Welcome Sourdough Bread Cookbook Author Carroll Pellegrinelli!

I'd like to welcome guest Carroll Pellegrinelli today, whom I met through Debby Giusti! Carroll is sharing a recipe from her new cookbook, Starter Sourdough: The Step-by-Step Guide to Sourdough Starters that is available for pre-order now. Take it away, Carroll...

Sourdough starter is an amazing creation. It can be made from two simple ingredients, flour and water. The fermentation of sourdough extends the shelf life of bread. No one in the entire world will be able to make bread or other baked goods exactly like yours as no two sourdough starters are the same.

Want to learn more about sourdough starters and try more recipes? Order my book “Starter Sourdough – The Step-by-Step Guide to Sourdough Starters” from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/2OIzHAX

Here's a recipe for you today from the new cookbook...

Enjoy!

Note from Missy: I love making sourdough bread and have shared my experience here. But one thing that's tough for me is to throw away the starter as I'm making room to feed it (since I don't bake weekly). So it's wonderful to have recipes to find ways to use that "discarded" starter! I bought my copy and can't wait to get started once it releases October 1st!

Thanks to Carroll for visiting today! 

Carroll Pellegrinelli has been baking for as long as she can remember. Under her mother’s guidance she began creaming her butter and sugars as soon as she could reach the counter. A few years later, in an effort of self-preservation, her father took up bread baking. He found that kneading dough alleviates work-related stress. Carroll soon followed suit and began baking bread too. For almost 20 years Carroll wrote about Desserts and Baking for About.com, which was owned by The New York Times. Combining her love of food and travel, Carroll wrote the first book in a series of adventure travel cookbooks: Travel with the Lee Girls, As they Shop and Eat Their Way Through the South, New Orleans. The book is available on Amazon in paperback and in e-book at https://amzn.to/2DKkln4

Her latest book is a cookbook called: Starter Sourdough – The Step by Step Guide to Sourdough Starters. This book can be found at: https://amzn.to/2OIzHAX

Pinterest Friendly Fall Displays

My yard becomes a living, breathing salute to autumn every September. As the weeks move on, it morphs from the blaze of multi-colored stacking pumpkin beauty to the more October tones of orange, white, rust, sage green and dusky blue. It is the triumph of the growing season: The beauty of color before the leaves fall...

Wither...

Die...

And the cold north wind ushers in lake effect snow and thick, sullen gray clouds. Shades of gray and white dominate us for months... and look how my reindeer are buried there! How will they fly????

Winter here is about five months long, maybe six if October snaps early and April stays cold. Living along a Great Lake, the prevailing west/northwest winds funnel cold air off of Lake Ontario in April and May and channel Canadian Clippers from the north in the fall. This huge lake has a monster effect on our weather patterns, and it's even big enough to push off summer thunderstorms, leaving our corner of Western New York in an almost annual summer drought. We watch the clouds form...

Then break. It will rain three miles south of us, and over the lake (thunderstorms over the lakes can be dangerous for boaters, as you can imagine. And they form quickly on hot, humid summer days.)

But that precursor to winter, the blaze of a beautiful fall is something to remember! We live in the heart of the Northeast Woodlands, and if you watch Wild Kratts (anyone with kids will understand that reference!) you'll know that our area is a full four season salute, but right now the focus is on fall, fall, fall!

 See the wagon in the middle? It started out like this:

 And morphed to this:

And here's the front porch, trying to make it gorgeous without hay bales... it's not easy, those bales set a great stage, but we'll see if we can pull this off with stumps and crates!

This was a challenge because the fun of decorating is in the various heights that draw the eye up from street level. As I worked on this display, I realized I wasn't happy with it and dragged Beth into the conversation... she promptly replaced the little bench with a bigger one. That helped fill the space. We do this display as a photo opp for folks. Kids can sit on the old steps and have their picture taken surrounded by autumn.... So here it is with bigger bench and more eye-catchers. Also notice that I used some cute hangings for the wall at the back....

 

Two really cute kids on the front porch swing! Lena and my friend's granddaughter, Anna....

 

And then there's this look using logs:

Isn't that fun?

And this one using an old wheelbarrow type thing we found on the side of the road:

Displays don't have to be big and fancy to be beautiful. And the nice thing about our squashes is that we can eat most of them when we're done displaying them! That's a post for next week, which of these squashes are delicious food that sells in Europe for crazy high prices.... You'll love hearing about it!

And here's our big photo opp that's over in the pumpkin display area pictured at the top of this post:

Mandy and Paul put the backdrop in place a few weeks ago, so we used both sides of it to give folks ideas.

And because this could never be done alone, huge thanks to Beth, Jon, Mandy, Paul, Lisa, Zach, Ginny and Catherine who've volunteered to help us get set up... and to wait on customers. We could never do this without a whole team effort, and we couldn't sell at these prices without volunteers to man the weekend sales shifts. What a blessing they are to us!

USA Today bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne has published over fifty novels and novellas and is still pinching herself to see if this is all real... and it is! Co-owner of a fun and somewhat crazy pumpkin farm in Western New York, Ruthy sneaks off on her own in the middle of the night to write beautiful stories because no one bothers her in the middle of the night. Funny how that works! :) Find her on facebook, visit her website ruthloganherne.com or email her at loganherne@gmail.com. She'd love to hear from you!

Peach Lentil Salad Farewell to Summer

 

Since this seems to be a week for sharing everything apple, but I'm going to break with the trend and go back to peaches. It's been a hectic start to school, and I really haven't cooked anything, but I was wanting lentils so I dug out this recipe for a repost.

Peach and Lentil Salad

It's almost the last day of summer! Can you believe it?  The solstice is Monday. I don't know where the summer ran off to.

