A Farmer's Daughter:
Recipes from a Mennonite Kitchen
by Dawn Stoltzfus
Welcome to the warm and inviting kitchen of Dawn Stoltzfus, a young Mennonite wife and mother who was raised on a dairy farm where simple, wholesome food was a key ingredient of the good life.
In A Farmer's Daughter, she opens up her recipe box, wipes away the crumbs and wrinkles from the well-loved recipes and shares them with cooks and food-lovers everywhere. She offers us over two hundred delicious recipes that reflect the comfort foods she learned to cook from her mother, the same hearty and creative recipes she made and sold at The Farmer's Wife Market.
Along with the simple, wholesome recipes for starters, main dishes, sides and desserts, readers will find charming stories from Dawn's Mennonite upbringing, tips and tricks for easy meal planning and preparation, and ideas for serving with flair.
Anyone who loves to feed their loved ones hearty, wholesome meals will treasure this cookbook.
Available October 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
About the Author: Dawn Stoltzfus is a wife, a mother of two sweet little boys and a lover of anything creative. She started and ran The Farmer's Wife Market until 2008 when she sold it in order to stay at home to raise her family. She loves to cook, for one or three hundred and sees cooking and entertaining as an opportunity to serve them out of love and joy rather than out of a sense of obligation. Her love for cooking was inspired by her mother and developed as she cooked for her family of six on their active, working dairy farm in Ohio.
My Take:
Although I am not a huge fan of
cooking, I love getting new cookbooks. I like to be able to try new meals in
order to make sure that my family doesn't get in a rut, especially at
dinnertime.
I marked many, many recipes in this book to try. (I always go through the 'meal' part of the book marking recipes, and my husbad goes through the desserts!) Since receiving this book, we have tried three of the recipes – two dinnertime meals and one dessert.
Our favorite recipe by far of the ones we tried was the Simple Chicken Cordon Bleu. It was so easy to prepare, and I didn’t have to make a special trip to the store to make it. This dish was basic but with a little added flair to make it a bit more special. My husband really liked it.
The other ‘meal’ recipe we tried was the Slow Cooker Lasagna, and it was good, too. (I think I would leave out the extra salt next time). The dessert we tried was the Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars. They were really good right from the oven, but by the next day, they had gotten a bit hard and crumbly, making them difficult to eat.
This is a nice cookbook that has some satisfying recipes, and we look forward to trying even more of them.
I am allowed to include one recipe from the book in my post, so I will choose the Simple Chicken Cordon Bleu.
Enjoy!
¼ lb. Swiss cheese, sliced (I used provolone, since my hubby isn’t a fan
of Swiss)
¼ lb. deli ham, sliced thin
1
can mushroom soup (or a serving of Cream of Celery, Chicken, or
Mushroom soup, page 201)
½
cup milk
¼
cup bread crumbs
1
tsp. paprika
2
Tbsp fresh parsley (or 1 Tbsp.
dried)
¼
tsp. fresh cracked pepper
Preheat
oven to 350°F. Layer chicken breast, cheese, and ham in order in a 9 x 13 pan.
Mix
mushroom soup and milk together. Pour over top of the meat. Sprinkle with bread
crumbs, then sprinkle paprika,
parsley, and pepper on top. Cover and bake for 35-40 minutes or until chicken
is done. Do not overbake. Serves 4.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Revell Publishing/Baker Publishing Group. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this is accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
I'm reviewing this one too! Just haven't finished my post.
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