A Peek Inside Our Exciting Life

We do, indeed, lead such an exciting life that I thought I'd tell you a little about today's high points.

For our social outing of the weekend, we went to the dump this morning. Here the flatbed trailer is loaded with a bunch of "stuff" that has been accumulating behind our garage all summer. It wants a new home. Away from our home.

We used to have a huge county landfill several miles out of town secluded waaay back in the woods where you could take trash and dump it for a small fee.

I've mentioned before that we have a very efficient, large Recycling Center in town that we use regularly. I don't know what the residents of the county would do without it. You don't have to pay to use the facility (well, except for those tax dollars) and it is a godsend.

But there are those certain materials such as wood that has been treated which we don't wish to burn on our property, bits and pieces of cement board siding that won't burn, scraps of metal, rusted out stovepipe, an old TV antennae, etc. that we just can't get rid of except to take to the dump.

A couple of years ago because of who know what . . . I think EPA, state or federal regulations . . . our landfill area was closed. Now items that we would have taken there are hauled to _________'s Disposal right outside of town. We do pay a fee but it is reasonable. The dumped materials are stored there and eventually trucked somewhere else (if my information is correct it's to a spot some 300+ miles away) for disposal probably in another landfill operated under the mandated laws. (Is this environmentally efficient?)

Anyway, off we went in the steady rainfall this morning to get rid of this load. We were prompted to get it gathered together yesterday afternoon because of the forecast of a few inches of snow today. We did have rain all day until late this afternoon when the temp finally dropped low enough for the rain to change to snow. Nothing significant to report as of yet as the temperature is still 33° as I'm writing.

I'll just bet all of you wish you had been here to participate in that road trip this morning and to have the thrill of climbing up on the trailer and helping to unload the debris which was by that time quite wet and slippery. And so were we when we finished. Add cold into the mix, too.

Now the other sensational happening of the day that I'm going to share is something for which I take no responsibility. The sharing of, that is. Our daughter said, "Oh, take a picture of that and blog about it!" I looked at her wondering if she'd finally snapped.

"No, I'm not going to write a blog about that."

"Fine. Give me your camera. I'll take a picture and blog about it."

So here, only to keep Chicken Mama happy, is something that she seems to find fascinating for some perverse reason.

I baked an apple pie today. I always mound sliced apples up in the pie plate and cover with the top crust which makes a nice, high-domed pie.

Chicken Mama seems to think that when the apples cook down, but the top crust remains up in the air, this creates a situation which really tickles her funny bone and amazes her. Looks like the inside of a giant apple pie cave to me. The stuff nightmares are made of after you ate that second piece of pie you shouldn't have.

Oh well. Whatever turns your crank. Happy now, Sweetie? I took and posted pictures of the inside of my apple pie.

Fits right in with our exciting life.

Painting A Picture

A while back I read a short, succinct statement that has had me doing more than a little bit of thinking. The statement was, "How you do your work is a portrait of yourself."

How I do my work . . . h-m-m-m.

If I'm honest, I have to admit that s-o-m-e-t-i-m-e-s (I'm pleading for leniency and understanding here) I go about my work in a less than joyful frame of mine. I do a task with my monkey mind constantly playing bad tapes.

"I wish I didn't have to do this time-consuming, unpleasant job that keeps me from having time for something I really want to do."

"Spending most of my day doing all these blasted things that HAVE to be done doesn't leave me enough time to do things that give me pleasure and feed my soul."

"Why do I spend so much time dealing with the 'must-dos' day after day after day?"

Geesh, if this is truly how I go about my work, I'm not at all sure I like the portrait of myself. Looks like I'm needing to make some conscious changes unless I want to be painted looking like the Wicked Witch of the West.

How 'bout you? When you think about the statement, "How you do your work is a portrait of yourself," are you okay with the picture you're painting?

Hearty Soup for Winter

For lunch yesterday I made a pot of my Winter Barley Soup. Almost wish it had been cold and snowy outside as would befit a soup like this. However, had you been here you might have thought it was April 10th rather than November 10th. This weather we're having in our neck of the woods is just plain crazy. The outside temperature at 9 p.m. last night was 50°. What is going on here? We could/should be having temperatures thirty degrees colder . . . or more . . . by now.

