Traditions

Tis the night before Christmas and all through my brain Christmas traditions are falling like rain.

How on earth did Hickory Farm's summer sausage become a part of our Christmas tradition? Seriously? By accident.

I don't remember the year or how old I was at the time. I'm not even sure if this happened Christmas day or Christmas eve. But it was one or the other. It was before I graduated high school. The holidays were here, but electricity wasn't. A big storm moved through taking the power with it. Our cookstove was electric. Our heat stove was propane. Mom made potato soup on top of the heating stove. For the meat portion of our "holiday" meal we used a gift package of Hickory Farms meats and cheeses.

And a tradition was born. Not so much in the home of my youth, but in the home where my kids grew up, the traditional took root. With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays who doesn't like the idea of one quick, easy, snacky type meal? I embraced it without a second thought. I know at least one of my kids is carrying on with this tradition.

How can we have Christmas without A Christmas Story? Not going to happen. It's not a tradition from my childhood, but it's a tradition from my children's childhood.

The last tradition that I'll share today. Chocolate covered cherries. My paternal grandfather gave each of us chocolate covered cherries for Christmas, plus enough money to buy a second box after we ate the first box he gave us. A box of chocolate covered cherries conjures up an image of Granddad in his overalls, cigar smoke, the scent of pine trees, cooking ham and zesty oranges. I hear the cackle of Granddad's laughter, Mom rolling pie dough, Dad snoring infront of the heat stove in the living room, my brothers and sister playing, laughing and fighting intermingled with my own kids laughing, playing and fighting. That box of chocolate covered cherries blends over five decades of Christmases into one fantastic image that includes hearing, seeing, smelling, touch and love.

Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you.

Tis the Season

As Christmas draws closer and closer we sneak a peek at the new year. With the new year comes a time to reflect upon where we are in our life.

That's what I've been doing lately. Reflecting. Navel-gazing.

I think I'm at the spot in life where it's time to consider a new path. It's scary. But I've been unhappy with this path for some time now. The upside? It paid the bills. The downside? It keeps away from family and friends. Is the money worth it? At one time, yes it was. Now it's not worth it.

I'm getting older. My husband who started out older than me is still older than me. :-)

I want to spend time with my family and friends.

My new goal is to never spend Christmas alone as long as I have at least one family member above ground.

But would I be at this point in my decision process if I weren't spending this Christmas alone? I'm not sure I would be. I think I'd still be attracted to the money.

Suddenly the money looks pathetic compared to laughter and love. It looks cold compared to family and friends dropping in unannounced. It looks meaningless. I realize we still have to have money to live, but we can have less and have a better life.

So, it appears it's time for me to stop traveling. It also appears it's time for me to find a new occupation. As I look at the options available, I realize there are so many different things I can do.

I have no idea where I will be this time next year. Not physically. Physically I will be home. In my house. With my husband, dogs, family and friends close by. What type of job or occupation will I have? Not a clue. But it's an exciting time for me. Because when I leave Alaska I know I'll be going home and this time I'll stay.

Truffles, cookies, oh my

Today I'm making truffles and cookies. I found a little shop here in Sitka that sells a jalapeno chocolate bar. Oh. My. Goodness. Was it hot! Several of us tried to eat a chunk of that chocolate. We couldn't. It's that hot. So, I decided to take the rest of the chocolate bar and dilute it down by making it into truffles with more chocolate and heavy whipping cream. We're at stage one right now. The chocolate is melted and the cream/chocolate mixture is cooling.

Next on the list are cookies. Love cookies. I want to make snickerdoodles. Of course some chocolate chip cookies and a batch of my favorite sugar cookies. When I was growing up the sugar cookies were referred to as Aunt Myrtle's sugar cookies. After losing the recipe I finally found it under Amish Sugar Cookie. I still think of Aunt Myrtle when I make these cookies.

Pictures and links to recipes after they're ready.

Tickets, Buttermilk pancakes and Chocolate cupcakes

Today I'm thankful that I have my return tickets back home. Well, not all the way home, but close enough I can get the rest of the way home.

I'm thankful for Alton Brown who has one of the best buttermilk pancake recipes available.

I'm thankful for chocolate cupcakes. Not only do they taste yummy, while I'm baking them the apartment is toasty warm from using the oven.

