Homemade No Boil Pretzels

Liz made these yesterday from this recipe. Didn't take her very long and they sure are good. Then she proceeded to make fresh bread and apple crisp. I think we'll keep her.

Dog Rice

Now and then we run out of dog food for the three puppies, Sadie, the boss's mom's old pound hound, Wally, the Blue Heeler devil dog and Nick the border collie. When that happens, someone cooks "dog rice", which is simply homemade rice seasoned up with this and that. 


When the doggies eat this we add leftover meat juice, fat and other good things saved just for doggies.

Frost sparkling on the window

When we eat it, because it is after all just people rice prepared with dogs in mind, and it always smells incredibly good while cooking, we eat it with butter. And last night, with sausages chopped up in it.  The doggies love dog rice days.


So do we.

Murphy Was Here

Our dairy supplier was due Thursday and didn't show. We were out of the powerful liquid cleaner we use for the pipeline and bulk tank. Not good...or wait, maybe it was....

You see, there are no substitutes, and the equipment must be cleaned and sanitized every time it is used, so we made a road trip up west to get a small jug to tide us over.

While we were at it we shopped.

I don't get out much. Kind of need to be here most of the time...so when I do, watch out.

People were looking at us funny in Price Chopper I can tell you, as we perused the ham and jam and spam and bought...well. a lot....

But the cupboards were pretty bare and now they are not so much and that is always a wonderful feeling. Plus I bought some goodies at the bakery outlet for the boy to take back south with him.....yeah...if that big bundle of blankets is any indication, he is home for a couple of days. He was out with that certain special and very sweet young lady so we didn't get to see him last night....

And, of course, while we were gone, the dairy supplier stopped....of course he did. So we won't run out of pipeline soap any time soon. I wonder if his name is Murphy.

But, it's all good...

Cider

Gallon of fresh-pressed in the fridge, new picked apples on the table and a jar of soft, sweet honey in the cupboard. The kids took a friend's toddler to the orchard to pick yesterday and brought us home some of their bounty.

What can I say but yay!!

Snow Before Halloween

Becky won this yesterday.

To say she was happy is to seriously understate the situation.

So Alan and I saw to it that there was a balanced meal for a celebratory dinner. Above, see the fruit and grain serving, made by ma

The brother providing the vegetable

and dairy section of a good meal (pumpkin bars)

For Becky's big day. We also enjoyed hearty homemade beef stew....actually I will admit the truth here. We didn't even know that she had made employee of the month until evening, but it poured cold rain and then switched to snow all day. The kitchen with the oven going was the best place on the entire farm so everyone spent all the time that they could there. Baking and/or stirring a bubbling cauldron (no eye of newt or toe of dog though) provided a fine excuse to do so).

We kept the cows in the barn last night, so I spent most of last night's milking getting their automatic water bowls working. Some of the cows choose not to drink indoors all summer, so their bowls get pretty gritty. It is a nasty job but someone has to do it....someone is usually me.

The cows were confused at being in, oddly enough. Usually they are delighted to stay inside when the weather gets bad, but last night they were bawling to go back out. It was snowing hard, flakes the size of saucers and sticking to the ground. Dunno what was up with that, but they can go back outside for some exercise today. Maybe that will make them happy.

Time to go to the barn and see what mayhem they have gotten up to in the night. Have a good one.

The Bright Side

Of an impending first frost. You get to pick all the tiny little baby squashes with the flowers still unopened on the end and saute them with garlic...in butter of course. With home grown roast beef and the boss's signature Cole slaw it was quite a feast...all thanks to the weather.

Wet and Dark

The Fruit Salad Tree is Filling Up

On mornings like this the entire valley moans and grumbles, clasped damply against the soggy breast of a bad-tempered, slow-moving thunderstorm.

Pitch dark at six AM. We'll be milking wet cows this morning....when they deign to come down off the hill that is.

