Giving Thank Y'alls

Thanksgiving is usually quite the gluttonous day for us.  Since moving here, we try to get a wild turkey, but for reasons not quite understood, the benevolent DNR has decided that there aren’t enough turkeys around to justify a hunt.  For the past TWO years.  What a crock.  They must be counting turkey numbers in the town square because we (and other’s we’ve talked with) seem to be overwhelmed with the buggers. But I regress….

Turkey (store bought - again), a honey-baked ham, potato something-or-other, dressing, cranberry sauce, rolls, gravy, pie.  And of course, green bean casserole.  Is it even Thanksgiving without a green bean casserole?  I know my Mom is sick of it, even at once a year (maybe twice, I’m lucky if I can swing it again at Christmas), but I LOVE the stuff.   I could eat it once a week.  Really.

Since I’ve been old enough to host dinner, the cranberry sauce has been homemade.  It only takes a bag of cranberries, some water, sugar & about 15 minutes on the stove.  How could you NOT want to have freshly made cranberry sauce?  For reasons unknown to me, I think my Dad still prefers the canned stuff (ick, ick, icky!).  I have vivid memories of Thanksgiving’s past when the table would be set with Crazy Aunt Harriet’s finest dinnerware, a beautiful turkey, all the fixings…..and then the canned cranberry glop.  And it would be placed ceremoniously on one of the fine serving dishes, tell-tale ribbed markings still highly visible on the gelatinous mass.  Would it have killed somebody to just mash it up a bit so it at least LOOKS like it just wasn’t plopped out of a tin can???

We were hoping to have a large crowd this year, but our friends from Chicago couldn’t make it & a few other local guests we invited opted out.  Makes me wonder if it’s me or something.  Hmmmm.  Or it could be that I threatened my city-friend that I was going to serve woodchuck & goat instead of a Butterball.  The locals probably would HAVE come if I told them that.  So it was just Paul, Rhiannon, Grandma & Grandpa and me.  Although I still cooked for an army.  Can you say “Leftovers”?!?

Anyways.  All this heavy-duty eating eventually leads me to my favorite spot; the couch.  I think there is a picture after every Thanksgiving & Christmas dinner of me comatose on the couch.  Regardless of which house we happen to be at.  So if you ever invite me over for a Holiday Feast, make sure you have an extra couch for me to continue my “Oh my god I can’t believe I ate that much” tradition. 

So there I lay, and I think about how wonderful it is to have a loving family, great friends and a home in the country. 

Thank you Paul for putting up with my sometimes questionable homesteading antics.

Thank you Mom for giving me that extra push to get some of those “I’ll do it eventually” projects done (or at least started). But thank you most of all for you being a wonderful Grandma !

Thank you Dad & Christine for understanding my decision to move over 600 miles away from the both of you.  And for making the horribly long trips here to visit me.

Thank you Wally for taking the time to snap all those wonderful photos of Rhiannon (that I never remember to take).

Thank you Kathy for not ostracizing me because of my change of residence.  Oh, and for all those chocolates.  And the closet full of outfits for Rhiannon.

And to the rest of my family and friends, thanks for all those other things that I’m just too ignorant to remember.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

I’m going back to the couch now.

Pies, Pies and more Pies

Getting ready for tomorrow’s feast.  I made three, yes three pies.  Or cakes, or whatever you want to call them.  There are only going to be five of us here tomorrow for dinner and one of us is under two years old.  Somebody’s going to end up in a sugar-induced diabetic coma.

Goat Cheese Cheesecake.  As we’ve had a surplus of goat milk / cheese here on occasion, I’ve found several recipes for a “ricotta” type cheesecake to use up our excess cheese.  This one is darned near simple enough for a two-year old to make.  3 cups of fresh goat cheese (a ricotta-like cheese I make using vinegar to set the curd & then just strain it), 3 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp. vanilla, 1 tsp. lemon juice, ½ tsp. salt.  Mix it all together ‘till it’s fluffy & scoop it into a pre-baked pie shell or graham cracker crust.  I used a basic pie crust recipe with the addition of some sugar & cinnamon.  Think I may top it off with some blueberry compote or maybe a cranberry syrup tomorrow before serving.

Pecan Pie.  I always disliked it when there was too much “goo” in the pie and not enough nuts.  Come on, it’s PECAN pie, not goo pie.  I use the recipe in The Joy of Cooking but instead of just one cup of pecans, I put in two cups.  I used a basic pie crust for this.

Apple Something-or-Other.  I had made a double batch of the sweet pie crust for the cheesecake, so I had a ball of the sweet dough left over.  And I couldn’t just let it go to waste.  And the chicken bucket on the counter was full of stuff so I couldn’t put it in there without having an overflow problem.  And the dog just ate so I couldn’t give it to her.  And if I put it in the freezer I would more than likely forget about it.  Ok, I admit I was just looking for some other yummy thing to make.  So I baked the pie crust & went about looking for something to dump into it.  Found a jar of apple pie filling I canned two summers ago then topped it off with a crumbly crust made from melted butter, oatmeal, sugar, molasses and cinnamon.  Then just popped it in the oven to crunchy up the topping.

