BLOG.ATASTEOFTHEGOODLIFE.COM

I HAVE MOVED THIS BLOG

CountryGirl — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:48:00 GMT

Good Clean Fun

CountryGirl — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:51:00 GMT

This summer to celebrate our anniversary, I signed us up for weekend classes at the John C Campbell Folk School deep in the mountains of NC. Jason signed up for a Blacksmithing class, something he's always wanted to do.   I finally kind of reluctantly settled on a soap making class.   We both got waitlisted.   I got into my class and the more I thought about it the more I looked forward to it.    Jason never made it into his class, so I was very disappointed to have to withdrawal out of mine.

Last week I saw an add for a local soap making class and I jumped on it.   It was alot of fun! The instructor is Blaire Bothayre from Good Karma soaps (standing in the grey sweater)

This was a Lego mold, I snatched it up to make soap for the kids.

I made the lego soap and the diamond shaped soap in the class. The others were gifts from the instructor.

I left the class and decided to come home and give it a try on my own since I needed to make a gift for a friend for the next day. I went with a brown and blue color theme and a standard bar shape. JW helped me every step of the way and LOVED it. He told me I needed to quit making medicine and start making soaps to sell.

These soaps were made with an Avocado and Cucumber white glycerine soap. Glycerine is an all natural soap that is a humectant, meaning it draws moisture from the air to the skin. The avocado and cucumber are good for the skin as well.   I added a cucumber/melon fragrance which has a smooth, calming effect.

This is a bar I made with oatmeal, which is also great for the skin.

Here is a 2 layer bar with a layer of poppy seeds (for exfoliation) in between.

The final product.

I think this is the beginning of a new hobby for me.

There are so many different ways to be creative with this, I love it!

For those of you on my Christmas list this year, you did not see ANY of this.

Random Kitchen Thoughts

CountryGirl — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:12:00 GMT

This is my kitchen.

For those of you who have seen my kitchen on any day other than a special occasion, you know that my kitchen NEVER looks like this. See that major structure there that some would call an island?   I call it a junk collector.   It took me about an hour to clear it off tonight.

Here is a partial list of what I had to find a new home for:

1.   Half of a toy dinosaur egg and the dinosaur that recently hatched and other random toys.

2.   About 264 pieces of mail.

3.   About 46 catalogs and magazines.

4.   126 pieces of schoolwork, notices, calendars, etc.

5.   6 glasses, 3 plastic cups, 5 empty snack food wrappers.

6.   Approx. $7.55 in change in 5 different piles.

7.   A tire gauge, random bolts, unidentified parts to a transmission?

I should have taken a "before" picture.   One thing that I can guarantee is that all of the above items will collect here again within 24 hours.    Which brings me to my most recent idea to solve this problem.   Here it is. Ready?

I want to redo my countertop in some sort of metal.   Stainless steel won't work for reasons I will soon describe. I want the countertop to be sloping at about a 30-45 degree angle.   This way things that don't belong will slide right off.    Things that do belong like cutting boards, bowls, utensils will all need to be magnetized so that they will NOT slide off. So stainless won't work because magnets won't stick to it. I'm not sure how to keep the actual food from sliding off, still trying to work out the bugs of my plan.

Here is another idea I'm kicking around that is slightly more feasible.

It seems like I spend 25% of my life loading or unloading the dishwasher. It is a never ending cycle: sink -> dishwasher -> cabinet -> sink -> dishwasher -> cabinet.    My idea is to have TWO dishwashers. One for the clean dishes, one for the dirty and use only enough dishes/glasses/silverware to fit in a dishwasher.    This eliminates the whole cabinet step.   Dishes will just go back and forth between the dishwashers. The cabinet space I will lose with the 2nd dishwasher, I will gain by not having to store dishes/glasses in a cabinet.   I honestly think I might do this.   I'm going to experiment by trying to live on a dishwasher full of dishes/glasses first, to see if we can do it.

These are my random kitchen thoughts for the day. Gotta go, a pile of stuff was just thrown on the counter by my husband who just walked in the door and there are dishes in the sink.

A Peck of Pickled Peppers

CountryGirl — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:02:00 GMT

It is November and I am still being overrun with banana peppers from the garden. I have never been so successful at growing anything in all my life. They just keep coming and coming. So after our harvest this week (hopefully our final harvest), I decided to make sweet pickled peppers.

Seed the peppers just like I described for hot pepper butter and remember to wear gloves! I got brazen and wore only one pair of gloves and my hands are burning as I type this.

Slice them into rings.

Stir together 4 cups vinegar and 1 1/3 cup sugar in a large pot. (This will make about 5 pints, make more or less of the brine depending on how many peppers you have)

Add 1 teaspoon mustard seeds.

Add 1 teaspoon celery seeds. stir and heat to a boil.

Pack sterilized pint or quart jars with peppers and fill with vinegar mixture leaving 1/2" headspace.

Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

I promise my next canning post will not involve peppers.

