Rosemary Cheddar Bagels

First, some blog housekeeping. 

I know that many of you like to read this blog by email. I've switched email providers several times the last couple years, trying to find an inexpensive program that worked well. Some emails were sent two or three times, and some that never arrived at all. 

Several weeks ago, when I hinted at leaving blogging, maybe joining moving to another social media platform, many of you begged me to keep this blog up. 

So, for now, I plan to keep blogging, hopefully several times a month. But I moved the email to Substack, which hopefully will give more consistent email service. This should change nothing for those of you already signed up to recieve Home Joys by email before, just will come through a different email address.

Thanks for your patience as I continue to work out the kinks.

If you haven't received Home Joys by email and would like to, you can sign up on the form on the bottom of the Home Joys blog site. Just scroll all the way down. Or send me an email at walkingbymyside AT gmail.com and I'll sign you up. 

And for those who like Instagram, I've been posting over there ocasionally. You can find me @homejoysmom. It is an easy way to share photos, but I don't want to get sucked into the IG time drain, so I doubt you'll see me there often.

Enough of that...

If you have been a long-time reader of this blog, you know that I used to write about bread baking. I've had numerous posts sharing bread baking tips, sourdough advice, and bread recipes. 

That feels like a long time ago. When Ed was diagnosted with cancer, he went on a strict keto diet, and I quit baking bread. Then when he died, I lost all joy in preparing meals, including bread baking. My children love homemade bread, so occasionally I'd make a batch, but it was a rare event. 

But last year my fourteen-year-old daughter began baking bread, and we are once again relishing the smells and flavors of homemade bread. I asked if she'd let me share a few of her recipes with you. 

The first is Rosemary Cheddar Bagels. We love these so much that she always doubles this recipe, so we can put some in the freezer. The recipe is simple to make, even if you have never made bagels. Don't skip the boiling step because that is what gives the bagels their chewy texture. 

 Rosemary Cheddar Bagels

(Makes 12 large bagels)

2 Tablespoons instant yeast

2 1/4 cup warm water

2 teaspoons salt

2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary or 1 Tablespoon dried rosemary

1 1/2 Tablespoons of brown sugar

5 cups white all-purpose flour

shredded Cheddar cheese

2 quarts boiling water

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

In large mixing bowl, mix together yeast, water, salt, rosemary and brown sugar. Mix in four cups of flour. Mix in one more cup of flour as needed to make a soft dough. Knead with a kneading hook or by hand until smooth. Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a damp towel. Allow to raise for 1 hour.

Divide dough into twelve. Roll each piece into a ball, push a hole into the center of the ball, and carefully stretch into a bagel shape. Place on baking sheet, cover with a towel, and rest for 20 minutes. 

Bring water and sugar to boil in large skillet. Preheat the over to 425 degrees. Place four bagels into skillet and boil for two minutes, flip over, and boil for an additional minute. Place bagels on parchment paper on a baking sheet and sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Serve with butter or cream cheese. Freeze any that last more than a day.

Brownie Batter Dip

Dips are so fun for quick gatherings. My daughter has been making this one for us. We all love it. and I usually have the ingredients on hand. This is a dip for those who'd rather lick the bowl than eat the baked brownie. 

We usually serve it with apple slices, but pretzels and Teddy Grahams are great, too. 

Brownie Batter Dip

1 pack (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Optional: 1/4 cup mini M&Ms

Dippers: apple slices, pretzels, Teddy Grahams

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in confectioners' sugar, cocoa, milk, brown sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Sprink with M&Ms if desired. Serve with dippers of your choice.

Fresh Herb Cheese Ball

 I've had an herb garden for years. In fact, I rode my bike to our local greenhouse, before I had my driver's license, to purchase herb plants. I'm not sure why I was so infatuated by herbs, but I nearly memorized my mom's herb book. I loved the smells and textures of herbs. It was such fun to weed among such lovely plants.

