♪ They say ye'are what you eat, so I don't eat chicken feet ♪ ♪ But I love me summa' Grandma's pickled beets ♪ ♪ Well, cut it up, put it'na pan ♪ ♪ Throw it on these sholders see where it lands ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ Maters, taters, beans and corn ♪ ♪ The cow's in the barn and the sheep's been shorn ♪ ♪ Kids in the barnyard ♪ ♪ Chasin' Grandpa's chickens, chickens, chickens ♪ ♪ Spices, slices, cuts and dices ♪ ♪ Gonna slash your grocery prices ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ Help you grow your garden good ♪ ♪ With recipes to suit your mood ♪ ♪ Try some grub you've never tried before ♪ ♪ 'Fore, 'fore ♪ ♪ Smash it with a wooden mallet ♪ ♪ Gonna educate yer palette ♪ ♪ Right here in Farmer's Kitchen ♪ ♪ In Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen ♪ We're gonna cook some good now.

Hello and welcome to Farmer's Kitchen.

Hello, Mrs.

Farmer.

How are you doing?

It's time to roll our sleeves up.

Oh, yes.

You know what?

We didn't know what we're gonna have for dinner.

Well, we started talking about it last night.

In fact, we went out to have a snack, a late night snack.

That's right.

And we went to a little pub and we found a new friend.

Mm-hmm, we did.

I think you pronounce his name Masha.

Masha.

Very nice.

Right here, right here in Texas.

Watches the show.

Watches the show.

And so, he said, "What are y'all cooking on the show?"

I said, "Man, we never know until the day of or the day before or, you know, what we have in the refrigerator right now."

So, I said, "Well," -- We went to Nashville and I wanted to really explore and try some different Nashville hot chicken.

And I wanted to look at it and smell it and taste it and maybe come home and try to formulate my own idea.

It was, you know, damp out and just one of those days, one of those nights.

And I mentioned that to him.

I said, "Would you rather us cook that or would you rather me cook some minestrone soup?"

It just sounded good, because I knew we had the ingredients for the most part.

He says, "Man, the soup."

He said, "Do the soup."

So, we're doing this for him.

That's right.

[laughs] So, Mrs.

Farmer, if you will cut me up some carrots and onions.

Do you want to peel?

And I'll take that celery.

Do you wanna peel?

Yeah, just hit a lick on the hide of them.

I could peel them.

And then, I'll get the celery going.

And you just want, how big a piece is this?

Oh, you know, just little rings.

Just normal?

Yeah.

All right.

Just little thin rings.

We really wanted some good Italian food.

And so, I thought tonight, you know what we'll do, we'll do a chicken recipe because we already bought the chicken.

We really got to thinking about this Italian thing and that's the way we're going tonight.

Sounds good.

You've been singing all day.

[singing] It's all on me.

You can stop now.

That's beautiful.

You sure?

Yeah, I'm positive.

[singing] When the -- That's good.

-- moon hits your eyes.

All right.

We're getting started.

You know what?

We're gonna do, I don't know, half a cup of each.

That's good on the carrots.

Good on the carrots?

We've got enough carrots.

And again, we're gonna make enough of this for a couple of days.

And most of that onion, just fingernail size, as we like to say.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and do our one-pot dish here.

Sautéing the bottom of this.

Just put some olive oil in there.

Now, you know, I like to look up the history on food because, you know, you're cooking a recipe and, "Oh, you can't put this and that.

Tradition says that you can't do this and you can't do that."

If it tastes good and you like it -- Do whatever you want.

That's right.

-- tradition's out the window.

Can you put spaghetti and chili?

Can you put any kind of pasta and chili?

Well, you can put ice cream and potato chips and jelly if it floats your boat.

That sounds really good.

But we're not gonna do that tonight.

But I looked up the history and minestrone, way back, it was just basically a hearty vegetable soup, whatever you had.

Now, when Rome took over the world back in the second century B.C., all these other cultures and all these other foods started coming in.

Later, potatoes and tomatoes and so on and so forth.

So, it changed over the years.

So then, some people said, "Well, you can put potatoes in it, but you can't put this in it.

You shouldn't put pasta in it.

