Turnips with Beer Cheese Sauce

I was out weeding the garden today. You know how sometimes there are areas you just avoid and hope they'll just take care of themselves? Well, onions is one of those areas for me. I have three different onion areas and each one of them has been properly neglected up to now.



Nonetheless, today I set my sites on one of my onion rows. This double row is tightly sandwiched in between one row of beets and a double row of turnips. As I was weeding I couldn't help but notice some nice size turnips. I pulled a few. Here is how my row looked when I finished (recipe follows)






Turnips with Beer Cheese Sauce

1 - 1/2 lbs. turnips, thickly sliced ( I washed these but did not peel)
2 T butter
2 T flour
1/2 t salt
1 C milk
1 C sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 C beer

Cook turnips in boiling salted water until tender, drain. Over medium heat, melt butter, blend in flour, salt and dash of pepper. Add milk all at once while stirring. Cook until thickened. Turn off heat and stir in cheese. I add the beer after the cheese is melted. Combine cooked, drained turnips and cheese sauce in 1 quart casserole. Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes (or until bubbly). Sprinkle with paprika and serve. Serves 4

Note: I needed this recipe to serve more, so I added extra turnips and it turned out great.

Summer Has Arrived in Wisconsin

It was almost spring when I last posted and now it is almost summer. I can't believe an entire season has flown by. I stopped posting when life became crazy with our first lambing experience. We added 15 lambs to our flock this year and we definitely learned a lot. We had just about every lambing disaster that a shepherd can experience, from nutritional deficiencies to prolapsed uteruses......sigh. But we know how to make things better for our second year.

The garden is now in full swing. I am now planting more seeds for succession planting in the near future. So much to do....so little time.....I'll try to get caught up on what's going on in the next few weeks.