Savory Pumpkin and Sausage Soup

Savory Pumpkin and Sausage Soup

It’s fall, and that means 2 Acre Farm is bringing their wide selection of pumpkins to the Culver Farmers’ Market.  They’ve already nearly sold out this year, but I did manage to snag a couple of Long Island Cheese pumpkins.  While most folks decorate for a few weeks and then toss their pumpkins, these guys are delicious.  So, when life gives you pumpkins, make soup! Pumpkin and sausage soup

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Baked Oatmeal

Baked Oatmeal

Baked Oatmeal for Breakfast means you can work ’till lunch! Yum!

I love the flavor of oatmeal.  But I loathe its texture.  And texture is an important thing!  So, when Xenia raved about the baked oatmeal at the dining hall, I was a bit reticent to try it.  But, when I did, I could see what all the fuss was about!

Filled with apples, dried fruit, and oaty goodness, baked oatmeal is tasty, satisfying, and a breakfast that will stick with you.  It’s great for breakfast before heading out to cut firewood on a chilly day.  Continue reading

Blueberry Buckle

Blueberry Buckle

Blueberry Buckle

I’m  not sure where my blueberry buckle recipe originates from.  I think it might have been 7th grade home economics class…  Nonetheless, I’ve been making it for years, with a few alterations along the way.  It’s a great way to celebrate blueberry season!

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Black Iron Black Raspberry Cobbler

Wild Black Raspberry Cobbler in a cast iron skillet

Black Iron Black Raspberry Cobbler: a decadent celebration of early summer, baked in a cast iron skillet.

Nature provides us with many wonderful and important things.  Among the most important are oxygen and wild black raspberries.  Truly, I can’t think of many things better, and nothing that makes a better celebration of early summer than Wild Black Raspberries.    Yes, that’s in title caps intentionally.

Picking them is a metaphor for life.  Good things don’t come easy, and some of the best come with a good deal of itching: our raspberries grow in the same niches favored by poison ivy, stinging nettle, wild blackberry, wild roses, and mosquitoes, and the tiny berries take a long time to pick.  But the reward is wonderful.  This cobbler takes a bunch of berries, so I tend to reserve it only for special people, like myself and my wife.  I bake it in a 9″ cast iron skillet, because I like it that way! Continue reading