You should put pasta in it.

You can have meat.

You can't."

So, you can do what you want.

You can put whatever you want.

But basically, we want this to have a very brothy, have some tomatoes in it.

You can put tomatoes.

You don't have to put tomatoes.

I want some pasta in this.

Yeah, I do, too.

So, here's where we're gonna go.

All right.

I think we got a little bit of sizzle going here.

So, I'm gonna take some onions, carrots, and celery and sauté these up.

Now, true to the origins of this particular recipe, we're gonna use what we've got.

Now, you could put cabbage in there.

You could put beans, white beans or -- You said potatoes, but no.

Some people do.

Some people do.

We're not gonna do potatoes.

We're gonna do pasta in this.

Now, you could put any kind of white bean in here, garbanzo bean.

Some people do that.

Some people don't.

But you've got your trio going.

But what do you think about when you think about minestrone?

What do I think about?

Like Italian restaurant?

Yeah, Italian, with a sausage maybe in it.

You know, I was gonna ask you that.

Do you like your meat in some things and you don't -- I don't.

What are you thinking tonight?

Well, I like the flavor it brings.

I probably won't eat the meat as much as you do.

I like the veggies, but I like the -- I think for flavor, just to add -- Just add a really good flavor.

-- to the broth, I think it really does.

When I think about Italian food, I think about that fennel-y flavor.

I think about basil, oregano.

We're gonna put a little bit of thyme in here.

I really want that basil and oregano to just really -- that sweet taste, I want it to really pop in there.

Where did we have the soup that I've seen that's good to make at?

Where were we?

It wasn't that long ago.

You were talking about -- Where were we?

We were at a restaurant and you want it.

You know, that's the best motivation, to go out there and try different places, try different restaurants, see what you like.

And we haven't had minestrone soup in a long, long time.

We were in the Keys, at a restaurant.

Is that where it was?

It was panini sandwiches.

Yes.

I got soup.

That was good.

And I said, "Ooh, you need to make this."

That's exactly right.

It was really good.

And it really had a lot of fennel flavor.

Mm-hmm, it did.

So, I'm just gonna take this and get it all sautéed up nice.

It releases the sugars and flavors from all this and softens it up a little bit, because I don't wanna wait all night for my soup.

I wanna eat, don't you?

No, I'm starving right now.

Now, we are sad because we haven't been cooking outside.

That's right.

Almost every time we pick a day that we're gonna shoot, it's raining.

So, we will get back outside as soon as we can.

Okay, Mrs.

Farmer, I'm gonna do my same little trick over here.

I'm going to have you press that garlic right over here on this side in our minestrone.

Just a little bit more?

I got some more here for you.

If you want to, that'll be fine.

Garlic is good.

So, it's damp.

It's just a soup kinda day.

Yes, it is.

I wanna thank our friend, because I was getting ready to do the Nashville chicken.

I'll be doing that before long, because we went several different places, and I was looking at the kids' food.

Yeah, that's a good food.

Yum.

So far, so good.

Yeah, I like it.

We're gonna come back with some chicken broth.

And I've got about six cups here.

Good base.

Good base.

Now, I want some tomato flavor, but I don't know if want a whole lot of tomatoes in there, actually.

So, you know what I'm gonna do?

I'm gonna take some tomato juice-ish stuff, and I can't remember the name of it.

Can't you?

But it's got several different vegetables, and I'm gonna put some of that in there.

[laughs] Good idea.

A cup of that.

Just a little bit there.

So, we're not using tomatoes.

Those are just -- We might in the end.

Those are for looks.

Okay.

But that'll give it a nice tomato flavor, along with some other vegetables.

Looks like it's ready already.

Can't remember the name of it.

Looks amazing.

I smell that already.

It smells really good.

Ohh.

So, we've got a good start here.

So, now, here's what I've done.

I've spread out in my dishes.

I've got some thyme.

I've got garlic.

I've got salt.

I've got fennel seeds.

I've got basil, oregano, pepper, and basil pesto.

You know what?

That's my favorite.

That's a good shortcut, and that's really gonna give you some nice flavors.

All that is, is basil, oregano, some garlic.

That's amazing stuff.