Thankgiving

I'm so thankful that next year I will not spend Thanksgiving a lone.

I'm thankful that I don't completely hate snow...only mildly hate it.

I'm so thankful that I don't do Black Friday.

I'm so thankful that my family still puts up with me.

I'm so thankful that I have a job.

Beauty

Untitled, a photo by Jody Pryor on Flickr.

Today I'm thankful for the natural beauty all around us. No matter where you're at there is at least one thing in your life that is breathtaking.

Find it and embrace it today.

Attitude

Today I'm thankful for understanding that my attitude is what determines if my life is good, happy, bad, sad, etc.

Each day we have a choice when waking...will we make the most of the day, just float along or dwell on every bad thing that will happen, is happening, or has ever happened to us?

I'm thankful that I've learned that bad things happen to all of us, but it's up to me to decide if I'll let the bad rule my life or embrace the good. Because there's good in all our lives, too.

Embrace the good. Be thankful for the good. It's easy. It's only a minor adjustment of our attitudes. I'm thankful that I've learned this lesson and have done my best to embrace it this past year.

Weekends

Today I'm thankful for snow that comes on the weekend when I don't have to get out in it. I'm also grateful for delivery so I can still eat when it snows instead of attempting to drive my toy rental car to the grocery store.

Pizza, breadsticks and chicken wings. Food for tonight, tomorrow and lunch at least twice next week. Not bad. Not bad at all.

A trio of thanks

I'm thankful for Fridays. After a long week, it's nice to reach Friday.

I'm thankful for paydays. They make the long week worth it.

Mostly I'm thankful that Rob, my son-in-law, made it safely home today.

Coast Guard

Today I'm thankful for having the Coast Guard.

Having been born and raised in Kansas I didn't give these courageous men and women much thought. After spending 12 years along the coast of Alaska I became aware of them and extremely appreciative of them.

Skype, Studded Tires and My Home

Skype isn't the same as being there, but it's the next best thing when each computer has a webcam with it. I'm so thankful that I have a webcam on my computer and Roger has one on one of the computers at the house. I get to see all the work he's done to the house. Yay.

It's looking good. And I'm so thankful for our home. One of these days it will be very hard for him to get me out on an assignment.

I'm also thankful for studded tires. I wish I had some on the little car I'm driving in snowy Sitka. Alas, I don't, but I do love studded tires when I'm in a snowy location and I have my own vehicle to drive.

The Gift of Sight

 Today I'm thankful for the gift of sight. Sight allows me to see the faces of my family and friends. It also makes it possible to view all the amazing scenery in my area of the world. From a wheat field in Kansas to the shore in northern California to mountains in Alaska.

For all the veterans

I am thankful for all the veterans who have served so that we may have the freedoms we enjoy today.

Thank you for giving so much for all of us.

The Gift of Sound

I can't imagine life without sound. There are times when life is too noisy, but it's the little sounds that are simply amazing. The dove's cooing in the early morning and evening. The eagles tweetering from their perch in a Sitka spruce. 

Music. I'm so thankful for the sound of music. 

The wind blowing through the trees. 

The sound of my husband's voice.

The sound of my children's voice.

The sound of my grandchildren's voice.

The sound of laughter. 

The list is endless. 

Two days

I missed posting yesterday. Never fear, I have two things to be thankful about.

One: I have this great hope that in less than a year the American people will fire President Obama. To date we've voted out those who aren't doing a good job and instated others whom we feel can do a much better job. And we've done it peacefully other than the mud the politicians sling at each other.

Two: I'm thankful for each sunny day that I get to enjoy while in southeast Alaska. Today was one of those days. As gorgeous as this area is while cloudy and rainy, it's another world when the skies clear and the sun shines.

Three: An extra bonus. I'm thankful that I'm in southeast Alaska right now and not western Alaska. I do hope all those in the path of the storm stay safe.

My job

Today I am thankful for my job. With so many either unemployed or underemployed I am grateful that I have a job. I'm even more thankful that I have a job that allows me to work as I do. I work very hard for 13 weeks then I take a month or two or three off to spend with family and friends.

It's not the life for everyone, but it works very well for me and my family. Which makes me extremely thankful.

