The Weekend

Another weekend.  We only have 52 of these a year and I am very jealous of each on.  I don't share them nor give them away easily.  I cherish the ones that allow me to sit and knit, or watch and old movie and knit.  But we also cram a lot of farm work into each weekend.  Two days to get caught up with all the work around the farm, fences, feed, cleaning, that is just outside.  Then there is the wash, and underneath cleaning I try to get accomplished in the house.  And then the girls think that the weekend is for fun!!!???  Where did that come from?
This weekend we have several things to do....make our business office more user friendly (in other words get it cleaned up), order seeds for the garden, figure out how many chicks to order and make a pen for them in the barn, build a chicken tractor, and work on the bathroom down stairs.  Yeah and Kent may be gone all day to a scholars bowl meet.....So that means myself and Ethan will be working a lot.
But that brings to some good news, I have my big bulky, uncomfortable boot off and have a new light weight brace on my leg.  I can walk normal again.  Nine months have been spent in that huge "Darth Vader" boot. Yeah


So what will I be cooking this weekend? 
Beef Mushroom and Barley Soup - Relish

I will change a couple of things to fit my family but I am going to make a big pot Saturday for lunch.

1 lb of ground beef (the recipe called for sirloin steak but into 1 1/2 inch pieces, to expensive right now)
1 cup of diced onions
1 cup of diced carrots
1 (12 oz) package of mushrooms, coarsely chopped-I use baby cremini mushrooms
1/2 c of uncooked barley- use the long cooking for better flavor and texture
1 (10 1/2 oz) can of beef broth
5 cups of water
1 t. of kosher salt
1/2 t. fresh cracked pepper
2 cups of chopped Swiss chard, or kale (this adds color and nutrition)
1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan Cheese to add on top of each bowl

Brown the ground meat till no pink remains.  Drain and rinse the fat from it.  Return to the skillet and add the onions and carrots.  Let this cook for about 10 minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients through the pepper.  Let this simmer for 45 minutes until the barley is tender.  Add the Swiss chard about 5 minutes before serving.  Ladle into bowls and top with the cheese. 

I will also make some home made dinner rolls.  Before baking the rolls off I will brush each on with egg white and then sprinkle kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper on top.  Bake them off and they are glossy with the the white and black gleaming on top.

This will also make great left overs for Sunday night!

2012

The years are flying by so fast as I approach 50, will they slow down once I have my birthday this year?  I hope so, I can't keep up.  Everything is so much faster then what our parents lived through.  But I think it is also that the older we get the faster everything seems to be moving.  Sit and breathe for a while, it helps slow it all down.

This post is about cooking, surprise! 
It is about cooking at home, nightly.....
Cooking on the weekend......
Cooking for your family and friends.....

First cooking at home nightly...that is a big one for me and I would guess for you also.  How to get it done and keep your sanity.  I little planning will goes a long ways to that; also help from your family.  Kids make great souse chefs.

Tonight I am making Chicken Parm with a salad.  It will be just my girls and I tonight, but I am still going to cook.  That is not our normal...I use Kent not being their as an excuse to go out with the girls...nothing wrong with that except it creates a money spiral....first we go out to eat, Noodles & Co. is the new favorite spot.  It will run about 25.00 with a little bit of left overs, maybe.  Then Kent will grab something because there is nothing ready to eat at home....8.00.  When Ethan gets off at 8:00 PM he is hungry and will go by Sonic and eat fast food again...3.00.  Then there are no left overs for lunch the next day so Kent and the girls will eat at school for about 10.00 for all three of them.  So all that cost me about 46.00 bucks.  At Target that is a bunch of groceries.  I have to stop the money spiral. 

So dinner tonight will be cooked with enough left overs for all three of them.  I will also make two plates for Kent and Ethan so that they can eat when they get home.  I will pocket the 46.00 for a knitting project!  Not really but if I save enough money this way maybe!!!!!!