And it gives you -- It's just a real quick and easy way to get those flavors that you want spread out through there.

I'm gonna add some oregano.

I'm gonna add some basil.

You're just gonna have a pinch of each?

I'm gonna do a pinch of each until I get there.

You may not like as much as we do.

We like a lot.

Yeah, we like a lot.

We like it to really pop.

Now, our fennel seeds, I'm probably gonna go, oh, I don't know, half a teaspoon there.

Now, as you go along, you can add stuff, but you can't take it out.

That's right.

So, you wanna carefully go on.

That basil pesto is such a quick, short stop.

It's such a good cheat.

That's good stuff.

I mean, you instantly get that flavor all through there.

So, that's got a pretty good start, Mrs.

Farmer.

I like where we're going there.

And Mrs.

Farmer, I'm gonna take this sausage, and if you just wanna cut that up into -- Like little thin pieces?

-- what do you think, we need one or two?

Why don't you use them both?

Use them both?

Because I might need a couple.

I like the way you're thinking.

Yeah, they're smelling kind of good.

[laughs] I told you.

That is gonna release those flavors.

There's also that fat.

That's gonna make the juice so good.

It's gonna really, really make that.

I think you're gonna be glad you wanted the sausage.

So, I'm gonna keep adding as I go along.

Now, that sausage is gonna have some salt in it, so I'm not gonna put too much salt in yet.

Now, earlier today, we were crying -- That's right.

-- and weeping loudly because we couldn't cook outside.

That's right.

We wanted to do a bread recipe, obviously, and you ended up putting it together.

And here, real quick, because we need to go outdoors, so let's step out and go up to the cabin real quick and make some bread.

Now, we're gonna make this bread inside tonight with a few changes, but here's the basic go-to recipe that we do when we're cooking outdoors, indoors, anywhere.

So, here's some cast iron cowboy bread.

[music playing] All right, here's the basic ingredients.

It's really so simple.

You've got two cups, just white flour, and then some white wheat flour or some wheat flour.

You're gonna need a little bit of salt, a little bit of sugar, and a cup and a half of warm water, two and three quarters teaspoons of yeast.

I'm gonna come back and get that working with just a pinch of sugar, about a teaspoon of salt in here and let that work.

All right, now my yeast and water have set for five minutes.

I'm gonna take my three cups of assorted flours, and I'm just gonna gently mix them up.

Very quickly, it becomes nice and doughy.

Now, I'm going to take this, and the most lengthy part of the process is the rising of the flour.

I'm gonna cover this.

I'm gonna take it inside where it's a little bit warmer.

I'm gonna let it set for about four hours.

All right.

So, our four hours has passed.

Now we're gonna pull our dough out of here, and you're gonna see pretty quickly that we've got some good-looking dough right here.

I'm not gonna do much to it.

I'm just gonna work it a little bit.

Now, here's the part where you're probably thinking, "Okay, I've never cooked in a Dutch oven."

If you're a pro, you know the deal.

You can almost eyeball your coals and know exactly how much you have to have for 300 degrees, 350 degrees.

In this case, we need about 425 degrees.

So, how do you do that?

Well, look here at this book.

The handy little large book tells you right here, Dutch oven cooking.

This is a 12-inch.

If I want a 425-degree temperature, which I do for bread, this is gonna cook about 40 minutes, and you can do this with coals from wood.

It makes it a lot easier if you start out with charcoal briquettes.

To get a 425-degree temperature, we need 10 on the bottom, 21 on the top, which we've done.

I've also taken some lard and put it in the bottom of that pan.

Now, I'm going to take my dough.

See how nice that looks?

I'm gonna put it back in the bowl, and I'm gonna let it rise for another half hour.

While we have that last half hour of dough to rise, that's when we get our pan preheated and ready to go.

All right.

The half hour has passed.

We're gonna do one more little roll around here.

We're gonna take our bread, get it in a nice little round shape, and we're gonna pop it directly in the pan.

[music playing] Here's our future bread.

[music playing] And we are good to go.

Now, keep an eye on your briquettes.

If you see them burning down, you can replace them and give that a bit.

