Monthly Archives: August 2012

Meet “Bill” and “Sandy”…

I’ve been hesitant to blog these cuties… The last time I did that, we never saw the kittens again! 😦

But, it seems these guys are here to stay… So needless-to-say, the Boys are VERY excited! 🙂

You may be thinking, “Wow – I can’t believe they didn’t name them some kind of food-themed name…they actually picked NORMAL names for these kittens?”

LOL, Yes, since the boy & girl kitten were found in our good friends’ hay that is upstairs in the milking barn, both boys decided appropriate names would be after them: Bill & Sandy.

🙂

FINALLY – cows back out grazing!

For 44 days, we’ve had the cows in Mordor, where we’ve been feeding them hay since our pastures weren’t growing due to the drought.

Thankfully, the cows’ milk supply hasn’t dropped as much as we feared it might.  Plus, we sold some of the calves, so that gave us more milk as well.

What a blessing that we had a large harvest of first cutting hay – never dreamed we’d be feeding it so soon!

Yesterday, Mike was able to move the cows out of Mordor and into Prancing Pony.  Hooray!  This summer has really reminded me how much I love to see GREEN in the summer!

LOOK ON THE SUNNY SIDE by Helen Steiner Rice

This is my favorite poem. My fondness for writing rhyming poems has surely been inspired by the works of Helen Steiner Rice. 🙂

As I was washing my one millionth dish today & feeling a bit “blah”, I saw this laminated magnet hanging on the side of my fridge that I had made several years ago. It made me smile – just what I needed! 🙂

Thought I should add it to my “scrapbook”… 🙂

our “italian sausage” recipe

For every pound of ground beef we add:

1-1/2t sea salt

1t garlic granules (or several minced garlic cloves)

1t coarse black pepper

1/2t fennel seed (or a little more than that…I love fennel seed!)

We mix it in while it’s cooking.  That’s it!  Super easy, and tastes great! 🙂

Yesterday, we made barley stuffed green peppers – here’re some pics – perhaps I’ll get that recipe up next…

“Thorn” removal…

Whew.  What a week.  Yes, the picture in the poem is actually Mike’s thumb.  Part of the reason this poem was inspired was because of watching him deal with this nasty splinter.  Another reason was watching Michael deal with food poisoning the past couple of days.  As a parent, there’s nothing worse than watching your child suffer.  Another thorn, another thorn…

Mike’s thorn is dissipating, but not removed.  Michael’s on the road to recovery – but may be gun-shy of a certain restaurant’s sandwiches, lol! 🙂

Garden pests…

Apparently during a drought, tomato worms also eat green peppers, hot peppers, and potato plants – grrrrrr!! Here’s a pic of a baby one Mike just found – he’s already had his last meal, lol! 🙂

And the second pic is what happens when a groundhog is dumb enough to enter a garden where 3 boys know how to take care of business!! 🙂

our “salami”, “pepperoni”, “bacon” recipe

4 pounds grass-fed ground beef

2T sea salt

1/3c chili powder

2t garlic granules or several minced garlic cloves

1-1/2t fennel seeds

4t coarse black pepper

1t dried hot pepper flakes

3T wine of choice

Mix well and form into 4 “rolls”.  Wrap in foil and set in refrigerator for 24 hours.  Next day:  poke holes for drainage in various spots on the rolls with the tip of a pointy knife.  (I used to use a fork, but it left tiny bits of foil in the meat – fyi.)  Place rolls on top of a broiler pan with a bit of water in the base to catch any drippings.  (Makes it MUCH easier to clean the pan when done, lol!)  Bake for 1 hour at 325°.  Once out of oven, carefully remove foil and allow rolls to cool.  We like really thin slices, so we’ve found that a large serrated bread knife works the best – especially if the rolls have been in the fridge for awhile so they’re nice and cold.  Once sliced, I freeze stacks of slices.  It doesn’t take long for a stack to thaw enough to separate slices for a “salami” sandwich.

For “pepperoni”, we bake it on our sourdough pizza crusts.

For “bacon”, we add it to coconut oil in a skillet & fry it until crisp .  Here’s a pic of the frozen slices in the coconut oil:

Here’s a pic of Paul’s favorite way to eat it – crisp & dipped in ketchup, lol! 🙂

These recipes have been such a blessing to us.  We do our best to avoid lunch meats/processed meats.  It’s been fun using what we have to create healthy substitutes! 🙂