in half, lengthwise up the stem, to search for any bugs hiding inside. Slicing also allows for more even frying with larger mushrooms. Then I soaked them in salted water for a few hours. This helps to remove any additional soil, chases out the remaining bugs, and keeps the mushrooms from drying out. You can leave them in the water overnight, if you like.

I drained off the water and gave mine a final rinse before laying them on paper towels to soak up the excess water. Then I carefully placed them in plastic baggies and put them in the fridge for the night.

I couldn't wait for dinner to eat my mushrooms, so the next morning I fried some for breakfast. Told ya I was having a craving...

It seems that everyone has a preference about the way they like their morels fried. I am most used to the way my grandma makes them: dipped in egg, dredged in flour, and fried in butter. My dad swears by just rolling them in flour, seasoning with salt and pepper and frying (in butter). He claims that this really lets the mushroom's flavor shine through. I'll try the next batch his way...

I had heard that my uncle's girlfriend fried some delicious mushrooms last week, so for this batch I decided to call and get her method. Her secret ingredient: pancake batter mixed in with plain all-purpose flour. She also adds olive oil to the butter, noting that just butter browns too fast during frying.

Here's what I did:

First, I whisked an egg into some milk. Then I dipped the mushrooms into the mixture.

I mixed equal parts of flour and pancake mix and then dredged the mushrooms in the combination. (I forgot to photograph this step). I dropped the coated mushrooms into a skillet heated with butter and olive oil and fried them until browned and crispy on one side,

and then the other.

Remove to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Salt to taste.

This was breakfast. My arrangement turned out looking a bit like a tarantula, but don't let that fool you...each bite of the crispy-fried fungi was pure bliss.

A Field Trip (click HERE to read other "Field Trip" posts)

After my mushroom breakfast, my mom sent me on an errand that brought me to an impressive candy store. The Wakarusa Dime Store has been in business since 1907. Surprisingly, I had never heard of the place.

Just inside the entrance I was greeted with a huge display of flavored popcorn. After I tried each and every one (Hey, I hadn't had lunch yet. I was hungry!) I headed for the jelly bean aisle.

The Dime Store is also known as the "Home of the Jumbo Jelly Bean". Their jelly bean aisle certainly is impressive...

And there are samples everywhere!

Pictured below are pink grapefruit, pineapple, and I want to say mulberry (?). If you love jelly beans, then you will love jumbo jelly beans even more! I'm a chocolate kind of girl when it comes to candy, so it's no surprise that I was most impressed with the chocolate-covered cherry jumbo jelly bean. It was a tart cherry jelly bean covered in real chocolate. Surprisingly delicious!

Next, I drifted on my sugar-high cloud over to the vintage candy/taffy aisle. You name it, they've got it here!

The Dime Store is really part museum too. There are interesting things to see and read everywhere!

Anyone remember Sixlets? I actually found a package or two in my daughters' Halloween candy last year. At The Dime Store you can fill up on as many as you want...and choose the color scheme too!

I didn't even take any pictures of the front of the store where the hand-dipped chocolates and fudge were for sale. But I did get this...

They are pretty enough to be a rock collection, but they taste better than M&M's. Chocolate rocks! They were my favorite purchase of the day.

If you ever find yourself in Northeastern Indiana, stop by The Wakarusa Dime Store to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Speaking of Northern Indiana, I'm typing this from the passenger seat of our car on the way to Indiana...

Come See Me!

Tomorrow (Saturday May 14th) from 11:30 to 12:30 I will be giving a cooking demonstration in Napannee, Indiana at the new Kountry Cabinets and Home Furnishings, 252 W. Market Street. If you're in the area, stop on by! I'll be packing the perfect picnic with recipes like Tuscan Style Pork Loin, Caprese Salad Skewers, and Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries.

I'd love to see you there!

Alrighty,  I've caught ya'll up a bit. Now that I'm posting again,  let's see if I can actually post some of the recipes I have made lately. I'll work on that this week...

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!