An herb garden was one of the first additions I added to our property when we moved here. I've moved it to different spots, but found I was most likely to use the herbs if they were on a pot on my porch. 

But still, I rarely actually cooked with fresh herbs. I occasionally picked a sprig of rosemary or made a batch of basil pesto, but I was far better at growing herbs than using them. 

Until last year. 

One of my daughters was spending the day at my parent's house, and my mom was making a simple cheese ball with fresh herbs. She came home with the directions and suddenly my pot of herbs was being snipped repeatedly to make herb cheese ball. She loved making it so much that when winter came and our herbs died, she adapted the recipe to use dried herbs. But we were all delighted when spring came ,and she could use fresh herbs again.

This recipe can be adapted with whatever herbs you have. She likes to have at least three kinds. The amount of herbs is approximate. She simply picks a few sprigs without measuring.

Fresh Herb Cheese Ball

1 8oz pack of cream cheese

1/8 cup mayonnaise

1 Tablespoon each of chopped basil, chives, oregano, parsley, thyme, and rosemary

In the winter, use a teaspoon of dried herbs.

Edited: I should have specified that this recipe is more of a spread or cheese ball. We eat it on crackers. If you want to use it for a veggie dip (which is also delicious) add more mayo and be sure to let it sit out of the fridge a bit to soften the cream cheese before serving.

Favorite Mac-and-Cheese

If you are a long-time reader of the blog, you know that in the past, I shared lots of recipes. The unexpected result of a blog full of recipes is that typically, when someone asks me for a recipe, I can easily send them a link. In fact, finding recipes on my blog is easy that I'm guilty of reading a recipe from this blog on my phone instead of searching for it in my recipe file.

But since I haven't been sharing recipes in recent years, newer recipes haven't been included in this filing system. One of those is this Mac-and-Cheese.

One of the first recipes I shared was my mom's baked macroni and cheese which continues to be a family favorite. But in 2020, we began helping with a monthly community meal in our nearby city. I offered to make a large electric roaster full of macaroni and cheese and needed to find a different method. 

I combined a few recipes to come up with a version that was simple and delicious. I think I made eight batches that first day, and it was consumed with rave reviews. 

I've lost count of how many times I've made mac-and-cheese for the community meal. It is perfect paired with lots of menu items and any time I offer to bring mac-and-cheese, I am never turned down. Though I think I've made a lot of good food over the years, it is a little embarrassing to realize that the lowly mac-and-cheese has garnered more praise than anything else I've made. 

So I'm sharing the recipe so that I have an easy way to send others the recipe. 

A few hints:

• If you aren't serving the mac-and-cheese immediately, make sure the pasta is fully cooked. If the macaroni is under-cooked, it will continue to absorb the sauce and the result will be a tacky mac-and-cheese. Since we like it super creamy, if I know it will be sitting for a while, I'll add another 1/2 cup of milk.
• Preshredded cheese is a big time-saver, but pre-shredded cheese includes anti-caking ingredients that make the sauce gritty. For best results, buy a chunk of cheese and shred it yourself. It is worth the extra time. If you have lots of mac-and-cheese to make, a food processor is a time saver.
• Feel free to change up the seasonings. How about a little garlic and rosemary? Adding a can of diced green peppers gives a nice zing.

Mac-and-Cheese

(serves 10) 

16 oz macaroni

1 T olive oil

4 Tablespoon butter

1/3 cup flour

4 cups milk

4 cups (12 oz) shredded Cheddar cheese

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Cook macaroni in boiling water until soft. Drain the water and drizzle oil on pasta and toss. 

Sauce: Melt butter in pan. Stir in flour. Add milk and stir over medium heat until thickened. Add cheese, salt, and pepper and stir until the cheese is melted. Pour cheese sauce over macaroni.

At this point you can serve immediatly. 

Or you can place the mac-and-cheese in a crockpot and keep warm until ready to serve. 

Or you can refrigerate the mac-and-cheese and warm it in the oven or crockpot the next day. 