Chicken Parmesan with Pasta

2 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 cups of panko bread crumbs
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup of flour
1 cup of fresh Parmesan cheese grated
dash of salt and pepper

1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 lb of cooked pasta

1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat our oven up to 300 before you start and place and oven proof plate or a pizza stone.
Bring chicken up to room temp.  Heat a large skillet over high heat, add your favorite cooking oil.  My is a blend of butter and olive oil.  Let the oil heat up.
Meanwhile get three shallow dishes out. 
Dish one: Flour with the parm cheese and salt and pepper mixed up.  Dish two: beaten eggs.  Dish three: panko bread crumbs.  Dip chicken in flour, shake, dip into eggs, let drip and then lay the chicken down into the panko and press firmly.  Carefully lay the breaded chicken down into the hot oil.  Turn your heat down to medium high, you may need to adjust further.  Repeat with the remaining chicken.  I never cook more than four at a time.  When they are golden brown remove and place on your hot dish in the warmed oven.
Cook your pasta according to package and drain well.  Heat your spaghetti sauce up.  Now assembling.  On a large platter spread your hot pasta, then lay your chicken on top.  Sprinkle the cheese over the chicken and top with the hot sauce.  Serve with a salad and crusty bread!  Now that wasn't so bad was it?

My version of Farm LIfe

The last two weeks have left with very little to no extra time.  We have a complicated sewage system.  Our house is 6 inches lower than our lagoon.  That means we have a lift station between the house and the lagoon.  The lift station collects wast water and when it reaches a certain level there is a small green pump that pushes the water out to the lagoon.  That little pump has redefined my entire life.  That little green pump is vital our every day living.
The pump went out a week ago last Friday.  The alarm went off and the light on the post glared red at the house.  Every time I looked outside, that red light would remind me that life as I know it is changed.
First, no unnecessary toilet flushing, showers anywhere else but home, no dish washing (had to buy wash tubs, then dump the tubs when they got full outside), and no washing machine.
We paid 200.00 to have the yucky water pumped out so that we could get to the pump, then found out that the pump was dead.  So we spent another 200+ to get a new pump.  Kent and I put the pump in....I am on load 10 of washing.

So that little green pump is the best little thing I have ever seen!

Slow Braised Short Ribs, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Parkerhouse Rolls....

This Sunday I am trying out a new recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  I may change a few things but the essence will be there.  Short ribs that have been braised in the oven in a deep rich tasting wine and a fantastic Balsamic vinegar I bought up at the "Cook's Nook" in McPherson; then adding  thyme, kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper.  Diced up carrots, onions and celery will be the aromatics in this dish; they will be braised with the meat till they are limp shells of themselves. The meat will be removed from the pot, placed on a sheet pan and broiled till they get a deep dark brown crust....served with garlic mashed potatoes made with real butter and a touch of cream. 
I have Edna Lewis cook book and the first recipe I will make will be the Parker House Rolls with a slightly crunchy salty top.
We still have tomatoes ripening in our garden.  I think I will slice up a bunch of those and dress them with Balsamic vinegar and kosher salt.

Fall is here...

And it came quickly.  I love fall and everything that it brings, cooler temps, color changes, cooking in the oven again....And bringing my family back to the table.
This has been a very hectic begining of school for us.  My oldest is going to WATC for his Airfram and Power Plant certification-means he will be able to repair plans.  I have a senior and sophomore girls at Trinity.  We are done with the first 9 weeks and it just simply disappeared. 

I set this goal for myself every month and will continue to do so because I need to refocus.  Brining my family to the table for dinner.  Now Ethan my oldest works at nights, so it is just the four of us during the week.  Friday nights are hit and miss with school sports, date night or sheer exhaustion.  Sunday Lunch is our big family meal with everyone...including friends that they may want to invite. 

So make a plan and work the plan to have more family meals together.  The younger you start the bigger the pay off is when they are tweens and then teenagers. 

Starting Over

One thing about our lives is that we can start over anytime we choose.  We can pick any point in our lives and declare to ourselves and or others that we are starting over.  Each time we choose this we try to get a little closer to our goal.  We do not have to live in the rut we may find ourselves, we can climb out and, start over.  So I am starting over....

I love food, I love the way it taste, the way I can play with it, and the political side of food.  I know everyone shyes away from the political side of anything.  If everyone can play nice and use kindness and respect we will tackle some of the political sides of food.  If you  can't play nice, you will be banned.  It is my blog and I get to set the rules.  MMMHHHUUUUU...

