Gooseberry Patch cookbook giveaway!

I have had a blast cooking through Autumn with Family & Friends with the Real Farmwives of America & Friends and Gooseberry Patch.
I hope you have found a recipe or two that you have wanted to try! And now, it’s time for a giveaway, so you can try the recipes I’ve shown you, and all the others you want!

I did not have any trouble picking out recipes to try from this book… The trick was narrowing it down to ten!

We tried some great main dishes like

Perfect Cheesy Pasta Bake
Sweet Autumn Pork Chops

Connie’s Meatloaf Roll
 Pumpkin-Sausage Penne
Party Ham Casserole
I checked out a new comfort food recipe – Dad’s Best Mac & Cheese
There were the kid- and adult-friendly Crunchy Chicken “Toes”
Some fantastic side dishes…

Cinnamon Pineapple
Grandma’s Buttery Mashed Potatoes
and a new favorite, Garlic Bubble Bread (I am so making this to go with lasagna tonight!)
And I managed to stick to only one dessert (but, oh, was it good!) – Pumpkin Custard Crunch
Are you hungry yet?

I have a copy of Autumn with Family & Friends to give away!! Try all these recipes, and tons more! How about New England Cider Doughnuts… Apple-Cinnamon Pancakes… Bacon Bread (Hubby Doc has been after me to make this one)… Pumpkin Bread Pudding! They all sound so good… who can choose? (I think I’ve held off on the desserts long enough!)

You can earn entries in this giveaway for a copy of this wonderful cookbook by…

• Leave a comment here telling me which was your favorite recipe, or which you want to try first.
• Following AlarmClockWars through Google Friend Connect (or sign up for email updates through my WordPress site).
• Following @AlarmClockWars on Twitter
• Becoming a Fan of Alarm Clock Wars on Facebook
• Following The Real Farmwives of America and Friends and Gooseberry Patch through Google Friend Connect. Leave a comment telling them you are new! (Psst…  GP has another giveaway going on right now!)
• Following @realfarmwives and @gooseberrypatch on Twitter
• Becoming a Fan of The Real Farmwives of America and Friends  and Gooseberry Patch on Facebook
• Joining the Gooseberry Patch Circle of Friends email club

Be sure to leave me a separate comment for each entry.

The giveaway will close at midnight (Central time) on Friday, September 9. I’ll announce the winner on Saturday, September 10!

Good luck! I know you will love each and every recipe!

Bonus side dishes, recipe #10+

Don’t tell anyone, but I’m giving you two side dishes in this post. And you’ll love them both, I promise! First… Warm Cinnamon Pineapple.

Start with a whole pineapple. Cut off the top and bottom, and then slice off the skin.
Mix together 2 cups of sugar (I used Splenda) and 1/4 cup cinnamon. Roll the naked pineapple around in the cinnamon sugar until he is nice and sticky. (I had a bunch of leftover cinnamon sugar. Next time I would only make up half the amount.)

Wrap the pineapple in aluminum foil, put it on a baking sheet, and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

When it is warmed through, take him out of the aluminum foil, stand him upright, and slice vertically around the core. Throw out the core, slice the pineapple thinly, and serve warm.Trust me, you will love this!!

Second, Grandma’s Buttery Mashed Potatoes. Because no Autumn meal is complete without mashed potatoes!

Peel, cube, cook, and drain 6-8 potatoes.
Add 1/2 cup butter, and 1 cup evaporated milk.

Beat everything to a pulp.
I didn’t pay attention, and added a whole can of evaporated milk, instead of just 1 cup. So things got a little runny. Lucky for me, I had some instant mashed potato flakes in the pantry. I added some of these, and things perked right up.

Of course, I could have boiled some more potatoes to correct the runny problem. But I wasn’t feeling that patient.

Seriously? Some of the best mashed potatoes I have ever tasted!

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and to share with you. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com.

Printable recipe cards: 

Next up? A giveaway! I have a copy of Autumn with Family & Friends to giveaway to one lucky reader! Get ready…  It’s coming next week!

{Affiliate links were used in this post.}

Party Ham Casserole, recipe #9

We’re getting closer to Autumn (well, some days it feels more like it than others), and I’m wrapping up my cooking from Autumn with Family & Friends from Gooseberry Patch!

I’m always looking for something new to do with ham, so this recipe was calling to me!