Or you can place the mac-and-cheese in a 9x13 pan and bake in oven for fifteen minutes at 325 degrees. To add a layer of crunch, you can add a crumb topping with buttered cracker crumbs or bread crumbs. (Topping option: Mix 1 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 4 T. melted butter, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, and 1/4 tsp paprika.)

I make five batches of this recipe and place in a large electric roaster to serve about 75 people.

Traditions and Doughnut Day

I've been thinking a lot about family traditions. How are traditions different from routines and habits? I think of a traditions as a way that we celebrate holidays and special days. What happens when life shifts and traditions are forced to change? How much value should be put on traditions?

You probably expect that I'm thinking of this topic since losing Ed, and you are right. But I think that the loss of Ed upended routines and habits more than traditions. Actually, Ed and I didn't have many traditions. Someone asked what we did on Valentines' Day, and I had to dig deep in my memory. While I remember various ways we celebrated the holiday through the years, we didn't have a specific tradition. Same goes for birthdays and aniversaries.

Traditions are fun. It doesn't take young children long to build a tradition. Do something once or twice and I hear, "We always...." Even though I've struggled to build traditions like for the first day of school or on birthdays, we still have acquired a few traditions along the way.

This week, for the first time, my children and I are taking a trip without my two oldest children. (We plan to spend a week helping rebuild houses after a flood, but my two oldest children are going another week with friends.) This is the fifth winter we've done this, but it won't be the same. And I'm okay with change - most days. Some change show maturity and growth - in myself and my children. I need to let go some of my expectations and allow my children to grow and change.

This past year, my mother-in-law sold her house and moved to a nursing home. My parents moved out of their big farmhouse six years ago. And, of course, Ed's death brought a huge number of changes to our home. Aging and death bring change which carries a lot of grief.

If you are a long time reader here, you know that for years my family made doughnuts every winter. I don't know when this tradition started. My first memory of doughnut making was when I was a very small girl. As my brothers married, their wives joined the doughnut making tradition. Sometimes we'd make doughnuts on Fasnacht Day; sometimes we'd choose another day.

In 2016, my family made doughnuts at my mom's house, not realizing it would be the last time. (We even had a photographer from the local newspaper record the event. The next year, my parents would move out of the farm house. The day had gotten rather crazy anyway, with so many children, and maybe it was simply time to adjust this tradition. So Ed and I spend a Saturday making apple fritters at our house. I thought maybe that would be the start of a new tradition. But months later, Ed was diagnosed with brain cancer, and we never again made doughnuts. 

This winter, we were discussing doughnuts, and I realized that my two youngest girls didn't remember doughnut making at all. I shouldn't have been surprised. At that last doughnut making at my mom's house, my youngest daughter had only been a few weeks old. 

So I asked my mom if she would bring her fryer to my house to make doughnuts. I invited two of my sisters, and we had a fun doughnut day, seven years after our last one. 

Will this begin a new tradition with my daughters? I don't know. Maybe this will be a one-time event that my girls will look back to and say, "Remember that time we made doughnuts?" Maybe some day they will bring their children and say, "Every winter we go to mom's house and make doughnuts." 

What traditions have you had to change? Have you replaced it with new ones?

To read more on past doughnut days...
Mom's doughnut recipe - we have used the same recipe for over 30 years.
Apple fritter recipe - the new favorite
What happens when your memory fries on doughnut day

Making Yogurt in an Instant Pot

 Long-time readers may remember how slow I was to climb on the Instant Pot craze. But one thing that has become a routine in my kitchen is making yogurt in the Instant Pot. It is so simple and always turns out. No more milk boiling over on the stove or struggling to keep the proper temperature.

I start by pouring a gallon of milk in the Instant Pot. I use raw cow's milk, but other types of milk will work too. 

On my pot, I have a "yogurt" button. I press that button then toggle the "manual" button until it shows "boil." I place the lid on the pot, and it brings the milk to the perfect temperature - very hot but not quite boiling.