Field Trip: Harvey's Citrus Grove in Rockledge, Florida and Jalapeno Pepper Jelly

We returned home from our Spring Break trip to Florida late on Sunday night. I need to go to the grocery store, but I've been busy unpacking and doing laundry instead. In the absence of fresh ingredients, I've been heating up meals that I prepared and froze over the last couple of months. With nothing new to post on the cooking front here, I thought that I'd share about our visit to Harvey's Groves while in Florida.

The whole reason that we ended up at Harvey's was because of their Jalapeno Pepper Jelly. We arrived at my parent's place in Florida a few days ahead of them. I found a jar of Harvey's Jalapeno Pepper Jelly in the fridge and employed it as a snack on crackers. Wheat Thins, if I remember correctly. As a fan of the spicy preserve, I've tried quite a few varieties of pepper jelly over the years. Something about Harvey's jelly was just a little bit different and I was crazy about it! After reading the ingredients, I think that the difference between most pepper jellies that I have tasted and this one is that the very first ingredient listed on the label is "citrus juices". Well, that made sense. A citrus grove would use juice rather than sugar water to make their jelly...

By the time that my parents arrived, I had worked my way through half of a jar and had even tried it on a turkey sandwich! (Not too bad, if you're wondering) Once my mom had unloaded her suitcase, I grabbed the jelly jar out of the fridge.

"Where did you get this?!" I asked.

She answered "Oh, that's from Harvey's. I can take you there if you like. We need some fresh orange juice and grapefruit anyway."

Yes. Please. Take me there.

On Thursday of our vacation it rained all day. My husband had some work to catch up on and my dad had flown out on business for the day, so my mom and I loaded my daughters into the car and headed down the highway for Harvey's store in Rockledge, Florida. We entered the bright gift shop and were instantly greeted by some friendly ladies offering us a sample of freshly squeezed orange juice. After browsing the store, we stepped out the back door to the sorting room to purchase some #2's. Harvey's ships premium Florida Indian River citrus all over the country. The fruit that isn't pretty enough for their gorgeous gift baskets and other shipping orders due to coloring or a blemish on the skin goes into the #2 bins. Beneath the skin this fruit is still delicious and perfect...AND less expensive! We filled the provided paper bag (the gift shop ladies recommended that we double up the bags to keep them from ripping) full of Valencias (the last orange of the season) and grapefruit. The charge for one bag full of fruit is $9.75 (give or take a few cents...I can't actually remember the amount, but it was under $10). Get this: each of their bags holds roughly 25 lbs. of fruit! You can't beat that price in your local supermarket!

Here are my girlies posing at the orange grove.

Pure Florida Valencia, baby! While many people think this is a "juicing" orange, it's wonderful for a peel-and-eat fruit as well.

Picking through the bins....

Harvey's has been growing, packing, and shipping premium Florida citrus for 84 years. You can read about their story HERE. Harvey’s Groves is one of the few remaining family-owned groves in Florida. The reason for the dwindling number of family owned groves is this: It's hard work growing citrus and running a grove. Over the years, many of the family-owned groves have sold to larger companies or found that it was more lucrative in the moment to sell their prime Florida real estate for development.

This trip to Harvey's was nostalgic for me. When I was growing up, my great-grandparents were "snow birds" who spent their winters in Delray Beach, Florida.  Not the type to sleep in or play golf after selling their Indiana farm, they spent their retirement working in a family-owned and operated orange grove. Every year we'd make the trip to Florida to visit them and while we were there, pay a visit to Blood's Hammock Groves where they were employed. The owners and their co-workers were like extended family to my great-grandparents and when we arrived on the scene we were treated like guests of honor. We were able to walk the rows of trees and view the behind-the-scenes operations of the grove.  As Gene and Delight's grandchildren, when we showed up in the offices or the gift shop, we received VIP treatment. I loved going to the grove. The smell of orange blossoms, the smiles received from the workers, the stickers from the people in the office, and seeing how it all worked. When I was in elementary school I even made a documentary and wrote a report for my class about the grove to make up for a week of missed school (my school principal's idea). Being in the back of Harvey's reminded me of this time in my life and I was happy to share it with my young daughters. The grove where my great-grandparents worked has since sold to another grower who ships for Harry & David. It was refreshing for me to see that Harvey's isn't planning on selling out or going away. This family’s commitment to providing premium products and excellent service is stronger than ever.

