Cow Pies

It's a sad day. Darren took my sweet Peruvian friend, Sabino, to Salt Lake so he could go home to Peru tomorrow and Rosie and Ruby are on their way to be butchered.

Darren wasn't going to tell me when this day was because he knew I would be sad. He said one day the cows would just disappear, but I found out. We were up at 4:30AM trying to load them into the horse trailer so he could take them. I put some corn into the trailer and Ruby hopped right in, but Rosie put up a fight. She was saying, "My momma told me about this day, I'm not going anywhere!" Sabino and one of Darren's other workers were helping us try to get them into the trailer. It was hilarious to watch them try to maneuver Rosie and then swearing because they stepped in a big, soft pile of cow poop. I'm sure Rosie was laughing saying, "Ha! I showed you!"

Yesterday I let the cows out to enjoy the pasture one last time and when I came out later, they had climbed under the fence and were laying in the round pen with the horses. Silly cows!

We had two pallets full of bags of steer compost sitting out by the pasture and Darren kept blaming the horses for knocking the bags off of the pallets and breaking them open. I found Rosie and Ruby playing in them the other day - it was like they were trying to put on their perfume!

After Rosie and Ruby were loaded up, Darren, Sabino and Clay were gathering up some last minute tools to take up to the cabin to fix a broken railing. I was seriously contemplating opening up the back door of the trailer and telling the cows to, "Run!" But Darren busted me and told me not to even think about it.

I just have to keep telling myself that my family is going to eat this winter and I can't be sad about that.

Yesterday, Darren made this yummy beef stew for us. With all this beef, we are going to be eating lots of it when the temperature is twenty below!

Rosie Stew

Cook four slices of bacon in a large stockpot until crisp.
Toss 1 1/2 pounds lean cut beef stew in 3T. flour, 1/2t. salt and 1/8t. pepper. Add to the bacon mixture. Then add 1T. olive oil, 8 ounces slices mushrooms, 1C. sliced celery, and 1 1/2C. chopped onions. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the beef is browned. Add 6C. beef broth and one bay leaf. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 45 minutes. Add 2 large potatoes sliced, 1/3C. pearl barley, 2C. sliced carrots and 1C. green peas. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for 25 minutes.

Stir in 2T. flour that has been blended with 2T. cold water to thicken the stew up. Cook, stirring until thickened and bubbly.

You could make this into a cow pie by putting this into a pie tin that was lined with the premade pie crust dough and then cover the top with the other piece of dough. When I make a chicken pot pie, I usually bake the crust at 350* for about five minutes before filling it and then slicing a few holes in the top of the crust before putting it back in the oven to cook for 30 to 40 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown.

Fall is definitely in the air

My house lies in the flight path of migrating geese so I can always tell when spring or winter are coming. This morning I heard a flock of geese honking as they flew over my house. I wanted to run out and tell them to turn around because it is too early to head south!

It was definitely cooler today and the wind has been blowing all day long.
This cooler weather always makes me feel like the little red hen, preparing for winter hibernation. I spent most of yesterday and all of today in the kitchen. So,
I'm pooped!

One batch of apple pie filling, one batch of salsa, one batch of peach pit jam, one batch of chocolate zucchini bread and one batch of chocolate zucchini pumpkin bread. But now I have to still make dinner! Over whelmed by the pile of zucchini still sitting on my kitchen counter, it is going to be a zucchini night! Lemon butter zucchini pasta with chicken and fried zucchini with a piece of chocolate zucchini bread or the pumpkin chocolate zucchini bread for dessert.

Lemon Butter Zucchini Pasta

Melt 2T. butter in a pan, add 1T. lemon juice, 1C. shredded zucchini, and garlic salt to taste. While this is cooking, boil a package of angel hair pasta according to the directions. Drain the pasta then add 1C. Parmesan cheese and toss in the zucchini mixture.

This tastes great with grilled chicken breasts that have been diced tossed in.

Hot Apple Pie!

