I recently reorganized my kitchen. Our home’s hub, it’s where meals are shared, crafts and homework’s done, and friends gather. We don’t eat out often; it’s costly, usually non-organic and often disappointing. Anything we order, I can make. I’m tickled when asked cooking advice. Cooking’s part skill, part creativity, and lots of practice! Now, I’m not one to brag, but in the kitchen I feel like a black-belt Ninja! It wasn’t always so . …
is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”
“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”
is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.
“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.
an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.
“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”
Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!
Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.
describes herself as a goat charmer, chicken whisperer, bee maven, and farmers’ market baker renovating an 1864 farmhouse on an Ohio farm. With a degree in Design, Mary says small-town auctions and country road barn sales "always make my heart skip a beat thinking about what I could create or design out of what I’ve seen.”
Rooted in the countryside, she likes simple things and old ways … gardening, preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and all things home. While you might find her selling baked goods from the farm’s milkhouse, teaching herself to play the fiddle, or sprucing up a vintage camper named Maizy, you will always find her in an apron!
Mary says, “I’m happiest with the simple country pleasures … an old farmhouse, too many animals, a crackling fire, books to read, and the sound of laughter … these make life just perfect.”
is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.
Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!
Suburban Farmgirl Nicole Christensen calls herself a “vintage enthusiast”. Born and raised in Texas, she has lived most of her life in the picturesque New England suburbs of Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York State. An Advanced Master Gardener, she has gardened since childhood, in several states and across numerous planting zones. In addition, she teaches knitting classes, loves to preserve, and raises backyard chickens.
Married over thirty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields, been a world-traveler, an entrepreneur and a homemaker, but considers being mom to her now-adult daughter her greatest accomplishment. Loving all things creative, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “Bloom where you are planted”.
so, this wonderful pizza dough — have you shared/would you please share the recipe? it really sounds too good to be true!
You should post your pizza dough recipe! Your loaves of bread look good too! Yes, I have gadgets and too many of them too. I may have to do a purging soon too. thanks!
Thanks for reading! Here is that recipe you asked for. I love it. I also make wheat crust by using the first cup in white, unbleached flour and the rest of the flour as wheat. Makes a nice, light wheat crust.
Mix 1 cup flour with remaining ingredients. Do not wait for dough to rise. Add 1/2 cup flour and form a ball (additional flour may be used/needed). Knead dough on a floured surface for four minutes. Roll dough out directly onto greased pan or pizza stone. Add sauce and toppings and bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
I also thought you might like another recipe I made for a quick Friday night. It’s my one-skillet meal I make using MaryJane’s Budget Mix Bakeover method:
Brown one pound of ground beef with one finely chopped, small yellow onion and two cloves of chopped garlic in a cast-iron skillet. Drain excess fat. Add one can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained (or one can of black beans, rinsed and drained). Add one can of chopped tomatoes, 1/3 cup of sweet corn kernels (if using frozen, rinse under warm water first). Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. chili powder, 1/4 tsp.EACH of cayenne pepper, cumin, and salt and pepper. Add two dashes of Worcestershire sauce, stir everything together well and sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheddar cheese. Top with rolled crust made from 1-1/2 cups MaryJane’s Budget Mix, 3 TBSP butter, and 1/2 cup water. Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour.
Enjoy! Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
l love your pictures. Pizza is beautiful. Funny and cute article.
Love you,
Mother
Thanks, Mom! Love you, too. Glad you enjoyed it.
Big hugs, Nicole
Hi Nicole,
What an entertaining post!
Kudos to you for mastering the art of cooking! The biggest "problem" I have is coming up with "WHAT" to cook. We of course have our few family favorites, but I long for different (yet simple) dishes that EVERYONE in the house will eat. With 2 kids- one of whom is a rather picky eater, it can certainly be a challenge. My next issue is TIME. It seems that once I get home from work and help with homework, the daunting task of "what to cook for dinner" looms overhead like a black cloud sometimes.
I have found that if I plan out the weeks "menu" ahead of time, that is a HUGE help.
I would have to say that the "gadget" in my kitchen which I "HAD" to have, yet have NEVER used, is the "ultimate mandolin" from Pampered Chef.
Quite honestly, I must be gadget challenged, because I have never been able to figure out how to properly use it! Seems like more work than its worth to me- but I could be wrong.
I do have a "manual" food processor of sorts that I bought at a Tupperware party that I use constantly.
I am in the process of looking at food dehydrators on Amazon. Any thoughts or suggestions about that???
LOL.
Thanks as always for your wonderful blog my dear friend.
Keep Cookin’!
Hugs,
Laurie
Hi Laurie! Funny, I too, have that same Mandolin. I have used a few times, but not as often as I thought I would. It scares me!
I have been doing the same thing you are searching for dehydrators. I was inspired by the Mountain Farmgirl’s post last year on food dehydration.
For inspiration on what to cook, have you checked out the "What’s for Dinner" thread on the Farmgirl Forum? I started it over a year ago, and am surprised as it keeps on going. I go through it for inspiration from all our farmgirl sisters.
