Scratch Cooking with the Concord Country Cook

: Cooking with one of my six kiddo’s

: I like to play with my food!

: Beet stained hands

: Fresh from the garden

: Cooking on one of our wood stoves.

The Concord Country Cook

I love cooking from scratch. It gives me a great joy and sense of independence when I can whip up a meal without needing a trip to the store to buy it premade. If I can grow it, I do. Few things make me happier than presenting a meal consisting of 100% homemade, homegrown ingredients to my family, then watching my kids desire to do the same. Of course, we still grocery shop for now, until our farm is in full production then we hope we won’t need the grocery store but for a few trips a year to stock up on things we cannot produce ourselves. We only grocery shop once a month for basic ingredients, and I cook from those basic ingredients to produce full meals, morning noon and night.

From essentials to snacks, main meals and sides I can cook it all. I’m always trying something new and perfecting old techniques. I love learning about how people can put cheap but healthy meals on the table. I love seeing how much money I am saving my family by cooking from scratch. I love the ability to decide what goes into our food, and thus our bodies. I love the science behind food. I love learning about cooking and surviving during wars and the great depression. I try to reflect that frugalness in my cooking and make the most of the food I cook, using basic ingredients, creating new dishes from leftovers and things like that. You won’t find recipes here for expensive cuts of meat, exotic ingredients, or gourmet meals. You WILL find plenty of recipes for common cuts of meat and of course wild game! And I LOVE to share that information and watch the same feelings of satisfaction, inspiration and confidence come alive in others. Yes, you can do this!

Running a small farm and homeschooling doesn’t leave much time for me to be in the kitchen, so I will try to share my time saving techniques and cooking tips here too, so you don’t need to feel like you’re in the kitchen all day.

This is a work in progress. As time allows between homeschooling and running our small farm in Concord, Michigan, I will spill my heart here about cooking. And if you would like to contact me privately about cooking questions or inspiration feel free! My email is sarah@k7farm.com

As I add recipes, they will show up here. Some of these recipes come from my cookbook, Scratch Cooking. Others will be added to my next book that is in the works (See, I really do love cooking from scratch!).

Keep up with new recipes on our Facebook page! “Like” the Scratch Cooking with the Concord Country Cook page, I post all the new recipes there and tips.

New!! We are starting a weekly scratch cooking “Challenge” starting in January 2016 called Scratch Cooking 52. You can like our facebook page to keep connected – or just follow along here. The goal is a new challenge each week. These “challenges” will be learning new techniques, skills and recipes in the kitchen. The recipes won’t be specific dish type recipes like the ones in the categories below. Rather, the recipes will focus on areas that many people find challenging in some way. This might be making bread or bagels, learning to make mayo and other condiments, roasting a chicken, preparing donuts, or even different ways to use common vegetables from the garden, or any other number of things. I will still be posting our favorite recipes in the categories below, too! You will still find those on the Scratch Cooking with the Concord Country Cook page.

Scratch Cooking 52