Now, we'll go see what Nicki's doing in the kitchen.

[music playing] You know, so many times we're cooking outside, and people will ask, you know, how many briquettes does it take to get X amount of heat on top and bottom?

[laughs] I never remember.

But you know what?

There's charts out there that can tell you all that sort of thing.

Charts are wonderful.

I like charts.

But just tonight, to prove, we've got our cast iron right here.

We do.

We've preheated our oven to 400.

Now, tell us, Mrs.

Farmer, if you will, what you did different.

What we did different?

Well, we did the basic, exactly like you did outside.

The only thing that's different, before I added the flour, you had the great idea.

I mean, it's Italian night.

We did oregano, rosemary, and what was it?

Basil.

Basil.

And we did a teaspoon of each of those.

And I actually mixed that in with the yeast and the water mixture.

You did?

Yeah.

And then, I added the flour.

So, if you can see the bread here, it's got all the spices mixed in it.

So, that should be -- Loving the smell.

-- so tasty.

Can you imagine when that comes out, putting -- I can't wait.

-- some butter on there?

I'm gonna eat half of it.

All right.

Now, I tasted that.

And you know what I need?

Just a little bit of salt.

A little bit of salt.

Don't forget, that's gonna release -- that meat's gonna release -- Did you put pepper?

-- the salt that's in there.

And the other thing about cooking is, like we talk about, the more you do it, the more you learn, the more you know what goes with what.

We have an Italian-themed show today, and I think you're gonna be very happy, Mrs.

Farmer.

All right.

I think the oven's getting there.

Let me open it for you.

Yes.

[music playing] [music playing] All right.

So, our chicken dish.

What we're gonna do, we're gonna take a little bit of this.

We're cheating now.

What a quick way to achieve wonderful flavor.

Oh, yeah.

And have that fresh taste there.

It's almost like having a fresh basil and -- Yummy.

-- garlic.

So then, we're gonna just do that like that, Mrs.

Farmer.

Hon, I'm excited to eat this.

I'm starving.

Me too.

You know what?

I always - You know what I get all the time?

Chicken parm.

I love chicken parm.

I know it's like, okay, everybody does chicken parm.

It's not that adventurous, but I love it.

You love it.

So, a little salt, a little pepper.

You know what?

This might be a two-handed job.

We're gonna put some cheese in this and roll it up.

So, roll it like this with cheese?

Mm-hmm.

So, how much cheese in each one?

Oh, a goodly amount.

About there?

Now, we're gonna flash fry this.

We don't want it to sit there forever.

We're gonna let it cook on the outside.

We're gonna put it in a nice hot skillet.

We're gonna flash -- We're gonna put a breading on it.

Flash fry it, and then put it in the oven with our marinara sauce.

Yummy.

[laughs] So, I'm rolling like this?

Yep.

And get it as tight as you can.

Beautiful.

Wonderful.

Ta-da.

Now, what I've got over here, whenever we're making schnitzel or anything like that, we've got three different things that we're gonna do here, three different steps.

First of all, I just put some salt and pepper in my flour.

I've got some panko here.

Now, what I'm gonna do with the panko is I'm gonna put those seasonings, a little oregano, a little basil, parsley for color, a little salt, a little pepper, some garlic.

Let's get some garlic flavor in here.

What am I thinking?

All right.

I'm gonna mix that up just a little bit.

But I want that to - When I put those in, I want that to peel up on that.

So, I'm gonna start with my flour.

I've got them out of order here.

[music playing] I'm gonna start with my flour.

So, I can pick that egg up, and then we have to have -- Looks so good.

We have to have something for the panko to stick to, not only -- That's gonna be yummy.

Look at that.

I like it.

Are you kidding me?

I can't wait.

Just lay it up on here until we're ready.

Beautiful.

Next.

Next.

These are like little chicken-wrapped parmesans.

I like this.

Yeah.

And you've got your cheese already in it.

You are so creative.

But this is a quick and easy.

We already got the oven on.

Well, good thing we have double ovens because that's taking up most of the space.

[music playing] Ready, Mrs.

Farmer?

I am.

Do you wanna place them for me?

Why don't you place them?

Go ahead.

I'm excited about this.

