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.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Roasted potato dish evokes memories of long-ago campfire cooking

It was part of my hubby's trousseau--a skillet-potato dish that he brought into the marriage with him. I learned to love it because of his mantra, "Love me; love my potatoes."

Actually the skillet-potato dish was something that usually was cooked on the grill at his family's campouts. Since I had never been on a campout until I married Hubby, this was certainly not something in my radar screen. It featured cut-up potatoes and onions and "a little bit of outdoor dirt", the joke always was, to make it taste like something cooked around campfire should taste.

This new recipe, which took the last of our garden tomatoes, was all about the indoors (although I imagine it could be adapted to an outdoor cookstove as well). Furnished by my handy booklet, "Celebrating a Healthy Harvest" by the Chickasaw Nation Nutrition Services, it was designed to be oven-cooked on a cookie sheet (be sure to oil the cookie sheet well or line the sheet with foil and then spray it. I managed to lose a cookie sheet in preparing this because I had not prepared the sheet properly; the food baked on so severely that it wouldn't scrub off during cleanup.)

"Roasted Potato Medley" featured a mixture of potatoes, onions, tomato, carrots, and zucchini. Other than chopping up the vegetables, this has effortless prep and yields beautiful, colorful, healthy results.


Roasted Potato Medley

2 medium red potatoes
1 large onion
1 large tomato
1 large zucchini
2 carrots
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup salt-free tomato sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Use spray oil to generously grease cookie sheet. Wash all vegetables; cut them into 1-inch pieces. In a large bowl combine vegetables. Combine garlic, tomato sauce, and oil. Pour over vegetables; toss to coat. Spread vegetables in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake for 1 hour or until potatoes are tender. Turn once during baking. Makes 4 servings.


No comments:

Post a Comment