Sp let's take a moment and look back -

My daughter and I had a conversation about how we never would have thought that tomatoes and peaches would go well together, but they really do. I prefer the low acid yellow tomatoes, but my daughter claims the heirloom ones we've been getting at the farmer's market work just as well.

This week I made a lentil peach salad. So refreshing and so delicious. And SO simple.

I've mentioned my sprouted lentils before, but I'll repeat because I think they're so amazing.

 

They cook in 4 minutes! I made them a little in advance and chilled them in my brand new (keeps things cold) refrigerator. (Update: Ha! I've been doing it wrong. Apparently you were supposed to soak them for hours before the 4 minutes of cooking. OOOPS!)

I sliced the peaches and roasted them for about 5 - 10 minutes.

I used a wonderful medley of red and green lettuces.

Drizzled with some olive oil and red wine vinegar.

So refreshing and delicious on these still-oh-so-hot summer nights.

I think they'd make a great lunch as well.

One night I also sprinkled hemp seeds on top for some additional nutrition.

And here's the beautiful salad.

Another Favorite Fallish Dessert

I grew up in Michigan, so come September, I always think of apples. There was an apple orchard and cider mill just outside of the little town I grew up in. They had the best cider. And paired with one of their fresh cider doughnuts... It was a match made in heaven.

So there's no better way for this former Michigander to celebrate fall--which won't officially arrive until 9/23, but it's fall in my heart--than by putting a twist on a fall favorite, apple crisp, by making it an apple-cherry crisp.

I love fruit desserts, though they vary from season to season. Spring and summer I think of cakes and cobblers, winter is usually pies, but I always associate crisps with autumn. And because there's no crust to worry about, they're so easy.

Here's what you'll need for the filling:

• 2 1/2 lbs. apples, peeled, cored and cut into cubes (I used Honeycrisp)
• 1 1/2 cups pitted cherries (frozen works best, but you can also use canned)
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

For the topping:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans (or nut of your choice)
• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Okay, let's start with our filling. Mix together the apples and cherries.

Now add the dark brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.

And stir to combine.

Look at those glorious fall colors.

Pour into greased baking dish.

Now for the topping. Combine the flour, brown sugar, pecans, oats, cinnamon and salt.

Add melted butter

And stir until clumps form.

If you're like me, this is where restraint comes in. I could eat this mixture by itself. But then there would be no crisp to my apple crisp.

So go ahead and sprinkle the clumps over the apple/cherry mixture.

Bake 45-55 minutes, until bubbly and lightly browned.

Yes, the heathens got to it before I could take a pic. But then it is oh-so-good while it's piping hot, especially with a melting scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Now that's what I'm talking about. I love the crunch of the topping, the sweetness of the apples and the tart cherries. A perfect combination. Mmm... Can it stay fall forever? Of course, it doesn't feel like fall here in Texas. It's still hot, it's still steamy...yes, summer is lingering. Just like it does every other year. So why not make the most of it by enjoying a fave fall dessert.

Now it's your turn. What's your favorite fall dessert?

Three time Carol Award finalist Mindy Obenhaus lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, the youngest of her five children and two dogs. She passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. When she's not writing, she enjoys cooking and spending time with her grandchildren. Learn more a mindyobenhaus.com.

A Visit to Amish Country

Hi everyone! Jan here, with a trip to Amish Country where the food is fabulous!

Order this book here!

Last week I told you about Ada, the heroine of my story in the collection, An Amish Christmas Kitchen. 

This week we'll learn a bit about the hero of the story, Matthias Yoder. 

Matthias is a quiet young man, a skilled wood worker, and the newest employee at Ada's family's business, Heritage Amish Furniture in Shipshewana, Indiana. Of course, the business is fictional, but it is based on the many family owned furniture shops in Indiana's Amish Country.

Matthias remembers Ada from their days together at school, but his family moved to Wisconsin soon after they both graduated from the eighth grade. Now that he is back and living in Shipshewana again, he is becoming reacquainted with the old neighborhood. He especially is happy to learn to know Ada again.

Ada's father sees Matthias' talent, and gives the young man more responsibilities. He takes Matthias along on a visit to a customer's house, and then to lunch afterward.

If you're familiar with Shipshewana and the many fabulous restaurants there, you might be surprised that they went to a little nearby town - Topeka, Indiana - to a restaurant that isn't as well known among the tourists.

Tiffany's is usually busy. There are some four-top tables, but most of the tables are long, with at least fifteen chairs on each side. Groups sit where they can, and often strike up conversations with the folks sitting nearby - strangers or not.

To do a lunch at Tiffany's justice, you need to start with the salad bar (it comes with your meal!) Matthias did, and filled his plate.

Next is the main course.

Matthias ordered roast beef and mashed potatoes. The last time we were there, I ordered the chicken and noodles while my dear husband got a turkey Manhattan.

Both are delicious!

And you can't leave without pie. You just can't!

You can choose from a dozen kinds, made fresh each day. We chose pecan...

...and custard.

You know the pie is good when your plate ends up looking like this!

Matthias enjoyed lunch at Tiffany's with his employer. He came away from the meal with...well...I better not tell you. I don't want to spoil the story!

But there's a problem when you write a scene during a meal for your characters...I've been craving a Tiffany's lunch ever since then! We haven't stopped in Topeka during our last couple trips to Indiana.

What about you? Do you think you'd enjoy an occasional Amish style meal? I know I do!

Jan Drexler spent her childhood dreaming of living in the Wild West and is now thrilled to call the Black Hills of South Dakota her home. When she isn’t writing she spends much of her time satisfying her cross-stitch addiction or hiking and enjoying the Black Hills with her husband of more than thirty-seven years.