Nana Nic’s Pickled Pears 🍐

White House Farm
- October 30, 2025 -
- from front yard pear tree - 

Ingredients:

• 8 cups (not quite ripe - actually mostly green) pears peeled and diced into one inch cubes 
• 4 cups white vinegar 
• 2 cups water
• 2 or 2.5 cups granulated sugar
• 6 star anise
• 2 large stick cinnamon, broken into three
• Zest of a lemon cut into curls with a potato peeler
• ½ tsp whole cloves
• 3 - 4 quart mason jars with rings and lids

Method:

• Peel the pears and cut into one inch cubes. Place in salt water to prevent browning - set aside. 
• To make the brine - In a large cast-iron or ceramic or stainless steel sauce pan combined the water, vinegar, sugar, star anise, lemon zest, cloves. 
• Bring to the boil, and then cover and simmer gently for about 10 – 15 mins.
• Meanwhile sterilize the jars in the dishwasher.
• Pack each jar with the pear cubes.
• Divide the brine and pour into each jar. 
• Make sure each jar has an even distribution of spices.
• Seal tightly and let cool completely. 
• Store in fridge. 
• They will be good to eat after four hours - better in a week and can be stored for a couple months in the fridge.
• Serve in a salad.

Mama Jo’s first try…
- Kroger organic pears 🍐 -

Some extra things I did:
2 & 1/2 cups sugar
rind of 1 & 1/2 of lemons 🍋
1 teaspoon whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks 

Kenny’s Punkin Bread - Baking With Natural Yeast

1  1/2 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt 

3  teaspoons pumpkin pie spice 

5  cups unbleached flour 

(Keep your flour nearby… you may need a bit more - however much it takes to not be sticky!) 

Optional: 3/4  cup sugar (Auntie Jo’s edit)

1/3 - 1/2 cup natural yeast starter

1  1/4 cup water

1  1/2 cups pumpkin puree

Mix all ingredients together.

Add flour 1/4 cup at a time until dough is not sticky. 

Cover and let rise for 20-24 hours. 

To avoid adding flour right before baking: shape dough with gluten-free flour on the outside or use water and parchment paper or olive oil and parchment paper.

Once prepped for baking: use oven safe twine to divide it into 6 sections and score to your heart’s desire. 

Bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes. 

With the pumpkin puree its going to bake a little bit longer than usual… 

Cut twine to remove and discard. 

Let your baked punkin loaf rest on a baking rack before cutting and serving. 

Serving IDEAS:

Whipped butter with honey and cinnamon

Nutella 

Butter 

2025 White House Porch

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SAMOAS POWER SNACK - A Wanna-Be Girl Scout Cookie

OH MY.
So tasty!
And I have completely convinced myself that I am eating a girl scout cookie (but I'm NOT...)

This recipe, or more accurately: a version of this recipe, has been circling my Pinterest feed for a few years.  I've done this one enough times now I know what I like and what is not optional. 

So if you're like me and would buy a box of the Samoa cookies (or 2) for you to eat by yourself... I present this delightful substitute! ENJOY!

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1 and 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes - TOASTED

(the large kind if you can find them!)

2 cups (about 20) Medjool dates - PITTED

1/4 cup semi-dark chocolate chips OR dark chocolate pieces

2 Tablespoons almond butter

1/4 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt

1/4 teaspoon Mexican vanilla

Toasted Coconut:

Bake at 400 on a small cookie tray with parchment paper for 5-6 minutes.  At around 3 minutes: pull the baking tray out and toss the coconut for it to all evenly toast up.  (BE WATCHFUL! It goes from "toasty" to "burnt" really fast.)  Set aside.

Make The "Dough":

Pit all the dates.

Layer in a food processor or a DRY or WET Vitamix blender:

toasted coconut - 3/4 of it ONLY

pitted dates

almond butter

chocolate - 1/2 of it ONLY

vanilla

salt

Process until the mixture turns into a "dough" ball.

PULL IT ALL TOGETHER:

(you'll get a bit messy...)

Work the remaining chocolate into the dough.

Pinch off small amounts - about the size of a walnut - or use small cookie scoop and roll into 16 balls.

Roll and squish the dough balls in the remaining toasted coconut.

Store in an air-tight container and refrigerate.

Edible right away for sure!

However... best chilled overnight or 1/2 a day.

Store in the fridge for as long as they last... 