I started with one of our ham steaks, cut it into cubes, and gave it a quick cook in some olive oil. I may have also used some of Shoup’s Seasoning. It’s a possibility. You can start with a pre-cooked piece of ham. We didn’t have any of that “fancy” food. :)

This recipe calls for medium egg noodles. I am a big fan of the Amish-style noodles, and used those instead.I cooked and drained half the package of noodles, and set them aside foe a few minutes. In the same saucepan I cooked the noodles, I combined 1 can of cream of mushroom soup and 1/2 cup milk, and stirred over low heat until smooth. Then add 1 teaspoon of minced onion, 2 teaspoons of mustard, and 1 cup of sour cream. Heat, stir. Beautiful. The recipe calls for layers here. Noodles, ham, soup, repeat. My casserole dish was clearly the wrong size, so I just dumped it all in at the same time.Mix together 1/2 cup bread crumbs and 1-1/2 tablespoon melted butter for the top, and then top with grated Parmesan cheese. Yum! Bake at 350 degrees, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes, and it is ready to go!I will advise you to stick to the medium egg noodles. The noodles I used were so long, it was hard to serve this casserole without everything pulling apart.

Other than that, this dish was a hit!   

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and to share with you. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com.

Printable recipe card:
Next time… a two-fer! I made two quick and easy sides, and I’m going to give them both to you in the next post!

{Affiliate links were used in this post.}

Computer trouble

I really want to blog tonight. My computer is giving me fits, and won't do anything I ask it to.
I have 2 more Gooseberry Patch recipes to share!

Blogging from my phone is harder than blogging from my computer. But it's all I've got right now!

Week of travel

At least this time, Hubby Doc and I were together on our travels!

Last week was a pretty busy week for us. We left Monday evening to head up to Indianapolis so we could be at the Indiana State Fair first thing Tuesday morning. We arrived after the tragedy of the stage collapsing before the concert on Saturday night, but the mood was still a little subdued on the grounds.

We were working in the Farm Bureau building at the Taste of Indiana Farms event for three days on the state fairgrounds.

Hubby Doc got to talk to new people for three straight days. He hated it. Or maybe he loved it. Is he smiling?

Friday morning, after our fair responsibilities were done, we packed up and headed to Grand Rivers, Kentucky for the weekend. Monday was our two-year wedding anniversary, and we wanted to have a weekend away that wasn’t tied to work in some way or another.

Grand Rivers is this really tiny village in Western Kentucky, nestled between Kentucky Lake and Barkley Lake. Just south of Grand Rivers is the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.

We had a very low-key, relaxing weekend. We had no schedule, and no itinerary. It was awesome. We saw a show at the Badgett Playhouse, and spent a bunch of time in the LBL Park.

We slept in on Sunday, drove over to Paducah, KY and spent some more time in the LBL Park before we started a lazy drive back home.

More details to come on all of this later this week. I’m still trying to catch up from the week of being gone! My computer also liked the vacation, and he is whining about having to go back to work this week, too.

Of course, Hubby Doc left this morning for Chicago, and I’m headed to Indianapolis again on Friday… so back on the merry-go-round!

Dad’s Best Mac & Cheese, recipe #8

I have already told you about one of my favorite comfort foods – homemade macaroni and cheese. While I am perfectly happy with my family recipe, I am also always on the lookout for some variations. And boy did I find a good one in Autumn with Family & Friends!!


Mix together one egg, 1 tablespoon hot water, 1 teaspoon ground dry mustard, and 1 teaspoon salt. Add the egg mixture, and 1 cup of milk to cooked elbow macaroni. (Or spirals. I like spirals. I just didn’t have any.) Add most of a 12-ounce package of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.
I had only bought an 8-ounce bag of cheddar. So I added some mozzarella to make up the difference. Mix that all up. (We’re not aiming for cheese melting, just everything mixed together.)
Spread one tablespoon of softened butter in the bottom of your pan…
And then pour in the macaroni. Top with extra cheese.
And bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes, until the top looks like this.Oh, yum!! This was mac & cheese heaven!

I do like a crunchy topping, so maybe next time I would add some crushed cereal with butter to the cheese on the top… But this was still so good!

We had this with Gooseberry Patch’s Crunchy Chicken “Toes” and garden broccoli.
I will say, all that butter in the bottom of the pan made for some seriously yummy mac & cheese, but it left my stoneware pan feeling pretty greasy. I ended up using a little bit of dish soap to clean the stoneware (which you’re not really supposed to do). There was no other way of getting around the butter. But it was so worth it!

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and to share with you.If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com.

Printable recipe card:

{Affiliate links were used in this post.}

Used equipment lot?

Sometimes I’m not sure if I’m at a used equipment lot…(Don’t forget that trailer over there!)

Or if I am at home… Yep! That’s our house in the background!