Just before school started, I was invited to spend the day with “The Girls on the Farm” otherwise known as the three “Ma tantes” (aunts).  They are not my aunts, and I always have to think about how I am related to these three wonderful women…  Let’s see…  One of my maternal grandmother’s sisters married one of the girls’ brothers…  So the “girls” are my mom’s uncle’s sisters…  I’m still not sure what the official label is for this relationship, but they’re family and I’ll leave it at that.

These three sisters have been living on the farm since childhood, as it was their father’s farm.  Now retired from outside work, they still live, work, and play on the farm.  One of the sisters paints glass, rocks, and other items for home decor.  All three make beautiful quilts.  They’re always coming up with some sort of creative new project.  During one of my visits, we upcycled old light bulbs into very cute snowman Christmas tree ornaments.

In addition to growing vegetables, crafting, and staying active in their community, these ladies are great cooks!  They have an small “summer kitchen” with an electric stove, and in the winter they cook right in their dining room using a beautiful antique wood-fired stove.

I love having lunch with the girls.  Everything is homemade on the farm.  We had a summer vegetable stew, similar to a ratatouille made with garden vegetables, fresh corn on the cobb, freshly baked bread, sliced garden cukes and cherry tomatoes.

When we finished lunch, I helped with dishes while two of the sisters canned the leftover ratatouille for future meals.

After dishes were done, I was offered a tour of the basement where the girls have quite a pantry set up for all of their canned goods.  I would have included a photograph, but just couldn’t capture it.  I was told that the potato yield was low this year, and those that were harvested were “scabby” which is why they don’t have many potatoes right now.  Fortunately their other crops have been plentiful.  Click here for a short video clip.

I was also given a tour of the garden, which is impressive to say the least.  This is the first time I have seen tomatoes grown with no cages or stakes for support, and while the plants were lower to the ground than some I have seen, they were quite strong looking and these plants have really produced.  Not only were there hundreds of green tomatoes on the plants, but the girls had picked crate upon crate of tomatoes which were ripening in several different storage areas.  The picture below only shows a small collection of the tomatoes that were ready for eating or canning!

The squash plants were also producing in mass quantities, and I was given a sweet mama squash to bring home.  I’ve never tried this variety of squash before, and look forward to trying a new recipe with it sometime soon!

I was also impressed with the size of the cabbages that were growing in the garden!  I would estimate each of these cabbages as having the volume of 4-5 average store-bought cabbages!

Sensing my interest in all things farming, one of the girls asked if I would like to see the onions that they were drying in a shed for winter.  While there were still many large onions growing in the garden, they had begun harvesting the onions that were ready.

I have never left the farm without having had a lovely homemade dessert.  This time we had blackberry upside-down cake.  The berries were freshly picked, and the cake was made using a recipe handed down to the girls by one of their aunts.

I even have the recipe now, should I want to try making this cake at home:

It has only been a week since my last visit, though I very much look forward to my next visit with these three fun and inspirational women.

WARNING: click here only if you have a fair amount of time to be absorbed into the vast array of recipes, stories, and beautiful photographs that await.

I have to say that, most of the time, I do not find cooking to be a burden.  In fact, I enjoy cooking because it allows me to be creative while being quiet with my thoughts, or listening to music and unwinding after a busy day.  Though there are some days, mid-week when school is in session, that cooking is the last thing I feel like doing.  Those are the days I would much prefer to go outdoors for a run or bike ride and just heat up something easy due to the very limited “free” time between the end of the school day, and that start of my planning and “homework” that seems pretty much unavoidable in my line of work.  On days like that, homemade pizza on freshly made dough really hits the spot!  Jason uses a spice mixture from the Sabbathday Lake Shakers called Pizza Pizazz, which he sprinkles in the dough, and over the sauce.  He also sprinkles some crushed red pepper over the cheese before baking to really give the pizza flavor.

Since the weather has been warm, we haven’t had homemade pizza in a while, but with the impending school year, I think it’s probably about time to get back into a routine of a mid-week pizza.

The highlights of our beach munchies were pumpkin seed cheddar flatbreads with smoked shrimp and aged gouda.

Their crepes are made with Julia Child’s recipe, and can be ordered full or “mid” sized.  A full size order has two crepes, while a mid has one crepe.  Their lobster crepe is amazing, though I didn’t have my camera when I tried it a few weeks ago.

My friend ordered today’s crepe of the day and she really enjoyed it.  She said it was spicy, and it had rotisserie chicken, black beans, corn, onions and red pepper in it.

