Jennifer's macadamia coconut white chocolate cookies

Well I'm embarrassed to tell you all but for the fourth time in about 2 months I have made these cookies. I have also eaten about 3/4 of them every time I have made them. Every time their has been a good excuse like I had to take refreshments to quilt group or something. Last night I had an overwhelming urge to eat them and so I made them and am happily eating my way through them.....actually I'm feeling a little sick. I have eaten a lot of them!!! Happy eating deb

Uncle Dan's Birthday Dinner

Last Sunday we celebrated Uncle Dan's birthday with a family dinner. He looked (more like foraged) through the recipe book for the perfect meal to suit his fancy. He selected Janette's Apple Custard Pie, which we loved. He choose Paty's Chilaquiles, Tortas , and two of her salsas-Salsa Roja and Green Salsa. They were so delicious! Dan was very pleased with himself for his choices! Just what he wanted!!!

3 new meals

Tonight Brad made us Crites' Mexican Bird of Paradise and boy was it good. Brad even wrote "yummy" in the cookbook next to the recipe so that we don't forget.

Last night for dinner we ate Grandma Farmer's apple pancakes. They were very tasty.

We also recently made Pork and Cabbage Stew. I'd gotten some napa cabbage from a produce group that I'm in and I didn't know what to do with it. I found this recipe which I questioned a bit. When I saw it was Deb's recipe I decided it was worth trying! It was delicious, of course.

Italian Chicken and Potatoes

Jenny's Italian Chicken and Potatoes was on the menu at our house a few days ago. I used a balsamic vinaigrette because that was what I had in the house. And because the dressing wasn't heavily seasoned I doubled the spices in the recipe. (To add more heat I tripled the red pepper flakes!) It was so amazing and is a new favorite for us all!!!! The chicken was melt in your mouth tender and moist. And so easy! Thanks, Jenny!

New vinaigrette recipe added to the cookbook!

I just added a wonderfully light vinaigrette dressing to the cookbook, Lemon Vinaigrette. I hope you enjoy it.

Jenny's Chicken in Sour Cream Sauce

I tried Jenny's Chicken in Sour Cream Sauce for dinner yesterday. I have made something really similar to Heidi's Crock Pot Chicken several times before and the Chicken in Sour Cream Sauce reminded me quite a bit of that. It was really good! Eden ran down the hall saying "that was deeee-licious!" I'll take that as a good sign!

Thanks, Heidi!

Thank you Heidi! I feel so smart now that I can link recipes! Your directions were very easy to follow even for someone as dumb as me! I wanted soup Sunday night for dinner so we had your Butternut Squash Soup. It was so creamy and good. I'm looking at trying more soup recipes this week! Tis the season.

Deb, it was to your recipe for Broiled Shrimp over Black Bean and Corn Salad! I typed it in from the stack of recipes you sent in the big white envelope the week before I took it to the printers! (Secrets out---Deb got caramels at the reunion and her recipes were the last ones submitted!!! ha ha) Where ever the recipe came from, it is delicious!

I made allison's cinnamon roll cookies again for quilt group. They were a hit! I also did the black bean and corn salad that Jennifer had made. It was so good! Supposedly was submitted by me. But I have no memory of it. Maybe it was on the backside of something else. If someone else submitted it....thank you for letting me claim it. It's a good recipe!

Aunt Jennifer is humbled by her stupidity... but not too proud to ask!

Ok, Heidi, I admit that I'm so stupid with technology and this blog stuff is new to me, but, how did you link the recipe you mentioned in your comment to the cookbook webpage? That was cool.

Baked Potato Soup

Last night, I made Marilyn's Baked Potato Soup for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly this soup came together. I've had this kind of soup on a few other occasions and I have loved it, but I figured it would be difficult to make because it is so good! This soup was delicious AND easy to make! The perfect combination!

Deb tries cinnamon roll cookies!

Tried allie's cookies. They are wonderful!....so is alli!

Some recipes I've tried...

Over the past few weeks I've been using lots of recipes in the cookbook. I was thoroughly delighted with Jill's banana bread recipe. Uncle Dan loved your cinnamon sugar crust! Wow, was that amazing and it turned out so perfect, no cracking or doughy center with overdone crust! We LOVED it.

Amber's chili verde was awesome. (I think Spencer is the one most grateful for this surge of trying new recipes. He is such a huge eater these days with all the racing he does. I can't keep enough food in the house. And he likes GOOD food, not just food!)

I also made Tadd's chicken pot pie. That was quite tasty. Stephanie's breaded garlic chicken in lemon butter sauce. The sauce needs to be tripled to make it into gravy, it was so good!

