Bitter Sweet

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Happy Valentines Day, On the Sweet Side was a lovely day here at the farm, it got above 0 so we had melting and the sun was shining. We had a beautiful table set for the day and I think I will leave it up most likely till the weekend or some version of it at least.

We had a pretty meal, stuffed chicken breasts with baked potato’s, peas, salad.. Mom’s dessert was a great fruit tray with chocolate sauce and I made a lemon heart shaped cake with lemon buttercream icing with dried lavender buds to give it a pop of color.

Mom got a pretty new scarf, roses, chocolates, Hubby got a stuffy(I love you frog) a new board game and the cutest plant yellow lab boot for the garden. I got a scarf, Chocolates and a cute little bear stuffy..

Mom had company over to join us for dinner and it was a nice visit.. all in all as good as could be.. After dinner we got a visit from Farm Helper #3 and as always she is a delight.

That was the sweet.. the bitter.. my oldest hound had a very poor day.. A very poor day indeed..  One of those days that after talking to hubby, the vet and so forth, it was agreed that as soon as we are ready, that its time.

Very Bitter indeed..  Its a sad day today at our farm..  you will be greatly missed..  This has always been my favorite photo of my Z-Boy..  in his prime, he got to come camping with us to friends cottage and we went swimming, boating an such. Old age had slowed him down in many ways but he was always the happiest sweetest cuddle buddy EVER!

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

Cherry and Almond White Chocolate Bark

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

I am greatly looking forward to Valentines Day tomorrow, I have a pretty new red dress and plan on doing my hair (it’s normally in a pony or up on my head in some way) might even put on a bit of makeup LOL

Today however I have pulled meat and am cleaning house and prepping the cute little piles of gifts for my loved ones in the house and signing cards

White chocolate melting chips were gotten with crushed peppermint canes were gotten at Christmas time but with everything going on and me struggling with illness. nothing got done with is..

It seemed fitting to make a dried Cherry and Almond bark (and maybe a candy cane bark as well, after all it is still red and white with a bit of green in there:)

Simple and easy to make but a great showy little piece at the same time to serve on a tray  or break up and put in a pretty Valentine’s gift bag for after dinner party favours.

I used a serving tray with different sizes, I made the candy cane one long and thin bark and I made the other two loaded with dried cherries and almonds and made it twice as thick. Pick your tray be it a loaf pan, a pie pan or if push come shove, just make a mold out of your tin foil as long as it’s on a pick up board, plate.

The joy of making your own bark is you pick the kind of chocolate, you pick the filling, and you pick the thickness of the end product.. it’s all about what you like..

Melt your chocolate in a pot, bowl over top a pot of water or if you microwave, slow short bursts of heat and then stir till it’s all melted..  Please remember to get melting chocolate for this type of project, it just makes your life so much easier.

Pour over top.. shake your tin to settle the chocolate and then put in the freezer or fridge, in my case I put it out into a snow bank on one of my lawn chairs to freeze up.. Once its cooled and hardened back up, it will peel off the edges and be ready to just turn over.. Then you can cut it.. I like to cut it in half or thirds and then into triangles, it will break off uneven but give your nice looking pieces.

 

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FlapJacks Canadian- Northern Alberta Style.

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

This is a favorite Post of mine on the blog and so when I read that its pancake day on the net today, I wanted to re-share it with you.. Enjoy some high, fluffy golden Flapjacks today 🙂

I was born and raised in albert and one of my foods that I remember from my childhood is Flapjacks, my mom did not just believe in these for a hearty breakfast, they could be used for any meal, they could be used in lunches and they could be used as both a basic or a o my goodness WOW treat..

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My Beloved Mother on one of our mother-Daughter trips, did you laugh, I mean flapjacks, Canada, beaver.. LOL

Our Flapjacks where made on this huge cast iron griddle that hung on a wall and was only brought out for them.. Never do I remember anything else being cooked on that cast iron, I know now it was to preserve that perfect flip, I struggle in my own cast iron to keep the ideal non stick when used for other things, and someday, maybe I will be lucky enough to find or buy a flapjack pan..

Our flapjacks where always thick, if they did not rise at least half a inch, they were considered.. ok, but not near fluffy enough 🙂

They could be topped in so many ways.. a dippy egg, or sugar and cinnamon or hot buttered rum syrup, canned fruit in any pie filling form, or lemon custard.

If it was for breakfast, it tended to be fruit, or syrups, if it was supper, dippy egg was more norm, if it was a snack, buttered and rolled, or peanut butter or jam..