Three days

I missed a few days of posting because I was on my way from Kansas to Alaska with a stop over in Texas to see two of my grandchildren.

Obviously, I have much to be thankful about that is summed up in the last three days.

Since I've missed a few days, I'm going to do a few things I'm thankful for in one post.

First, I'm thankful for my home in Kansas where part of my family lives. Thomas Wolfe said you can't go home. He was wrong. I proved that when I moved back to the town where I grew up after a few decades of being gone. It was home then and it's still home.

Going back to my first post of November...family. I'm thankful for all my family. Without them life would be dull, bleak and not fun at all. With them I have people to love, spoil, complain to, complain about, love, share memories with, make memories with, love. Well, you get the idea.

I'm so very thankful that I was able to spend part of Friday with my son and his family while I was on my way north. It was wonderful seeing all of them again. It was heartbreaking saying good-bye to my family still in Kansas, though.

And to disprove Thomas Wolfe again, I went home yet again on Saturday when I arrived in Alaska. I am so thankful that I have two fabulous states that are home to me. Kansas and Alaska. Since leaving Alaska in 2008 a part of me has remained in Alaska. Yesterday was the first time I ever saw Sitka, but if it looks like Alaska, if it smells like Alaska, it's probably Alaska. And the Alaskan in me recognized it and embraced it.

Yet the Kansan in me wishes the rest of my family were here with me. But I'm so very thankful they're with me wherever I am, even if we're not in the same location.

My Education

I might miss posting tomorrow since I'll be in the air and once I land I'll be enjoying two of my darling grandkids.

I'm very thankful for my education. It allows me to have the life I'm enjoying now. I'm in the medical field and I get to travel all over the country helping out at various hospitals. Monday I start a new assignment. This assignment allows me to go to Dallas to see Chris and his family for a night before getting on yet another plane headed for Alaska.

There were times when I wasn't happy with my education. Those years when we were struggling to make ends meet and I wasn't working in the medical field.

Today I am back in the medical field and I am so happy that I get to help people. I'm also so happy that I get to stop and see my grandkids. And I'm not crying over the fact that I'll spend the next thirteen weeks in Southeast Alaska.

I'm am very thankful that I stuck with my education. I'm extremely thankful that my mother saw to it that even as she was leaving this world she had the wisdom to know how to keep me in school to finish my education.

My Friends

Yesterday, in honor of November and Thanksgiving, I gave thanks for my family.

Today, I am so thankful for my friends. They are that group of people who chose to allow me to be a major part of their lives. They didn't do it out of a blood tie, but they did it out of an honest mutual respect, like and love between us.

I've lost some of these special people in the last few years. I'm so thankful that I still have so many of them left.

Today, I want to honor a few of those who have passed on that held a special place in my heart.

John Flick. Without John this blog would not exist. Without John I wouldn't be the person I am today. John always knew when I needed to talk. He'd let me say what I needed to say. When I was done, he'd respond with something that would make me laugh.

I never had the honor of meeting John in person. We were internet buddies. But the void he left in my life when he left us was huge and to this day has never been filled. Damn kids.

Barbara Gunzinger was one of my dearest friends in Alaska. We didn't share any blood ties, but when I think of Barbara I will always think of her as family. We celebrated all the big and small events together. When she passed away Alaska became a little colder and a little darker. The holidays a little dimmer. But oh the fun we had while she lived. And Barbara knew how to live.

Harley Waldrop is another person who came into our lives in Alaska. Well, that's where he came into my life. Roger knew him decades ago when they both lived in Texas. Harley was to Roger what Barbara was to me. That person who was there when it was important and when it was just nice to share life events with.

The last one that has stood out in my life who has passed on is Leeann Cowhig. Leeann and I had several decades of history together. She was one of those rare people that no matter how long it had been since we talked or seen each other we could pick up like we'd only been gone from each other for a day.

I don't want this to be sad though. Yes, I miss each one of these people. I miss them terribly. Some days much worse than others. Even so, I am so thankful they were in my life. I'm so thankful they chose to share their lives with me.

When I think of them, and I do often, I think of their laughter. I smile as I remember the time they lived and the joy they brought into my life.