Well, Mother Nature is going to do just as she pleases whether we choose to adjust to her whims or not. I'll still pass this recipe on to you so you can make it sometime in December or January when it truly is a cold, blustery day and you need solid sustenance for your tummy.

I used to make this soup at the restaurant so it's stood the test of time and many palates.

WINTER BARLEY SOUP

5 cups homemade beef broth (You could use 3 cans of canned beef broth instead of the homemade broth if you don't have it. No problem. I won't send the Homemade-Only Police to your house. Promise.)

1/2 cup barley (Add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup if you want your soup more the consistency of a stew.)

5 whole peppercorns
1/4 cup butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup sliced carrots
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (About 1 tablespoon dried parsley if you don't have fresh.)

1 cup (or more) chopped cooked beef (Leftover pot roast is perfect.)

2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup wine (I prefer a good white, but nuthin' wrong with using red in this recipe.)

Bring broth to a simmer in soup pot. Add barley and peppercorns. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

In large skillet, saute onion and celery in butter for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and carrots and cook about 5 minutes more.

Add the veggie mixture, parsley and cooked meat to the broth after it has been simmering for the half hour. Cover and simmer 30 minutes more.

Open bottle of wine. Drink at least half of it to make sure it has a good flavor. Wouldn't want to chance ruining the soup at this point. ;o)

In a small bowl, stir wine into flour until smooth. Then stir into the soup. Cook, uncovered, about 15 minutes longer until soup thickens. Season with salt to taste. (Canned soup will be salty already so taste to check before adding more.)

This soup is just fine without the beef added because it's so hearty and flavorful the meat is hardly missed. Serve with cheese bread for the protein, and you'll be good to go.

Calmness in Our Lives

I got this in an e-mail yesterday morning from a good friend of mine and just couldn't keep myself from sharing it with all of you.

This is what she wrote:

* * * * * * * *

I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr. Phil proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished."

So, I looked around my house to see all the things I've started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of white zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, a box of chocolates, and a half bottle of scotch.

You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now. Pass this on to those who you think might be in need of inner peace.

* * * * * * * *

Hope this gives you a chuckle to start your day. (Big grin.)

Almond-Cranberry Cake

We were invited out to dinner this past Saturday night and I volunteered to bring a dessert. I wanted to make something appropriate for the season so thought to go with good ol' Apple Pie. Whoops. Not enough time to defrost a couple of pie crusts from the freezer and no time to make them from scratch.

Okay, cranberries. I make a wicked good Raspberry-Cranberry Pie. Rats. Pie crusts required again.

Got it! Almond-Cranberry Cake. A confessed poor cake baker I am but there are a few cake recipes I can wangle and feel good about. This is one of the few.

ALMOND-CRANBERRY CAKE

1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 - 16 oz. can whole-berry cranberry sauce
1/4 to 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Glaze: Put 1 cup powdered sugar in a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon almond extract and enough milk (about 1 tablespoon) to make a frosting that can be drizzled over cake.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, beating well. Stir in almond extract.

Combine the dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture alternately with the sour cream.

Spread half of the batter in a greased 10" tube pan. Top with half of the cranberry sauce.

(Before I spread the cranberry sauce, I put it in a small bowl and mix it up with a spoon to break up the jellied chunks. It's easier to spread on the cake batter this way.)

Repeat layers and sprinkle with almonds.

Bake in a 350° oven for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Mix up the glaze and drizzle over cake. I like to add a few more sliced almonds scattered randomly over the white drizzled frosting.

Sorry I don't have a picture of a slice of the cake to show you. I thought it might be a tad tacky Saturday night to whip out my camera and shout, "Photo op! Photo op!" when it was sliced and served. You'll just have to trust me that with the layer of cranberries running through the center of the slice it looks good enough to pass muster.

Enjoy!

A Hard Blow

Dear Blogging Friends,

For those of you who know my daughter, if you could go to her blog site,
The Tales of Chicken Mama, Lady Homesteader, and leave her a note, she could use a little love and support today.

Early this morning, she let her beloved little cat, Annie Blue, outside where she was immediately attacked and killed by a fisher (we think it was) right in front of her eyes.

Yes, Annie Blue was only an animal but we do get attached to our pets and they become an integral part of our families.

Chicken Mama is feeling pretty down right now, needless to say, and I know she would appreciate knowing you're thinking of her.

Thanks so much.