Apple Jacks

CountryGirl — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:05:00 GMT

A good friend of mine mentioned a few weeks ago that she was craving "Apple Jacks" that her mom used to make for her but she didn't know how to make it (not the cereal or alcoholic variety Apple Jacks).   I'd never heard of this before so I was intrigued.     Later that week at the state fair, I found an apple concession stand that advertised Apple Jacks.   I talked to the woman behind the counter and asked her how to make them and I also did some searching on the internet. It is basically like a flat apple pie, kind of like a cross between an apple pie, a turnover and a pop-tart.

Here's how to make them.

Start with 3-4 good tart apples like a Granny Smith.   Peel and slice thinly.

Roll out a pie crust (I use a pre-made crust) onto a cookie sheet.
Press it out as far as you can stretch it without tearing it.

In a small bowl, mix together 1 Tablespoon flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Spread the apples over the pie crust, sprinkle with the sugar mixture to coat the apples.

Cover with another pie crust and pinch to seal the edges.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

The final product. Delicious and easy to pick up and eat.

If you want to go over the top, make a glaze by mixing 2 1/2 T melted butter with 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/4 tsp vanilla. (I was out of powdered sugar when I made this one but if not I would have definitely done this)

Drizzle over top of the Apple Jack. Yum!

Halloween Ho-down 2009

CountryGirl — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:49:00 GMT

This weekend we had a Halloween Ho-down horse show at our farm. We had horse trailer trick or treating, a pumpkin carving contest, a horse/rider costume contest and a silent auction to benefit a fellow barrel racing family who is battling cancer. It was a lot of fun!

JW was an Indian brave and Casey was a princess. Jason made JW's costume after my failed attempts to find one in a store and after I told them my idea to make one out of a pillow case and felt. This was not acceptable. We had some spare leather and cowhide from when we made our cow chair that worked out perfectly. I am so glad I married into sewing skills.

He even made him some moccasins.

After the photo op, it was on to the horse trailer trick or treating.

My poor children had to settle for a Walmart and Michaels bag because my last minute attempt to find their halloween pumpkin buckets was unsuccessful. I vaguely remember back in June getting tired of looking at them in my pantry but have no idea where they wound up. I'm sure I will run into them in time for Easter.

This is a good shot of the back of JW's costume.

There were lots of trailers to visit.

Getting ready for the costume contest. Jason was my goto guy all day. I threw him the unicorn horn so he could figure out how to get it to stay on Lulu and he did! Lulu is such a trooper.

Lulu was a rare black unicorn, you don't see many of them. She looks thrilled.

Walker was an Indian pony, we put feathers in his mane and tail and painted him up for battle.

JW rode him bareback, Indian style. He won 2nd place in the Youth class.

Here I am dressed as Pacman, on my horse named Pacman.

This is Brooke and Missy as Ballerinas.

Little Bo Peep - the winner of the adult costume class.

2nd place, a dalmation and a fire hydrant.

I think you know who these two are.

Here are a few of the pumpkins in the carving contest. JW stuck with a dinosaur theme.

And finally the silent auction, we had a ton of nice stuff donated and raised a lot of money!

The Great Pumpkin

CountryGirl — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:34:00 GMT

I am blessed with a son who is obsessed with pumpkins. Seriously, he has a problem. He is a pumpkin hoarder. He can't pass a pumpkin patch without going into convulsions. He usually grows his own pumpkins, but this year was not successful. We do have several small pumpkin plants growing in bowls on our dining room table right now though, he hasn't given up. They should be ready by Christmas if they survive... which is usually when JW allows us to get rid of our pumpkins to make room for presents. He did manage to hide one in his room last year until March. See I told you, he has a problem.

So far this year, we have had 9 pumpkins in this house, 4 are currently still here and I'm sure there will be more. 2 met their fate by being carved and then rotted and 3 were cooked. I made the mistake this past weekend of suggesting we go to the Raleigh farmer's market to get some apples, forgetting completely that pumpkins would also be there...huge pumpkins, white pumpkins, tiny pumpkins, weird shaped pumpkins. JW was shaking from pure pumpkin joy. Somehow he talked us into a giant white pumpkin (probably weighs 80 pounds).

JW also loves pumpkin pie and will not hear of using canned pumpkin (something about being against the pumpkin lover's bill of rights or something). So each year we make pumpkin pie from scratch (well right up to the end it's from scratch) and here's how we do it.

First you need to use small pumpkins, also called sugar pumpkins. The smaller they are, the sweeter they are. If you use a larger pumpkin, you may want to add more sugar. These 2 pumpkins made about 5 cups of pumpkin puree, enough for 2 pies or 1 pie and 1 loaf of pumpkin bread (subject of a later post).

Cut the tops off, clean it out and chop it up. Strangely, JW is ok with this step. You wouldn't think he would be. He likes to collect the seeds with future pumpkins in mind.

Arrange the pieces on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until the pieces are fork tender. I have also steamed the pumpkin with a little water in the microwave (takes too long due to too many small batches), and I have boiled it (too watery). The easiest and best results I've got is by baking it.

Now peel the pieces to just leave the good stuff.