But there was one dessert treat that always sticks out in my mind.. it was a pancake treat from my mothers childhood that was passed down to us..

Fresh hot pancake, brown sugar and fresh thick raw cream drizzled on top.. O my.. it was so good, but it only worked because we had our own cow..

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Our Flapjacks were the truly basic kind.

My current recipe is this..

3 Cups of milk (whole), 2 eggs, 2 tbsp. of melted butter, 3 cups of flour, 2 tbsp. of baking powder, a good pinch of salt.. Mix and cook on a med hot griddle..

My mother says the tradional one is this.

2 cups flour, 2tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, one and half tbsp. of sugar, mix together in a bowl, then one egg in a well in the middle, large mixing spoonful of oil (approx. quarter cup) and then milk to make correct thickness of batter.

And for holidays, ten times this recipe of the dry and it will make one icecream pail full of batter, I come from a large family..

Grandmas pancake syrups recipe from the farm

Two cups of brown sugar, one cup of water, bring to boil, and simmer for five min, remove from stove and add half a tsp of maple flavour, can be used hot or cold..  (was also be used over top of rice pudding) Very running but good flavour

So what is your pancakes like.. do you like them thin, almost crepe like, or do you like thick fluffy flapjacks, what is your favorite topping. Do you have any favorite memories from your childhood on this food item.

 

 

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Freezing Rain

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

O my did we get freezing Rain.. a quarter inch thick sheet of ice on the vehicle that took DH a full half hour worth of work to get it to the point that it could be taken off the farm to get to work.

I have always loved this painting  of bubbles the sheep on a foggy morning..  The same artist did my amazing Freckles Kitty but she took her from being a point to full color and its amazing how much Freckles daughter Faith looks like her momma in this painting.

Today was a bright sunny day here on the farm, the sun was warm and poured though the window’s and the solar heating was most welcome and excellent. It was mild being only about minus 5 for most of the day.. just cold enough to not melt anything out there.

It was a good day to have a quiet rest day, laundry, cooking and such was done, as was some routine care for my mom (strange that I now need to think about things like how often my mom’s nails are clipped etc) as she can’t reach them herself and used to get them done by a professional

I had a good long nap today and it was needed.. the box spring on the bed had decided to give way in part, just enough to give me a slant that was NOT to bad but just bad enough to bother my bad hip, add in a bit of a slip on ice and suddenly I was had a very sorry back-hip indeed. Thankfully hubby took a good look at it and while we could not fix the wooden slat on the box spring, we could and did build a base for it to level it out and  fix it that way.

O did I sleep.. it was wonderful to have my level bed back and I slept hard and long, Sunny cat curled up on me and purred every time I stirred and my hounds all thought it was wonderful to have a cuddle nap pile in the big bed (we have a king)so there is lots of room for everyone.

My arms got a great workout with the ice breaker this afternoon and I salted things quite a bit on the main area’s, they say that we have warmer weather coming for most of the week, including a few days of above 0.. perfect days for a very early season maple run to be honest.. hmmmm need to think about that.

Otherwise, I am having a quiet evening as well.

O wait there is one other bit of news, while I will be prepping my incubator for use with my purebred chicks for extra hatching on them, I have talked to a friend of mine about running my extra geese eggs with her hatches.  She has really large hatching equipment and can set weekly hatches and has the proper turners for geese eggs.  I figure I will see if I can put two or three weeks worth of egg laying into her nest and then let my girl lay her own nest and sit on it..

Hopefully she will hatch some herself and will take the other babies under her wing as required at a later point. I would very much like to add about a dozen or so goslings to the farm.. to keep back another goose or two and to butcher the rest of them.

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Snow on woolies does not melt

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Winter still has us firmly in her grasp, more snow daily for the past three days and under a freezing rain warning and or more snow today as well.  Maude sheep always looks huge compared to my hair sheep girls.. part of that is breed difference and part of that is wool is fluffy vs the much sleeker hair sheep’s filled in winter coats.

I have five expecting ewe’s and my oldest ewe has clearly missed this year and I am just fine with that.. Bubbles was born the same year as Mocha Sheep so she is really very much the grandma of sheep in the flock. King continues to grow and I can’t wait for him to be a fully grown ram in 2018 of course he will not be a mature boy till 2019.

