Kitchen
From-scratch recipes, canning and preserving guides, and the freezer meals we lean on. Real food from the garden, the pantry, and the pasture.
Kitchen
A simple way to turn frozen garden tomatoes into an easy freezer-ready tomato base for soups, chili, pasta sauce, casseroles, and more.
Cook until reduced, plus cooling • Roughly five quart-size freezer bags
Easy Family Recipes
Soft banana pumpkin bread with ripe bananas, pumpkin, warm spices, and optional chocolate chips, nuts, or cinnamon crumble — baked as a loaf or muffins.
Loaf bakes 55–70 minutes • 1 standard 9x5-inch loaf
Canning & Preserving
How I turn fresh yellow peaches into a homemade peach topping that can be water-bath canned for the pantry and used in iced tea, pancakes, biscuits, yogurt, and more.
About 1 hour 15 minutes • About 7 half-pint jars
Canning & Preserving
We grow either bush beans or pole beans each season, pick them by the bowlful, cut them into two-inch pieces, and pressure can them a canner load at a time.
1 afternoon • About 14 quarts
Canning & Preserving
The classic Sure-Jell strawberry jam we make from our raised-bed berries — crushed fruit, pectin, sugar, and a short water bath.
1 hr 15 min • About 8 half-pints
Canning & Preserving
Sweet corn straight from the garden, blanched in water with salt and butter, cut off the cob, and packed into the freezer for winter.
1 afternoon • Depends on the picking
Canning & Preserving
Our two old plum trees give us more fruit than we can work up in a day. We pick and wash the plums, then spend the next few days making batch after batch of traditional plum jam for the pantry.
Multiple batches • Varies by harvest
Canning & Preserving
Direct-sown beets, cooked and slipped, packed into jars with a simple sweet-and-sour brine we make the same way every year.
2 hrs • Varies by harvest
Breakfast
Made from my mom's handwritten roll dough recipe, mixed in the bread machine, and baked into one pan of warm cinnamon rolls.
About 3 hours • 1 batch
Breakfast
Mixed the night before and baked at 375°F in the morning — eggs, milk, bread, cheese, and cooked sausage.
Prep the night before • Bake 40 minutes • One baking dish • Serves 8–12
Breakfast
Flaky biscuits, seasoned eggs, shredded cheese, and whatever breakfast meat we have on hand, baked in a jumbo muffin pan for busy mornings.
About 30 minutes • 6 jumbo breakfast biscuits
Dinner
A four-pound chuck roast, vegetables charred on the comal, and three slow hours in the Dutch oven at 375°F.
About 3.5 hours • Feeds our family with leftovers
Dinner
Seasoned ground beef, homemade red sauce, and a few extra pans for the freezer.
About 2 hours • Big-batch + freezer friendly
Dessert
Soft, thick chocolate chip cookies with plenty of chocolate chips and that classic homemade flavor. A simple family favorite that never lasts long around here.
45 minutes • About 4 dozen
Breakfast
Soft cinnamon banana bread made with applesauce and ripe bananas. Bake it as one loaf or use the same batter for easy banana muffins.
1 hr 15 min • 1 loaf
Dinner
A smoky, no-bean chili made with ground beef, jalapeños, crushed tomatoes, Kinder's seasoning, and Spicy V8.
About 3½–4 hours • One large pot, about 8–10 servings
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