Puree the pumpkin in a food processor. You may need to add some water if it is too dry. At this point we usually run out of time or need a break, so we put it in the refrigerator for the night and aim to start fresh the next day. I should say that this is a risky practice though, because distractions and life in general tend to get in the way and the pumpkin gets forgotten until it's too late and all that work was for nothing. This usually happens to us every year so don't feel bad if it happens to you. We understand.

Once you get your life back in order, add a 12 oz can of evaporated milk to 2 cups of the pumpkin puree.

Add 3/4 cup brown sugar.

Add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 eggs. Beat well with a mixer or by hand if you have some aggression to work out.

Pour into a frozen 9" deep dish pie shell (this is where the from scratch part falls apart) or make your own crust if you insist. I personally try to avoid using a rolling pin wherever possible. But that's just me. You might be completely different.

Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Serve with whipped cream of course.

I don't like pumpkin pie but reviews from the family were all good. This is a true labor of love for my pumpkin lovin' boy.

"Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see." ~ Linus

The Funniest Chicken

CountryGirl — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:53:00 GMT

I was excited today to find out that some pictures that I snapped of our rooster "Roosty" won honorable mention in the Purina Mills fanciest and funniest chicken photo contest. I entered the funniest category. I took these pictures one afternoon back in the spring before and during a thunderstorm. When the storm kicked up we moved to the garage for lots of rooster fun. It was so long ago that I sent the pictures in that I have forgotten which ones I submitted.

Roosty was a stray rooster that wandered up to our farm last spring and decided to stay. He is the nicest rooster without a mean bone in his body (which is unusual for a rooster) He puts up with alot from the kids who love to tote him around the farm.

I took these pictures with some kind of funky color setting accidently set on my camera. But I think they turned out nice!

Let the fun begin. I love this shot with Nickel in the background thinking he'd like chicken for supper.

Fun at the 2009 State Fair

CountryGirl — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:12:00 GMT

One of the reasons I love the month of October is the NC State Fair.   We have certain things we HAVE to do or see each year, but each year we always find a few new things as well.     Here is a summary of our fair experience this year.

Casey here is modeling the latest in fair fashion.   Beautiful dahhhlingg!

She is also showing her "wheels" for the day.   We have never attempted the state fair without something with wheels to tote the kids around and I don't think we ever will until they are like 19.     We walked pretty much nonstop for 5 hours there is no way we could have survived without this wagon.

This year I got brave and decided to enter one of the Cooking Contests. It was the Hidden Valley Ranch cooking contest. There were 21 entries.   I didn't win this year, but have some ideas for next year.   I consoled myself with some chocolate covered bacon (it happened to be right next door to this booth, how convenient).    I don't recommended it though, it did nothing but make us feel queasy, imagine that!

Our favorite thing to see at the fair are the animals. We got to watch some of the heifer judging. They all looked good to me, but what do I know.

This is something we never miss...the cow milking. For $2 the kids get to milk a cow and get a little half pint of regular or chocolate milk afterward (not directly from the cow!) The kids love it, it's harder than it looks.   Last year JW was sitting across from Casey and he squirted milk on Casey's shoe. They are still talking about that one.

I want to take the time now to apologize to the cow above. She'd be so embarrassed that such an intimate picture of her is on the internet.   My apologies, lady cow.

Gotta love the babies.

The baby piggies are a must see every year.

We also love the Heritage Village area of the fair, but I didn't get any pictures, probably was reaching exhaustion by then. It has the blacksmith shop where Jason could spend hours and I usually have to drag him away.

Of course there is the eating.   Here is a picture of JW eating Fried Alligator on a Stick. He loved it, he said "it is better than chicken!" He told me to go to the grocery store and get some alligator, I said "um, don't think that's going to happen"

Other things we ate today: Chicken Pita (it's a 12 yr tradition for Jason and I), Cajun fries, Cotton Candy, Chocolate covered peanuts, roasted peanuts, fresh pressed apple cider, kettle corn, corn dog, giant turkey leg, soft pretzel.   All this added up to $12,000. Not really, but it was close and was probably 12,000 calories.

And of course there are the rides. If it was up to Jason and me, we would avoid the rides completely, but Casey loves to go on rides and insisted on a Ferris Wheel ride.   For the 3 of us to go on the Ferris Wheel was $12!   But it was worth it, it made Casey happy.

The view from the ferris wheel.   All the mud on the right is where they were doing truck/tractor pulls.

Casey got to do one more ride. There is a short list of rides that I deem safe with these portable rides and one of them is the giant slide.

JW talked Jason into doing to dart throw instead of going on a ride.   This is their loot (you don't even want to know what this cost us)

Finally when the fair looks like this, it's time to go! You can see my mom next to me in this picture (we both have the navy coats). Mom and Dad joined us today, Dad was the primary photographer as usual and didn't make it into any pictures.

Fried Green Tomatoes

CountryGirl — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:08:00 GMT

This is a great time of year to make fried green tomatoes since tomato plants are still producing tomatoes that probably won't ripen before the end of the season. They should be available in the farmer's market as well. This is my own secret recipe that I've created from combining different elements of many different recipes I've tried, though using ranch dressing is a twist of my own that was probably a sub for buttermilk somewhere along the way.

