End of May
- Tacos and peach salsa: A Tuesday afternoon and still had not decided on dinner, but tacos came to mind. I had never made tortillas before but I thought maybe I could do it..they turned out so good! A restaurant worthy meal served in the comfort of home. I checked what I had on hand, researched recipes, and decided on ingredient substitutions, if needed. Honestly, if there’s an ingredient you don’t have, never turn away from making the recipe. I used frozen peaches and canned food, for a low cost meal. (see previous Instagram post for details).
Homemade tortillas for chicken tacos, peach salsa, cilantro lime quinoa rice.
- S’mores and Fresh milled flour sandwich bread: I have a blog post called The Taste of Summer which goes into more details on these recipes. I have to say again, though, just how good these were! I definitely need to make the s’mores again–they were so ooey, gooey and perfect for roasting. The graham crackers were made from scratch using soft white wheat fresh milled flour (fmf). We had friends over for a whole day of baking and making bread. You may see this FMF sandwich bread in an upcoming Gathering.
June
- Cherry Bowl: I love making this choco cherry yogurt bowl whenever cherries are in season. I mix cocoa power with greek yogurt and a spoonful of Manuka honey. Topped with dark chocolate chips, cherries, muesli, and puffed quinoa. Paired with my favorite yogurt spoon and bowl.
- Zucchini and Corn Fritters: These were the perfect summer side dish. These two pair so well together. I paired it with a yogurt dill sauce-so good!
- Seed crackers and chicken salad: You can’t go wrong with chicken salad! I had been seeing these seed crackers pop up every now and then over the past few years, so I finally decided to make them. I had a stash of a few varieties of seeds from previous recipes. Mine had ground flax seeds, chia, sesame, sunflower, hemp seeds, and pumpkin seeds. I accidentally made a huge batch, so I froze the rest after a few days. Lonnie and I had a picnic in the park.
- Moon pies: The classic childhood snack. I initially had in mind to remake the graham crackers because I wanted them to have more snap, while also trying out chocolate flavor. I then wanted to pipe marshmallow on top and dip in chocolate. I was telling my husband this and he said, “oh, like a moon pie!” Hmm not exactly, but I thought I would try it that way instead. The graham crackers definitely had more of a snap ( I rolled it out thinner and used biscuit cutters). She recently came out with a chocolate version, so I’ll have to give that a try. Marshmallow recipe, which will be perfect for hot chocolate! I covered the moon pies in dark chocolate, which was all I had, and came out very rich. I could only eat a bite. I stored leftovers in the freezer and they actually tasted better cold.
Sourdough and fresh milled flour sourdough bagels.
July
Steak salad: roasted corn, greens, herbed honey butter, tomatoes, and strawberries.
- Toddler snacks: I’ve probably made these blueberry oat bars about 5 times now. They last 10-12 days in our household. Packed with nutrients and easy for Lonnie to hold. I loosely follow Brooklyn’s Bites recipe. My go to now is a mini muffin pan. I first made these sweet potato crackers several months ago and kept in the freezer until Lonnie was ready for them. I have since made them 3 or 4 times. They have become the “star” crackers because the first time (and always) I used a star cookie cutter. Don’t roll it too thin. Perfect on the go and travel snacks! The oat bars stay in the fridge, while the crackers stay in the freezer.
Tired of rolling out meatballs? Try the flattened method! They kind of look like brownies…(but you can see the hidden veggies).
Speaking of brownies…
check out these fresh milled flour brownies! The mix is soon to be found at a local farm. I was asked to test out mixes and this is one to be enjoyed either chewy or cakey style! (and might be seen in an upcoming Gathering)
Early August
Besides a brownie mix, I tested recipes for a vanilla cake mix. You can either make the classy white (not true white due to the wheat) or classic yellow. Either one was very tasty. I made a two layer white version to test its structure and cupcakes for the yellow version. The early test cakes came out tasting like cornbread. I ended up having to sift the bran out of the flour for better taste and texture.
I used the leftover ingredients of testing cakes (bran, egg yolks, milled flour), to make these blueberry bran muffins. I will for sure be making these again, with a few tweaks. You might see it in an upcoming Gathering.
Gathered and Growing 
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