Sandy Aprill's approach to cooking and meals is simple.
She believes a family should try and sit down together for the evening meal most nights, if at all possible. For that reason, she tries to plan ahead, though she also knows that even the best-laid plans sometimes have to be scrapped.
"I go through the ads on Sunday and try to pick up groceries one main time a week," she said, noting, "but that doesn't always work."
Sandy also likes things simple -- good food, made from scratch, but not with a list of ingredients and steps so long that it makes her eyes glaze over.
Sandy and her husband live on a Traverse City farm with two children who are in high school and a 19-year-old attending Northwestern Michigan College. Besides running the farm, they have an excavating business, and Sandy handles the books.
Her children all have healthy appetites, and grew up on what Aprill said was a "two-bite rule."
"When they were little, we had a rule that you had to have two bites, then you didn't have to have anymore than that," she said. "That got them trying things that otherwise they wouldn't have developed a taste for."
She cooks from recipes, many that came from her mother. She also culls the newspaper Food section. A family favorite is a Corned Beef and Mixed Vegetables dish that long ago surpassed any two-bite rule.
The Aprills buy beef a half cow at a time, and ditto for pigs, so there is always meat in the freezer. An avid baker, Sandy freezes dozens of homemade cookies and bars so that there's always a fresh batch just a short thaw away. During cherry harvest, she bakes regularly, delivering two dozen cookies or bars to the crew each day. She also makes her own bread.
Beyond that, Sandy tries to focus on nutritious ingredients. Every morning, she has a smoothie made with flax, frozen bananas, berries or cherries she pits and freezes from their own crop, and yogurt that she makes herself.
She's also no-muss, no-fuss in the kitchen.
"I am not a gourmet cook," she said. "I am a very simple hearty cook. I have a girlfriend, if I give her recipes, she says, 'I know I can make it because you're an easy cook and it's always good.'"
This first recipe is a favorite among the cherry crew -- "even those who don't like nuts," she said.
Old World Raspberry Bars
2 c. sugar
2 c. butter, real, only slightly softened
2 eggs
2 c. frozen pecans, finely chopped
4&1/2 c. flour
18 oz. (1&1/2 c.) raspberry jam
Using hand-held mixer, combine sugar and butter; add eggs; add pecans and flour together (Frozen pecans and adding pecans and flour together create a crumbly mixture -- this is good.) Do not overbeat. Lightly press 3/4 of mixture into sprayed 10-by-14-inch glass pan. Spread with jam to within 1/2 inch of edges. Cover with remaining mixture. Bake 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden. Cool. Cut. (Sandy stores hers in the freezer.)
Corned Beef and Mixed Vegetables
6-7 lbs. corned beef, trimmed, cut in half
8-10 small red skin potatoes
5 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
3 celery ribs, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 turnips, peeled and cut into wedges
1 large onion, thick slices
1 medium head cabbage, cut into 6-8 wedges
1 lb. fresh green beans, whole
4 ears sweet corn, halved
Place corned beef (Sandy prefers regular, not low-sodium) and enclosed seasoning packet into large Dutch oven (hers is seven inches high and 12 inches deep). Cover with water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for three hours. Add potatoes, carrots, celery, turnips and onion; return to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add cabbage, beans and corn; return to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 20 minutes more or until vegetables are tender. Makes eight to 10 servings.
Kathy Gibbons is a longtime columnist with the Record-Eagle. She can be reached at gibbonskath@yahoo.com.
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