This is one of the heirloom varieties that I grew this year. It's actually a purple tomato, if it had been allowed to live life to it's fullest.

Slice the tomato and season with salt. Sometimes I sprinkle a little sugar on them too, but I love sugar on my tomatoes, I'm just weird that way. Trust me, it's good.

In one bowl put equal amounts of flour, corn meal and bread crumbs. I used Panko breadcrumbs here, but I think I really prefer just plain old dry breadcrumbs. I just like their texture and taste better for this.

In another bowl put ranch dressing and a couple splashes of hot sauce and mix.

Dredge the tomato slices in the dressing and then coat with the breadcrumb mixture.

Fry in 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat until they are golden brown, about 3-4 minutes per side.

Introducing the star of this movie...take a bow fried green tomatoes! 2 thumbs up! 5 stars!

Sorry, no more corny movie quotes, I promise!

Happy Trails

CountryGirl — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:06:00 GMT

Fall is my favorite time of year and is the perfect time to hit the trail.   We got brave and decided to go on the first ever attempted Hiser family trail ride last weekend (I can safely say brave and not stupid since we did actually survive to live another day).

We drove to a place we like to ride that is on the Little River near the town of Lillington, NC.

We actually have 5 horses, but only have a 3 horse trailer so the kids had to take turns riding double with Jason.   JW went first. They rode our horse Walker. We've had Walker for 11 years.   His full name is Walker Texas Ranger since he looks like the horse Walker used to ride on that show.   We bought Walker as soon as we got back from our honeymoon from a rodeo stock contractor who had used him as a bucking horse and who knows what else.    He was extremely thin when we got him which is amazing since he gets fat on air with us. I have no idea how to even make this horse thin.   Through the years we have done a little barrel racing, competitive trail riding and polocrosse with Walker, and he is now excelling as a lesson horse.   We love to tell his little students after they ride him that he is an ex-bucking horse.   That just never gets old.

Casey is riding LuLu, who we call our million dollar pony.   We couldn't ask for a better pony for the kids. She is 27-28 years old and still going strong. Casey does pee-wee barrel racing with her. I bet you can't guess what Casey's favorite color is(her saddle seat is actually pink too).

I thought this was a good shot of Walker. He is what is called a Medicine Hat paint.   Native Americans liked to have these horses for battles because they have a war bonnet (the brown color around the ears and down around neck) and a shield, brown color on his chest. They were supposed to give the warriors courage and luck in battle. He also has one blue eye and one brown eye.

We ran into these cool chickens along the way.   Around the corner from the chickens was a pasture with horses that we had to pass by. The horses came to the fence to greet us. I told Casey to stay away from the fence and she immediately said "Why, is it on?"   It just made me realize how ingrained farm life is into our kids, that she would immediately know that a fence can be "on" (i.e. electric).

Half way through we swapped horses.   The black horse's ears here are the closest we got to a picture of me on this ride. This is the horse I was riding, Missy.    She is a 19 year old off the track quarter horse who is realizing a new career of barrel racing in her twilight years and is doing really well!

The scenery and the weather was perfect.

Here's a little better shot of me. Well almost. Not really. It's just Missy. Actually I'm kind of glad there were no pictures of me...I had my camera bag over my shoulder and the only bag we could find at the last minute to carry drinks, Casey's ladybug backpack. I looked really good..I mean really good. Luckily we only ran into 2 other people along the way.

We had no idea how long the kids would last on their first off the farm trail ride. They made it all the way around the 2 hour loop with no whining. We even got lost once with no meltdowns. Overall, it was an extremely successful trip!

Jalapeno Popper Grilled Chicken

CountryGirl — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:44:00 GMT

This is one of my favorite ways to grill chicken.   There are many variations to this recipe that I've tried and liked, but this is my favorite.

I should probably stop here to mention that I am the griller in our family, not necessarily by choice....mostly due to the fact that I failed to discover the total lack of my husband's grilling skills until after the rings were exchanged.   Not that it would have been a deal breaker, but it would have been nice to know what I was getting myself into, ya know? We've somehow managed to muddle through the past 11 years with my grilling learning curve but I think I am finally getting there.

OK back to the recipe. In a bowl, mix 4 oz cream cheese, a handful of shredded cheese and a couple spoonfuls (depending on how much heat you can handle) of bottled diced jalapenos (I buy mine already diced) into a gloppy mess. Did I just say gloppy? Well you know what I mean.

Now this is the most critical part. Make a pocket like this in a boneless chicken breast. It's best to start on the fattest side. Use a short sharp knife and make a slice parallel to your cutting board, making sure you don't cut all the way through.

Stuff the pocket with your cream cheese mixture.   For the kids I just use cheese.
I've also used horseradish and cheese. It's all good!

