I'm back

I'm sorry that I have not posted in a month. I'm not even sure what I've been doing in that amount of time but apparently I've been busy because I haven't even had a chance to check in on the blogs that I normally read on a daily basis.

One thing I know I've been doing is potty training the Jack Russell Terrier puppy that SO and I got on the 15th of May. He is so cute (sorry no pics yet). When we got him he seemed so tiny... but I can finally see where he is growing. I've never owned a dog this little before ... remember I used to have great danes ...LOL... what a difference. The first time my mother saw Ace (the JRT pup) she said "your may as well have gotten a hamster". Of course when my oldest brother saw him and mom told him what see said he said " he is about the size of my boys' guinea pigs, why didn't you just take one of them". But this little pup is a smart little bugger. Within a week of being home he had already learned how to sit and lay down on command. The first time I showed SO that Ace knew how to sit on command he said "that is just wrong, he's too little to know how to do that". I is the cutest thing though seeing as he is so tiny and he already know some tricks. LOL

Another thing... I've been trying desperately to get my lawn mowed. SO other got most of it mowed for the first time this year, then the lawn tractor quit. I borrowed my mother's push mower (since her tractor was not working either) and mowed most of the lawn again... then wouldn't you know it that darned thing quit on my too.... gggrrrrr! Right now we are waiting for a phone call telling us our lawn tractor is fixed and ready to pick up from the shop. In the mean time I've been tying the goat out in the highest spots of the lawn and wishing I had about ten more to do the job. And wouldn't you know it last night it started raining ... so now the grass in growing again. .... ggrrr! The one section behind the garage hasn't gotten mowed at all this year and I'm seriously thinking about just fencing that whole lot and bringing mom's goats back over to put in the fence. That is also where the blackberry bushes are at that I wanted to mow down and start over too so the goats would love that.

For now I guess I should go get dressed and go up town to the post office, I got a card in the mail on Saturday saying I have a certified letter there... just wondering what it could be.