I hope these can make it through the night!

End of the Seemingly-Endless Egg Extravaganza

Daylight has been waning for two months now and about half of the hens are molting. We used to have electricity to the barn (hillbilly style; long extension cords from the garage to the barn) which I would use to light the chicken coop just before dark.  Since the goats managed to pull one of the trees the cord was hanging from (I told you it was hillbilly), I took the extension cord down before one of the goats chomped through it and electrocuted itself.  So I haven’t had any supplemental light to trick the chickens into a longer laying cycle.

All this means not only do we have half-naked, ugly chickens running around, but our plethora of eggs has turned into somewhat of a shortage.  We’re still getting at least two, maybe four a day, but with winter just around the corner we’ll be getting even fewer than that. 

Breakfast almost always consists of some sort of egg dish; scrambled eggs, quiche, egg casserole, egg sandwiches, egg burritos.  I’m sure going to miss that.  I think we only had to buy store eggs twice the past two winters for baking or other dishes that required eggs when we were out.  If we’re totally out of eggs again this winter I’ll try to find somebody local with fresh eggs instead of stooping so low as to buy them from the grocery store.  Hello, my name is Carolyn, and I’m an Egg Snob.

Only three eggs today Mommy.

PO'd Kitty

Two Thursday’s ago I caught a feral cat that was slinking around the chicken / goat area.  Ended up putting him in the garage in a large dog crate with some water, food, litter box & a bunch of fluffy towels.  I really don’t know if it was a he or she, but I’ll just call it a “him”.  I was hoping to gentle him up a bit but even after a week of trying, it was still just crazy.  I finally decided to move him to the barn so he’d have more room & so I could sit in there in hopes of getting the cat used to me.  I cleaned out one of the enclosed pens and put food, water, litter & a fluffy cat bed in there.  I donned welding gloves & DH’s Carhart jacket & went in the dog crate to relocate kitty to it’s new home.  That did NOT go well.  After getting bit (even through the welding gloves) & a small scratch on the face, a LOT of hissing / growling / howling and much fuss, I finally transferred the franticly ferocious feline to the barn stall.  I’ve never seen a cat go crazy like that; jumping around & climbing up the wire windows.  I left for a while to find him up in the rafters, gazing at me with eyes that said “I totally, totally hate your guts”.  Evening came & I fed the goats, put the chickens away & said goodnight to the cat.   

I went to milk the goats & let the chickens out yesterday morning & to check on insane-cat.  He had finished off an entire bowl of cat chow, pooped in the litter box, shredded up his blanket…..and was gone.  There was a loose section of chicken wire at the top of the enclosure & he had managed to squeeze through it to freedom. 

I’m a bit upset.  But mostly at myself.  I should have known after the botched cat-transfer that this cat was not going to, nor probably ever wanted to be tamed in the least bit (yes Paul, you were right, you’re always right, ok, now let it go).  I’ve made friends of dozens of “feral” cats in my suburban life, so this was a first at not being able to get a cat to warm up to me.  I have to remind myself that there are countless numbers of wild cats running around.  And not all of them want to have humans for companions or even close neighbors.  I’m sure that most of them are perfectly happy with what the forest provides for them and are able to have a wonderful life without me providing them with cat chow shaped like little fish and catnip-filled fake mice. 

I’m not sure what I’ll do if I find him wandering around here again; guess I’ll just deal with it then.  In the meantime, all I can say is, “Good luck to you, Mr. Insane-Cat.  And I’m sorry for pissing you off.”                                                                                                          

Acorn Smoothies

We finally got some much-needed rain yesterday morning and light rain again today.  Not a lot, but I’ll take it.  The burn ban was also finally lifted, so just about everyone was burning leaves.  The scent of the burning leaves, stoked fireplaces and wet leaves filled the air with a wonder Fall Fragrance. 

I’ve been keeping Rhiannon busy by having her pick up acorns around the house.  Granted, she puts two in the bucket and immediately dumps them out again, but hey, it’s keeping her occupied for a while.  The ones that I pick & manage to keep in a bucket have been going to Pan (our Nigerian Dwarf buck) and the freezer goat in the backyard pen.  I put about two cups of them in with their grain rations.  They like it and it saves some money on feed so it’s a win-win situation.  I’ve also been giving them to our does as treats.  We’ve had a bumper crop of acorns this year so I’m hoping that the rain doesn’t sour them before I can pick up some more. 