Wrap up each chicken breast with bacon, use 2 pieces if you have to (have to, shoot, who wouldn't want to?) but make sure you cover up your pocket well. You can use toothpicks to secure, but if you have any young children in the house like we do, toothpicks last about 24 hours max in the house before they are hijacked for science experiments, newly invented mouse traps or <um> 'interesting' works of art.   So I didn't have any here and managed to pull it off without them.   Oh and make sure you warn your family if you do use toothpicks because biting into a chargrilled toothpick is no fun at all.

Throw those beauties on the grill. I prefer to grill my chicken on about a medium heat so that it can have a chance to cook before it gets charred beyond recognition. It usually takes about 7-8 minutes per side at this temperature. Be patient.   One tip, if you can't easily flip the chicken, it is not ready to flip.    It will eventually let go of it's hold on the grill. Encourage it to "just let go" but don't nag it and definitely don't force it.

Now brush on your favorite barbeque sauce...no comments on my brush please. It works. Form follows function, right?

The final product. Let them cool for 4-5 minutes before you serve because the insides are just short of molten lava temps hot off the grill.

Taming the Wild Kingdom

CountryGirl — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:16:00 GMT

Here JW demonstrates how to tame his wild garden that got out of hand as we hibernated from the heat and bugs in the AC for the month of August.

Step 1. Insert Garden Weasel                         Step 2. Start twisting


Step 3. Pull, pull, pull!

Step 4. Success!

There are much easier ways to do this I'm sure, but this is how a 6 year old and his non power tool using mama do it.

(Note: these pictures were taken with my old so-out-of-date non-HD camera before it crossed the rainbow bridge)

Water's Worth

CountryGirl — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:28:00 GMT

"When the wells dry, we know the worth of water" - Ben Franklin

I was thinking along the lines of Ben Franklin this morning as I stood shivering in the shower with shampoo in one eye and no water flowing out of my shower head.    For those of you who have what us country folk call "city water", count your blessings every night that you don't ever have to worry about water flowing through your pipes and please say a little water prayer for your country friends. We need it.

Like most people out in the country we get our water from a well.   We live most days without any water issues, but we know in the back of our minds at all times that water is a precious commodity that must be nurtured and praised and constantly worried about in order to coax it from the ground and into our showers.

We worry about things like power outages. We run to fill the bathtubs with water at the first threat of foul weather so we will be able to flush the toilets.

We teach our 6 year old sons to reach in the crawl space under the house to whack the water pressure regulator valve when it gets stuck.

We worry during droughts that today will be the last drop.    We evil eye our neighbors when they water their garden in a drought and steal our underground water. (not really....well, maybe...but you can't prove anything)

Sometimes, like where Jason grew up, folks drive to a local community spring to fill large water tanks when the water dries up every summer.

We coax and prod and lay hands on to pray over our well pumps so they last another day.   We wrap them in electric blankets so they don't catch a chill in the winter.

With all this, it's no wonder we build shrines to our wells like this one:

Come to think of it, our well is looking kind of shabby and neglected, no wonder our water kharma has been off lately.   Please don't forget us in your prayers tonight. Thank you.

p.s. you should see a great improvement in my photo quality...I got a new HD digital camera today. Sweet!

The Ultimate Comfort Food: Chicken Pot Pie with Sweet Potato Crust

CountryGirl — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:59:00 GMT

One of my favorite comfort foods is Chicken Pot Pie.   Today Jason asked me to "whip something up" to take to a good friend who had had a death in the family. So I decided to make my Chicken Pot Pie with Sweet Potato crust and chocolate chip cookies. What can be better than that? (I made the same for us too)

First get a chicken in a pot.   I like to cook a chicken in my crockpot, but you could boil one in a pot on a stovetop as well. When cooking a chicken in a crockpot (electric gadget #1), I put balls of aluminum foil underneath to keep it up off the bottom so it cooks evenly. I season with salt and pepper. This crockpot here cooks way too hot, so a chicken is done on high in about 2-4 hours. A normal crockpot would probably cook a chicken in 4-6 hours on high. If you want to, get a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store and skip this step.

Next peel and chop a sweet potato into even chunks.   If you don't have a steamer (electric gadget #2) like this, go and get you one. It's worth it believe me. Let me know when you get back.

OK, now that you have your steamer, turn it on for about 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes are very soft and easily mashable.

Take the potatoes out and mash the heck out of them. Then let them chill out and cool completely.

Now chop some carrots and throw them in the steamer. We just want to cook them slightly, for about 5-10 minutes to soften them up.

Now in a food processor (electric gadget #3) mix 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Take a stick of butter out of the fridge, make sure it's nice and cold. Cut 1/4 cup of butter into little chunks and pulse it into the flour mixture until it has a grainy texture.

Add 1 cup of the sweet potato mixture.

Turn the dough out of the bowl (it will be sticky). Add flour and work it just enough so it looks like this. (don't over work it) I usually put it in the refrigerator for an hour or so to make it easier to roll out later.

When the chicken gets done, take it out and tear it apart. I love my chicken shredded.

Now make a white sauce. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add 2 tablespoons of flour.

Whisk it together.

