Stay or Go Burritos

The fall tends to be a busy time for farmers. It’s harvest season! This means lots of long days, complete with very early mornings and very late nights. No matter when harvest starts, it always seems as if farmers are in a race against the weather to get the crops in and stored before it gets too cold or too wet.

Lucky for me, Farmer Doc and I don’t raise crops. We raise cattle, and run a veterinary practice. So this time of year isn’t quite so busy for us. But, we do get hit in the spring and summer when it’s time to work the cattle (vaccines, deworming, artificially inseminating, checking for pregnancy, and later working the calves) and harvest and bale the hay all at the same time!

Garden Veggie Stew

I was recently asked to cook a recipe that somehow relates to my connection with farming and agriculture. My first thought was, “This is easy! We raise beef cows, and I cook with beef all the time!” And then I thought to myself, “Self, you also have all that yummy produce from your garden this summer – why not experiment with it a bit?”

And that’s exactly what I did. I call it Garden Veggie Stew. Farmer Doc has been calling it Feutz Farm Stew. Make it your own, and call it whatever you want!

Tangy Pineapple Meatballs

Are you looking for a crowd-pleasing appetizer for your next football party? Need something easy for a big family get-together? Just want a juicy meatball sandwich? This is the recipe for you!




These Tangy Pineapple Meatballs are from Gooseberry Patch’s new cookbook, “Hometown Harvest”. I am so excited to have a copy to review! I’ll also have a copy to give away to one lucky reader! That giveaway is live right now, so stop by this post for your chance to enter!

Cheesy Cornbread Sloppy Joes

It is finally September! While I still have 7 weeks to go before Baby Doc makes his arrival, it also (hopefully) means that this weather will start to cool off! (So I’m hoping that these last few weeks are a little more bearable than the last two weeks of 95+ weather have been!)

Autumn is my favorite season – I love the weather, the decorations, and the cooking! I had an amazing time two years ago cooking my way through Gooseberry Patch’s “Autumn with Family and Friends.” I am so excited that this year I have a chance to review Gooseberry Patch’s new fall cookbook, “Hometown Harvest”

The first recipe I tried were these Cheesy Cornbread Sloppy Joes. Farmer Doc’s response to this recipe was, “This is great, definitely make it again!”



There are more yummy recipes from “Hometown Harvest” coming your way, so get ready for a very yummy fall!

Skillet Tacos

These last few weeks have been absolutely crazy for us! Farmer Doc and I have been traveling a lot, working a lot, trying to get ready for Baby Doc, dealing with the bounty of fresh veggies from our garden, and now Farmer Doc has started rehearsals for a play for the Gibson County Theatre Company this fall! Having the Gooseberry Patch “101 Stovetop Suppers” cookbook has come in quite handy for some quick and easy dinners for us lately!

I adapted this one a little bit, from their Taco in a Pan. I give you… Skillet Tacos!

One-Pot Beef Ravioli

Are you tired of easy, fast, one-pot dinners yet? Of course not, how could you be! We’re big fans of pasta around here, especially ravioli, tortellini, and lasagna. (I prefer ravioli and tortellini because they take a lot less effort than lasagna and taste similar, depending on how you prepare it.)

Here’s a recipe for some yummy ravioli, all done in one (large) pot.

Too-Much-Zucchini Stovetop Dinner

Have I mentioned the plethora of zucchini we have had this summer? A girl can only bake so many loaves of zucchini bread before she goes insane…

This was a great (and tasty!) way to use up some of that extra zucchini.

Super Saucy Meatballs

Are you ready for another Garfield-inspired recipe from Gooseberry Patch? Here come the Super Saucy Meatballs!

Bow Tie Lasagna

Okay. I promised one more crockpot recipe before I moved on from “Slow Cooking All Year ‘Round.” And I cooked another one. But I can’t find the pictures. Anywhere. Honestly, I’m starting to wonder if I even took the pictures. Sorry to say that you are missing out on Crockpot Chicken Parm! (You’ll just have to buy the cookbook to get the recipe for that one.)

So I am switching gears to another brandy-new Gooseberry Patch cookbook! This one is “Garfield – Recipes with Cattitude!” And guess what! It’s so new that it’s not even available yet! I’ll be giving you a few sneak peaks, and I’ll be giving away a copy of this cookbook next week, so be sure to check back!

In keeping with the Italian theme of my missing chicken parm photos, I’m starting off my Garfield experience with a “cheaters” lasagna – using bow tie pasta instead of lasagna noodles!

Crockpot pumpkin chili

It snowed this weekend. Still winter. Still chili time! This is a new favorite of mine… Pumpkin Chili!


From, you guessed it, “Slow Cooking All Year ‘Round” from Gooseberry Patch! cookbook!

Crockpot chili

It was 20 degrees out this morning. That means it’s still winter. That means we can still have chili!!