The goats will eat the acorns whole, but the chickens can’t so I thought I’d try grinding them up for them.  I put a couple handfuls of acorns in my craft blender (i.e. cheap blender) and whizzed them until they were chopped up pretty fine.  

Took it out to the goat / chicken pen to see if the chickens would eat the acorn meal. The chickens didn’t even get a bite as the goats mobbed me at the gate & finished off the bowl.  So I went back in to blend up some more.  I dumped a bunch in their scrap bin, but they just kind’a picked at it.  After I put some whey in with it they seemed to be much more interested.  Acorn & Whey smoothies for the chickens!  What spoiled livestock I have.

I saved some of the blender acorns (minus the whey) for the goat’s evening feeding & everyone got some in their bowls.  Bowls were licked clean.  So from now until the acorns are gone I’m going to supplement some of their usual grain with the blender acorns during the evening feedings.  Gott’a love ‘dem A’kerns!

BBQ Pork Sam-iches

Our fire department has a Pig Roast every year the first week in October and since there was leftover chopped pork, the firefighters each got a bag to take home.  So I stuck our bags in the freezer for a future fast meal.  Since I hadn’t taken anything out of the freezer yesterday, I took out the pork since it would be quicker to heat up (on the stove….still no microwave).  So we had BBQ pork sandwiches tonight.

Buns
1 ¼ cup milk (warmed)
1 egg, beaten
2 Tablespoons oil
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 ¾ cup flour
2 teaspoons yeast

After kneading, roll into balls & flatten them out just a bit on a greased cookie sheet.  Let rise until they look like, well, rolls.  Bake at 350 degrees for 9-12 minutes.  Makes 10 – 12.

BBQ Sauce

1 cup EACH, Brown Sugar, Ketchup
½ cup EACH, Water, Onion, Corn Syrup
½ Tablespoon EACH, Garlic Powder, Prepared Mustard
½ teaspoon EACH, Onion Salt, Celery Salt
¼ cup Molasses
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 can (6 oz.) Tomato Paste

Combine all into sauce pan or pot & mix until well blended.  Heat on medium until bubbly & hot.

Needful Things

I usually have a cup of hot tea every morning and today was no different.  And as usual, for one reason or another, I never get to drink it before it gets cold so I end up re-heating it several times before I hit the bottom.  So I pop my mug into the microwave, hit the Start button & instead of the normal humming sound, it makes an awful buzzing / grinding sound.  Immediately hit Stop & open door wondering if a fork or spoon or something unnatural to the interior of a microwave had managed to get in there.  Nope.  Just my harmless, cold cup of Vanilla Chai tea.  Hit the Start button again & the same horrible microwave-death-rattle resonates throughout the kitchen.  How bad could it be?  Maybe I’ll just ignore the funny noise, hope that the door doesn’t blow off or my head doesn’t get micro’ed while I’m sitting there staring at it. 

Well, Paul heard the racket & put the kibosh on the attempt to warm my tea.  And just in case I don’t heed his warning to NOT use the microwave, he unplugs it to make sure that I CAN’T use it.  No, it’s not like I couldn’t just plug the thing back in.  Well, I guess I could, but it’s one of those above the stove units & the plug is located way up in the wall behind a cabinet so it wouldn’t be easy to plug back in even if I wanted to.  My diabolical plan to continue using it when he’s outside has been foiled.

So, how does one re-heat a cup of tea sans microwave?  Get out a small sauce pan, dump the tea in it, heat it up on the stove & then attempt to pour heated tea back into mug without spilling all of it over the countertop.  I had to do this three times before I finished my tea.  I get sidetracked a lot and I don’t guzzle my hot beverages, so the re-heating of tea is done about half a dozen times a day. 

Hungry?  How about leftover spaghetti & veggies?  Sounds like a good lunch, I’ll just pot it into the micr…..oh, it’s broke.  Dump all into a sauce pan, turn on heat to low so it doesn’t scorch, keep stirring it so spaghetti doesn’t stick to bottom of pan, and continue stirring until it finally becomes barely lukewarm.  Warm up the tortillas for Mu Shu Pork dinner?  No probl……..oh yeah.  Yes, I know it sounds pathetic.  It’s not like I have to start a fire in a wood cookstove or anything, we have an electric stove so I just turn the dial & viola – instant heat.  I suppose I’ve taken my microwave for granted all these years.  My apparent lack of appreciation caused its little microchip feelings to be hurt so it had finally forsaken me. 

I had been wanting to get a smaller counter-top microwave eventually.  The one above the stove takes up too much room & I can just barely get my pressure canner to fit on the stove because of it.  So I guess it’s not all that bad….now I have an excuse to get rid of it & replace it with a smaller vent / hood.

We’re going to the “big” town to pick up some tractor parts & stock up the pantry sometime this week.  Maybe we’ll come home with a microwave.   And this time I’ll try to say nice things to my new time-saving, food-warming appliance.