The sheep adore their time out while we are out and about on chores, they certain enjoy the barn for its comforts but like their exercise and fresh air and of course my horse dumped out hay from their feeder to the ground so the sheep were enjoying a nibble in the fresh air as well before going back to the barn and their proper feeder.. My horse’s are such messy eaters.. My mom was trying to get Bojangle’s to come in for a cuddle but he was very much focused on Dear Hubby at that moment.

Its so hard to believe that its already second week of Feb and Valentine Day is coming soon enough.  Got the new color painted in the bathroom which is in on the tail end of its redo

Well, had better get back to the farm and such.. have a great sunday!

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | 2 Comments

Oatmeal Cookies

Posted on February 10, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Amazing so yummy Oatmeal cookies for lunch box’s or after chore snacks. My hubby is really liking that my mom likes to make cookies, its not something that I tend to make a lot of.. they are more a treat then not. I make muffin’s, loafs, Cakes and such to have in the house at pretty much all times.

Cookies.. not so much but last week he got mom’s favorite cookies called Rocks, a nut-raisin filled not so sweet cookie.. This time I made Oatmeal Cookies, I about cried at the amount of fat and sugar in these. I had to cut the sugar down by half a cup.. and I will not lie I would like to see if I could remove some of the fat and replace with apple sauce and see how close I could keep the cookie the same in texture and taste. I will give you the full recipe, but note I lowered the brown sugar by half a cup with no issues.

None the less, at least it has five an half cups worth of old fashioned oatmeal in there..

Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

  • 1 cup of butter
  • 1 cup of lard
  • 2 cups brown Sugar
  • 2 large eggs or 3 medium eggs
  • 2 cups of flour
  • 5 an half cups of oatmeal
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking soda

Preheat your oven till 350.

Mix the butter and lard together and cream it well, then add brown sugar and blend together till fluffy, then add eggs and repeat..

Then add the flour, salt, baking soda and the oatmeal, it will be a hard stir at first but keep going, it will pull together.. if its to dry, add one tsp of water at a time and then mix well again till you get a stick together dough..  I included a picture of the dough when it was ready so you can see it once it comes together right 🙂

Two ways to prepare them, as seen in my photo, drop by teaspoon full on your baking sheet, slightly flatten and bake for 8 to 10 min till golden brown on the edges, cool and move off baking trays to cool on wire trays or counter.

Or drop by Tbsp, take a small glass cup.. dip the bottom in sugar and press the cookie out flatter and with a sugar top, bake 6 to 8 min till golden brown on the edges of the cookie.. you will get a much crispier drier cookie this way.

Both ways are good.. but a different result with the same dough 🙂

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Snow Cream Recipe

Posted on February 9, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

We had company come yesterday for a quick but lovely visit and I made Snow Cream for the three of us as our dessert. It was the first time my guest and as it turns out my mother had every had it. It was a hit! It’s always a hit..

I got asked where I had learned about it and I had heard about it years ago when I lived in Iqaluit, Nunavut because it was so costly to buy “store Ice cream” I made both homemade ice cream (with a machine) and I made homemade Snow Cream.

However doing some digging after being asked about it yesterday in regards to its history, it is pretty hard to track down, it does appear that is a much-loved treat in the southern states of the US and strangely it’s not very common knowledge in Ontario Canada.Its a simple three things recipe. Its my understanding that you can make it with milk and sugar, but the use of the Condensed Milk means that it’s already got both and in a nice thick sauce.

Snow Cream Recipe

  • 12 to 14 cups of fresh snow, if its heavier snow got with the 12 cups if it’s really Fluffy go 14 into a big bowl or steel pot.. Chilling the bowl or the pot will help give you an even better result but it’s not required for it to work.
  • One can of Condensed Milk (the better the quality of this, the better the overall result)
  • 1 tsp of the Best Quality of Vanilla you have in the house

Fill your big bowl with your fresh snow, Take the top two inches off the snow if you can and then take fresh snow after that. Try not to take the first hour of your snow storm as it will have the most “dirty” snow of the storm.  Then drizzle your Vanilla and your Sauce over the snow and mix it together with a big wooden spoon.. I always use a wooden spoon but I am sure other would work as well..

Blend it together until it comes together into a nice snow cream slushy. Which when you eat it will melt in your mouth with a texture that is so much like regular ice cream it will truly surprise you 🙂 If possible only use fresh fluffy snow, if your snow has more pellet or more icy, it will give you those harder icy bits in your Snow Cream and it will affect the mouth feel

But don’t just stop here.. Try Chocolate Snow Cream. Melt some hot Chocolate mix into your Condensed Milk and then cool it back down and make Chocolate Snow Cream.

