Spring cooking: Wilted Spinach Salad over Fried Eggs

This post also appeared on the Land O'Lakes Blog as Welcoming Spring on the Dairy Farm.

The windows are open. The laundry is on the clothesline. After flirting with us for several weeks, it appears that spring has finally arrived here in central Minnesota.

There’s so much excitement during springtime on our dairy farm. Here’s what I’m looking forward to:

Fresh grass. The most anticipated event of spring on our dairy farm is the day we open up the pasture gate and turn the cows out onto the fresh, green grass. The day is like a holiday, for both us and the cows.

Fresh grass also means that the snow is gone and the mud is mostly dried up, so our children can play outside without layers of winter clothes and mud boots. I love the freedom of letting them come and go without dressing and undressing as much as they do.

New life. When the cows go out to pasture, I add a new chore (except it's hardly a chore) to my morning routine: walking the pasture to check for newborn calves. Since our cows don't give birth during the coldest part of winter, we have lots of newborn calves during the spring.

My daughter's favorite cow, Star, gave birth to a little girl calf last month. Her name is Sparkle. My son's favorite cow, Lucy, just had a little girl that he named Lego. As soon as our driveway dries out, Dan and Monika will be leading Lego and Sparkle around in circles, practicing for the county fair later this summer.

Newborn calves aren't the only babies on our farm during spring. Usually, a hen or two will hatch out a clutch of chicks. The first sight of a proud mama hen parading her little chicks around the yard is almost as exciting as watching the cows kick up their heels when they first run out to the pasture.

Spring also brings new plant life to the farm. Our hay fields are waking up after slumbering for the winter. We'll soon be harvesting our first crop of hay. Seeds will be planted in the soil, with hopes for timely rains and abundant sunshine, so that we can grow enough food to feed our cattle for the next year.

Fresh food. I had a very small garden a couple years ago, but between chores and chasing after our kids and chasing the chickens out of the garden, I gave up on it. I think it's time to try again. My kids are fascinated with gardening and they’re old enough now to help — and to shut the gate that keeps the chickens out.

With so much going on this time of year, I don’t have much time to spend in the kitchen. This recipe is one of my favorite quick spring meals. I love the combination of spinach and bell peppers, as well as the way the cream and Parmesan cheese bring all the flavors together.

You can serve this recipe for breakfast or brunch, with warm biscuits and fresh fruit. It's equally good for supper, with oven-roasted potatoes.

Wilted Spinach Salad Over Fried Eggs

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

For the salad
1 Half-Stick (1/4 cup) Land O’Lakes® Butter
1 large red bell pepper, diced
1 large sweet yellow onion, diced
pinch salt
1/2 cup Land O’Lakes® heavy cream (or half and half)
4 cups (6 ounces) baby spinach

For the eggs
8 eggs
salt and pepper, if desired

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese


Directions:

To make salad
Melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat in a large skillet (a 12" skillet works best). Add bell pepper and onion and cook until onions are translucent and just starting to brown. Stir in cream and salt. Once cream starts to bubble, add half of the spinach to the pan. Using two large spoons, toss the spinach with the cream until the spinach is half wilted. Then add remaining spinach to pan. Continue tossing until all spinach is wilted. Cover pan and remove from heat.

To make eggs
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in skillet over medium heat. Crack three or four eggs into pan, leaving a little space between each egg. Break yolks. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, if desired. Cook until eggs are half set, then turn and cook until completely set. Remove eggs to plate; keep warm. Repeat with remaining butter and eggs.

To serve
Place two fried eggs on each plate. Top each plate of eggs with a quarter of the salad. Sprinkle each serving with 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese.


I am a Land O'Lakes Cooperative member-owner. I received compensation from Land O'Lakes for this post. All opinions are my own.

Not the only one who loves milk

When I was an Aitkin County Dairy Princess, back in the day, one of my duties was serving free milk to visitors at the Aitkin County Fair. I stood in the booth with two giant milk coolers and filled cups of milk while chatting with those who stopped for a drink. When I wasn't chatting, I'd smile at the people walking by and call out, "Would you like a free glass of milk?"

My memories of handing out free milk are mostly positive — children smiling at my crown, their parents asking questions about my family's dairy farm — except one.

That afternoon, a man and woman walked by together. I smiled and said, "Would you like a free glass of milk?"

Without stopping, the man growled back, "Milk is for babies." And they kept walking.

I shook off the comment. But it saddened me. Not just because milk and dairy cows were such a big part of my life. But also because milk and dairy products were (and still are) such important parts of my diet.

Since that afternoon, I've come to accept that everyone has a different relationship with milk and dairy products. Some, like me, can't live without them. Others make room for them in their diet because they value the nutrients dairy products provide. Some cannot tolerate consuming them. Whatever the relationship, it should be respected.

But what about that man's comment? Or the other statement commonly made by milk-haters: "Humans are the only animals that continue to drink milk after infancy."

Well, I just don't think those statements are true. But, then again, I'm biased.

But my animal friends aren't biased. I'm not an animal scientist, but I suspect that animals' food choices are influenced by nutrient density, taste, and little else.

Our dog, our cats, and our chickens are all provided with water and food (i.e. dog food, cat food, and chicken feed). And they all have access to whatever else they can find to eat. Our dog gets bones from the house and finds numerous other treats around the farm. The cats, at least the motivated ones, hunt for mice and birds. Our chickens free-range for spilled grain, insects and other small animals. In fact, our chickens eat more mice than our cats.

But every morning, when I bring milk to the shed to fill the cats' dish, they all come running.

I'm not the only one who loves milk.

Worst winter ever?

A few weeks back, during evening milking, Monika came running up to us. She was holding one of the small blue sample bottles that we use for testing milk. The sample bottle was full of snow. "I filled this with snow so that I always have something to help me remember winter," she said after I asked about the bottle. "I just love winter!"

Last week, as Dan first stepped out of the house to get on the bus, he saw the dusting of snow on the muddy driveway, like powdered sugar on a brownie, and cried, "More snow! I hope it doesn't snow for a YEAR!" This is the boy who, a few short (long?) months ago, shouted, "Mom! Mom! It's snowing! Dad! Dad! Can you push it into a pile so we can play on it?"

Little did we know that, three days later, that dusting would look wimpy compared to the five inches of wet, heavy snow that fell in five hours.

March 27, 2014

I tried very hard this winter to maintain an attitude like Monika's. I kept telling myself, this winter hasn't been that bad. I tried to refrain from complaining about the cold and the snow and then the ice. I tried to embrace all of the late starts and weather cancellations, viewing them as extra days for my kids to just be kids and not worry about schedules and school.

Our neighbor's farm is hiding behind that drift.

I tried not to complain about how cold our house was after we decided to turn the thermostat down five degrees. With the price of propane where it was and the fact that our air source heat pump wasn't running at all, we (meaning Glen) figured we could reduce our heating costs. The house was so cold that I had to soften butter for baking in the bathroom, where we kept a small space heater. The colder house didn't seem to bother anyone, except me. I wore my winter hat inside the house for the whole first week, until my body adjusted to the change. Thankfully, Glen's mom came over one day and said we couldn't keep the house that cold with a baby in the house. "It's just money," she said. So we compromised and turned the thermostat up three degrees. I still can't soften butter in the kitchen.

As the winter wore on, pictures and posts started showing up in social media labeled #worstwinterever. And I thought to myself: This isn't the worst winter ever. This is just a good, old fashioned, Minnesota winter, with snow drifts as high as houses and frosty heifers that look like wooly mammoths. We have it easy compared to what our forefathers must have endured. We have tractors and skidloaders instead of horses. We have tractors and skidloaders with heated cabs. We're not pitching silage out of our silos with forks. We have well-insulated houses and new windows that don't rattle with each gust of wind.

March 5, 2014

Gigi, Gala and Holiday on a cold, cold February morning.

Frost on the cows' feed, from the cold wind slipping through the crack in the silo room door. I thought it was pretty.

But then my attitude started to sound more like Dan's recent protest. In a matter of days, we went from this:

March 16, 2014

Back to this:

March 18, 2014

And then this happened:

March 27, 2014

On the way home from picking Monika up from preschool last Thursday, Old Man Winter finally got the best of me. Monika had just asked me why we were driving so slow when the rear wheels lost traction in the wet snow (on top of the morning's freezing rain). We didn't even fishtail. We just slid right off the road, through the ditch and crashed into the wooden corner posts of the county's four-strand barbed wire fence. Thankfully, our little off road adventure happened at a very slow pace and nobody was hurt, although Monika was pretty shaken up emotionally.

So, now I'm inclined to agree that this has been the worst winter ever.

What do you think? Has this been the worst winter ever?

Arizona Beef 'n' Cheese

Ground beef, sweet onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes, combined with southwest seasonings, and topped with shredded co-jack cheese. In a word, delicious!

If my house was a restaurant, this would be the most requested item on the menu.

This recipe was born shortly after Daphne was born. When we left the hospital, my hemoglobin was so low that my midwife sent me home with a prescription for high-potency iron supplements. I hated those pills, so I was determined to do everything I could to increase my hemoglobin as fast as possible so I could stop taking the supplements (and get my energy back).

The thought process for this recipe literally went: Beef has lots of iron. Peppers and onions have lots of Vitamin C which helps with iron absorption. How can I put them together?

For several years, I made a dish very similar to this with onions, peppers, tomatoes and beans (black, kidney and pinto). I took that recipe, substituted ground beef for the beans, changed up the seasonings and, just like that, Arizona Beef was born. (And I haven't made the beans version since.)

After the first bite, I decided the recipe needed cheese. Cheese makes everything taste better. And, at the time, I also needed all the protein and calcium I could get. It was a good decision; the addition of shredded cheese took this recipe from great to grand.