I almost ordered the lobster crepe again, but I ended up ordering the reuben sandwich today to try something different.  It was very flavorful, and different from any other reuben I’ve had before.  It was filled with hot smoked beef brisket as opposed to the cold black pastrami that most places seem to use.  Their meats are roasted in house, and I’m sure that contributed to the difference in flavor and texture.

Katz’s Deli is the last place I ate that served a sandwich of comparable quality, though I had to wait much longer for that sandwich, and the atmosphere was not nearly as nice as Marché’s atmosphere!

Silly's Specials Boards

The walls and ceiling are all old painted tin, with interesting antique designs, though most of the wall surface is covered with pictures of people holding “Eat at Silly’s” bumper stickers all over the world.  Some pictures can be seen online at the restaurant’s website.

Lamp and Pictures

The decor is wild!  They have so many funky lamps, including the one above that appears to be hand made out of plastic visors and buttons.  The waitstaff will likely bring you a 750 ml wine bottle filled with water, and some very small (approx. 2-3 oz) juice glasses which you will need to repeatedly refill should you want water with your dinner.   At your table you will find a Silly’s lunchbox, equipped with napkins and menus.

Silly's Lunchbox e.g. Napkin & Menu Holder

As for the food…  Amazing.  It’s the sort of stuff one might crave.  There are quite a few vegetarian options, and a wide variety of unusual, creative concoctions.  On this particular visit we both ordered from the specials board.  I ordered the “Spring Fling Salad” which was made with spinach, grilled pears, blue cheese, bacon (thick, cruncy REAL bacon and plenty of it), and walnuts.

Spring Fling Salad

As for my better half, he ordered the “Gut Buster” from the specials board.  This concoction consisted of a thick garlic-mashed burger, with pickles, cole slaw, hot sauce all on what appeared to be a homemade roll.  I tried a bite and agree that it would certainly bust my gut if I ate a whole one, but wow was it good!

The Gut Buster!

]]> http://www.kelliesbelly.com/?feed=rss2&p=1799 0 http://www.kelliesbelly.com/?p=1765 http://www.kelliesbelly.com/?p=1765#comments Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:38:58 +0000 Kellie http://www.kelliesbelly.com/?p=1765 Continue reading →]]> This is another good use for Streaked Mountain Herbs and Crafts Heaps of Herbs dipping oil.  Simply dice several potatoes, and toss the pieces with a little of the dipping oil.  Bake in a preheated oven (400 degrees) for about 20 minutes, turning half way through the cooking time.

Rolly’s Diner has a way of decorating that is unlike any other restaurant I’ve visited.  They manage to decorate for every holiday or major event.  Right now they’re decked out for the Great Falls Balloon Festival, as shown above!  Our waitress told us it took three evenings to decorate the place, with a lot of helpers!

The decor is only one of the reasons to visit Rolly’s, as their placemat states, “Just good cookin’ and plenty of it!”  The first thing I do when I walk through their doors is check out the specials menu to see if there is any homemade grapenut pudding to be had.  That one piece of information helps me decide whether I’ll be having crepes or something else with less sugar, preceding the must-have pudding.  Since the grapenut pudding was available, I chose to have the Rolly Burger with hand cut fries.

I am usually not one to order a burger in a restaurant, but Rolly’s is my exception.  The burger is served up piping hot with all the fixings, and the fries are hot and slightly crispy–perfect real potato fries, not the previously frozen junk!  Of course we also ordered a warm grapenut pudding to share…

Over lunch, I had shared with my grandmother that I had signed up for a free hot air balloon ride drawing that was offered by LA Alerts.  I doubted that I would win, but after returning home with a belly full of Rolly’s good cooking, I was thrilled to find an email informing me of where to pick up my ticket and directions for this morning’s flight on Damn Yankee Balloons beautiful “Raspberry Ripple” balloon.  I felt like a little kid at Disney World this morning, and am so thankful to have had this amazing experience!  To see pictures of my big adventure, check out my Flickr page!

While my own garden isn’t doing so well, it’s nice to know that there are fresh and interesting options available at a very fair price so close to home!

I garnished the ice cream with maple leaf cookies, which I purchased at L’Intermarché St-Jean, a small grocery store located on rue St-Jean in Quebec City.  This grocery store is great because it has a wide variety of products that we cannot buy at home, yet the prices are very reasonable unlike some of the épiceries nearby that have wonderful products, but seem more geared toward tourists than people just looking for a snack or a few groceries.