This recipe is another from my new favorite cookbook, “Slow Cooking All Year ‘Round” by Gooseberry Patch. I have yet to find a recipe in that cookbook that I haven’t loved!

Crockpot ground beef

I will never go back to browning ground beef on the stove again. Ever. This is so easy! (And foolproof!)

Crockpot fajita rice bowls

More crockpot cooking! Have I mentioned that I am insanely in love with this cookbook?

Slow-cooker hearty meatball stew

I love my slow-cooker in the winter. And Gooseberry Patch’s new cookbook “Slow Cooking All Year ‘Round” has just the recipes I’m looking for this time of year! This was just one of the easy (and yummy!) recipes I tried from this cookbook. The hearty meatball stew is easy to put together, and is great comfort food for these cold nights!

Slow-cooker sweet and sour beef

I am in love with “Slow Cooking All Year Round” by Gooseberry Patch. Everything I have tried has been a success… and so easy! am giving away a copy of this cookbook, and you can still enter until midnight on Wednesday 1/16, so go check it out!
Slow-cooker sweet and sour beef…  Like going out for Chinese, but better!

Fast BBQ bacon-stuffed meat loaf

Farmer Doc loves meat loaf. Seriously. It’s one of his favorites. I was never really fond of just “plain old meat loaf.” So I look for ways to dress it up. And this one was a winner, for both of us!

Upside-down pizza casserole

Okay, I know that when you think “casserole” you don’t automatically think of something yummy. But hear me out here… I’m a huge fan of a dish that I can prep, toss in the oven, and then forget about for a little bit. (You know, wash the dishes, clean up, do a load of laundry, read a book, put my feet up with a cocktail… well, one of those anyway…)

And, come on, how yummy does this look?!

Burrito lasagna

The cookbook where I found this recipe calls it “Family Burrito Bake.” But it’s burrito ingredients smashed into lasagna form. And Farmer Doc knows what I mean when I say “burrito lasagna.” Easy, no explanation. When I say “family burrito bake,” I always get “huh? what’s that?” It’s just easier this way.



The beauty of this recipe is that it’s all done in the microwave. It’s not quite a one-dish meal, but it’s pretty close.

Little boys all grown up

During calving season last spring, we had to do a C-section on one of our cows. The surgery was successful, and Charlie the bull calf was born.

In November 2011, we loaded up our bull calves and sent them to Purdue’s Indiana Beef Evaluation Program in Bedford, IN. We had to pay to send the bulls there, but they took great care of our boys and also collected a lot of data about rate of weight gain and growth.

At the end of the program (about 5 months) they host a sale of all the bulls. They have criteria for which bulls make the sale, and unfortunately Charlie didn’t quite fit the bill. I think he didn’t grow quite fast enough, but to be honest I’m not sure of the details.

Since Charlie didn’t make the sale, we had to find our own buyer for him. We did that, without much trouble, but Charlie had to leave the test farm before his new home was going to be ready. So he got to come home to visit for a few days!

Steak on the (improved) grill

It just wouldn't be a post about my improved grill if I didn't follow up with cooking something on it!

Steak and potatoes are one of the favorite meals around here, and certainly one of the easiest things to throw on the grill. I start with a couple of scrubbed potatoes, and cut them into pieces. John likes thin slices and I like big chunks. So we compromise with thin chunks. I add a little EVOO, kosher salt, pepper, and Pampered Chef Rosemary Herb Seasoning Mix.

(Have I mentioned? There's going to be some serious Pampered Chef fun happening here over the next 3 weeks...)

Then I wrap the potatoes up into little aluminum foil packets and throw them on the grill on high heat. (I am very scientific about how long these cook - they go on first, and they stay on until everything else is done. Usually that works just fine.)

Then I season up the meat. These are two ribeye steaks from our freezer. Again, nothing fancy, just some EVOO, kosher salt, black pepper, and this time McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning.

 

I set the meat aside for a second while I got the veggies ready. I speared green bell pepper chunks and garden tomato chunks on flat skewers, sprayed on a little EVOO and sprinkled with kosher salt and black pepper. The steaks and the veggies went on the grill at the same time - the meat on the lower rack and the veggies on the upper rack.

 

Again - super-scientific - the veggies stayed on until the steaks were done, and then just a hair longer. I like the flat skewers much better than round skewers. The flat skewers help keep the food from spinning around on the skewer as you flip them over.

Super quick, super easy, super pretty!

(Next time, I would put the peppers and tomatoes on separate skewers. The tomatoes were done, but the peppers were still a bit crunchy. The peppers could have stayed on the grill longer than they did.)

But this is my all time favorite thing about grilling. After we loaded up the dishwasher, this was all the dishes I had to wash.

 
It doesn't get any easier than that.