Kay Wheeler Moore

Welcome to my blog

Hello. . .

The Newfangled Country Gardener is for anyone who has a garden, would like to have a garden, or who simply enjoys eating the garden-fresh way. I don't claim to be an expert; in this blog I'm simply sharing some of the experiences my husband and I have in preparing food that is home-grown.

About the author

Kay Wheeler Moore is the author of a new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, that features six generations of recipes that call for ingredients that are fresh from the garden. With home gardening surging in popularity as frugal people become more resourceful, this recipe collection and the stories that accompany it ideally will inspire others to cook the garden-fresh way and to preserve their own family food stories as well. The stories in this book center around the Three Red-Haired Miller Girls (Kay's mother and aunts) who grew up in Delta County, TX, with their own backyard garden so lavish that they felt as though they were royalty after their Mama wielded her kitchen magic on all that was homegrown. Introduced in Kay's previous book, Way Back in the Country, the lively Miller Girls again draw readers into their growing-up world, in which a stringent economic era--not unlike today's tight times--saw people turn to the earth to put food on the table for their loved ones. The rollicking yarns (all with recipes attached) have love, family, and faith as common denominators and show how food evocatively bonds us to our life experiences.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Sweet Potato Fruit Salad made a sweet menu item on Hearts and Flowers Day

Blame it on flu season. But several Valentine’s Days ago Hubby and I made a pact. After waiting for service for nearly an hour in a crowded restaurant lobby in which we were shoulder-to-shoulder with countless potential flu germs, we decided then and there: no more restaurant meals on Hearts and Flowers Day.

We’d either do take-out or cook and dine at home. Valentine’s Day falls smack-dab in the middle of a highly germ-rife time of year. I began collecting recipes for a dine-at-home Valentine meal for 2013.

As I searched for a salad, I couldn’t pass up this one: Sweet Potato Fruit Salad. I never had encountered the idea of adding cooked, cubed sweet potatoes to a standard fruit (ambrosia-type) salad. This recipe was featured on an old calendar that I recently had been given.

The tossed items are ensconced in a beautiful cinnamon/brown-sugar/sour cream dressing. This menu item was a true love gift for Hubby, who adores sweet potatoes and would be happy to have them added to most anything served.

Sweet Potato Fruit Salad

3 medium sweet potatoes, cooked, peeled, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 bananas, sliced
2 apples, dced
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained and juice reserved
1 1/2 pounds (2 cups) seedless grapes, cut in half
2 oranges, sectioned
1 (3 1/2-ounce) can coconut
1 (8-ounce) carton dairy sour cream (I used fat-free)
3-4 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine first 7 ingredients except reserved juice; toss gently. Set aside. Combine sour cream, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons reserved juice to reach desired serving consistency for dressing. Serve over salad. Chill until time to serve. Makes 10 servings. (Source: Texas Utilities Electric Company calendar, 1986)

No comments:

Post a Comment