Sorry I missed you yesterday. Deadline was nigh, tomatoes were ripe, and the men could finally chop feed again, after a series of disasters so bizarre and unlikely that you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you about them. (Suffice to say a truckload of ticked off skunks would have been more welcome...what is it this year anyhow?)

The season of ripening maters has lead to BLTs bulging with bacon, slippery with tomato succulance, and so tasty they should be illegal, taco bowls (take everything that makes up your favorite taco and layer it into a bowl, replacing the taco shell with taco chips, with which to dip) fresh, homemade, vegetable-beef soup, afloat with rings of shimmering yellow summer squash, and pungent with fresh-dug garlic, and even plain old tomato sandwiches for breakfast. I suppose if we had fresh tomatoes from the garden year round they would be ho hum, but here in the Great Northeast, tomato time is something to write home about.

Sorry about going on and on about groceries like this, but when I was working on the Farm Side yesterday we got to talking about how the boss's mother used to feed us. She was an old-fashioned farm wife, who felt that staggering meals were an important component of the wage of her worker bees. Since she spent her formative years working in a well-known Boonville restaurant, she was more than qualified to provide the same. She used to even serve the author of Drums Along the Mohawk, Walter D. Edmonds ( a fan of strawberry shortcake in season.)

Not much to say about the earthquakes...none of us noticed any of them. Before we lived here the tiniest one centered in Blue Mountain lake, where ours usually begin, would wake me right up. Now, living so close to the constant stream of heavy freight trains, shaking the earth day and night...well, not so much.

Have a good one...I've got to go get wet.

Going, Going, Yeah, it is Gone

The elderberry crisp.....of course there are a lot more elderberries in the freezer in the cellar...don't tell....

Pickle Pirates

We started digging garlic this week

We love Refrigerator Dill Pickles We made some last year from a great online recipe and then we lost it.

Today, after hours of searching, we found a substitute and made a batch from cukes Jade's grandpa sent down.

The house smells so good. Garlic, vinegar, dill and cucumbers........they sure go good together. It reminds the boss and me of when we were kids and our mamas canned. Do you remember coming home to the scent of bubbling jam, or new-made pickles or hot, sugary peaches? My mom made such wonderful stuff when we were kids and I love it when something we cook brings those memories back.

These pickles look good too.

They are supposed to season in the fridge for 24 hours, but an infestation of sneaky pickle pirates has been creeping around poking grabby fingers in the bowl.

I must confess, I am not immune to that syndrome, and besides, you really do need to check to see if a new recipe is as good as the old one.

I also admit to never actually following recipes, or at least not too closely, so there is no mustard seed in our batch, I used dried dill and cut the sugar a lot. Didn't have any of the first two and didn't want the pickles to be too sweet. Didn't bother with bay leaves either.

So far they fall on the irresistible side of the nomming scale and had to be securely wrapped up and hidden in the bottom of the fridge so that it may be possible to see how they taste tomorrow.

The best part is that I still have half a bag of cucumbers, so if the pirates capture these I can make more tomorrow.

National Cheese Lovers Day

Let's all celebrate! Bring on the cheese.

***Thanks Luv, for the heads up!

****Someday when I don't have to go clean in the barn and move heifers I will post Becky's mac and cheese recipe. We took an old kids' recipe from the ADADC and changed it until it is completely unrecognizable, but really, really good (not that it wasn't good to begin with, but more is always better, especially when you are talking about cheese. And if you don't like boiling the macaroni first this is the recipe for you.)

Food Inflation

Yeah, spring will come and there will be daffodils....just not for a while yet

A top concern in the coming decade. Read number eight.

Interesting that someone finally noticed that we are running out of farmers.

The Basics of Apple Jelly

A sink full of pink ladies and granny smiths, with a gratuitous red geranium reflected from the windowsill.

Dairy and Fruit Walmart's Strongest Categories

Read about it here. Glad someone is making money on milk.

Talking Turkey

88% of American households will serve one this Thanksgiving.

247 million of them are raised here each year, with Minnesota being the largest producer.

