Country Critters

What’s Been Coking in my Kitchen?

 

 

While I was cooking up my soups Leanne and Sierra made a triple batch of apple cinnamon muffins. I bought a 20lb box of organic Fuji apples on my last Azure order and have been working to use them up. We have eaten a lot of apples, made 3 apple pies and now 3 dozen muffins. The box is almost gone now..  

 

I don’t have a recipe for her coffee creations printed down yet.. maybe someday! 

That is all the cooking for today!!  Hope you all have had a pleasant and blessed Sunday on your homesteads!

And so it begins

Tomorrow is December 1st and with that begins the gift giving for me. I not only have Christmas gifts to purchase but I also have over a dozen or so birthdays, including my husband and three kids. This madness will continue untill my dd's  26th birthday on January 31st. There is almost one every week with 2 nephews, 1 niece, my 3  kids, one dh, 2 brothers in law, a mother in law, a brother, a best friend,  and a cousin or two for good measure.  With times being the way they are, some of these special people will get some baked goods and maybe a card or two.  All this gift giving also comes with a whole lot of baking added in too. That's not too good for someone who is on a diet, ME. I think that's going to be the toughest of all things to handle, not being able to eat cake and other goodies. Oh oh.

   Well the weekend was a rainy one for a couple of days, so Zach and I decided it was a good time to take out the Christmas decorations and do up the house.  I ended up going through each box and decided that I had way too much "stuff", so I've put aside a car trunk full of thrift store donations. It's all still good stuff that I hope someone else might need. I tend to keep ALL the handmade thing-a-ma-jigs that the kiddos made growing up. You know how that is, you just can't let go of those. That's the stuff you give to your new son and daughters in law. LOL I can't wait for that.

   I waited untill today to do the outside of the house. I had to go get some new red ribbon and bows for the porch post. I love the red, green,  and white look of decorations. I'm not much for shinny items or too many lights. I don't remember the last time I put lights on the outside of the house, probably years ago when my son Eric was helping and climbing the ladder for me.  Since I broke my foot five years ago, I do not climb up anything higher than a chair, and even that gives me the willys. LOL.

   Well everyone has finished supper, so I'll head off to do some dishes. Then later I think I  will pop some popcorn and catch a Christmas movie or two. I saw White Christmas last night, LOVED it.

Here piggy ,piggy, Kristi and Ee

I am sharing pictures of Kristi and her pet sow Ee.  Ee is from our old sow Tuna.  Kristi picked Ee out as soon as she was born.  She told us with her cute little smile and batting her eyelashes " this is my baby".   With that cute look how could we say no.   Her brother begged Kristi so much to let him have her, but Kristi held firm on it, NO!!

This is Kristi and Ee when Ee was about 3 weeks old:

Don't they look cute!!

Here is Ee on her 1st birthday.  Kristi made her a birthday cake :

Here is Kristi playing with Ee at night:

Here is a head shot of Ee next to Kristi:

Kristi hurt her knee one day and the Dr told her no horse back riding for 2 weeks.  So what does she do??? See for your self :

A real piggy back ride!!  We took a picture to show her Dr. her "New ride".   Our Dr. knowing our family ( a bunch of smart butts, Dr. is also one)  just laughed and went around showing the nurses and other Dr.'s her new ride!!!

Here is Ee's mom Tuna:

Last we have some of Ee's puppies (babies I every baby a puppy)

One more. This is Ee with her children Tommie and Heffa:

We still have Ee and Tommi , but we sold Heffa to a neighbor.  We did not have enough room in our freezer for her.

God Bless, mj

He said it'll be quick up and back...

and six hours later we drove in the driveway:> needless to say the turkey didnt get cooked and the big football game we were going to watch wasnt even aired locally lol

It has been pretty foggy here the last few days so it was nice to escape it even for a few hours...the sun was shining and it was warm enough on the hill ,we didnt even need sweatshirts...we had a great time.. we came home with a tree that is about 3 feet to tall, (we did pretty good usually it is much more off.. funny how everything looks so much smaller out in the great outdoors), a craftsman wrench (found on the side of the dirt road we were bouncing down) and quite a few shaggy mane mushrooms, and a batch of fried chicken mushrooms...they were tasty:>

its cold and foggy back in the valley and the fog is so thick I am very thankful we are all tucked in for the night...we brought the tree in for the night so it wouldnt freeze but I think tomorrow we will be getting a new Christmas tree stand...we have been limping by with this one too long... we will make a dump run tomorrow...