Try it with Lemon, Orange, peppermint flavourings..

 

 

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Asian Inspired Brawn (Amazing Head Cheese)

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Another favorite thing to do with an overabundance of piggy parts is to make this Asian-inspired brawn. If I call it tête de fromage or souse, no one knows what I’m talking about, and “headcheese” puts people right off, so brawn it is. This recipe is modified from the one for souse in Tim Byres’ inspirational cookbook, Smoke, but the Japanese and Chinese ingredients take it in a whole different direction.

Recipe by Laurance Mate

Found at the awesome Facebook Group The Salt Cured Pig

For the brine:
One whole pig’s worth of head (with jowls), hocks, and trotters (approx. 20 lbs)
1.5 gallons of water
300g salt
25g cure #1
200g palm sugar with ginger

For the pickle:
2 bottles mirin
1 quart cider vinegar
water to cover
1 bunch celery, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
1 white onion, quartered
1 bunch parsley
6 bay leaves
4 oz Dijon mustard
¼ cup white peppercorns
2 Tb whole coriander
2 Tb Szechuan peppercorns
12 whole cloves
6 star anise
1 cinnamon stick

For the final mix:
2 quarts of pickle, reduced to 1 qt
2 bunches parsley, chopped
4 oz hot Chinese mustard
4 oz soy sauce or as needed for sodium
6 oz Sake
6 oz rice wine vinegar

Heat the water to dissolve the salts and sugar. When cooled, add the head, hocks, and trotters, and soak for at least a week, refrigerated, jiggling or stirring the brine once a day. (Since it’s roughly an equilibrium cure, two weeks or more won’t hurt.)

Drain off the brine and put the piggy parts in a stock pot with all the pickle ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook until the meats are falling-apart tender, approx 4 hours. Strain the pickle, saving 2 quarts to reduce for binding the headcheese.

When the meats are cool, coarsely shred all the skin and meat into a bowl, and mix in the other ingredients, bit by bit, to taste. If the meat is a little undersalted, salt the reduced pickle enough to compensate.

Pack the meats gently into loaf pans lined with cling film (this makes it much easier to remove when set) and pour in enough of the reduced pickle to come up to the top. Refrigerate until set, then slice and enjoy!

Posted in odd bits | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Cherry Pie on a cold snow bound winter day..

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

We got nailed with a good little snow storm and we are back down into bitter cold temps right now.. got 8 inches of snow yesterday, more coming today and woke up to -25 without the wind chill added to that yet..

So it was delightful to have a pop of color and boost of fat after all that shoveling and extra hauling that needed to be done. hot cuppa coffee and pie is a great stopping point and reward but I see that I will shoveling my deck and walkways this morning again.

egg numbers are slowly increasing daily but I broke a few coming in last night.. the hound got them with their dinner and licked the bowls extra clean.. making turkey stock and the cats got the skins after they were cut up and they loved their treat as well.

Last week we had a warm snap, got up to 1 and sunny and grabbed this photo of sofie (behind) and river kitten in front. She is growing up well over the winter and is slowly learning to be a indoor-outdoor kitty and how to hunt in the outbuildings..  We are heading into 2018 with a most younger 2 to 5 years farm pride of purr pots. they have been very busy this winter, so many mice this winter.

Posted in Canning, pie dough | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Rabbit Tenderlion Pot Pie

Posted on February 7, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

I made a batch of lard based pie dough, it’s the tender Flake Recipe on the Box, it’s so simple and if it’s worked properly, it’s a very nice flakey pie crust

If you want to learn more about pie dough in detail check out this pie dough making post.

Now I had intended to make a proper rabbit stew and all fresh but the day got away from me, come on.. you know it happens to you as well and by the time I got to the pies it was later in the afternoon and I needed it to happen much faster then normal.

I grabbed a pint jar of home canned Rabbit Tenderloin and used the juice for  in the gravy and chunked up the amazing rabbit meat and then hit the freezer.. diced potato’s and a veggie mix along with two cups of gravy, onion powder and Montreal steak spice and I am game (as it turned out, I needed more gravy) o well.. everyone loved it anyway..

It turned out to be very quick and easy pie to make because I used my canned rabbit meat, the joy of the tenderloin is that its all boneless white meat.. it retains its flavour in the rabbit in a outstanding way.

Posted in pie dough, rabbits | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments