You'll need one skillet.

With your skillet, you’ll make hundreds of different dinners and desserts. The skillet that works best is a non-stick skillet that is rounded and deep (like a wok). What could be easier than one skillet to wash and think about?

Our friends at GSI (www.gsioutdoors.com) in Spokane, Washington, pulled through for me again. Months ago, I told them I needed to reconfigure my BakeOver skillets, essentially redesign and rethink them, and then offer my customers a customized skillet even MORE perfect for my BakeOver idea. And I no longer wanted three sizes, just two. I also wanted something more lightweight and compact, good for camping when the need arose. But just to make it more challenging, I wanted a better, more durable non-stick surface than what I’d been offering. At long last, after a year of back and forth, here they are: a 9" and an 11" even more Perfect BakeOver Skillet with a collapsible handle. How handy is that? The smallest serves four, the largest serves six. Then, when it comes time to wash your skillet, the surface makes clean-up a piece of cake.

NEXT, YOU'LL PICK FROM MY BAKEOVER "TOPS" OR "LIDS"

From my Farmhouse Cuisine, choose a quick mix to match your choice of vegetables or your selection of fruit. When you use my prepared foods to top your BakeOver, you’ve essentially hired me to round up all the little bits of this and little bits of that and turn it into a meal.

YOUR JOB THEN, IS THE FUN AND EASY PART ...

Selecting fresh vegetables and fruit.

If you eat dairy or meat, you can add grated or cubed cheese, fish, tofu, or any boned meat to the vegetables. To the fruit, you can add a layer of cream cheese. Pick your favorites and be creative, because with my program, they all work.

After you’ve chopped or sliced the vegetables or fruit that you want, you’ll sauté them (3-5 minutes) in your skillet and place one of my mixes or "lids" on top like a pie crust.

AFTER YOUR SKILLET IS IN THE OVEN FOR 20 MINUTES, YOU'LL FLIP THE CONTENTS UPSIDE DOWN ONTO A PLATE AND SERVE THE BAKEOVER

Remember, always 4 cups:

4 CUPS VEGETABLES OR
4 CUPS FRUIT
(6 cups for large skillet)
AND
1 PACKAGE MIX

That’s all you do to make the BakeOver. There are no limits to what you can create. You can use up the old carrots in your refrigerator along with an onion, or you can chop up bell peppers and add a layer of cooked black beans, or cabbage and kale, or cubed tofu, celery or potatoes with herbs and squash, or garlic and mushrooms, or just mushrooms or just onions if that’s all you have. Then just top it with my Shepherd’s Pan Bread, or Foccacia Bread with Parmesan, or Corn Bread ... the list goes on and on. For dessert, you can slice up some apples or thaw some frozen peach slices, drain them and add a few raspberries, strawberries, and cranberries, or add some raisins, cinnamon, figs, coconut, maple syrup, honey, almonds or walnuts and then top them with my Chocolate Chip Cookies, Scones w/Walnuts and Orange Peel, or Brownies ... the list goes on and on. You can mix and match and play with the combinations and have fun dreaming up different BakeOvers with your neighbors and friends.

Last night I made a Mexican BakeOver. My son topped his with sour cream. Nick added salsa.

This meal looked gorgeous, the flavor was perfect, it was ORGANIC ... and it was made from scratch, sort of.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Hi MaryJane!

I keep getting questions about Tarte Tians [see below], and had an idea. Would it be possible for you to post a recipe per week, or per month, or whatever works, for a different tarte? I could refer people to that! Everyone is not quite as inventive a cook as you, and seems to run out of ideas. This way, maybe they could check in periodically and branch out a bit.

I make all sorts of weird tartes, but I think yours would probably resonate better with most people than mine would! (But my favorite is still your dessert one with the pineapple that you had in a past issue of the magazine.)

I hope spring is treating you and Nick well, and that all is up and blooming on the farm.

Best regards,
Ellen Winchell

Dear Ellen,

Hello from Cindylou here at MaryJanesFarm.

MaryJane loves your idea of sharing recipes. She has re-named the Tarte Tian — it was way too fancy and no one could pronounce it. It is now the BakeOver — much more fitting!

Sarah has just set up The Farmgirl Connection on the website, and I am thinking this is the perfect place for the recipe per month idea. It will be really fun to see all the combinations women create, as well as MaryJane's favorites.

Thank you for the marvelous idea!

from one "farmgirl at heart" to another,
Cindylou Ament
MaryJanesFarm

REMEMBER MY
oneskillet
RULE

dinners are always, without fail:

4 cups Vegetables
(6 cups for large skillet)
2 Tbsp. Butter or Oil
1 pkg. Farmhouse Cuisine quick mix

desserts are just as easy:

4 cups Fruit
(6 cups for large skillet)
2 Tbsp. Butter or Oil
1 pkg. Farmhouse Cuisine quick mix

YOU CAN TOP YOUR one skillet DINNER WITH ANY OF THESE MaryJanesFarm BakeOver MIXES

• Black Bean Corn Bread
• Buttermilk Biscuits
• Chili Batter Bread
• Corn Bread
• Focaccia Bread
• Garlic Pesto Fry Bread
• Shepherd’s Pan Bread

YOU CAN TOP YOUR one skillet DESSERT WITH ANY OF THESE MaryJanesFarm BakeOver MIXES

• Brownies
• Buttermilk Biscuits
• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Corn Bread
• Scones w/Walnuts & Orange Peel

tips for BakeOvers


Don't have the time for a rolling pin?
Use your hands instead!


With your hands, divide the dough into 8 equal balls and flatten each ball between the palms of your hands.


Place them on top of the sautéed vegetables or fruit.