Simply Leeks

One of the true signs that spring has arrived in Northern PA is when everyone (or should I say the "men") in town start sharing leek digging stories and recipes. I've never figured out why it is mainly the men of the town who start all the talk of leeks. Probably because the men that dig these tasty, smelly little morsels con us women into doing the cleaning and cooking of the leeks. Community Centers, Churches, and other Associations in the area have annual Leek Dinners and it is always amazing how many miles some people will drive to attend one of these dinners. I am guilty, as a child of a die hard leek fan, I sware my father used to see just how many leek dinners he could get to each spring. Usually there is only one leek dinner in each location, per year and since we live in such a rural area it sometimes means driving 30 to 40 miles in one direction to attend. Dad never likes to miss an all you can eat meal... especially when it involves Leeks, Ham, Potatoes, Gravy, Corn, Baked Beans, etc..... oh and don't forget the desserts, usually an assortment donated from the local ladies' kitchens. MMmmmm ....MMmmm.
Little did I know that I am living with yet another Leek Lover... I don't know how I missed that fact last spring. Maybe because our lives were so hectic last year that somehow we both missed leek season. Anyhow, yesterday while cleaning the refrigerator I came across yet another covered bowl of leeks... I thought I had all of them used... once I realized that there were leeks inside the bowl I was scared to open it... let me remind you this thing had been in there for at least a week and a half.... I was thinking "oh, man... this is going to be bad"!
I think I've discovered a good way to keep leeks for over a week :-) After SO cleaned and washed the leeks I had wrapped them in a paper towel, to absorb the water that was still on the leaves, and put them in a sealed plastic container in the fridge. I was fully expecting to open that up yesterday and find a rotting pile of mush... to my amazement they were as fresh as the day I put them in there.... "only God knows when that may have been"!
Okay now... what to do with them.... I had already had ground burger (1# home grown beef and 1# venison) thawed out to make either meat loaf of hamburgers... I hadn't decided yet. SO other came in and said he was on his way to the fire hall for a little while and would be back in an "hour or so", we all know when they tell us that it could be hours. He had asked what was for dinner just before he went out the door and I had said that I wasn't sure, he gave me one of those looks that said "oh no... now what is she up to". LOL.. I rarely know what I am going to end up with when I start out, and rarely have a plan to begin with... but he usually ends up really liking what ever concoction I come up with.
Armed with the ground meat and the idea of those leeks that were still in the fridge, the brand new deep fryer (a birthday present from my friend) sitting on the counter just screaming to be used, and a bag of french fries in the freezer... I went to work. Of course, I wasn't sure when he would be home, but I knew that the meat loaf would take about an hour to bake and the fries I could throw in when he got home, so I wasn't worried about timing issues.
I started by mixing the two different meats together with two large eggs (brown, free range,home grown.. of course!), then I chopped up a hand full (about a cup, but who's measuring?) of leeks, not to fine... like you would an onion, and mixed them in added some salt and pepper and packed that mixture into a loaf pan and tossed it in the preheated (350 F) oven. Now I had another dilemma.. what kind of gravy am I going to make? I remembered not too long ago Rachael Ray had made this yummy looking mushroom gravy, so that was my start. I couldn't remember how she did it and I didn't want to take the time to look it up online so I started my own rendition. I started by chopping another small handful (maybe half a cup) and tossing them into the skillet with oil and a small can of mushrooms... I drained them but kept the liquid to add later. I sauteed them just until the leeks started wilting them I added a can of condensed mushroom soup, and I poored the mushroom liquid into the soup can and added enough milk to fill the can to between half and three quarters full, then added that to the mix, gave it a few stirs and heated it until it was all bubbly. I let it simmer a little bit to get all the flavors mixed.
Just about the time I decided that the sauce was done SO walked through the door and I'd done something wrong... he took one look at my sauce on the stove top and wrinkled up his nose and said "WHAT IS THAT?? THAT STUFF LOOKS NASTY". I must admit, it wasn't the prettiest dish I've ever made... far from it. But then he recognized the smell of leeks and his attitude changed. Then he was like "okay, I'll wait and see, what she's done now." As it turned out he didn't have to wait long until the meatloaf was done, I served the meatloaf with the leek and mushroom sauce over the top with french fries on the side. HE LOVED IT!!!
The whole time he was eating he kept saying "you have to write this one down"... lol... he doesn't realize it is so simple it doesn't need written down...lol. But that is okay. I always laugh when the simplest recipes impress him more then if I'd worked for hours with several "fancy" ingredients. I also love showing him that food doesn't always have to look like a pizza or hoagie to taste good. He is a fast food junkie... and I'm trying to reform him.. slowly. Maybe that is why I had to add the french fries... lol ... can't get away from the fast food all together ;-)

First round done

After a few cups of coffee, a quick round of chores in the barn, a load of laundry, a quick online search for some recipes, and a trip to the grocery store to get some ingredients, I have finished the first round of cookies. Peanut Butter No Bakes.

4 c. Sugar

1 c. Butter

1 c. Milk

Heat to 234 degrees F.

Add

1 c. Peanut Butter

6 c. Quick Oats

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

For Chocolate peanut butter no bakes add 8 tablespoons cocoa powder to the suger, milk, and butter mixture before heating.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The trip to the store is what took the longest. As I was parking the truck I noticed my neighbor JB from up the road walking across the parking lot and when she saw me she stopped to wait for me. I figured she was going to tell me that the little dog who came to visit her a couple weeks ago really does belong to the people I told her about, but she had other news. She wanted to let me know that her brother-in-law passed away yesterday... he lives a few miles away (and coincidentally is my brother's neighbor). I ended up spending about 20 minutes talking to her about various things, and she asked if I could make sure to tell my father because she knew that he would want to know. I quickly made my rounds picking up the baking ingredients, avoiding isle #1, you see I work in this store and on my days off I really don't like to be in the store because it never fails if my co-workers know I'm in the store they always have some work related issue they "need" me to solve. As I was picking up the things I needed I saw K who was on the same mission I was... she is also making stuff for the bake sale. While I was in the checkout line I heard someone say "oh I see R is here to help you today!". I looked towards the door to see my mother and 3 year old niece R coming in. So, of course I had to chat with them a few minutes... giving her the update of the neighbor's BIL passing and the other neighbor who is in the hospital and not doing well at all. Of course I always have to chuckle to myself when these things happen... Mom lives right across the road and is here doing barn chores at least twice a day, and JB lives two houses away, yet sometimes it seems the only time we take time to chat is in the store... LOL.