We caught Harvey's at the end of their growing season on this trip. They don't ship at all over the summer and resume again in mid-November (just in time to send a holiday fruit basket to your loved ones!) If you'd like to order the pepper jelly featured in this post or any of Harvey's products now, you have to order before the end of this month...or wait until November. You can shop online HERE. Just see the "Shop by Product" section in the left sidebar. You can also request a catalogue HERE. Of course, if you are in Florida and you happen to stop at any of their store locations, I highly recommend picking up some of their fresh-squeezed orange juice and their fudge is surprisingly amazing. It's easily some of the smoothest, creamiest fudge I have ever purchased!

But back to the pepper jelly....

We're two days home from vacation and I'm already missing palm trees and sunshine. It actually snowed here today. In April. Ugh.

In an attempt to re-capture the spirit of the trip, I busted out the jar of jelly I purchased at Harvey's for snack-time. I'm sure that most of you have seen a block of cream cheese smothered with pepper jelly and accompanied with crackers on an appetizer table. Nothing new there. It's always good. I took this traditional favorite just one step further. My 3 year old has been completely addicted to oranges since our trip. She begged me for an orange for her afternoon snack. I happily obliged, but not before zesting some of the orange peel over my cream cheese-spread, pepper jelly-smothered butter crackers with my new fine microplane grater. Talk about a bite of sunshine! As if on cue, the snow clouds overhead blew away and a ray of sunshine shined through our windows! It was perfection, I tell ya! Perfection.

When dinner-time rolled around, I was still clinging to my pepper jelly obsession. I decided to make a new version of grilled cheese, enlisting the jelly as a key ingredient. I wanted to use my new Pampered Chef grill pan and press, making the sandwich "panini-style". A regular skillet would work fine here too.

To begin, I lightly buttered a piece of bread and placed it butter-side down on the pre-heated grill pan.

Then I spread some cream cheese over the bread and topped it with the delicious pepper jelly.

I topped it with another piece of buttered bread and placed my grill press on top before cooking until golden brown and crisp.

Perfection again! The warm melty cream cheese, mingling with the sweet slight heat of the jelly on the crisped bread was sooo good!

I couldn't resist taking a bite or two before snapping just one more picture.

Yep. Perfection.

I hope that all of you are enjoying your Spring so far!

Field Trip: Pierogi Making at the Byzantine Church

Hello friends! I am still wrapping things up in my home state of Indiana. As a result, this week there is no meal plan, no shopping list...no newsletter.(I'm especially bummed about that). Both of my computers are at home and my in-law's desktop is working all shades of slow! Not to worry, the regular Sunday posts will be back on schedule next week. In the meantime, stay tuned for one amazing grapefruit glazed pork tenderloin, an out-of-this-world Open Faced BBQ Burger, and for today...another field trip. Yay!

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to learn about pierogi making from some pros! Would you believe that I'd never tasted a pierogi before? It's true. I've definitely heard of them, and I've seen bags of Mrs. T's pierogies in the grocery store coolers, but I've never tried even one. I mentioned this pierogi void in my life to one of my nearest and dearest friends, who also happens to be of Slavic descent(according to my sources, the pierogi originates with the Slavic people.) She also attends a church that makes pierogies for a fundraiser (and yummy tradition) during Lent every year. Good friend that she is, she offered me a hands-on opportunity to learn about pierogi making and invited me along to the Byzantine Catholic Church that she and her family attend.

