Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Homestead Cooking

I was blessed by Vision Forum's Deal of the Day a few weeks ago when they featured the West Ladies Homestead Blessings Cookbook. This has been on my wish list since even before it came out. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $20 on a cookbook though.
Thankfully patience is a virtue and I got it for nearly half price. Now that's a blessing!


I spent last Sunday afternoon going through it and marking the recipes I wanted to try. Let's just say that the post-it notes got out of hand. So many wonderful looking recipes!
Sunday night I made the "Busy Woman's Chocolate Cake" and Monday morning I made "Johnny Cakes" for breakfast.
The verdicts?


The chocolate cake was great. It certainly needs no frosting what so ever. The only thing was that the recipe said to cook it for only 30 minutes, which at 350 in a 13x9 pan would have left it severely under baked. It really takes about 45-50 minutes. I would think that you could divide it into 2 8" pie plates and cook them that way for about 30 minutes.


The Johnny Cakes were...well, let's just say it's obvious that I have NO southern roots. The flavor of them was great, I just didn't love the texture. I don't want to completely give up on this recipe though so I think that next time instead of just 2 cups of cornmeal, I'll use 1 cup cornmeal and 1 cup flour.
Do you have the Homestead Blessings cook book? What recipes have you made out of it and what did you think of them?
We have a ton of canned peaches from last summer so I think the next one I'm going to make is the Georgia Peach Pie!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cookbooks can be so much fun...however, you do want to mark next to the recipes that just don't make the cut. I used to do that when I cooked for the Bible School...or pencil in notes about cooking. =)

Have fun with your new book!

Preciouspeas said...

I bought the cookbook for Anne for Christmas and now she's using it to spur us onto better, healthier cooking. You should see my Co-op order - out with the old not-so-good-for-you and in with the new. Anne loves the Ultimate pancake recipe- she says it's pretty much amazing.

I can't wait to find out what other recipes are good.

Kim said...

I have to say, the post-it notes made me laugh!

I have bright orange ones sticking out of a couple of my books! :)

Unknown said...

I checked out my copy and saw that there are the same editing issues that you mentioned.

Thanks for your review of those recipes... glad I already have a cornbread recipe I love & won't waste my time on another :)

Holly said...

I love the west ladies:) but Im pretty sure they cook with a wood stove so that may be the difference in cooking times. The only recipe so far I have tried that really needed some tweeking is the oven baked stroganoff, it was really dry. The sauce will definitely need to be thinned the next time I try it. Hope you enjoy your new cookbook as much as I do!

Amanda said...

I always appreciate good honest reviews and Im happy you've given one.

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