The average weight of the ones we dine upon is 16 pounds.

For everything you need to know about turkey, from thawing your bird, to cooking with the leftovers go here. Pages and pages of all things turkey and just plain fascinating.

Food Miles, Calories and Fallacies

I was surprised to find this in a NY Times article.

This is a well-thought out piece worth a thorough read. I am so glad it is reaching a main stream audience.

Best Butter Commercial EVER

HT Elaine Shein on FB

Decline of the Small Meat Plant

Is lamented in USA Today. The closing of small, USDA inspected plants is a sad matter for farmers who wish to participate in the local food movement. A couple years back we sold some pork the boss raised at what was at the time a premium price. We could have sold much more than we did and we could easily raise more. However, with the threat of new rules putting even more small slaughter houses out of business, we have backed off from the pig project.

Interestingly the article quotes a local lady who has been very active in matching farmers with facilities and markets. Nice to see her efforts getting some real attention.

10 Dairy Foods Myths Dispelled

Here is a list of the top ten dairy food myths and the rebuttal from the University of Michigan.

Here is just one:

2 Myth: Spinach is as good a source of calcium as milk. Fact: There is more calcium in 1 cup of milk than there is in 16 cups of spinach. One will need to eat more than 48 cups of spinach to get the recommended daily intake of calcium (USDA, 2010). Furthermore, milk contains Vitamin D which enhances calcium absorption (Wasserman, 2004).

Greek Yogurt

It was just one of those things I was afraid to try, because I figured it might be nasty. Then we were given some of this brand by a family friend.

Even then I hesitated until Alan did the "He Likes it. Hey Mikey," thing, did like it a lot and said so...and ate two dishes in a row to prove it.

So I tried it too. And I am here to tell you, one bowlful and you will never again be satisfied by the thin, tasteless, watery, stuff they sell under the brand of a certain French dairy foods company, which I will not name, but it rhymes with cannon. My favorite Fage yogurt is the kind with thick, dark, smokey honey on the side. I love honey anyhow, but the combination of smooth, tart dairy with strong, sweet honey is just about unbeatable. It has become one of my favorite lunches.

****And no, they didn't pay me for this....they never even heard of me. I just didn't want you to miss this great stuff, which is produced just a few miles from here, up by my folks' house. Eating well while eating local just works for me.

Roast Wild Goose

Alan bagged a couple of Branta Canadensis back during the season (nearly dropping one through the sky light on his best friend's parents' house) and he has been after me to cook them. Never having cooked goose (and only having eaten it once...domestic...long frozen...and just plain nasty) I procrastinated.

Finally yesterday I relented, he thawed the goose that was intact (and the one that was much diminished by excess shot) and we hunted up a recipe.

We found this one.

Around here recipes are more like guidelines, so we threw in some extra stuff and left out some other stuff...dumped a box of prepared stuffing that was given to us on top of the critter. Tucked some venison steaks into the pot for anybody who didn't like goose (which could possibly have been all of us). Added a little vinegar, because we have discovered that, in terms of both tenderness and taste, it does a lot for slow cooking tough meat . Dried cranberries because there was the tag end of a stale bag in the freezer....etc

Then we stuffed it in the oven. Because of milking and chores, which keep me outdoors for quite a while, it got roasted about two hours longer than the recipe called for.

Didn't matter.

Liz tugged off the first piece to see if it was edible. Sure enough it was.

That verdict having been rendered the goose lasted about five minutes before the bones were picked so clean I am wondering if I will be able to find enough bits and pieces to make soup tonight. The guy that wrote the recipe says that it tastes like beef...and it really does, albeit kind of dry beef. Sort of like fine grained-chuck roast that got cooked a tad longer than you planned on. Savory and satisfying. I am amazed to find that I really like wild goose.

I recommend the recipe. All the recipes other we read that were geared for domestic fowl and would certainly have produced a meal fit for soling a pair of shoes, but this one made for a delicious change from deer and chicken. I wonder when the next goose season opens....