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Baking With Natural Yeast - Cinnamon Bread

 

Not Your Grandma’s Meatloaf (AKA: mini-meatloaves)

MINI MEATLOAFS

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 onion, diced

6 garlic cloves, minced

2 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard

1 Tablespoon  hot sauce (Chalula is great!)

1 teaspoon marjoram

3/4 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 pounds 80/20 OR 85/15 organic ground beef

1 and 1/2 cups  oatmeal flour

1/4 cup fresh or dried parsley leaves

KETCHUP-GLAZE:

1 cup ketchup

1/3 cup brown sugar

6 teaspoons cider vinegar

Put 2 cups of Old Fashioned oats into your kitchen blender.  Start and KEEP at the lowest speed to begin and then slowly raise the speed until the blades are pulling the oats through at a steady speed.  Blend until oats look like a rough-flour.  Measure out 1 1/2 cups and set aside.

In a skillet heat the oil.  Add chopped onion and sauté, stirring, until caramelizing and charring the bottom of your pan a bit, about 5-10 minutes.   Add garlic and blend into the onion.  Cook until everything is a deep gold color and smells like garlic.  Set aside and let cool.

In a mixing bowl whisk the eggs, milk, mustard, hot sauce.  Add marjoram, thyme, Kosher salt, pepper and parsley.

In a large mixing bowl combine the meat, egg-milk mixture, oatmeal flour and cooked onion-garlic mixture. 

Transfer meat mixture into a muffin pan or 4 mini-loaf pans so that the meat mixture is level or just above the pan’s top ledge.  Keep in mind that meat shrinks, however, DO NOT FILL EXCESSIVELY.   

Separate 1/4 of your glaze from the bowl and transfer into something to serve with your dinner.

Spoon meat with remaining ketchup glaze. 

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes. 

Internal temperature of loaves should be 160 degrees when done.

Let cool 10-15 minutes, then pull out of the muffin pans with two large soup spoons.  

Optional: Serve with the extra glaze.

 

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Hard Boiled Eggs // from the Jennifers 2024

"From the Jennifers" you say?

Yes Sir - OR - Yes Ma'am!

All 3 girlfriends my husband dated right before dating me 26 years ago were named Jennifer!  And now my chicken ladies are named after them.  

I have 10 chicken ladies this go-round and I am pleasantly surprised at the size of their eggs since the eggs were TINY when they first started their laying production this spring.

Summer time I could find 8-10 in their house.  Now that we are in full "winter" for Houston it's more like 3-4.  Less daylight and colder temps creates natural changes to their habits and cycle.

Just enough for our little family of 3 lately!  

Bret Annalese has named us the survivors.  :0)

Surviving with urban-farm eggs isn't too shabby...

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Put all the eggs you want to hard boil in a pot

(Farm-fresh eggs should be washed/rinsed first...)

Cover with water +3 inches of water 

Bring to a boil 

Turn off your stovetop, cover your pot with a lid and let the eggs sit in the boiled water for 15 minutes 

Immediately drain all hot water and rinse with cold water 

Dump a bunch of ice on top 

❤️🥚❤️

Let them chill in the ice and water bath until the ice melts off

Dry a bit and put them all in the fridge

Use and eat as needed

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Mama Jo's Key Lime Pie // with // Gluten-FREE Variation

Mama Jo’s Key Lime Pie

Crust:

1/2  cup melted butter

1 1/2  packages of graham crackers 

 - pulsed with a blender or smash into crumbs

1/4  cup granulated sugar

1/2  teaspoon cinnamon

Mix well and press firmly into a springform pan.

(*FOR  A  GLUTEN-FREE CRUST: *)

1/2  cup melted butter

2  packages of Pamela’s Gluten-FREE graham crackers 

- pulsed with a blender or smash into crumbs

1/4  cup  AND  2  Tablespoons granulated sugar

3/4  teaspoon cinnamon

Mix well and press firmly into a springform pan.

Filling:

1   14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

3 egg yolks  (fridge temperature)

½ cup Key Lime juice 

(Nellie and Joe’s Key West Lime Juice is preferred with this recipe!)

Mix ingredients with a hand mixer until combined - and then mix on HIGH for 3 minutes. 

Pour evenly on top of the crust.

Bake at 350 until firm which means NO “jiggle in the middle” (about 15 minutes).

Prepare:

2 cups heavy whipping cream  

1 teaspoon vanilla  (Mexican vanilla is preferred)

Whip up and set aside.

Topping:

1  14oz. can sweetened condensed milk

2 tsp. micro grated lime peel (usually just one ripe lime…) 

½ cup Key Lime juice  

(Nellie and Joe’s Key West Lime Juice is preferred with this recipe!)

Beat until VERY thick and smooth, then CAREFULLY FOLD IN whipped cream.

DO NOT over fold or stir once whipping cream is added.  

It will be lumpy, don’t worry about them! (They will even themselves out… I promise!). Chill in fridge. 

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Chill topping mixture until baked pie is throughly cooled enough to add the topping.

Top the cooled pie with “topping” and chill again for 3-6 hours or overnight.

Remove from the fridge 1/2 hour before serving.

Cut into slices.

Grab one before serving and eat immediately, or save for   later... as there will not be any leftover!

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