And for those of you who are my friends now, I'm not mentioning you only because I value your privacy and I know if I started a list I'd leave someone off and I don't want to do that. I adore all of you and I am so very thankful that you've chosen me to be a part of your life.

My Family

November 24th is Thanksgiving this year. For the rest of the month I will post something that I'm thankful for in my life.

Today I'm thankful for my family. My husband, kids, grandkids, parents (may they rest in peace), siblings, nieces and nephews. Without all these people in my life who I'm related to, one way or the other, my life wouldn't be near as complete.

Yes, there are times when we bicker. There are times when we get mad at each other. There are times when we have to agree to avoid each other for a period of time. But overall, each of you makes my life a little more interesting and enjoyable by having you in it.

Pesto Pizza

Pizza is not limited to just the tomato sauce that we're used to seeing and tasting on pizza. Pesto works great on pizza. Directions for making your own pesto sauce is here.

I used this pizza dough recipe because I was short on time. I wanted to add a little flavor to the dough so I mixed in a heaping tablespoon of the pesto sauce. 

Ingredients:

 

About 1/2 cup pesto sauce

1 pound sausage

caramelized mushrooms

caramelized onions

roasted cherry tomatoes

1 regular size package bacon

cheese

Cook the bacon. Here's the instruction for cooking bacon in the oven. At the same time caramelize your onions and mushrooms. Here's instructions on how to caramelize onions, use the same technique with the mushrooms. In fact, I put them both into the same pan at the same time.

After the bacon came out of the oven, I removed the slices of bacon and sliced the cherry tomatoes and roasted them in the oven in the bacon grease. I know, not really healthy, but I wanted to get some of the bacon flavor into the tomatoes.

After all the ingredients were prepped I built the pizza. I baked it in my regular oven at 450 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

My only regret was not having a pizza peel so I couldn't bake it on my pizza stone. But this pizza tasted fabulous using the pesto sauce. I also coated the crust with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled shredded parmesan cheese on it before adding any of the other ingredients. 

Pesto and pizza have something in common. Both are foods that are only limited by our own imaginations. I don't always want a pizza using pesto, but it is a great change of pace for pizza. 

Did you say pesto?

In this part of Kansas pesto is one of those unheard of items. I was on an assignment in Phoenix and went to visit a friend who now lives in Flagstaff. She introduced me to pesto. It was love at first bite.

The best thing about pesto, it's easy to make. Right now I have a lot of basil in my garden. Pesto will stay in the freezer.

Today, let's learn how to make pesto.

This is one of the best investments I've made for the kitchen. It's the Ninja Master Prep Professional Blender, Chopper and Ice Crusher. I picked mine up at Costco and I've seen them at Sam's Club, too. These little beauties make short work of so many time consuming tasks.

This is my go to equipment when I make pesto.

To make about a cup of pesto you'll need:

2 cups of fresh basil
1/4 cup pine nuts
3 cloves garlic (or 1 tablespoon of minced garlic)
1/4 Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon lemon juice
pinch of salt to taste

The main ingredient is basil. Use only the leaves. Make sure the leaves are green and healthy. Discard any leaves with blemishes. A rough measurement is fine. Just pack a measuring cup full of basil leaves until you have the desired amount.

The next step is pretty obvious, but just incase anyone is in question, wash the basil leaves. Wash them under running water. Remove all the stems from the leaves.

Next I drain the washed basil leaves on a towel or paper towels. After they've drained I get a fresh towel, put the basil in it, and twirl the towel around removing more of the water.

You want your basil to be dry before proceeding to the next step.

The next step involves chopping up the pine nuts. A note here: I do experiment with using other nuts in pesto. Pine nuts are by far provide the best flavor. No doubt about it. They are expensive. Considering you only need a quarter of a cup, it's not cost prohibitive. However, there appears to be a problem with some of the pine nuts lately. Most of the metallic tasting pine nuts are those imported from China. No huge there that if something is tainted it's likely to be an import from China. Unfortunately, from my reading the metallic taste does not show up until the next day. So if you taste a pine nut today, discover it tastes fine, use the pine nuts in your pesto, eat the pesto tonight, you won't know for sure if they'll leave a bitter aftertaste until the following day. And that horrible taste tends to last a couple of weeks.