If you're wondering, "What is the difference between Byzantine Catholic and Roman Catholic?", you are not alone. I'd never even heard of Eastern or Byzantine Catholicism until we moved to the greater Cleveland area 20 months ago, but I'm always interested in learning about other religions and cultures, so I ask my friend lots of questions. Luckily, she likes to talk as much as I do, so she answers them. She also gave me some helpful literature that summarized the difference between the two Catholic doctrines in simple terms. Here's "the bottom line" that I got from that literature: "Eastern (Byzantine) and Roman Catholics approach, teach, and celebrate their faith differently, but they share the same Catholic Faith. Eastern and Western Catholics do not contradict each other. They compliment each other." I also found out that Byzantine Catholics include people of the following ancestry: Albanian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Greek, Hungarian, Italo-Albanian, Macedonian, Melkite(Middle Eastern), Romanian, Russian, Ruthenian, Slovak, Ukrainian, and many others.

So...one lesson down, here's another. What is a pierogi?!? From my recent experience, it's a semi-circular dumpling formed out of dough and filled with any variety of ingredients (common examples are: potato, cheese, sauerkraut), then it is boiled and tossed with butter or sour cream. Pierogies can be garnished with bacon, onions, or mushrooms. Sometimes they are baked or fried in butter. Some varieties are sweet rather than savory and filled with fruit such as apple or prune.

On the day that I arrived for pierogi making, the flavor in production was potato-cheese. This church also makes plain potato, sauerkraut, potato sauerkraut, prune, and at least one other variety...I'm thinking that it was apple? I heard that last year, they turned out 50,000 pierogies! Not in a single day, of course...the pierogi volunteers meet 2-3 times a week to make this happen. During the week that I visited, some people had come in the day before to make the dough and filling. When I showed up the next day we filled, shaped, cooked, and packaged potato cheese pierogies. The following day, the volunteers came in to make pierogies of the sauerkraut variety. These pierogi making sessions, 2-3 times a week, continue through the Lenten season. I'd guess that the production is driven by the amount of orders received.

Here are some hot, buttered potato cheese 'rogies fresh from the kitchen. YUM!



We have to begin where I came in: Day 2 of pierogi production. The dough and filling were already prepared, so the first step is rolling the dough flat. They had a really great machine for this job.



Next, the dough was cut into circles. You can use a biscuit cutter or even a drinking glass for this step.



Now here's the filling. Made with real potato and cheese, volunteers the day before had made the filling and portioned it to pierogi size.



Now each circle of dough is placed on a tray and the filling is placed in the center.




After this, the pierogies are ready to be formed. Each tray is delivered to volunteers to shape. This was my job. I shaped pierogies. You apply a little water around the edges of the dough to help with sealing. The longer the dough has been exposed to the air, the greater the likelihood that it will have dried a bit and need the help of a little water to "stick the seal".



The dough is folded over the filling and then the edges are crimped with a fork to create a seal. As the formed pierogi stared back at me, they put me in mind of Mexican Empanadas or even Italian Ravioli...or...wait...Mmmm....Chinese Dumplings. Sure, the fillings and preparation methods may vary from culture to culture. But if you ask me, from one culture to another, the same holds true...people are just people...and people like their dumplings. : )



Here are some pierogi makers hard at work. My spot was next to this delightful and happy couple at the end of the table.



Once a tray of 60 pierogies was complete, we lined them up by the kitchen window, marking how many dozen were complete on a tally pad next to the window. A cook dumped the trays of pierogies into hot water and let them boil. I forgot to ask how long they needed to cook. Heck, I forgot to ask for the recipe. I was so enthralled by the process...and those pierogies. Oh my, THE pierogies! (We were allowed to eat the ones that broke open during cooking.) Yummmy!



Once the pierogies are ready, they are drained and transferred...



to a nice lil' butter bath on baking sheets.



Following the butter wallowing, these pierogies are ready to be dished up. They are divided by the dozen onto disposable trays.



Finally, each tray is wrapped and frozen, ready for sale.



This is a pic of my friend Staycie (on the right) and I in our pierogi making attire. Can we rock a hair net or what?! Okay, stop laughing.





So that's pierogi making. Definitely not difficult, and definitely delicious. Give it a try in your house. Just "Google" a recipe. : )

Here's a big thanks to my friend Staycie (and her mom) for introducing me to the world of pierogi making, and to her church for being so nice and welcoming.

Hope ya'll enjoyed the field trip. Have a wonderful Monday!