COOKBOOK -- A Farmer's Daughter

A Farmer's Daughter -- Recipes from a Mennonite Kitchen

by

Dawn Stoltzfus

MY THOUGHTS:

As a cookbook junkie, I always love recipes that are straightforward and simple. A Farmer's Daughter is full of yummy recipes that don't take tons of ingredients and are pretty easy to prepare. These recipes aren't fancy, they are satisfying and family-friendly. 

There are several recipes I've already prepared -- Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls (to die for! Recipe can be found here ), Strawberry Cheesecake Bars, and Old-Fashioned Potato Cakes were my family's favorites so far.

I really liked the recipe for Parmesan Italian Rice. It's such a nice change from pasta as a side dish with anything that seems Italian! It's also a good way to incorporate a bit of veggie (spinach) into a rice dish. Recipe is shared below.

With many recipes Dawn adds a little note about presentation, substitutions, or alternative cooking methods. These are both helpful and fun to read. In addition she writes fun introductions to recipes that give background on the dish or family traditions.

This recipe book is definitely a keeper!

Parmesan Italian Rice

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup jasmine or long grain rice (I made it with regular rice because that's what I had)

1 T olive oil

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 cup fresh spinach, chopped fine

1/4 t dried Italian Seasoning

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

In a medium saucepan, bring broth to a boil. Stir in rice, oil, and garlic. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 20 minutes or until rice is tender. Stir in spinach and Italian seasoning. Let set for 5 minutes. right before serving, stir in Parmesan cheese. Serves 3-4.

 For a link to more reviews and more recipes, check out Dawn's website at http://dawnstoltzfus.com/

ABOUT THE BOOK:

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.

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.

Thank you to Revell Publishing Group for providing a copy of this book for review.