Locally I can only find pine nuts that originate from China. Which is why I've been experimenting with other nuts in my pesto sauce.

I've used almonds. While it doesn't give the original pesto flavor that I dearly love, it is a very nice runner up. Others have used walnuts (I hate walnuts so I won't use walnuts myself) or hazelnuts. Next on my list of substitues are sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. If you have a reliable source for pine nuts, use pine nuts. If you can only get pine nuts that are imported from China, you might want to try one of the substitue nuts/seeds.

I add the nuts/seeds that I'm using into my Ninja. You can use any type of blender that you own to make pesto. I chop them up. Then I add the extra virgin olive oil. Do not use any other type of olive oil. It will compromise the flavor. And now is when you want to add the cloves of garlic or the minced garlic. Pulse the blender a few short bursts or longer.

Start adding your fresh basil. Add in small batches of basil. Blend. Add more. Continue until all the basil has been added into the blender. You'll need to scrap down the sides during this step.

After all the basil has been added and blended into the mixture, add the parmesan cheese with a pinch of salt to taste. If you're not going to use all the pesto immediately, add the lemon juice. It keeps the pesto from turning a yucky brown when it's exposed to air.

And here is the finished product. Flavorful, aromatic pesto.

Pesto will keep in the freezer for about six months. Some sites will tell you to omit the cheese if you're going to freeze your pesto and add it after thawing. I've frozen pesto with the cheese included and I haven't had any problems.

If you do freeze the pesto, you will probably need to add more garlic to it after it's thawed. Garlic tends to lose some flavor from the freezing process. Just chop/dice a clove of garlic or add some minced garlic after the pesto has thawed.

Pesto is typically used with chicken or fish. There is no reason to limit pesto to these foods.

Coming soon I'll show you how to use pesto in a pizza. In the meantime, if you want a delightful snack get a loaf of Italian bread and slather some pesto on the bread. Let me know if you stop at just one slice. If you can you have more will power than me.

A former love-hate relationship

Ever since I learned to eat one of my favorite foods to eat is bacon. The salty savory meat is one of those foods that makes everything taste a little better. Doesn't matter if you eat it by itself. On a sandwich. Crumbled and topping savory or sweet dishes. Bacon is one of those foods that makes my mouth happy.

The consuming of bacon is where the love comes in.

It used to be the cooking of bacon was where the hate came in. The grease. It found every surface of the kitchen to lodge itself for clean up long after the fragrant aroma and crumbly goodness has long evaporated. Cooking bacon sucked. Cooking bacon was a chore. So it eventually became one of those foods that was made rarely because the clean was not worth the flavor. Or bacon was eaten at a cafe. Anywhere that I didn't have to cook and more importantly clean up after the fact.

A few years ago I learned a secret. Since that time I don't cringe when I need to cook bacon.

I know some of you know this secret. But this is for those who don't know the secret.

I haven't cooked bacon on the stovetop in years. When I want bacon, I go to the oven. Yes. The oven.

Take the number of strips you want to cook and place them on a cookie sheet pan. Obviously one  that has sides.

You can also place a rack in the pan and that way the drippings drip away from the bacon. As you can see, I didn't do that with this batch.

If you Google how to oven fry bacon you'll find a lot of different temps and times to use. For this pan I used 350 degrees. Depending on the thickness of the bacon and how crispy you like your bacon the time will range from 10 to fifteen minutes, even up to 20 minutes.

Once finished you'll have not only aromatic, savory bacon but they'll look fabulous. None of that scrunchy twisty bacon you're used to getting from trying to get the slices to fit in a pan on the stovetop.

There. Doesn't that look yummy? And everything is confined to the oven. More importantly, the majority is confined to the pan, so you don't have to clean the oven unless you really want to.

Why am I writing about this now? Because I will share recipes here. Some of those recipes use bacon in them. Not all of them. Probably not a lot of them. But some of them will contain bacon. What good does it do to share a recipe that makes a huge mess, meaning one you won't make because of the mess it makes? It doesn't do any good. So before I share one of those recipes the first step is to share a trick I learned long ago how to prepare bacon in a timely, less messy way.