Jolene and Janette it appears, have the same recipe, different titles but it has become a new refreshing favorite. (Frosty Berry Squares and Strawberry Dessert). It is so very good. I've made the crust with pecans and twice with almonds. The crust crumble alone is worthy to be a dessert in and of itself.

So many more yet to try.....

Broiled Shrimp Over Black Bean and Corn Salad

Note: Deb will understand why I substituted chicken for shrimp in this recipe and will not be offended because she knows me too well.

We made this for our Sunday meal with the Free families that I wrote about earlier. We loved it. The chicken turned out amazing and the salad has become an instant Spencer favorite. We are going to try it again and add a few things to the salad, like jicama, black eyed peas instead of the black beans, and red bell peppers. Deb's salad is very similar to a vegetarian salad we buy at Costco that Spencer and I fight over. We think we can make it to be close to the one we buy. The dish really was great and would be delightful with shrimp, I'm sure! That day we also made Janette's Gorditas (I've made them before, but this time they turned out better with practice) and also Deb's fruit salsa and cinnamon chips. The salsa recipe is a very large one but we managed it quite well...we're a bunch of fatties, as the kids would say! Oh, and White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies, too. It is safe to say we ate well.

Another new recipe online: Fried Dill Pickles!

I just added Janette's recipe for Fried Dill pickles. I have had them before at "Pickles" cafe in Arco, ID and we really liked them. I'm making them for our traditional "snacky" dinner in December. Can hardly wait!

Aunt Marilyn's Fancy Fruit Salad

I also made Aunt Marilyn's Fancy Fruit Salad for dinner tonight too. I've had it several times before at my parents house and we all love it. Melody ate it until I thought she was going to be sick! I substituted the canned pineapple for fresh and it was awesome! Great fruit salad.

Grandma's Crock Pot Roast

I tried Grandma's crock pot roast today for dinner and it was great! Super easy and delicious!

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

I am a lucky participant in the Crites/Frees monthly food gatherings. For our conference weekend meal, I chose Cinnamon Roll Cookies for the dessert I'd bring. Wow! They were everything I'd imagined as I looked at the recipe, and better. I loved how they looked and tasted. I think I will use them as treats to take to neighbors at Christmas time. Thanks for sharing!

I gave a copy of the cookbook to my best friend here in Layton. She has been calling me off and on since I gave it to her and telling me what yummy recipes she has been making. She mentioned that she is now keeping her own log of what she makes and thinks so that she can let me know. She loves the cookbook. Out of the blue yesterday she told me that "Deb must be a great cook!" I laughed and agreed. Guess she's been making a lot of Deb's recipes and loving them.

I'm excited for fall weather so we can start trying everyone's soup recipes!

Lori's Cinnamon Rolls

So, we wanted something sweet to snack on this conference Sunday and we thought cinnamon rolls would be great. Thanks to Jill for including Lori's recipe in the book. The dough was light and tasty! Probably the best recipe I (Jimmy) have tasted.

Grandma's Bran Muffins

I remember having these at a few different Thanksgiving trips to Aunt Jennifer's house in Mesa. I decided to make them the other day and they were so good! Eden ate four alone! Which is helpful considering the huge bowl of the leftover batter I have in my fridge! I'm pretty sure this recipe could feed an army, good thing the batter lasts 6 weeks!

Proud Moment

I have to pass on what happened just after the reunion. I took a cookbook back to the printer because there was a tab error on Casey's book (two tabs for "This and That" and no "Main Dish". The copy shop has been wonderful to work with and said they would correct it. In fact, the manager who I have been working with, said, "I'll just trade the bad one and give you this one we've been showing customers as an example of what our business can print!" They had been so impressed with our end result that they had kept several copies to advertise their business!

Celebrating the Farmer Cookbook!

Many of you have met or have heard mention of our great friends, the Frees. Joe (wife Diana) and Dave Free (wife Kristin) are brothers who live close to us here in Mesa. Each month our families get together for a Sunday dinner. They all love the dishes I've brought through the years and were excited to buy a cookbook when we printed them this summer. At last month's get-together, Kristin suggested that our October's dinner be completely made from recipes from the cookbook! So everybody is brining 3 dishes (main, side, and dessert) to share. It should be a blast! I'll let you know how it goes. I'm also inviting them to join our blog so that they can give a another voice about using the cookbook!

New recipes online...

I just added a couple more salad recipes to the online cookbook. One is a Rice-A-Roni Salad that I got from Deb years ago. I also added another version of the Grape Salad of Jolene's. Hope you enjoy them!

Aunt jennifers macadamia white chocolate cookies.

