FROM MY KITCHEN

Sarah Hanke and daughter Charlotte

FROM MY KITCHEN

Cooking with Sarah Marie Hanke

FRESH GARDEN SALSA

5-7 medium tomatoes - cored and diced small, about 4 cups diced tomatoes 1 large green bell pepper - diced small 1 medium sweet onion - diced small 3 cloves garlic - minced 2 jalapenos - diced small, seeds removed if less heat is desired

Juice of 2 limes

1 bunch cilantro - leaves and tender stems chopped

2 teaspoons kosher salt Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Wash and dry all produce. Core, slice, and dice tomatoes and place in large bowl. Cut green pepper, onion, and jalapenos in a small dice and mince the garlic. Add to the bowl with the tomatoes and then add the chopped cilantro, salt, lime juice, and pepper. Stir to combine and taste, adding more lime juice, salt, or other ingredients as desired.

Cat the Robertson home was a family affair, and Sarah ooking (Robertson) Hanke has carried on that tradition with her own family of five in Milan, Michigan.

Sarah grew up in the kitchen making recipes such as homemade macaroni and cheese, roasted vegetables, and applesauce. She made it a point to learn how to make her grandma’s apple pie on her own and enjoyed canning produce from the family garden. Sarah’s love for cooking piqued at the age of 13, and she was cooking regularly by the time she was in high school. “I can be creative with food. I like how good food tastes, and I like to make food the way I want it to taste. I have a lot of good memories cooking with family,” she said. “I learned how to cook with my mom and dad when I was little. We would bake as a family. My dad would make the pie crust, I helped my mom with the fruit and filling, and my sister ate the pie dough,” said Sarah with a laugh. Sarah’s uncle was a farmer in Blissfield, and freezing corn every year was a family event. “We would gather at my aunt and uncle’s house because that’s where the corn was grown. Now, my cousin, his son does the planting. The kids would help pick the corn and fill up the back of the pick-up truck. Then we would bring it back to the house where my mom, grandma, and aunts would shuck it, cut it off the cob, and blanch it. There was enough for every family to take home about 30-40 pints. We still do this although not as many people help as when I was little,” Sarah explained.

Married to Jeremy and mother to three busy children under the age of 11, Sarah chooses to cook almost everything from scratch. Many of her meals are planned by what is in season and from her own gorgeous garden. “I have always been interested in eating healthy food without too many preservatives, and it’s the way my mom and grandma cooked. We don’t just open a box or a jar of sauce,” she said.

When she finds a complicated recipe she is excited for the challenge. She also is a fan of menu planning. Repeating the same categories of food the same day of the week helps Sarah manage her time and keeps meals predictable for the kids. When they know what to expect they often eat with less fuss, she said.

A typical weekly menu for the Hankes would be a pasta night; Mexinight always with homemade guacamole and fresh salsa; a soup and sandwich night; and a Friday pizza night usually with homemade personal pizzas so everyone can help and choose their own toppings. “We grill a lot of other nights in the summer, like hotdogs, hamburgers, steak, and the best thing is a classic B.L.T. with fresh garden tomato!” exclaimed Sarah.

Because she loves to be creative and cook everything from scratch, she is also passing on that love to her three children by letting them help her in the kitchen with some of the same things she loved learning to cook as a child. “The kids get excited about helping me cook. Amelia and Charlotte especially love to help me make homemade granola and granola bars every week,” said Sarah. “They also help me make macaroni and cheese and scrambled eggs, they help peel vegetables, and of course they love stirring. Everyone pitches in to make applesauce; it is something we always did as a family.”

One of Sarah’s favorite things to make in the summer is salsa. “I love garden tomatoes and fresh cilantro, and salsa is something I often helped my mom with when I was a teenager,” she said. “It’s not difficult to make but it requires a lot of chopping and knife skills.” She uses tomatoes, peppers, jalapenos and cilantro from her garden when they are available, or she buys them along with garlic and onions at the local farmer’s market. “Charlotte’s job is to peel the garlic,” Sarah said as she smiled at her youngest perched on the counter. Charlotte was happy as could be helping her mom and tasting the finished product. It is easy to imagine these memories in the kitchen being something she will cherish someday and pass on to the next generation. n