A Farmer’s Daughter – Recipes from a Mennonite Kitchen...Review

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.

When I first received this cookbook, I went through it and tagged all the recipes I wanted to try.  One of those was the sauce from Barbecued Meatballs.  I had some pork ribs that I wanted to get used and so I dumped them into my crockpot with a doubled recipe of this sauce.

1 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
2 t. yellow mustard
2 t. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t. liquid smoke
1/8 t. pepper

Now the original recipe states to combine all ingredients, heat and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat.  The sauce also stores well in the refrigerator for 3-4 months.

I didn't cook it, nor did I save any to refrigerate for later.  I mixed up a doubled version, poured it all over the ribs and let them cook in my crockpot for about 8 hours.  They were divine.  My family decreed that this was their new favorite bbq sauce.  Very mild, yet smooth and flavorful.

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This is just a great cookbook.  Most, not all, recipes show serving sizes and all require every day ingredients you probably have on hand.  I love the little anecdotes and the "And Another Thing...And Another Thing" notes at the end of many recipes where she shares additional hints or suggestions about a particular recipe.

There is a great section in the back about Do-It-Yourself recipes.

She makes French Toast like I do, with cinnamon and vanilla.  So much better than plain french toast!

Available October 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Thanks to Donna Hausler of Baker Publishing for the opportunity to review this book.  You can learn more about Dawn Stoltzfus here.  You can purchase your own copy here.

Read 10/12

* * * *
4/5 Stars