The Old Fashioned Country Breakfast.

A Country Style Breakfast for Two.

Now I have never lived, nor worked, on a farm, so cannot truly attest to farm life.  I have gone to Amish homesteads that served family style meals, and the money paid was highly worth it.  Another reason I miss living in PA, the variety of foods, not found here in Utah.  Oh, the attached links, or long loops, of country sausages filled with beef, pork, or a combination of both.  Some containing apple, sage or others types of fruits and herbs; grilled or pan fried, they were always sought after.  Closest we get out here is from the local, or super, markets; way overpriced and just not right; the taste and texture are just not right. Oh, then there were the farmers markets, the butchers who sold those sausages, also sold thick cut, yet lean, bacon.  I have tried so many brands that are packaged, but, once again, nothing seems to come close to the taste and texture of bacon from the butcher.

Country Sausage, King's Meat Market, Green Dragon Farmers Market, Ephrata, PA

Bacon, Lancaster Farmers Market, Lancaster, PA

Recently I tried a new brand of bacon, Buckley Farms, and their price was pretty reasonable, compared to others.  It wasn't until I began preparing it that I noticed, up in the far right corner, a rectangle red box with the words, "Gluten Free".  'cuse me, what!?!  Bacon is meat from a pig, there is no gluten in meat, poultry, seafood....it's from grain!


Oh, I just had to find out what the heck this was about.  Bacon is only made out of pork belly, pepper, salt, sugar, spices, smoke flavor, and nitrates: no gluten products.  However, some companies cannot make any guarantees, due to the potential of cross-contamination, between equipment used at processing facilities that also process products that do have gluten within.  You know, sort of like buying a product that has a warning of, "equipment used may also be used for peanuts, nuts and soy".  It's not in the product you purchased, as an ingredient, but might have slipped in during processing, due to the equipment having trace elements still within it.

Buckley Farms' marketing team is smart with this.  Now folks, especially those with a true allergy to gluten, will know, for a fact, that this product won't make them sick.  Those, of course, who jumped onto the gluten free bandwagon, will snatch up the product as well.  Buckley Farms guarantees there is no gluten, no how, no way, in their bacon.  The other brands?  Well, you'll just have to take your chances, right?

Me, I like packages that allow you to see exactly what you are buying.  If it has lots of meat, and little fat; that's what I want!  Some packages, you don't know till you get home, and it's often disappointing.

So all this leads me to my version of a country style breakfast...bacon, country sausage, eggs, toasted bread of some sort, or biscuits, and potatoes, hash browns or home fries.  In other words, the works!

While the coffee is brewing, I begin frying up the bacon; we like it crispy, not wimpy.

Then comes the shredded potatoes, diced green and red bell peppers, diced red onion (sweeter), and black pepper...into the bacon fat sitting in my skillet!  Five minutes on one side before flipping it over, five more minutes; another flip and then I just let it sit and brown away for 5 minutes; flip, another five minutes...20 minutes (on high heat) and the most awesome hash browns.  That's right, I am a kitchen doctor; I doctored those shredded potatoes until they were ready to jump out of the skillet and join a conga line.

Bread is a mood thing, maybe I want to make biscuits, and maybe I don't.  I'm the cook, my choice, so there.  I had some nice rolls that I cut in two, toasted and slathered with butter.  Sometimes I even splurge and serve breakfast with toasted bagels, again, slathered with butter.

Now while the biscuits might be baking, or bread item is toasting, the eggs take up residence in the skillet.  Could be scrambled, could be over easy; this day, it was over easy with a dash of ground black pepper over each.  In PA, they call these "dippy eggs", cause they are cooked just right to dip the toast into that yummy yolk.  So good!   We like to put the "dippy eggs" over the hash browns and then mix them in.  A diner we enjoyed going to called this, "Irish style" and served corned beef hash with it...drool!!!

A Country Style Breakfast fit for King and Queen Cokenour.

All cooked, plated and ready for eating; busy day ahead and we need to get stuffed as we're not sure when we'll have time for another meal.  Wow, I remember when folks would come over to help us with a project, and I think they volunteered just to get breakfast.  True friends still in Pennsylvania and we miss them a whole lot!

Mary Cokenour

Time to Cook the Pumpkins.