Last night when I cooked this bacon I used the pan and grease in the pan for a second ingredient. After removing the bacon, I sliced cherry tomatoes that I picked from my garden and placed them on the pan to roast in the oven. Since both the tomatoes and bacon were going on a pizza I wanted the tomatoes to absorb some of the bacon flavor while I roasted them.

If you've never cooked bacon this way, let me know how you like it once you've tried it.

Peanut butter filled chocolate cup cake

Yesterday I posted a picture of this cupcake. I was asked for the recipe.

I used Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cupcake recipe for these.

This is truly a one bowl cupcake recipe.

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

I sift all the dry ingredients into the bowl.

Then add:
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (the original recipe calls for safflower oil, but I use Crisco vegetable oil)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

I don't bother getting the mixer out for this recipe. I use my whisk to mix everything together. You can use your mixer if you wish.

The original directions state to use a preheated 350 degree oven. Since I use a fairly good sized toaster/convection oven, one that will hold a full sized muffin tin I set it to 325 degrees.

I use an ice cream scoop to fill the cupcake liners so I get the same amount in each one. One scoop fills them between 1/2 to 2/3 full.

If you are using a regular oven bake for about 20 minutes. If you're using a convection oven bake between 15-18 minutes.

The cupcakes are done when the tops spring back when touched.

Let set in muffin pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.

I used the peanut butter filling and chocolate ganache recipe that I found here to finish up the cupcakes.

One word of caution. Make sure the cup cakes are completely filled before attempting to fill them with the peanut butter mixture. If they are still warm they will melt the filling.

Peanut butter filling

3 tablespoons softened butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter (please use a good quality peanut butter)

Cream together in your mixer. Yes, I used my mixer for this. Once the butters have been blended, add 2/3 cups of powdered sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. I walked away for a few minutes, not more than five to let it do it's thing.

For this next step I use Wilton Dessert Decorator Plus. I find it's easier to shove the filling into a tube instead of a pastry bag. I use the filling tip that is included in this set. I shove the filling tip at least half way through the cupcake, then squeeze the trigger pulling the tip out as I squeeze.

The next step is the ganache for the top. I used the one from the site where I found the peanut butter filling this time.

1 cup heavy cream

Bring to a simmer.

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped.

After the cream has simmered, remove from heat. Add the chopped chocolate to the cream. Let stand for about five minutes. Then whisk until the mixture is smooth.

Let the ganache cool for an additional 15 or so minutes.

Dip the cupcakes into the mixture, letting the excess fall back into the pan. Let the cupcakes set on the rack for another five minutes. Then dip them again into the ganache.

After they've set for another five or ten minutes you can change the tip on your leftover filling to a star tip or whatever design you wish to make. Add the decoration to the top. You're done. Except for the fun part...eating your cupcake.

Note: you might want to place the cupcakes into the freezer for a few minutes to let the ganache set before adding the decoration on top.

This recipe makes 24 cupcakes. There is enough filling and ganache for this many cupcakes with a bit of each leftover.

Also, I store these in an airtight container in the fridge.

One Kansas Farmer

A group of online guys were discussing the use of energy. Who uses the most per country. One of the respondents lives in a pretty small country. Since most of our states are larger than his country it seems pretty natural that as a country we'll use more energy than his country. 

He felt that the USA no longer was holding up their end of the technology/manufacturing end of things. On some parts of his argument I tend to agree. I hate that so much of our manufacturing power has been shipped offshore. 

However, this is not about manufacturing. This is about one Kansas farmer. Not me. Not my family, but any Kansas farmer. 

Depending on what source you use, one Kansas farmer feeds more than 128 people and up to 155 people. 

The crop in the foreground is first crop soybeans which are being harvested now as I type. The crop in the background is milo a grain sorghum.

Off to the left is a pasture and across the road from that pasture is another pasture, where the cows graze. To the north and right of this area is an area that has a cover crop planted on it. The cover crops tend to serve two purposes.

Let me digress for a moment. We are a no-till farming family. There are some who argue against no-till but for our family farm it works. 

