Wednesday, January 19, 2011

It's a GIRL!!!

We had our very first calf born last week! Remember the horrible freezing cold rain storm Saturday night??? Of Course! When else would a calf be born? Ian saw her early in the morning when he went to feed the pigs and we all came running...through the pouring rain... to see our new baby. Poor thing, she was soaking wet and shivering so we gathered her up and brought her in to the corral (mom close on our heels) dried her off with towels, and gave her a nice hay bunker to warm up in. John and I were covered in mud, soaking wet and freezing our tails off but the happy baby went right to sleep while momma munched hay. Ella promply named her Abigail and we just love watching her romp all over the fields with the other cows now.


If you have never planted a winter garden, well, you need to pencil it in for next September! Here is what I pulled for dinner a couple nights ago - yum! Did you know lettuce loses 50% of it's nutrition within 24 hours of being picked? You don't need acres of land - just get a book on square foot gardening and have at it! Trust me, I'm the world's worst gardener but seeds just want to grow and you can have food in your own backyard - now if you get a little crazy with this (which might happen 'cause it's so darn fun) don't go blaming me when the neighbors get cranky because you dug up your lawn to grow 15 varieties of radishes.

We used to have this thing where after Christmas, the kids could have 3 of their toys to play with - the rest had to be put in a closet and they could get one new one each week (I KNOW, we are mean, horrible parents :) We don't do that anymore because now that they are older, they usually get one or two big presents instead of a million toys. Anyway (there actually is a point to this story and not just to illustrate how we are screwing up our children) when you put something away for awhile and "rediscover" it, it makes it way WAY more fun.

About a year ago, John bought me a grain mill and dough mixer (I'm not kidding here - it really exists) because my friend Jo had one and she's really awesome so darn it, I needed one too! So he dutifully purchased them and I immediately put them on a shelf and forgot about them. So Jo (probabally realizing that I was far to stupid to make them work on my own and just a little too gadget happy) encouraged me to sign up for this blog called Kitchen Stewardship - and I did. And it's AWESOME! Her blog puts my blog to shame - seriously...this woman has the energy of a hyperactive 4 year old on a six pack of soda. She blogs nearly EVERY day and cooks and grinds her own grain and everything! But I have more kitchen toys so clearly I win. Kidding.

Long story longer...I finally pulled out the grain grinder and since the organic wheat I bought never made it into the garden (no rain for 6 months really kills the window of opportunity for
getting wheat to grow) I threw it into the Nutrimill and tried my hand at... well...whole grain everything!

Here is some dough soaking overnight before being made into bread. This is a Bosch mixer - some people get chills when they hear Lexus or Mercedes - not this girl... say Bosch or Kitchenaid and I'm all aflutter.

Whole grain granola bars - yum! They disappeared faster than a David Copperfield elephant.


I even tried the fresh ground wheat in my favorite Brown Butter Soda Bread recipe and no one complained! When I first told Ian we weren't going to eat white bread ever again, he whined and said he wasn't going to eat bread anymore till we "got the good stuff". Took about a week. Amazing how quickly a hungry child will change their mind - he loves wheat bread now - can't believe anyone would eat anything else.
Yes folks, it's just that easy.