I am, too.

Can I help you?

Oh, wow.

I'm gonna be very careful.

I'm hoping that egg is going to -- even the cheese.

Now, I don't wanna cook the fire out of them here.

What a great idea this was.

Now, I thinned them out so I could get that done quickly.

You know what I'm saying?

I'm gonna try to cook that a little bit on each side.

I'm just gonna roll it over.

They're browning up nice.

[laughs] Are you excited?

I'm very excited because I was starving.

Are you hungry?

I'm starving, as always.

You never feed me.

Cooking is fun.

The more you do it, the more different ideas you're gonna come up with.

And again, I'm just gonna brown this.

I'm not trying to cook it completely because it's gonna cook in the oven with our marinara.

Do we have a marinara recipe?

Oh, wait a minute.

We just made a spaghetti.

So, if you wanna look at our site for all our recipes, they're out there to be found.

See, I'm just turning those over and turning them over.

Browning nice.

Ooh.

Now, we've got our oven preheated to 400 degrees.

So, what do we do now, Mrs.

Farmer?

Oh, how about some marinara?

I like what you're doing.

Add a little bit of olive oil in there.

We'll add a half.

Oh, that'll be good.

[sizzling] Okay, look here, Mrs.

Farmer.

We've got all this cheese here.

We've got to do something with it, right?

We've got to use it.

Yes.

Oh, I can't wait for this.

That looks like something you get in a fancy restaurant.

I like it.

I like it.

This is a fancy restaurant.

It's called Farmer's Kitchen.

Oh, that's right.

If you wanna take that, put it in our 400 degree oven.

And I think this is already setting in the bottom side.

It's gonna cook quick.

We're gonna have a 400 degree oven, I would say 15 minutes, 15, 20 minutes, and it should be ready to go.

Yeah, and it'd be done.

Because that's really thin, and I already cooked it pretty good.

[music playing] [music playing] All right, now our soup.

I just got to say, it's -- It's really good.

It's tasty.

I think too, it's good.

Now, I had some cavatelli, a small pasta here.

Perfect.

And I'm gonna put, I don't know, I want pasta in there.

I don't think -- I like pasta.

Yeah.

We're not gonna have it in our chicken, but we're gonna So, we need it in our soup.

Yeah.

So, this was for you, Mrs.

Farmer.

Oh, thank you.

I know how much you love this.

I do.

And we had it the other day, and it was okay, but I think we can do better.

You always make it better.

Aren't you glad that we cook and practice all the time?

You can do the same thing.

You hear people say, "Oh, I can't cook."

Yes, you can.

It is so easy.

You see what we're doing?

Nicki's smart, but I'm not that smart, and I still make stuff for her.

That's right.

I'm gonna crank that up a little bit.

It won't take about 10 or 15 minutes to get that up where it needs to be.

And see how we've timed everything out?

Bread's about done.

We've got 15 minutes on the bread, 15 minutes on the chicken, 15 minutes on that, and guess what?

We're eating.

Chow time.

Yay.

Let's clean this mess up and eat.

All right.

Mrs.

Farmer, let's bring that bread out.

It looks perfect.

Oh, beautiful.

I'm gonna turn this oven off.

I'm gonna put some butter on that.

What do you think?

Oh, yeah.

Let that butter sink in.

Now, look how that came out.

It's got the hard surface like the old-fashioned bread.

I like it.

Mm, let that sink in.

You smell that?

I do.

This kitchen, this kitchen smells absolutely beautiful right now.

It does.

All right, so we've got our butter on our bread.

Maybe a little more.

Just let it sit on there.

Let's soak that up.

Oh, I'm so excited.

Now, you could sprinkle a little garlic on there if you wanted to.

That's perfect.

All right, let's set that out of the way, Mrs.

Farmer.

Let's get our soup going here.

Oh, yummy.

All right, now, I'm dipping up the -- [laughs] That's some thick stuff there.

That's a good stuff.

That's good.

Now, I like a thick soup.

Oh, I do, too.

That looks pretty amazing.

Look at there, Mrs.

Farmer.

I like it.

Would you like a little cheese -- I would like cheese, of course.