Crops are rotated. Each crops takes nutrients from the soil. To help put nutrients back into the soil crops are rotated. The crops we grow on our family farm include: winter wheat, soybeans, milo, corn and sunflower seeds. Each of these crops gives back specific nutrients, but also takes other nutrients from the soil. To give back the missing nutrients cover crops are grown. I'm not going to pretend to understand exactly what each cover crop gives back. We have a family member who goes to seminars a few times a year to learn more and more about no till farming and which cover crops are best for which nutrients. 

So the cover crop that is to the north and right of the area the above pictures shows is used to put nutrients back into the soil. The second use is this winter that area will be fenced off and the cows will be allowed to graze it. 

All of this does require the consumption of fuel to plant, grow and harvest the crops. But I have never met anyone better than a farmer who is more concerned or knowledgable about how to preserve the land they farm. Not only does your ability to buy groceries from the store depend on them having this knowledge but their own survival depends on it. 

Yes, I'm partial to the Kansas farmer. I come from a long line of Kansas farmers. But farmers from all the other states have to be just as smart, dedicated and reliable as each and every one of the Kansas farmers. 

Harvest

The last few days we've been busy with first crop soybean harvest. While many of the colors suggest fall, today the temps were hovering around 90 degrees in most parts of this area. Still, there is something special about harvesting the crops. For those who are confused about the first crop of soybeans, later we'll harvest the second crop. After the wheat was harvested last summer, some of the fields were immediately planted to soybeans. Those are referred to as second crop soybeans or beans. 

In between trips out to the field to run errands, help move from one field to the next, bringing lunches, I try to make something nice for the guys to eat when they come in after a long day in the harvest field. Today I made my take on a Reese's peanut butter cupcake. Not only is there the peanut butter star on top, the same peanut buttery goodness is inside the cupcake. I haven't cheated and sampled one yet. But if they don't hurry up and come in from the field, I will cheat and forget sampling one, I'll eat the whole thing. 

I hope you've enjoyed the pictures of a part of my life. Happiness is the farm and the kitchen.

What's cooking?

While I'm on the road working, the one thing I miss most is cooking. Cooking for myself and cooking for others. The kitchen provides a calming affect. It's more than just preparing food to feed our bodies. The preparation of food is where we get to add ourselves, a part of our spirit into the food to help feed the soul, too.

Some cooks can follow a recipe to the T. Me? Almost never. I have to put my own spin to it. It's who I am.

Tonight I'm making meatloaf and caramelized onions/mashed potato. When I caramelize onions I do it the slow way. Low heat, extra virgin olive oil and time. I don't add any sweetener to the mix. I use the natural sweetness of the onions. Tonight I'm using onions that I picked out of our garden. After I get the potatoes mashed, I'll mix the caramelized onions into it. Because it's that time of the year when I don't know when everyone will be in to eat...harvest time...I'll place them in a casserole pan, sprinkle shredded cheese on top and keep the potatoes and meatloaf warm.

Steamed asparagus is the veggie of choice for tonights offering.

What are you fixing for your crew tonight?

Leftover Ham

The other night I cooked a fairly large ham. Which meant I had leftover ham to contend with for several days. Okay, I still have left over ham. Sigh.

I spent plenty of time trying to figure out a way to make something out of the leftover ham. I went to Google and did a search. I found a lot of recipes that gave me ideas. None of the recipes were what I ended up making. Let's face it. The use of leftovers is very dependent upon what one has in their pantry.

I found a box that had various types of pasta in it. From bowties to elbow macaroni, all those little bits and pieces that were tossed into one box because there wasn't enough left of any one kind to do anything with it. All those odd pieces combined were enough for my leftover ham.

After cooking them in boiling water, I drained them and added a jar of alfredo sauce to them. Next I tossed in some chopped ham.

But wait, there's more. I got some asparagus from the freezer and chopped it into about one inch chunks. I mixed that into the pan with the pasta, sauce and ham. Then I poured all of it into an 8X10 glass pan for the oven. I sprinkled various bags of shredded cheese on top of the mixture. Then I baked it until it was bubbly and the cheese was melted.

I used some shredded cheddar and shredded Parmesan cheese.

Not only is this a great way to use leftover ham, once the cheese has melted if you're not sure when the rest of the crew will be ready to eat, you turn the oven as low as it will go and let it heat until you're ready to serve it to your hungry family.

What are some of your favorite ways to use your leftover meats?