Whisk in 2 cups of warm milk. The warm milk is crucial to keep the butter in liquid form. Microwave for 1 minute intervals, whisking in between until the sauce thickens. If you can't get it to thicken, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the chicken, carrots and some corn together. I don't like anything green in my pot pie because it always gets overcooked and turns that greenish grey color. Ewww.

Mix the white sauce in and put the mixture into a deep dish pie pan.

Roll out the dough to the size of your pie plate. Add flour if it gets too sticky. I hate rolling out dough so I do it between some Saran wrap, but flour is key, unless you like Saran wrap in your pot pie.

Finally put the crust on top and form the crust around the edges.

Bake for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

These are so good it distracted me so much I didn't take any final pictures of it after it was done. Jason whisked the one away to take to his friend and we ate the other before I thought of it. So picture the picture above but a darker, richer orange color. I don't even like sweet potatoes and I love this pie. Give it a try.

The English Countryside

CountryGirl — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:30:00 GMT

I recently spent a week traveling across the UK on a business trip and was lucky enough to be able to go the "north" of England where I got to spend some time in the English countryside. I stayed in a nice old English farmhouse, complete with a herd of the cutest mini horses and other farm animals. I took a few pictures with my camera on my phone after my camera bit the dust on the train. So I apologize for the poor quality.

Here is the hotel, it is called The Jersey Farm Hotel.

The driveway into the hotel leads through here, past these beautiful flowers.

Here are some of the herd of horses. The brown and white baby was the cutest. He could hardly stand still for a picture.

I took this picture to primarily show you what my hair looks like while I am in the UK without my normal hair products and without my diffuser on my hair dryer. This little guy and I have a very similar style.

They had 3 llamas also. I took a picture of their big pile of nasty poop so I could remember why we will NEVER again get another llama at TripleCreek farm (long story that I will tell you one day). Count yourself lucky that I did not include that photo here.

Chess anyone?

This is in the entryway to the hotel. I thought it was cool. Don't look for too long, staring directly into the sun is not good for the eyes.

This was the bathroom area next to the restaurant. Love the coat hooks. A little western touch.

And here is my room.

I never would ever think about choosing dark grey and black wallpaper, but I really liked it. Not sure what it would do to my general mood long term though.

This picture is not too good, but the lamp matched the wallpaper.

The bathroom. It had this giant jacuzzi tub but a tiny shower. Do you know that there are no electrical plugs allowed in bathrooms in the UK? Another useless tip for the day. You're welcome.

The bathroom had tile that matched the wallpaper in the room. Loved it!

And finally, here is the view out the window where I was conducting my training class for work. The class was in a renovated old Manor House and these were the barns.

Canning 101, Hot Pepper Butter and my Trip to Hell and Back

CountryGirl — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:06:00 GMT

I planted 5 banana pepper plants in the garden this year. My first time trying to grow them, I didn't hold out too much hope, given the measley 1 or 2 jalapeno's I've managed to grow in the past. The banana peppers ended up being the best producing plant in the garden this year...with at least 25 peppers on a plant at a time, we were overrun with peppers. The picture at the top of this blog are some of our peppers.

I planted the peppers so I could make one of my favorite canned foods: hot pepper butter. My sister-in-law Michele introduced this to me a few years ago in WV and it is one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. It's not dairy butter, think more like apple butter. And actually it's more of a sweet and hot mustard that is awesome on sandwiches or mixed in cream cheese for a dip. I now have over 30 half pints of the stuff in my pantry, and the plants are still loaded with peppers!

This post will show how I make the pepper butter with some basic canning steps/rules along the way.

Step 1: Always put on comfortable shoes before you attempt to can anything. Please disregard my white Casper legs, the pool closed early on us this year, ok?

Step 2. This is what you need to get if you want to can anything. I put this picture here because usually these things are harder to find in your grocery store than hen's teeth and I wanted you to know what they look like. Try to channel your store manager's brain or try the seasonal aisle, the charcoal aisle, sometimes the baking aisle (again might want to consider the comfortable shoes as you hunt for these) These are half pint jars, but they also come in pint and quart size as well. 1 half pint of pepper butter mixes perfectly with an 8oz block of cream cheese so I choose 1/2 pint for pepper butter.

Step 3. There are 3 pieces to each jar: the jar, the lid and the ring. Everything but the lid is reusable. Start a big pot of water boiling and put the jars in there to sterilize for at least 5 minutes. I do this first thing and they just kind of hang out in there until I am ready. There's nothing worse than having to wait for your jars to sterilize.

Step 4. Pick a peck of pickled peppers (or just go to the grocery store) You will need about 40 large banana peppers. Mine are in different shades of ripe as you can see.

Step 5. PUT ON GLOVES, I REPEAT PUT ON GLOVES. FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, PUT ON GLOVES!

I want to re-enforce step 5 with the story of my trip to hell and back.   The first time I made pepper butter I ignored this rule. As I chopped and seeded the peppers, I told myself I'd put gloves on if it started to burn.   I made it through 40 peppers (some of them were so hot they made me cough and sneeze just smelling them).   I was even brazen enough to reach in each pepper with my finger to get the seeds out. I washed my hands good with soap and congratulated myself for being tough enough to not need gloves.

I finished making the pepper butter, and went outside with JW to check his garden.   It was a typical 95 degree high humidity August day.    As soon as my hands hit that heat they started to burn. By the time I got to the garden, I knew something was terribly wrong. Intense heat was radiating from both hands.   I ran back inside and washed them again, only to make it worse.    Then I got the bright idea to go to the pool and soak my hands in the cool water. So we pack the kids up and went to the pool. I get in the pool, put my hands in the water and it is like I stuck them directly through the gates of hell into a fiery flame.   I ran out of the pool and went straight to the grill to ask for a can of soda to wrap my hands around. My hands are now plastered to the can and I'm in a complete panic.   I tell the kids to get out of the pool we got to go home, NOW!   By this time my hand and fingers are starting to swell.   I start thinking of any possible thing to try and research on the internet.   I tried everything, even putting my hands in Maalox and baking soda. Finally the only thing that worked was putting my hands in cold milk. As soon as the milk warmed up, it stopped working.   So I somehow managed to sleep (or lay) all night with both hands in a bowl of milk, that I had to keep swapping out for cold milk.   By about 4 am after a sleepless night, the fire started to ease up.

Lesson learned: I will NEVER touch another pepper without gloves, I even get a little nervous around a bell pepper. Post traumatic stress disorder, no doubt. Another lesson, if you eat something hot, drink milk NOT water!!

Step 6. Did I mention put gloves on?   Double them if you can. I do, refer to step 5. Cut the ends off and then put a skinny knife down inside the pepper and rotate 360 degrees to get the seeds out.   I could not do this and take a picture so the picture below is the carnage that remains in the sink. Don't worry if a few seeds get missed.

Step 7. Chop the seeded peppers finely in a food processor, you should have about 1 quart.

Step 8. Put in all in a large pot. Add 1 quart cider vinegar, 1 quart mustard and 6 cups sugar and 1 tsp salt. Start heating and continue to stir constantly.

Step 9. Whisk 1 1/4 cups flour and 1 1/2 cups water until there are no lumps and add to the heated pepper mixture.

Step 10. Keep stirring until the mixture starts to thicken up. I test it with a spoon

Step 11. Get your sterilized jars out and fill while they are still warm. These jar lifters are essential.

Step 12. Fill the jars with one of these funnel thingies, makes it much easier!

Step 13. Scoop some water out of your big pot where you sterilized the jars. Put your lids in there. They just need to warm up so the wax can make a good seal. Don't ever boil them.

Step 14. Leave 1/4 inch headspace in your jar. Get one of these cool measurers.

Step 15. Wipe the rims with a wet paper towel so the jars will seal properly.

Step 16. Grab a lid with one of these magnetic lid lifters.

Step 17. Put the lids on and then the rings.

Step 18. Lower into a hot water bath and process for 10 minutes. There should be about 1/2 inch of water above your jars.

Finally, the finished product! This made 16 1/2 half pint jars. The 1/2 jar I put right in the fridge.

If this seems like too much work, you can always come and get some of my stash (don't tell Jason I told you that!)

Extreme Makeover of the Bovine Kind

CountryGirl — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:20:00 GMT

I thought I'd share some of the finished aspects of our house before I start focusing in on the works in progress. I am kicking myself for not getting "before" pictures of this chair, but I want you to picture the typical light blue chair with little goldish color shell like things all over it. Oh and worn out threadbare arms. OK, have a mental image now?

Here it is after Jason got done with it. That's real genuine cow hide there, ladies and gentlemen.

We had fun at the leather store picking out the hide, do you realize how many color options are available in cow hides? We decided on this white and brownish/blackish one. The kids loved to play on it on the floor, we had to pry it out of their hands to make this chair. Jason can recover car interior which has been very usefully applied to our home as well. We lovingly refer to this chair as "the cow chair".

Other things to notice in this picture are the window treatments, which are actually a sheer denim printed fabric. Don't ask me how I ever found it, but as soon as I did, I knew it was the fabric for me! Jason welded the window treatment holder thingys out of real pony horseshoes.

The end table we've had since we got married 11 years ago. The base is is metal made to look like leather with buckles. Somehow the glass top has survived this many years, though the protective layer of dust and usual smattering of magazines and clutter has probably protected it well.

I love the metal cow skull, much nicer than the real thing, which seems omnipresent in western decorated houses. The lamp is a barrel racer.

Finally the floor. It is 7 inch wide low grade hickory, so it has lots of knots and character to it.

I think that's about it. See the hideous looking, sagging, barely working blinds in the window? They are on my list for replacing. I'd love to make a roman shade type shade out of old burlap feed sacks. But that is still in the dreaming stage.

Many thanks to Jason, he is my idea execution man. I get an idea and he figures out how to get it done and he has good ideas too.

A tribute to the Croquette and other wild Salmon patty stories...

CountryGirl — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:13:00 GMT

I like to read old cookbooks.   I'm not talking about the the old Better Homes & Garden cookbook that everyone has with pages plastered together from years of use...I'm talking about old cookbooks, like first half of last century.   I even have found recipes from the 1800's, though that far back recipes start having unknown or unwanted ingredients (like lard) and strange measuring amounts like "pinch", "drop", "size of a walnut". It wasn't until the turn of the century that measurements were standardized.

Anyway, the reason I mention this is that all old cookbooks have a least 12-50 recipes for croquettes (not to be confused with the lawn game)   A Croquette is a small fried breadcrumb coated cylinder or disk containing any number of ingredients, including last nights leftovers, mashed potatoes, fish or meat, and is soaked in bread, egg or some other binder.   From wikipedia: "The croquette (from the French croquer, “to crunch”) was a French invention that gained world-wide popularity, both as a delicacy and as a fast food."

They were apparently all the rage back then so I always wonder what ever happened to the once beloved croquette? What could possibly happen to a food so obviously popular to have it almost go extinct? Oh sure, occasionally I see croquettes on a menu or in a newer cookbook, but it's rare. It's a mystery to me! Someday I will track down the answers to these questions, but for now, won't you join me for a moment of silence for the long lost croquette.

Thank you.

Now back to the 21st century, where the croquette has been transformed into a "patty" or a "cake",and brings me to my recipe of the day, Salmon Patties.

The first salmon patty I ever tried was believe it or not for breakfast about 10-12 years ago.    They occasionally offered them for breakfast where I worked since salmon patties are a southern staple for breakfast, lunch and dinner.   I don't have any idea what got me to try them other than the other selections on that day must have been slim to none since I was never a big salmon eater and I'd never even considered eating fish for breakfast.    Much to my surprise, I really liked them.

Eventually I investigated making them myself, but back then the first ingredient in every recipe was "1 can of salmon with bones and skin removed" because back then the only canned salmon available had to be picked over. Yuck. I could never get past that. So I resigned myself to only having them occasionally for breakfast at work (I wasn't about to actually cook a real salmon myself, I was in my twenties for Pete's sake).

Then came the awesome salmon in a pouch, with no bones or skin. Hurray, my ship had come in! So I set out to find the perfect salmon patty recipe. After many attempts, I decided I'm what I would call a salmon patty minimalist.   I don't like any additions to distract from what makes a salmon patty all that it can be. No onions, no green pepper, nothing crunchy at all except the recently discovered Panko japanese breadcrumbs that are finally available in our hometown grocery store.

So without further adieu, I'd like to present.....the salmon patty:

Isn't she beautiful?   Bask in the glory of the salmon patty, go ahead.

On a practical note, the salmon patty is my goto dinner, when I need something quick and haven't planned anything for dinner. It can sit nice and quiet on my pantry shelf until just the time when it can be called into the game.    I keep a package of steamfresh brown rice (our family could eat this like a snack food we love it so much) and some steamfresh veggies in the freezer and within minutes we have a healthy meal on the table full of healthy Omega 3's and whole grains. Salmon patties actually are on the very short list of things my kids will eat for dinner (and they are probably one of the healthiest)

So finally if I could stop jabbering on, here is the recipe:

1 pouch Salmon (I use either Bumble Bee or Chicken of the Sea, I prefer the wild caught as it has more Omega 3's)
1/4 cup mayo (I use light mayo, you could even use Smart Balance brand for extra credit Omega 3's)
1 egg (I use Eggland's Best, for yet more Omega 3's)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup Panko or regular breadcrumbs
Sometimes if I'm feeling wild, I'll throw in a dash of cayenne.

Add each ingredient one at a time until it is all thoroughly mixed. Shape into patties. This recipe makes about 5 patties which is enough for our family, but sometimes I double it because the leftovers are good cold in a sandwich.

Spread some more breadcrumbs on a plate, add some seasoning salt to taste.   Roll each patty in the breadcrumbs to coat. Now you can go ahead and cook the patties, but you will probably notice that they are a little hard to stay together. At this point if I have time, I like to throw them (well not literally) in the refrigerator 'til they get nice and firm.

Now fry them in a fry pan coated with a good coating of a healthy oil like canola or olive oil over med-high heat for about 3-4 minutes per side.

If you like tarter sauce on your patties and don't have any handy, I mix some mayo with lemon juice and a little bit of sweet pickle relish (just taste it until you get it right)

Oh and you can also make crab cakes with this recipe.

And you can even call them Salmon Croquettes if you want to.

Enjoy!

Introducing....Bubs and Sissy

CountryGirl — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:32:00 GMT

Here is Casey and one of our dogs Nickel. Casey looks like she has an idea....

Nickel says: "A dog can't have too many mint green Mary Jane Crocs with princesses"

Poor Nickel. He's a good dog. Bless his heart.

And here is JW in action.

We came home from school today and the neighbor's goat was in our pasture.

JW knew exactly what to do. He went right inside and got his rope.

Panic ensues...

The chase is on..

Predator and Prey come to a truce. There will be no goat catching today.

Check back tomorrow for my first recipe post!