Evidently planting all of those tomato plants last spring paid off. No one in Vernal was able to grow them this year because of something called, "blight." A couple of my plants, (the free one's from IFA) got it, but all of my Costco plants survived and thrived! So I have been able to share with all of my friends and neighbors.

Last weekend, Lori Johnson told me about this recipe for homemade apple pie filling. Apples were cheap at the grocery store today so I decided to try it. This is a huge deal for me because I haven't ever baked a pie before. Okay I cheated and used the premade pie crust, but still, I made the filling from scratch and even tried canning some of it. That's another thing I don't do, canning. In my view, it ends up taking too much time and money when you can go to the store and buy a can of the same thing for a dollar. But I decided to gave it a whirl anyway. After spending all afternoon peeling fourteen apples, I decided I was right about the too much time stuff, and then when I dipped my second jar into the cold bath after it had boiled for twenty five minutes, I heard a "crack" and watched in horror as the contents of the jar started leaking into the water from a break in the bottom. I have no idea what I did wrong, but obviously something didn't go quite right.

I had big aspirations to make peach pit jam and fresh salsa today, but this dampened my adventurous spirit and I just called it a day. The true test will come when my family tastes the apple pie if my time was really worth it.

Lori's Apple Pie Filling

Mix 5C. sugar, 1 heaping cup cornstarch, 1/2t. nutmeg, 5t. cinnamon, 1t. salt and
10C. water in a saucepan and cook until bubbly and thick. Remove from the heat and add 3T. of butter and 3T. lemon juice.

While this is cooking, prepare fourteen apples (5Lbs.) - by peeling, coring and dicing. Then put the apples into hot sterile jars and fill with the syrup mixture to within one inch from the top of the jar. Cold pack process for 25 minutes.

Makes 5 - 6 jars of pie filling.

To make the pie, put the filling into a ready made crust then sprinkle with a little sugar in the raw and bake at 400* for 50 minutes.

Cinderella Shopping

Today I took one of my young women dress shopping for a homecoming dress. Since I don't have any girls, this was a new adventure for me! She immediately informed me she is pretty picky - I told her, "in a small town, with a limited selection, you can't be picky!" We went to a second hand store called, Gweneviers Attic, and within two minutes she had on a beautiful grey colored dress with sequenced flowers on the bodice. It was amazing how well the dress fit her perfectly! Going into the store, I was pretty sure we were going to have to take whatever we found and make some kind of alterations, but this dress truly was meant to be hers! (Thank goodness because I am not a seamstress!) It came with some extra matching fabric that I am going to try to make a shrug so it is a little more modest.

With tears in her eyes, this cute girl told me it was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen! I told the store clerk we had to have it! Last week this cute girl told me she had been asked to the Homecoming dance, but didn't really want to go because she didn't have a dress to wear, nor the money to buy one. When I asked her what kind of dress she wanted, she told me, she wanted a "princess dress." I think we accomplished that today and I can't wait to see her with her hair and makeup done.

At our New Beginnings program for the young women in February, my friend Michelle, brought this fruit dip. Our theme was princesses so I call it Princess Fruit Dip.

Combine 1/2 of a large jar of marshmallow cream with 2/3 can of sweetened condensed milk, a tub of cool whip and 1t. vanilla. Blend well with a hand mixer then serve with pieces of cut up fruit.

Saddle Sores

We had a wonderful weekend of riding horses, watching movies with the boys and laughing with our friends. I'm always sad when Labor Day is over because that signals fall to start. Yesterday morning when we woke up, there was a layer of ice on the horses water buckets and we noticed a few leaves were starting to change colors as we drove home. My boys were all excited because that means the snowmobiling season is closer - but I'm just not ready yet!

We love to see our friends the Johnson's. They always make me feel better when something happens to me because they have an even better story! On Saturday, I was riding our thirty year old horse, Bear, and she slipped while we were trotting along and fell, smashing my leg against the metal ring that hooks the stirrups onto the saddle. Thank goodness all I got was a bad bruise! We started laughing about the time Rick got bucked off in a mud puddle and I felt much better!