Minnesota through my eyes

Minnesota through my eyes.

Reflections

Just dandy

So Many Missed Photo Ops

For those who haven't kept up over the last few years, I'm now a traveling medical technologist. A few years ago I decided I really didn't like being poor, so I dusted off that old college degree and found a wonderful lab that was willing to take on a rusty medical technologist. So, began my journey of being a traveling tech.

February of 2010 I went on an assignment to Elko, Nevada. While there I was able to do a few things. The most important thing was to spend time with Taylor and Summer. Taylor is part of the group I mentioned yesterday. It's always great seeing friends. That assignment was even better because I was working the day Summer gave birth to their second set of twins. Those were the big things that happened while in Elko. The little something I did for me was to buy a new camera. I attempted to take a few pictures as I held the camera out to snap shots as I zoomed 70 to 75 mph down the road. Not the best photography setups.

I took said camera with me to Wisconsin. While I was there I ate lots of cheese, brats and fudge and took a whopping total of zero pictures.

Next I headed to Phoenix with camera in tow. Awe, the lovely desert (yes, I'm serious the desert does have an appeal when it's not 115 degrees). All the photo ops...wasted. I think I took less than twenty pictures and they were all of people. People important to me, so they were not wasted pictures, but there was nothing of the stunning scenery.

There were a few pictures taken while I was in Colorado. Alas, I must confess, I didn't take them. My daughter did. Sigh.

My "have tech will travel" job has landed me in Minnesota with my poor underused camera. Tomorrow I have to work a couple hours to get my forty hour work week in. After I've met my company obligation, I'm going to take that poor camera out of its case and see what I can do to show the beauty of small town Minnesota.

One week is almost over. Only 12 weeks left to take advantage of the local photo ops. With any luck, tomorrow there will be a blog worthy photo to post.

Good morning, John. I hope that cup of coffee is hot.

Damn kids

Long ago, I had a wonderful friend named John Flick. We met online through a group that was made up of automotive mechanics. Most of these guys and gals specialized in the repair and rebuilding of transmissions. The darlings of every vehicle to this special group.

When a group as talented as this group gets together, several things happen. Each and everyone was/is opinionated. And a bond and friendship formed that none of us ever dreamed possible. To the point that we're almost like family at times. Bickering, standing up for one another, knocking each other down, wondering whose turn it is to keep Fred locked in the attic because no sane family would let him out in public. We laugh together and we cry together. We fight and keep coming back, because we have this fabulous history together. And deep down, we do care about each other.

John was extra special to me though. When I was down, he knew it and he'd send me a private email. And the emails would fly back and forth and before I knew what had happened, I was laughing out loud.

At the same time I was doing a lot of writing. An excessive amount of writing. I wanted to save the world. Sigh. So I started a blog. A fabulous, funky blog that ended up being extremely political. Oops. My biggest fan was John. When I wouldn't post, I'd get an email from him. Where's your entry? I read you every morning with my coffee.

That's how the name came to be. Morning Coffee with John.

Then the unthinkable happened. One day, and I don't remember if it was the winter of 2003 or 2004. I thought I'd never forget the date, but I have, we learned that John had passed away. To honor him I tried to keep the blog going...but without John there reading it, I'd lost my heart for it. For me, it had lost its purpose and soul.

I tucked the blog away, knowing deep down that I'd never revive it.

A few months ago, I did consider doing another blog since my life had gone in a different direction. Instead of wanting to save the world through my words, I went back to the medical field a few years ago and am now doing my part, one pee at a time. (Other med techs will get that comment.) A little over a year ago, I bought a neat new camera that I still haven't learned how to use. Why not do a blog about my travels and attempt to take pictures?

Great idea. But I kept putting it off.

Then today, one of our own, from that group where John and I got so close, lost his wife. As I pulled into my parking spot at the motel where I'm staying on this assignment a great big wave of grief hit me. There was this huge pain as I fought the tears. Where did that come from. Staring me in my mind was the day I learned John had died. The grief was as real as it was that day.

I've spent the last few hours listening. The end result is the revival of this. And as I typed that last part I can almost hear him smile and mutter under his breath, "Damn kids."

Rest in peace, Deb.

Good morning, John. Hope your cup of coffee is hot.