We're delighted to share our Aunt Nettie with you. Since 2009 Aunt Nettie has known people were struggling to stretch their dollars during the recession. So she focused her tasty recipes on low-cost ingredients that would still offer delicious, healthy, stick-to-the-ribs foods yet were affordable.
With the economy improving and more people back at work, Aunt Nettie felt the time was right to ease up a bit on strict bargain-bin shopping and gussy up the menu with a few small splurges.
Aunt Nettie is still happy to answer questions that come her way, but what she loves most is offering seasonal fixin's that inspire her while shopping at the farm stand.
Howdy there darlin's,
Lately, I been hearin' some squackin' 'bout how borin' it is ta eat oatmeal fer breakfast--an' this is from folks that knows how good-fer-ya that oatmeal is.
So, let's see if we can start by turnin' yer minds 'round a tad. 'Stead 'a sayin' in yer head, "Oh, yuck! I gotta eat this awful stuff 'cause it's good fer me," try thinkin' 'bout makin' a "breakfast sundae" 'cause jes thinkin' 'bout a sundae even sounds better 'n thinkin' 'bout oatmeal. An' a sundae tastes so good you'll wanna have some ever' day.
Truth is, ya jes gotta dress yer sundae up with a heap 'o fixin's, then you'll start lovin' it, I tell ya true. An' yer breakfast sundae don't have ta be the same ever' day. Why jes think 'bout all the deeelicious fruits an' other fixin's that actually make oatmeal a bowl o' fun!
Here's what I like 'bout that l'il ole bowl o' oateal. While my old fashioned oats is cookin', I start fixin' a nice fresh fruit salad. This mornin I chopped up an apple an' a banana. I had some nice big sweet grapes in the fridge an' cut 'em in half an' snipped a couple big medjool dates inter the bowl, too. Now, tomorrow, my oatmeal will be entirely diff'rent,'cause I got a fridge fulla nice fresh fruits.
When I brought my bowl o' oatmeal ta the table, I put some hearty spoonfuls o' fruit salad on top an' tossed in some walnuts along with a heapin' spoonful o' flaxseed meal. After I poured in some soymilk, why it looked like a dancin' hootnanny in the bowl!
Here's a few of my favrite cereal add-ins y'all might like ta scatter on top o' yer oatmeal:
If'n the fresh and dried fruits don't sweeten up the cereal to yer likin', why a smidge o' maple syrup oughter do the trick, darlin's.
Here's another l'il ole trick I use ta make the oatmeal go down easy. Jes cook it up with some chopped up dried pears 'r dates right in the pot with the oats. These are the sweetest 'o them dried fruits, an' really perk up the flaver. Now, if that don't do the trick, I'll be mighty serprised. These is sure-fire fixin's in my house.
Now, I hopes y'all enjoy yer healthy, gussied up oatmeal tomorrow mornin'
Yer ever lovin' Aunt Nettie
Our Aunt Nettie has a head like a hard disk. It's filled with megabytes of information about food and cooking. And she's just itchin' to share her learnin' with city folk who live in mortal fear of the stovetop.
Aunt Nettie grew up on the farm. She did not eat out of a can or reach into the freezer. There was no microwave to pop her food into. Everything she made was from scratch. All the food she ate was natural, without pesticides. It was grown right there on the family farm, and she had to cook to survive. At eighty-three years young she still leaps and bounds around the kitchen and can shake, rattle, and roll those pots and pans with the best of them.
Nowadays, Aunt Nettie just shakes her head and complains, "Nobody cooks anymore. They have no idea about puttin' a meal together." She's on a mission. She wants to help those younguns eat better so they can grow up healthy like her own eight kids.