The trip tip roast  Dad marinates in a mesquite marinade...once its grilled he slices it... very good!  

A  trick I like to use to make it really good is to add a ounce or two of  tequilla in with the mesquite marinade it gives  it a nice little zing....

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.. not the traditional fare... in fact quite the opposite.. we had trip-tip roast grilled on the BBQ, scalloped potatoes, salad, stuffed celery, deviled eggs, rolls, and the usual pumkin, and berry pie. It was so yummy...

Yesterday, we did go shopping for a short while AFTER the morning mess.. but early enough to get a few  good deals... bought DH 2 pairs of pants for a couple more dollars then the price off one pair.   A few nice DVD's for the kids for Christmas at 2 dollars a piece, and some airborne for me.. fighting with a cold. We also went out for breakfast.  When we got home I stared pulling all the Christmas decorations out of the closet, and DH started cleaning out the closet,  while i went thru the decoration.. so last night when i finally went to bed I had three stacks..  one to keep, one to give away and one to throw away. I have two tubs and after Christmas it will all fit back into those or I will downsize a bit more...It will be nice to have all the boxes combined and know what we have...

Today, I am going to roast a turkey, and we are going to get up in the hills and get our tree...and watch a football game... its the big civil war game, between oregon beavers and the ducks... we need to make a dump run and a goodwill run.. so we might do the tree tomorrow...

Its white here to... but its not snow:< its fog 

What to do with Turkey Leftovers

Friday on the Homestead

Well we are in Thanksgiving home recovery mode today! LOL.. Time for clean up and then bringing out the Christmas decorations. I have already decorated my website and blog!  

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. It was just the kids, Tobin and me and Tobin’s dad came too. The food was delicious. We ate dinner at about 3:00 and then I took a nap.. Funny how turkey does that to a person  . While I napped the kids and Tobin played Taboo. Then we moved onto pumpkin and apple pie. Emily was in charge of table decorations and she did such a nice job. Here is a pic of the table and place settings…

 

 

And one of Isaac being his silly little self

 

I ate leftovers for breakfast!

Everything went OK yesterday, the turkey was a hit. I saw on one of the shows on the Food Network, they put a sliced orange and a sliced lemon in the cavity of the turkey to help it stay juicy. Well it worked! I also used some cajun injector for seasoning the inside of the meat, that too adds so much flavor. So it was a hit, thank you God, lol.

I, as usual, made too much food. I sent some home with my daughter, fed some inlaws, twice, ate supper, fed strangers that stopped by to say hello, and STILL had tons of food left.  The strangers were only strangers to me, my dh knew these men from work. Grinding keeps going on 24/7 here, there are no holidays as for as the mill bosses are concerned. Things keep running. So there were truck and tractor drivers that were stopping by the house to say hello, and I felt bad and fed them.  My husband did put his foot down on not giving away the coconut cake tho, lol.

So what do you do  with all the cornbread dressing you have left, you eat some of it for breakfast.........and lunch.............and supper. If there is any left by the end of the day, I may have to give some it the cats. LOL

I will be heading out later to face the crowds at Wal-mart, ONLY because I need a new toilet seat and some packing tape. Otherwise, I wouldn't face the crowds. I'm not one for all this shopping madness. Besides, I looked threw all the sales papers, and there wasn't anything that I wanted, lol.

Have a good day, and be safe if your out in the craziness.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Well my house has been full of activity, voices chatting and music playing today.  The girls and I have been baking and cooking in preparation for tomorrow. We started the morning by putting on Christmas music to give us all a holiday feel.   And it worked.. we rolled up our sleeves and got busy in the kitchen. Amazing what four ladies working side by side can accomplish.

Thanksgiving funnies

Here a few cute Thanksgiving funnies my mom sent me.

Have a blessed day, mj