I have just finished reading Judith Jones book "The Tenth Muse".  I loved the book and could not put it down.  I was a bit stunned at how fascinating the book was.  It was filled with my cooking heroes and and introduced a couple of new ones.  I am just now learning about Edna Lewis, Marion Cunningham (not that MC) and am so sad that I did not learn about them until they have past.  So into my Amazon Cart is two new books to learn about these Ladies of Food.  I may not agree with them politically, but then I can look beyond that and read about their food adventures.
Judith Jones is the amazing lady who found James Bread and Julie Child and so many after that.  It really is a great book by an amazing lady and her interesting life.

She also has a section of the book for her favorite recipes.  I will be the first to say there are several I will never try.  There are just certain things I can not eat no matter how French they may sound.  But there are several I will try.  I will post them as I go through them.

What I did during the Blizzard of 2011!

Two snow days in a row....from both of the schools that are in our lives....heaven right?  Yes and maybe a small no.  I loved that we were all home together, snug and tight in our new house.  But one look outside we knew that the animals had to be checked on.  So, encased in our Carhart Coats, hats, gloves and anything else we could find Kent and I ventured out.  Now at this point my hubby was far smarter than I, he put is long underwear on, I did not, stupid.  That wind was strong!  It was an effort to place one foot in front of the other.  You could not face the wind, it hurt!  What were the donkeys doing in this mess? 

Brighty and Pedro were bedded down in a shelter that we had split in two so that both animals could get in.  We are still keeping the two of them separate since one is gelded and one is intact.  Pedro wants to dominate everyone and poor little Brighty is half his size so we are being careful.  We walked around the corner of the shelter that we have lined with straw bales---it was pathetic, both donkeys were snow packed from end to end.  Pedro had icicles hanging from his nose and mouth and they were shivering!  That was hard to see.  They are in our care and we take that very seriously...so we had to do something. 

We went to work in the chicken coop, Brighty could go in there till this was over.  We had re-arrange chicken feeders, and their heated water dish, which meant re-configuring all the electrical cords.  Everyone has a heated water dish, water freezes overnight if it is not kept warm.  It was 10 degrees in the chicken coop.  My legs were frozen (remember no long johns) and I could no longer feel my fingers.  We got the goats tucked into a small enclosures within the chicken coop, they were fed and had water.  They we move the chicken's stuff to the top of the those enclosures within the chicken coop.  Then we had to deal with the ducks.  We will never get ducks again, they are the messiest creatures you have every seen.  No matter how small the water dish is, they will get in it and fling water everywhere, they have to have water in order to eat.  What happens when water is sprayed all over a place at 10 degrees?  It freezes in seconds!!! They are a mess!

We figured Brighty's dish was heavy enough that it would not tip over if the ducks tried to get in and Brighty most likely would keep them from getting in, yet they could drink.  Okay so now comes the next step....
We had to move Brighty from the small pen to an unknown area for him.  Donkeys view the world different than horses, they see a new place with no exit and they freak.  There is nothing like having 140 pounds of fur and hooves freaking out! 

Clare and I got the lead on Brighty and brushed as much snow off of him as we could.  He was a sad site!!!  Then we started leading him, well not leading him really more like dragging him!  He did not want to go anywhere.  But as parents we all know that sometimes we have to force an issue because we do know what is best.  So imagine Clare and I on either side of this donkey pulling in a deep snow drift for all we are worth and Brighty digging his heels in...all four of them. 

Kent came to the rescue.  Brighty dose not kick, which is a bit strange, that is their main defense and if you walk behind Pedro be prepared he will kick.  But not Brighty, he was so scared, which was breaking my heart.  But onward we went and Kent came up behind him and pushed, hard.  That worked we got him out of the pasture and lined up to enter the chicken coop.  For every new area there is an invisible line that every donkey knows for a fact he can not cross, ever.  Hmmm, we had to get him inside because I was running out of energy.  Being 39 for the second time this decade was telling on me!  Again Kent came up behind him and pushed and in he went!

So we got Brighty settled down and eating.  The chickens were howling though!  We have one rooster and he was going off!  When chickens get unsettled they let you know all about it, then suddenly they have said their piece and they are all silent.  We looked around and they were all up above just sitting and watching.  The ducks were still fussing and the goats were happy to see their friend even if it was through a fenced in door.  I was frozen- I had to go in and so Clare and I tromped off to the house to see if I still had fingers intact.  Kent was working on a stall in the barn for Pedro.  It had taken us two hours to move Brighty!  We had to wait till Ethan got home to move Pedro so for a bit we could rest......