- "Just beyond the bend in the road, past all sight of yellow arches and blue tipped castles, lies The Simmer Pot Cafe in a little town called Quandry...." - from The Uncertain Times of Quandry, Indiana
These are recipes all featuring Indiana products. From Easley wine to Red Gold tomatoes, look for links to the product pages of these great Hoosier products with each recipe.
These recipes will also be featured in an upcoming book about my experiences growing up in Indiana.
A VERY EASLEY CROCK POT ROAST FOR ONE OR TWO
Made In Indiana
Epiphany Day Apple Fritters
The apple as a gift on Christmas becomes a simple offering of love on Epiphany when I make these apple fritters. A love of God, a hope for the Kingdom to come, an honor for the family that always exists in my heart for whom I make the food I prepare, even when I know its only me who will be eating it.
Baked Duck Egg Custard with Bourbon Brown Sugar Sauce
One of the great things about raising ducks – especially during the winter – is that they are hardy layers! I’ve been blessed enough to have two little troopers who lay consistently despite the frigid temps outside as long as they get enough feed and good warm bedding. Two female ducks will produce an egg each … Continue reading
The best time of the year
Autumn is my favorite time of the year, good harvest, bad harvest. Clear azure skies, brightly colored leaves and bursts of purple and yellow wildflowers are everywhere you look. There’s good firepit weather, low-wind and briskly cool. Dinners of roast potatoes. Apple crisp and cider. The sound of the train whistle in the distance as … Continue reading
Wild Things and a Savory Onion Bread Recipe!
For some time I have been trying to identify and catalog many of the naturally useful and ornamental plants here. Though I haven’t been able to focus on this activity as much as I would like, there has been an abundance of wild things growing this year which has made identification easier. Free Wild Roses One plant … Continue reading
Processing seeds and a Butternut squash and apple bread recipe
I planted an early garden this year which means that by May 12th the tomato plants went in before Memorial Day( which is this weekend). I had everything in except for all of the butternut squash. I discovered much to my shock that I had almost no seeds left from last year’s butternut squash seed … Continue reading
Spring 2015 – Everything’s Coming Up Vegetables!
2015 Indoor Seed Planting and Germination Schedule PLANT Germination Period Date Planted/Sprout Date Last Day of Germination Period 1 Broccoli 10-21 days 3/31 4/5 4/20 2 Cabbage 5-7 days 3/31 4/7 4/6 3 Collards 8-12 days 3/31 4/5 4/11 4 Parris Lettuce 7-10 days 3/31 4/6 4/9 5 Livingston Lettuce 7-10 days 3/31 4/5 4/9 6 … Continue reading
Spring 2015: Preparing the Soil For Another Season
Well, its spring! Yes, finally. So its time to get as busy as the bees are going to be later when I give them some work to do with the new vegetable crop I’m going to plant this year. And that means its time to think about preparing my soil again. It’s time, also, to … Continue reading
The Food Sustainability Project: The Results and a Fall Garden
It’s been awhile since I posted how the project was doing. And that’s a good thing because I’ve been too busy to write about it! The results of my raised hoop bed? 4 grocery bags of heirloom tomatoes and 9 butternut squash! I planted 2 heirloom varieties of tomatoes: Mortgage lifter and Purple Pudens. Of … Continue reading
Made In Indiana: Husk Sweet Corn (Non-GMO)
During last night’s grocery trip, just as I was about to hit the check out line, I came across a real Indiana treasure in the freezer section at our local Marsh. Tucked in the corner of the far frozen vegetable case was a neat pile of old-timey looking brown bags lettered in an old-west font: HUSK! … Continue reading
The Garden Is In! Well about 6 weeks ago…
[When I originally posted this blog, it was under another blog (which I have since moved here where it seems more useful for everyone). I began posting about 6 weeks ago as I started preparing the garden soil and then planting the seedlings I had raised over the winter (without a grow light, no less!). … Continue reading
The Food Sustainability Project: Bad Soil? No Problem – Part 2
In late October of 2013, some youth volunteers with the Southport Presbyterian church along with their ministers came to my home as part of an FHL Kindness Day and helped me on this idea I had of getting more self-sufficient and less dependent on commercial food production. Along with a compost bin from some free … Continue reading
Featured: A Very Easley Crock Pot Roast for One or Two
Preparing this pot roast is a whole lot easier than taking a picture of it, I can assure you! Fortunately, The Easley folks took a nicer picture for their website where this recipe is also featured and you can check it out here. But back to my story behind this wonderful little meal! I used … Continue reading
Sweet Barrel Red Sloppy Joes
Nothing quite hits the spot on a cold night (or a hot summer night for that matter) for supper as quickly as does sloppy joes. They are so popular that they have become a school cafeteria staple and grocery shelves share a spot for the familiar can of “Manwich”. Most kids love them. But what makes … Continue reading
Hoosier Christmas Pudding
“Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had something to say about … Continue reading
Hot and Fried Mush: An Indiana Winter Breakfast
There is a bit of winter this morning on the ground in a white powder, sprinkled over the woods during the night. So it’s time for a steaming bowl of hot mush for breakfast and tomorrow, fried mush and homemade syrup. I grew up in Indiana on occasional breakfasts of hot mush: a steaming bowl … Continue reading
The Simmer Pot Cafe 