The Kansas City Star Food Feature

Today Heartland was featured in the Food Section of The Kansas City Star.

Cookbook offers a modern take on farm fare

Judith Fertig’s Overland Park kitchen is a modest but efficient space with white cabinetry, gray countertops and textured walls painted a soothing Benjamin Moore “butter.”
On a recent gray spring day, she’s also getting ready to show me how to make butter.

She pours two cups of heavy whipping cream from the carton into a food processor and presses a switch. Together we watch the cream whirl and froth. The motion of the blade magically transforms the liquid from soft peaks to solid then begins to throw off its whey, a watery liquid that separates from the solids.

Fertig transfers the lump of butter that has formed in the work bowl into a cheesecloth-lined bowl and gently presses the mass with a spatula until it releases more whey.

In only 5 minutes, she has “churned” sweet cream butter — but without a single blister or callous.

Over the last 15 years, the prolific cookbook author has carved out an area of expertise by focusing on traditional Midwestern cuisine with a twist. Her fourth prairie-themed cookbook, “Heartland: The Cookbook” (Andrews McMeel, $35), released today, is being hailed as a celebration of a region of the country “where farm-to-table isn’t a movement.”

To read the entire article and view more photographs, visit Kansas City.com.

1 comment:

Martin J. Andree said...

Hi Judith:
Great blog!
It's all very similar to life on our farm in Michigan.
Nice meeting you at the Fancy Food Show last week. My own edition of "Heartland" arrived from Amazon yesterday. Thanks for the nice mentions of our products. My wife and I are going to try your clover honey bread recipe with our own farm honey and our own wheat. With all of the hot weather we're having up here, we'll be combining pretty early this year!
Martin