Meanwhile, I get out my yogurt culture. I buy a quart of plain yogurt and freeze it in an ice cube tray. I keep these yogurt cubes in the freezer. When I make yogurt, I pull out two ice cube portions and allow them to thaw.

When the Instant Pot beeps to show it came up to temperature, I sit the insert in a sink of cold water to cool the milk. I occasionally stir the milk, but usually just walk away and forget it for an hour. I want the milk to be below 110 degrees. 

When the milk has cooled, I mix a cup of milk with my yogurt culture and stir it well. Then I stir the culture into the whole pot of milk and again stir well. 

Next I place the pot of milk back in the Instant Pot and again hit the "yogurt" button. I press "manual" until it gets to "8:00." This will incubate the yogurt for 8 hours. I sometimes let this incubate overnight. Other times I start the incubating in the morning.

At the end of 8 hours, I pull the pot insert out of the Instant Pot, cover the top, and place in the refrigerator without stirring. After it is totally cool, I take the first dip into the fresh yogurt. I'm always  awed that the liquid milk has turned into a totally different product. I then stir the yogurt well and place it into containers for serving.

Obviously this makes a lot of yogurt which is perfect for a large family. My favorite way to eat yogurt is with granola. You can add sweetener to the yogurt before you incubate it, if you wish. I prefer it plain, but my children like it a little sweeter.

Yogurt intimidated me until I tried it and found out how truly simple it was. 

Rosemary Yogurt Flatbread

 

I get in a rut with food, especially what I serve guests. If you have ate a meal at our house this summer, you likely were served flatbread wraps. 

My brother spent a couple years in the middle east and acquired a love of naan. A friend gave us this recipe for flatbread that is similar to naan, but simpler to make. The actually cooking takes time, but it isn't difficult. Especially if you don't worry about making your flatbread perfectly round.

I prefer them small, easier to handle and eat. We like to load them with veggies such as lettuce, cucumber, tomato, and avocado. Add some cheese and grilled chicken and drizzle with a yogurt sauce. The possibilities are endless and usually depend upon what I have on hand, but the result is always a satisfying meal.

Rosemary Yogurt Flatbread

3/4 cup warm water

3/4 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk

1 Tablespoon instant yeast

1 tsp honey

1/2 tsp salt

1 long stem of rosemary (strip off leaves and chop)

4 cups flour

Mix all ingredients except flour together. Add flour until makes a soft dough. Knead for five minutes. Divided into 12-15 balls and cover with a damp cloth. Rest for 15 minutes. Preheat skillet to medium-high heat. Roll out each ball of dough and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Yogurt Sauce

1 cup of plain Greek yogurt

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp cumin

1 T lemon juice

Mix all ingredients. Drizzle over flatbread wraps. Store in refrigerator.

What are you eating on these hot summer days?

Classic Strawberry Jam with Apple Pectin and Stevia

 

When I shared the above photo on social media, I was asked, "Why apples in  your strawberry jam?" I had nearly forgotten that this wasn't normal.

My memory of my mom making strawberry jam when I was a girl is going to the grocery store for pectin (Sure Gel) and finding that other jam makers in the community had stripped the shelf bare. Sometimes we'd go to several grocery stores before finding enough pectin. 

I always enjoy learning new techniques, especially if they mean less reliance on purchased products, so when I saw a recipe in Cooks Country magazine that used an apple for pectin, I decided to try it. I loved the result and have used this recipe every year since then.

There are disadvantages of using an apple for pectin. Some of the modern kinds of pectin require less sugar and no cooking which makes jam making faster. A cooked jam does take longer and the flavor is a little different than the non-cooked type of jam. 

But if you'd like to try making jam the way your great-grandmother may have made it, here is the recipe I use. 

Classic Strawberry Jam with Apple Pectin

3 lb strawberries

3 cups of sugar (or alternative sweetener)

1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and shredded (about 1 1/4 cup)

2 T lemon juice

Cap, wash, and crush strawberries. I use an immersion blender. Add all other ingredients. Boil until thick. I found this took about 15 minutes of a rolling boil. Cool. Freeze.