We rode for hours every day enjoying the beautiful mountains above Park City, we were so busy catching up with Rick and Lori, we didn't even notice the saddle sores until the next day! While we were chatting, Lori told me about a yummy recipe for this zucchini soup she got from her mom, Leona. I still have quite a bit of zucchini to use up so I was thrilled to have a new recipe to try with it.

Leona's Zucchini Soup

In a saucepan, cut up 5-6 medium zucchini's into large cubes (leave the skin and seeds on). Add two cups of water and boil until soft (about 15 minutes). While that is boiling, saute 2 chopped up onions. Then put the onions and zucchini into the blender and blend until smooth. Put it back into the saucepan and add 2t. lemon pepper, 3T. chicken bullion, 1t. cumin, 1 quart half and half - do not boil. Add
1t. season salt, 1/2t. pepper and 1/2t. salt.

Procrastination Monkey

Living in a small, rural town has its advantages. When I lived in Salt Lake, if I would have heard a gun shot in my neighborhood during the middle of the night, I would have been scared to death. In Vernal when this happens at 3AM, I just roll over and think, "Must be the neighbor shooting at the coyotes I heard howling a while ago so they won't eat his chickens." Only in Vernal!

Monday night I finally convinced my oldest son to ask a cute girl to the homecoming dance before all the cute girls were gone. We tied some yellow balloons to an ape that walk and grunted with a note that said, "I will go bananas if you don't go to homecoming with me!" It was really cute!
As soon as he got home, she called Alex and told him she had already been asked the night before. I had to bite my tongue not to say - I told you so! So this cute girl told him to ask another girl and she came and got him and helped him ask her. Well, he found out the next day that girl had also already been asked. Two strikes you are out is his motto! Ouch!

I can't wait to ride horses with the Johnson's all weekend at the cabin. We have only taken the horses up to the cabin once this summer and I have really missed it!

To cheer Alex up, we told him he could take a couple of friends. His favorite thing to eat is chili cheese queso dip. So we are going to eat lot's of that.

Chili Cheese Queso Dip

Melt one block of Velvetta cheese in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add a can of chili and stir until it bubbles. Remove from the heat and add in 4T. sour cream. Then serve with tortilla chips.

Peaches & Pits

Every night we were in Africa, our group would get together and talk about our "peaches and pits" of the day. On the last night, one of the people in our group told us to all go home and "really process" what had happened during our trip and we would realize some amazing things. I have been so busy since coming home that I haven't really thought about it until I sat down and looked at all of the pictures that one of the amazing ladies in our group, Ingrid Van Leeuwen, collected from everyone and compiled onto eight disks. As I looked back through the pictures to print off what Brayden will need to get his Eagle Scout project accepted, I have been overwhelmed with a feeling of love for the African people - especially the children. Just seeing their faces again makes me want to go back and do something to help them. When I think of their smiling faces waving and yelling, "Jambo" as we drove past in our safari vans, my heart swells and I am filled with love for them.

Jamie, the group leader, and Ingrid, asked everyone in the group to send them our favorite "peaches" from the trip. I had so many it was hard to narrow them down into just a few, but if you go to this link, Ingrid posted my thoughts along with some pictures: http://koins4kenya.blogspot.com and look under: Sherries 2010 kenya reflections.

Speaking of peaches and pits, Darren's Grandma Lucy used to make the best peach pit jam. When I first heard the name I was a little skeptical to try it, but it is now one of my favorite recipes!

Peach Pit Jam

Use the pits only from a bushel of peaches. Cover them with water in a pan and bring to a boil. Continue to boil until the water is a dark color. Drain through a cheese clothe then add 1/4C. lemon juice, 1 pkg. pectin and 5C. sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil - stirring constantly for about 4 minutes (or longer if it doesn't seem thick and slide off of the spoon in sheets.) Remove from the heat and skim off any foam. Fill hot jars immediately.