In the last week I have made these cookies twice. I Sent them with Jim to jess's for fight night and they were a big success. Then took them to a quilt retreat this week and they were a huge success! Even a couple of vegans were quietly snitching them.... Giggle! They are that good! I must have single handedly eaten 2 dozen all by myself. Deb

Aunt Deb's "Mrs. Fields Oatmeal Cookies"

So I made these for a study group, thinking cookies would be a great way to lure people in! Apparently they didn't get the message! It ended up being just me and my roommmate (who isn't even in the class!) But She and I sure enjoyed the entire bag I had packed! They are delicious, and so chewy. My roommate says "I love the hint of cinnamon," which makes me laugh... as there is no cinnamon in them! Best oatmeal cookies I've had in a long time!

Debs post

This is so cool

Cookbook Link

I just added a link to the cookbook right under the family picture, though I can't figure out how to center it! Told you I wasn't very good at this!

But either way, it's there!

Aunt Janette's Brownies

We were asked to bring brownies to the lunch after Baby Laura Jo's blessing (Jimmy & Josie's little girl). So we decided to bring out the cookbook and see if there were any brownie recipes that we wanted to try. We came across Aunt Janette's "Brownies" (with cream cheese filling) as well as her "Orange Brownies." I have to give credit where it is due: Mark made both recipes for the luncheon and they turned out great! We had several compliments on them and were excited to say that they were in the Farmer Family Cookbook! Tonight, I am planning to try Aunt Janette's "Baked Pork Chops" recipe. (Maybe next we'll have to try a recipe that was not submitted by Aunt Janette, but she's never steered us wrong yet!)

Also, would it be possible to get a link on this blog that takes us to our online cookbook? That would be helpful for me because I can never remember where it is. Thanks!

This is so awesome! Just so that you are aware, I am adding several "forgotten" recipes to the online version of our cookbook. Grandma's Three Bean Salad, several of my own: Banana Coco Locos, and Cauliflower and Cheese. There are a couple of errors that have surfaced that I have been correcting as I hear of them. So, let me know what you find and I'll correct or add clarification to any recipe issue that comes up. This is a great forum to facilitate the perfection of our cookbook!!! If you have more tried and true, really great recipes to add, email them tho me and I will add them. Jenny, I hear you have an oatmeal roll recipe that I would really be interested in.

Jennifer

Aunt Jennifer's Mac and Cheese

There is a running joke at our house about having macaroni and cheese for dinner. I LOVE homemade mac and cheese, but apparently only if I'm not the one making it. I am horrible at it! I cannot tell you how many recipes I have tried, all varying degrees of awful. It's gotten to the point I had to promise Lon I'd quit trying! So after I got the cookbook and saw this recipe, I thought it looked pretty simple and how bad could I slaughter it??(granted, I'd said that before...) I had to wait until Lon was gone on a business trip before I could try it, though! Much to my surprise, it turned out! The only dissapointment was that Lon wasn't home to prove it to him! He'll be seeing it again in the future! And if it doesn't turn out then, I'll know he's the bad luck :)

Jill's Roast

I made this a few weeks ago for Sunday dinner when some friends of ours came over. It was really good and really tender! Since I can never manage to get to church on time even without getting dinner going, the night before prep was perfect for us. I had to laugh because my friend is from Japan, but her husband is from Utah. She cooks mostly Japanese food at their house. He ate so much and all he could say was that "it tastes so great to have white people food!" Nice.

Alli's "Gina's Hot & Spicy Tortilla Soup"

How's that for a confusing title?

Alli gave me this recipe quite a while before the cookbook and I just have to say that it is without a doubt my favorite food. I could eat it breakfast, lunch, and dinner(though the concept of eating tortilla soup for breakfast really weirds Lon out. What can I say, I'm a Farmer!). So good! Especially with lots of lime!

Aunt Janette's Iquala Salad

I made this just a few days after the reunion at my sister in law's baby shower and it was awesome! I had several ladies request the recipe. Because the shower had a star theme, I added mini star shaped pasta and looked really pretty! Perfect summer salad and pretty quick to throw together.

Alyson's Pancakes

I wouldn't have thought it would be so hard to find a good basic pancake recipe, but turns out it is! Well, it was for me anyway. I have tried lots of recipes over the last few years and they were all pretty mediocre. These turned out pretty good though! Even Lon liked them and he's kind of an Aunt Jemima kind of guy(and our biggest food critic)! I'll definitely make them again!

Aunt Jennifer's White Bread

I have had so much fun reading through this cookbook and trying lots of yummy things! One of the first things I tried was Aunt Jennifer's white bread. It was so good! Everybody here ate it up! We gave some to our neighbors and they loved it too!