-- since we have some right over here?

Oh, it's too pretty to eat.

Is that not beautiful now?

It's too pretty to eat.

I got -- We both have to just come clean, Mrs.

Farmer.

We've been testing the soup.

We know it's good.

So, we're gonna wait until the show's over.

We want you to see the finished product.

Look right there.

Beautiful.

Wonderful.

Oh, wow.

That is -- That's amazing.

-- our minestrone soup here in Farmer's Kitchen.

$1.85.

Wow, that's cheap.

Yup.

For anybody who shows up in the next three minutes -- They get it for $1.85?

I got a good timing.

Kelli's here.

[laughs] You know what?

Let's go ahead and have a little taste of it, Mrs.

Farmer.

I got two of them.

I wanna taste it.

It just looks so good.

I've been craving carrots here lately.

The broth is amazing.

Mmm.

Wow.

I'm gonna sit down and eat some of that.

Oh, that's beautiful.

That is really good.

I'm glad you went with me on the meat.

I always ask you first.

Yeah, it's a good flavor.

Oh, I just -- And you'll eat all the meat.

You'll eat it right out of there.

All right, the bread's looking beautiful over there.

It's almost chicken time.

Right.

[music playing] [music playing] Look at this, Mrs.

Farmer.

Oh, my goodness.

It's absolutely done.

I'm so excited.

Absolutely beautiful.

I'm gonna cut you one little piece.

You cut your piece off.

I want you to try it.

Oh, I'm so excited to eat that.

Dip it in a little marinara.

Do I get to try it?

You do.

It's all you.

Oh, it's cheesy, is it not?

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

What do you think?

Mm-hmm, you did good.

I did good.

You did really good.

I like it when you say I did good.

You wanna try some or are you waiting?

You know what?

I'm gonna cut this bread.

All right.

Look here, Mrs.

Farmer.

Oh, my goodness.

Cut off the crust.

Why don't you cut that in half?

I will, and butter it up.

Butter it up.

And we're gonna have dinner.

Tonight is really one of those nights I really do wish you could smell our kitchen.

Does it not smell like Italian heaven?

Yes.

Oh, beautiful, beautiful food we've cooked tonight.

How are you doing, Mrs.

Farmer?

Here's the scary part.

It's a half hour.

Yes, it is.

Gone.

Done.

It is.

But you know what?

If you like the looks of these recipes and you want more, where would you get them?

I go to TimFarmer'sCountryKitchen.com.

I did today when I made the bread.

Do you know we have a bazillion recipes on there -- That's a big number.

That's a huge number.

-- and how to do it?

People are watching our How to Make a Smokehouse, How to Make Sausages, How to Smoke Cheese, all these how-to things.

They're watching, our friends, with music.

It's a wonderful thing.

On the YouTube page, click subscribe.

That way, if anything comes out new, it comes straight to you.

That's good.

And we want you to be our Facebook friend.

That's right.

But it is so difficult.

It is.

There's several mountain ranges you have to walk through.

Oh, yeah.

Takes forever.

What do you have to do?

You hit like.

Whoa.

That's all you got to do?

I know, I know.

That's amazing.

That's astounding.

You just hit like.

Be our Facebook friend.

And now, Mrs.

Farmer, we're gonna chow.

Yes, we are.

And now we're gonna chow.

That rhymes.

I like that.

Now the chow.

You know what, Mrs.

Farmer?

It's all about -- Good times.

Good friends.

And really good eats.

And I can't wait.

Can we eat?

Come next week with a brand new show from the Farmer's Kitchen.

We'll see you next week.

Yes, we can eat.

I'm getting some plates.

Get them.

[music playing] [music playing] Funding for Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen is brought to you by Amerson Farms Country Store.

Something for every member of the family.

[music playing] Ephraim McDowell Medical Center in Danville, Kentucky.

[music playing] Gulf Coast Connection, seafood straight from the Gulf to you.

The Spine Center of Central Kentucky.

[music playing] Wilderness Road Hospitality, Stanford, Kentucky.

Visit Frankfort, Kentucky's spirited capital city.

[music playing] [music playing] To order a cookbook, email TimFarmerCK@gmail.com.