Okay, back to work.... Haystacks are the next on the list.

This is just how I feel this morning

"To Hell With The Worm"I'm not sure if the words in the cartoon will show up, but this is how I feel today!

Do you ever have mornings when you just don't want to get out of bed? Today is mine. I am thanking the Gods that S.O.'s hours have changed and I didn't have to get up until 6:00. He used to have to leave the house at 4:15, that was cruel. Thankfully, I don't have to go to work today. But today is the day we have to have all our bake sale goodies together for our Relay for Life fundraiser. I'm still trying to find some yummy recipes that will work for a bakes ale... any ideas?

I gotta go... the critters are waiting... and not too patiently either!

Now what did I do wrong????

After working with S.O. other all day Saturday, trying to get the water line unplugged, I'm surprised that something similar to this cartoon did not happen at our house. ;-)

April 8th

April 8th, 2007

I just took this picture from my back door, before sitting down to write this post. I can't believe that it is only 24 degrees outside on April 8th!

Sorry that I have not had a chance to post in a while. We have had quite a few projects around the farm we've been working on. If you look closely at this picture you will see that we aren't yet finished with some of them.

A week ago last Friday S.O. was working on the blazer, he had the gas tank out trying to change the wiring going to the fuel pump, and as I was going into the milk house to get some tools for him, the wind caught the door and slammed it shut.... breaking glass everywhere. Of course I was barefoot so I had to call him over from the garage to help me pick up glass. May I remind you that the temp that day was 75 degrees, not 24 as it is today. The next day we replaced the door. LOL... and if you look closely you may be able to see that there is lettering on the door... "Bar Room Open"... no, I did not write that there, I scavenged the door from one of Dad's auction finds, and I will be peeling those letters off or repainting the door when the weather breaks again. The old door is still leaning against the side of the milk house, I have to get that out of there too.

S.O. discovered several reasons why the blazer was not running right.... first of all the old fuel pump filter was inside the gas tank, along with a few other things the last mechanic dropped while replacing the fuel pump.... gggrrrr... Oh, and the vent tube wasn't even connected, along with the fact that the wiring going to the fuel pump has been spliced a few times and twisted back together. You just have to love a used vehicle that has had several "mechanics" working on it over the years. Since S.O. cleaned the gas tank of stuff that shouldn't be there, hooked the vent tube up, and fixed the spliced wires, replaced all the spark plugs and wires, air filter, and the fuel filter, the blazer runs beautiful!

We were doing so well at getting these little projects taken care of that we decided to tackle the expansion tank in the basement... it has been leaking all winter. Thursday after work we bought a new tank ... $121 ... took the old one out, hooked up the new one ... everything is going great until we realize that we only have a little trickle of water coming into the house on the main line... no wonder we don't have very good water pressure in the house. All this time we thought it was because the tank had holes in it and was just losing the pressure. So, the water line coming in from the barn (that is where the well is) must be clogged somewhere. We borrowed a snake from a friend and ran it into the line from the house out to the barn, yesterday afternoon, got a lot of silt and rust out but no more water. Today we are going to try running it from the barn out towards the house, and hope that the clog is on that end and breaks lose. If that doesn't work I guess we are going to have to run a new water line. For now we have the garden hose (seen in picture) running from the barn, which has water, hooking into the house's main line so that we have water in here until we figure out what we have to do to the water line..... This may be the new "You might be a Red Neck" Photo.... but it is working for now. And if you are wondering why that hose on top of the ground isn't freezing in the 24 degree weather, it is because we are letting one of the faucets in the house run.

Oh, the joys of owning your own home!!!!

Monday evenings sky.