I named it Arizona Beef after the Arizona Dreaming (a Penzeys Spices seasoning blend) in the recipe. (It was a lot easier than naming our baby!) We had ordered the Arizona Dreaming with one of our last Penzeys orders, but hadn't used much of it. When I was looking through the cupboard for seasonings to add that first time I made it, I saw the Arizona Dreaming and tossed some in. It turned out to be the perfect addition.

Glen loved the recipe right away, as indicated by his customary, "You can make this again!" I did make it again. And again. And again. I ate a bowl of Arizona Beef 'n' Cheese for lunch nearly every day until my 6-week checkup showed that my hemoglobin level had returned to normal. (It reheats very well.)

I make Arizona Beef 'n' Cheese at least once a month now. I've made double batches and quadruple batches, for small family gatherings and large family gatherings. I've cooked it up in just about every cooking vessel I own – from a large skillet to a Dutch oven to a stock pot (for the quadruple batch). I like the Dutch oven best.

I still eat Arizona Beef 'n' Cheese just as it is. Glen prefers to eat it with tortilla chips and sour cream. My sister likes it over romaine lettuce. It would probably be good with rice, too.

Arizona Beef 'n' Cheese

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter
1 yellow bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper
1 sweet yellow onion
1 heaping tsp minced garlic

1 pound ground beef

2 tsp Penzeys Arizona Dreaming OR
          other southwest style seasoning blend (McCormick makes one)
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Penzeys Black & Red Pepper OR
          1/8 tsp ground black pepper and 1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground chipotle chile pepper

1 - 15 oz can petite diced tomatoes (undrained)

shredded co-jack cheese

Directions

Dice vegetables. Melt butter in large pot or pan. Sauté peppers and onions in butter until soft. Add garlic at end. Transfer sauteéd veggies to large bowl.

In same pot, brown ground beef. Mix spices into browned beef. Add tomatoes and sauteéd veggies (with the juice that accumulates) to pot.

Mix well and simmer to blend flavors (10 minutes is good, 20 minutes is better).

Serve topped with lots of shredded co-jack cheese. Also good with sour cream and tortilla chips.

(I was not compensated by Penzeys Spices or any other company for mentioning their products.)

Raising children who love to read

I have known for years that helping my children learn to read is one of my most important jobs as a parent. I read books to them almost every night and supervise their reading homework.

But it hasn't always been easy. I hate to admit it, but when the kids were little, I didn't read to them as often as I thought I should. Our farm schedule was crazy, their attention spans were short, and I always seemed to have something more important to do. Thankfully, that has changed and we all look forward to bedtime stories now.

Dan started bringing AR (Accelerated Reader) books home in Kindergarten, with directions from his teacher to read them as a team. For the first couple months, those books about killed me. Dan had no interest in reading, so each page was a fight. My dream of raising children who love to read was about dashed.

You see, more than almost anything else, I want my kids to love reading. Not just because literacy is important to learning and citizenship and success and all that. But because reading opens the door to imagination in a way nothing else can. And because reading was my way to escape as a child and teen. During those years when social struggles made school a nightmare, I'd just bury my nose in a book on the 90-minute bus ride home and escape for awhile. (A girl can really whip through a lot of pages in 90 minutes!)

Reading is still a way for me to escape. Even if I don't pick up a book all that often anymore. The last book I read, for my own pleasure, was Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone. I bought the book for a Christmas gift, but didn't end up giving it. So, one day shortly after Christmas, I decided I was going to read the book myself.

I've read most of the Harry Potter books already, so it was a quick, enjoyable read. I read mostly at night while I was sitting with Daphne, but I managed to sneak in a few chapters here and there during the day while the kids were playing. Dan saw me reading and asked me to read the book out loud to him, but I decided against it.

Something happened while I was reading that book – something I didn't expect.

One morning when I came in from the barn, I found Dan sitting in the recliner, reading the chapter book Santa Claus put in his stocking. I think Santa thought he wasn't quite ready to read that book – Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House #1) – but there he was, plowing through the chapters. He read the entire book from start to finish, taking only a short break to eat breakfast.

My heart just about exploded with pride! There was my little boy, reading a chapter book because he wanted to, not because he had to.

After that, Dan started bringing chapter books home for his weekly AR reading. At first, he would read them out loud to me or Monika or Daphne. Now he reads them to himself. And when his book order came in at school, he finished one of the books on the bus ride home. The next morning, he stuck another book in his backpack to read on the bus. The other day, he told me, "I love to read, Mom!" My heart beamed again!

The new focus on reading in our house had a trickle down effect, as well. Monika asked when she would be able to start reading chapter books. And then she started reading (reciting, actually) her picture books to anyone who would listen. She can now recite some of the books verbatim. 

I had no idea I was setting an example when I decided to sit down and read a book myself. But I sure am glad I did. And I'm sure I'll be picking up another book to read, sooner rather than later.

What was the last book you read? When was the last time your children saw you reading a book, not just the newspaper or a magazine?