Now that the elections are over in the United States, it is time for us to get down to the important issues, namely the impending holidays.  With Halloween, also known as All Hallows Eve or Samhain, traditional jack o'lantern pumpkins were hollowed out, craved with scary or funny faces, and a candle inserted to light them up in the dark.  Now while the seeds, once roasted and salted, make a yummy treat, the flesh is not that great for baking, since it tends to be stringy.

While living in Pennsylvania, my mom and I learned from Amish bakers that the best pumpkins to use were the crooknecks. Pumpkins are from the squash family, with this type the skin is easier to peel off, like with butternut squash, and the flesh will cook up easily for pureeing.   The crookneck pumpkin can grow to a large size; the largest we ever purchased was almost 30 pounds, and we got lots of breads and pies from it alone.


Now when making pumpkin bread or pie, you can always find a canister of premixed spice blend in the supermarket.  However, I recommend mixing your own up as you can never rely on how much of each spice is in the premix.  I and my family tend to like extra spiciness, so I can measure out the separate spices and get exactly the right flavoring for us.  Perhaps you like more cinnamon and dislike the flavor of cloves; mixing up your own blend gives you that priviledge.  Another option to making pumpkin bread especially is to add chopped walnuts, dried cranberries, raisins, chocolate chips or a combination.  They can be added into the batter or simply sprinkled on top before baking.  For pumpkin pie, consider adding crushed walnuts into your pie crust mixture for some extra, surprising flavor.

Go traditional or set your own trend; remember you're the artist...I mean baker.  Enjoy!

 

 

  Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked pumpkin puree or 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups sugar
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp each ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg and allspice
½ tsp ground cloves

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350; lightly butter and flour (or use baking spray) three loaf pans.

In a large bowl, mix together well the pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices; add 1/3 of dry mixture into pumpkin mixture and mix well; repeat until all dry ingredients have been incorporated into the wet mixture. Divide batter between prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out cleanly. Let loaves cool before inverting and removing.

Makes 3 loaves.

Mary Cokenour

Baked Fish can still be Breaded.

I was remembering all the times I used to visit the Meadowbrook Farmers' Market in Leola, PA; buying fresh made country sausages, shoofly pie and cheeses.  Downstairs were the old horse stables where vendors sold antiques and used books.  Sometime in the 1990's, a fire razed the entire structure and we locals were in total shock.  The owner rebuilt, but turned it into a conference center with small shops lining one side of the parking area.  It was no longer the farmers' market, it was just another shopping center as far as we were all concerned.

Another memory of the market was buying lunch at a stall where they sold fresh fish, but also a most delicious grilled blue fish sandwich.  It was grilled in butter with a light crumb topping and I still haven't found any other place that can imitate it.  I've tried myself, but still haven't perfected it either.  However, with trial and error, I was able to come up with a baked fish recipe that, while not exactly what I remember, does hit that sweet spot of memory, if just a pinch.

While you can used store bought dried bread crumbs, with or without seasoning; grating up a stale loaf of bread gives a fresher taste. Depending on how dry the bread has become gives an idea of how fast it will toast during the baking process.

 

Baked Fish with Crumb Topping

Ingredients:

 

6 fillets (6 oz each, 3/4 to 1 inch thick) firm fleshed white fish such as cold or haddock, skin and bones removed
Salt
Ground black pepper
5 Tbsp softened butter
1 small shallot, diced
1 ½ cups bread crumbs
½ tsp garlic powder
1 tsp crushed, dried thyme leaves*
1 tsp crushed, dried parsley*

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 450F; grease a 3 quart baking dish with two tablespoons of butter. Lightly sprinkle salt and black pepper on both sides of the fish; lay fish skin side down into baking dish. If fish has a thin section (tail end), fold under to give even thickness.

In a small skillet, medium-high heat, sauté shallot in remaining butter for three minutes. In a small bowl, mix together bread crumbs, garlic powder, thyme, parsley, and shallot until bread crumbs are thoroughly moistened.

Press mixture onto top of fish fillets; bake for 15-20 minutes until fish is no longer translucent and firm to touch.

Makes 6 servings.

*Options: replace with Italian herbal mixture

Mary Cokenour