Jam is notorious for boiling over if you walk away. This pan wasn't very full, but the jam foamed up and over the pot. You don't need to constantly stir it, just keep an eye on it and stir occasionally.

The jam will thicken as it cools so it can be hard to know when it has cooked long enough. To test when the jam is thick enough, I keep a small glass plate in the freezer. When I think the jam has cooked long enough, I place a teaspoon of jam on the plate and return it to the freezer for two minutes. I then drag a finger through the cooled jam to text its thickness. You can see here the difference that a few additional minutes of cooking did for the jam. When it is finished it will be a dark red and there will be no sign of the grated apple.

I have also used this recipe for red raspberry jam. I assume it could be used for other fruits.

I've read that Granny Smith apples have more pectin than some other apple varieties, but one year I used Ginger Gold apples in my raspberry jam and it turned out great.

I usually substitute stevia for some (or most) of the sugar. One teaspoon of pure stevia is equal in sweetness to one cup of sugar. I've done as little as 1/2 cup of sugar and replaced rest of the sugar with stevia and my family never knew the difference.

I freeze the jam and find that it keeps its color and texture perfectly even after several years. 

I'd love to hear if you have experimented with apple pectin or stevia in jam making.

Fish Tacos

 

My dad takes my boys fishing in every spring. But never have they caught fish like this year. For the first time in his life, my dad has pulled out his limit on trout. And not just one day. 

I love how easy trout is to serve. I brushed them with a little olive oil and lemon juice, sprinkled with salt, and baked at 425 for about 15 minutes. The fillets then lifted off the bones easily. Yum!

Speaking of fish...

I'm always on the lookout for simple meals. On one of our visits to my sister-in-law's home, she made us fish tacos, and we gained a new family favorite.

I now try to keep the ingredients for fish tacos on hand at all times. This includes a pack of frozen white fish such as tilapia or whiting, a pack of fahita-size tortillas, and cabbage. There are lots of others ingredients that can be added to a fish taco, but these three ingredients are the basics for fish tacos at our house. 

With these ingredients on hand, I can put together a simple meal very quickly even if we were gone for the day. The fish is often vacummed packed in single packs which can quickly be thawed in hot water. I usually bake the fish in the oven because it is simpler, but sometimes I go to the extra work of breading and frying the fish. 

The cabbage can be chopped an eaten fresh, but my children love if I saute the cabbage in a bit of butter. 

Then I pull out any other ingredients that I have in the fridge that would go on a fish taco. Avacado, cheese, hot sauce, onion, tartar sauce. 

Layer it all in the tortillas and enjoy! It isn't fresh-caught trout, but it is always delicious. There are few meals that my children enjoy more.

Do you have a simple meal that is a family favorite?

Loaded Chicken and Potatoes

 One thing I loved about all the meals we were given during Ed's illness, is finding new favorites. Loaded-chicken-and-potatoes were given to us by my friend Jane and has become a family favorite. I love super simple pan meals. This is very adaptable with different seasonings. You can even replace some of the potatoes with carrots.

Loaded Chicken and Potatoes

1 lb boneless chicken (I prefer thighs, but breasts work too.)

6 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

1/4 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp garlic powder

2 T hot sauce (optional)

Topping: 

2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup crumbled bacon

1/2 cup diced green onion (optional)

Cut up the chicken into bit size pieces. In large bowl, stir raw chicken and potatoes with oil and seasonings. Spread into baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Top with cheese, bacon, and onion and bake five minutes longer. Serve.

Zucchini Stuffed Bread

A few weeks ago, my boys came in from playing with their dog. They said that their dog had ran through the garden, stopping to roll on the young zucchini plants. They reported that two of the plants were destroyed. 

And it looked like they were right. Most of the leaves had been pulled off the plant and the few remaining leaves were crushed. I had planted the zucchini plants late and didn't know if I had time to replant. 