Happy Cooking, Farmsister! Hugs! -Nicole
OK, here goes. My first kitchen disaster came as I, a new bride, decided to make sugar cookies for my husband to take to work in his lunch. I thought how tough can this be? I have all the ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder…um, no, I have baking soda. Shrug. Same thing. The sugar "cookie" covered the entire cookie sheet and was 1/2" thick. It tasted fine so I broke off hunks and put them in a plastic bag. When my husband came home with his empty lunchbox, he told me with a laugh how much the other guys at work liked my "cookie." Yep, he announced at lunch that his wife made sugar cookies. They waited hungrily until he pulled out the broken hunks of the "cookie" to share. While they were giggling and stuffing their faces, he related my cooking disaster. I never baked anything for him again and that’s one of the reasons he was my first husband.
Oh my! Silly boys – didn’t they realize that they were Cookie Bars? Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole
I loved reading this post Nicole! I could totally relate to your pizza crust story. I have also tried a variety of ways to make pizza crust and my attempts have all been disastrous also! One was so bad even our dog wouldn’t eat it!
Could you share your recipe for pizza crust?
One pizza option that my son and I love is we do "Make your own pizzas" where I use whole wheat tortillas and then just put on sauce and whatever toppings we want and then cheese. I bake the tortillias first for 5 min ( 400 degrees) and then bake them for another 5 after the toppings are on and they turn out delicious every time!
Loved your posting!
Kelly
Kelly, Thanks for commenting! The crust recipe is above. What a great idea for the "tortilla" pizzas! I will use that to make my daughter a nice, warm after-school snack. She’s going through a major growth spurt and that will make a nice, wholesome treat! Thank you for sharing! Farmgirl hugs, Nicole
Why not try MaryJane’s pan bread recipe? It makes a fabulous pizza crust, and requires no yeast.
Of course, that is a wonderful recipe, too. Her Irish Soda bread is another great recipe if you are looking for something without yeast – I’ll be making that a lot this month! -Nicole
THANKS! for posting the recipes! I will certainly give them a try.
You are so welcome! Enjoy! -Nicole
I thought I would include a bread-related, disappointment-turned-delicious story. I made whole wheat bread dough yesterday. I used dough enhancer, vital wheat gluten and potato flakes. All the tricks for a fluffy loaf. Oh, not so! The dough never rose more than about 10%. The dough tasted fine, and it was getting close to dinnertime, so I cut off small pieces of dough, rolled it super thin and "baked" it in my cast iron skillet like naan or tortillas. It was a hit! And because I didn’t use the whole thing, I put the dough in the fridge for later. I expect it to last about a week, depending on how much more we all want. Happy accidents, you’ve got to love them. Thanks for the blog. I love reading it.
You new friend,
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer, and thank you for reading and commenting! Great story, and love how it turned out. Did you know that it was by accident my (and America’s) favorite cookie was made? In 1930, the owner at the Toll House Inn tried to substitute chocolate chips for baking chocolate in her cookie recipe. They did not melt, thus the invention of the Chocolate Chip Cookie! Happy Cooking and Baking! Hugs, Nicole
I just HAD to have a quesadilla maker. I really did make them frequently too, so it felt justified. Six months later, three out of the four of us were diagnosed with dairy allergies. Oh well! No more cheese for us!
Sarah, Oh No! I had dairy allergies as a child and couldn’t eat any dairy for several years…I feel for you! I love, love, love cheese. Is there a non-dairy version out there you might be able to use, maybe in the Vegan aisle? At least your quesadilla maker got some use.
Funny story…I bought a state-of-the-art, digital pressure cooker. Then I saw "Breakfast at Tiffany’s". When Audrey Hepburn’s pressure cooker exploded, it scared me to use mine! It sat, brand new and unused for a decade! I just pulled it out a few months ago to quickly make rice when I had forgotten it for dinner. Now it’s one of my favorite things! At least it is now getting lots of use.
Thanks for reading and commenting! -Nicole
Nicole,
Thanks for another great blog and pizza dough recipe! I have just gotten my KitchenAid mixer and Cuisinart from my storage unit. I am ready to start cooking and eating healthy again.
Yesterday, I was in the grocery store and looking at instant pancake mixes. I thought of you with all your good homemade cooking and put it back on the shelf. You inspired me to buy the ingredients to make them from scratch. I even bought organic butter!
Got a recipe from buttermilk pancakes? My cookbooks are still in storage.
Rose
Hi Rose! I am so proud of you! You will notice such a difference in how you feel when eating organic. I have a great buttermilk pancake recipe!
Stir together dry ingredients; make a well in the middle and set aside. In another bowl, combine wet ingredients. Add to dry ingredients and mix just to moisten (batter will be lumpy). Pour 1/4 cup batter onto hot greased skillet and cook on medium heat until bubbly, flip and cook a few minutes on second side. Enjoy with organic maple syrup!
I am so happy I inspired you, means a lot. Thanks for commenting! Hugs, Nicole
Dear Nicole,
You are so good to make food , we always like that.
Nice picture of you and Audrey
Love an hug fra Torben og Ulla Dk
Hej Mor!
Thank YOU for teaching ME how to cook some really great Danish recipes! Hugs, Nicole
Hi Nicole,
As always, I love your website. Your pizza looks amazing and thanks for the recipes. I enjoyed seeing the pic of Audrey too. Hugs, Joey
Hi Joey!! Thanks, darlin’! Hope you are doing well! Farmgirl hugs, Nicole