But it takes more than a mere dog to kill a zucchini. Actually, the tiny squash bugs are the most hated enemy of zucchini in our area. This time the plants made a complete recovery, and now I have a fridge stuffed with zucchini.

Time to pull out our favorite zucchini recipes.

Zucchini bread is an obvious choice. We all love zucchini bread. But most recipes only take a cup or two. If I have a pan-full of zucchini, I need a recipe that uses zucchini as a major ingredient, not a garnish. 

A few years ago I found a recipe in Cooks Illustrated magazine that used, not just cups, but pounds of zucchini. The secret was removing as much moisture as possible from the zucchini so the bread didn't become too wet and gummy. 

It works. I simply place the shredded zucchini in a clean dish towel and wring out all the water I can before mixing it with the other ingredients. I adjusted the spices a little and increased the size of the recipe - who wants to heat up the oven for just one loaf? Now we have our new favorite zucchini bread recipe, one that is stuffed with this easy-to-grow vegetable.

Zucchini Stuffed Bread

10 cups (about 3 lb) shredded zucchini

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup oil

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups white flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 T. cinnamon

3 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional

1 cup mini chocolate chips, optional

Place shredded zucchini in a clean dish towel and squeeze out as much water as possible. Beat sugar, oil and eggs together. Add all ingredients together and mix well. Pour into 2 large or 3 medium-size loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes. Do not under bake.

Need more ways to use zucchini? Here are our five favorite zucchini recipes not including zucchini bread.

Wet Granola - A New Favorite

When my mom told me that she had made wet granola, and they loved it, I was skeptical. Isn't granola supposed to be crunchy? Would the granola mold if I skipped the baking step? 

It took me a couple months, but after hearing about the praise of wet granola a few more times, especially from my children who had devoured it at my mom's kitchen. I finally tried it. 

And now I'm sold. 

I've made wet granola many times the past months, and it is likely that this recipe will always be connected in my mind to Covid and my brother's stay at our house. This recipe is so easy that I can stir up a new batch in minutes which means if I realize we are out of granola, I can stir up a new batch at 6:00. I don't mind the time savings of skipping the baking step, and it truly does just taste better than any other granola I tried. 

I continue to tweak this recipe, usually to take advantage of what I have in my cupboard. Any kind of nuts, seeds, or dried fruit goes great in this recipe. Craisins give it a peanut-butter-and-jelly flavor. My mom adds chocolate chips, but I refuse to let my children eat chocolate for breakfast. 

I still enjoy crunchy granola and won't throw out my other recipes, but wet granola has gained a place in my kitchen.

Wet Granola

1 cup coconut oil

1 1/2 cup honey

1 1/2 cup peanut butter

4 cups Rice Krispy cereal

10 cups rolled oats

1 cup raw wheat germ

1 cup sunflower seeds

nuts, raisins, craisins, or whatever your favorite granola ingredient

Slightly heat oil, honey, and peanut butter. Mix all ingredients together. Serve with milk or yogurt and fresh fruit. Store in tightly sealed container. 

I have never had wet granola spoil, but it also doesn't last long at our house. Maybe it wouldn't spoil since coconut oil, honey, and peanut butter are shelf stable. But if I was going to keep it longer than a week I'd probably store it in the fridge or freezer. 

Faithfulness and Dutch Ovens

Long time readers will remember our tradition of hosting a dutch oven gathering every summer. The heat on Saturday was blistering but that didn't keep more than twenty pots from showing up at our house. The twelfth year resulted in an amazing line-up of food as usual.

How do you choose?

The chefs

My dad remembered Ed by asking us all to sing the chorus of Find Us Faithful. I don't think dad remembered that friends had sang that song at our wedding, eighteen year ago. I had not thought of that song in years, but it is even more poignant than it was on our wedding day.

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. There is a lot I don't know, but I'm grateful for the heritage of faithfulness I have been given.

Find Us Faithful

by John Mohr

We're pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road,
And those who've gone before us
Line the way.
Cheering on the faithful,
Encouraging the weary,
Their lives a stirring testament
To God's sustaining grace.

Surrounded by so great
A cloud of witnesses,
Let us run the race
Not only for the prize,
But as those who've gone before us.
Let us leave to those behind us,
The heritage of faithfulness
Passed on thru godly lives.

After all our hopes and dreams
Have come and gone,
And our children sift thru all
We've left behind,
May the clues that they discover,
And the mem'ries they uncover,
Become the light that leads them,
To the road we each must find.

O may all who come behind us
Find us faithful,
May the fire of our devotion
Light their way.
May the footprints that we leave,
Lead them to believe,
And the lives we live
Inspire them to obey.
O may all who come behind us
Find us faithful.

You can read about past dutch oven gatherings. 2019 2015, 2014,  2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009

And here is a video if you'd like to listen to a rendition of this song.

Hummus

This spring when my brother moved in with us over the quarantine, he brought a jar of tahini with him. He has introduced us to several Middle Eastern foods since he returned to the States, and I decided to try learning to make hummus. 

Who knew a can of beans could turn into something so yummy. And with a food processor, it is super simple, taking only minutes

Tahini is a sauce made of toasted sesame seeds and can be found in ethnic grocery stores.

Hummus

1 (15 oz) can of chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans)

3 T olive oil

3 T tahini 

1 T lemon juice

1-2 cloves of minced garlic

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Drain and rinse chickpeas. Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until a smooth paste.

Drizzle a little olive oil and sprinkle paprika on top for garnish.

Serve with crackers, carrot sticks, or cucumber slices.

Italian Pasta Salad

I'm often frustrated about blogging in the summer. I compile brilliant posts while weeding the garden or sitting by the creek, but few words find their way out of my brain. Life is full and busy, and I struggle to write about it in a way that feels profitable. I don't want to just add to the noise on social media, plus I'm facing the deadline for several projects, which sucks my desire to show up here. 

But I'm finding that I miss writing about food. Summer food is so much fun. This blog started by sharing my favorite recipes, but I've lost that aspect the last few years. When Ed was on a very strict diet, I didn't have the energy to be creative about any other food. But probably the biggest deterrent is the photos of mouth-watering food that I see online and in cookbooks. I love beautiful photos of food, but I'm not a photographer. 

What I really like to do is share food with people. I enjoy people around the table. Since I can't have you all over, the next best thing is to share a favorite recipe. 

So, the next few weeks, I'm planning to share what we are eating. If I snapped a photo on my phone, I'll share it, but don't expect anything spectacular. I promise that a good photo isn't needed for it to taste good.

This recipe for Italian Pasta Salad came from my sister's work at a deli and made a huge amount. This spring I've made some large batches for several events, but I managed to cut it down to a bit more manageable size, though it still serves a crowd.

This recipe is endlessly adaptable. Don't like olives? Skip them. Enjoy broccoli? Double the amount. Don't have any tomatoes? It will still be delicious. 

This salad is perfect combined with grilled chicken, but I've been known to eat a meal entirely of this salad.

Italian Pasta Salad

1 box (1 lb) dry spiral pasta

2 cups chopped broccoli

1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup diced red onion

1 cup shredded carrot

1 small can (2.25) sliced olives (drained)

1 cup chopped pepperoni

1 cup diced provolone cheese

1 cup diced red pepper

1 bottle of zesty Italian dressing

Cook pasta until barely tender. Drain and cool. Add all ingredients to pasta. Toss. Best flavor if allowed to sit for a few hours before serving.

If you don't want to buy dressing, here is my favorite homemade Italian dressing which works great for this recipe.

Italian Dressing

1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp honey or sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp paprika

Blend together with whisk, blender, or food processor.

Here is some other favorite summer recipes that we've been enjoying this month.

Easy Method for Freshly-Squeezed Lemonade

Four Homemade Salad Dressings

The Best Ice Cream Dessert