Baking and Lots of It

We have been baking. ALOT.  Mostly muffins.  They are easy?  How easy? Easy enough that you shouldn't bother buying the baking mix.   It takes exactly 5 minutes to mix up the batter.  I use the recipe on What's For Lunch At Our House's website : http://bentolunch.blogspot.com/2010/04/muffin-recipe-from-yesterday.html  I have been following the blog for about a year and started making the Corn Dog Muffins first.  Corn Dog Muffins?  Chop three hot dogs, throw them and a handful of shredded cheese into a bowl of Jif Corn Muffin Mix.  Bake. Done. Yum (if you like corn dogs, which I do!)  Anyway, we have made homemade blueberry muffins and we also made a batch of zucchini and carrot muffins.  You can also halve the batter once you have mixed it, and make half a batch of one type and half of another.  So easy and as I have learned from Shannon's blog, they freeze easily. You can put anything in these muffins....chocolate chips, berries of any kind, etc. and have a great result everytime. 

You can also find the recipe for the zucchini bars we made the other day here : http://www.betterrecipes.com/blogs/daily-dish/2010/08/03/garden-fresh-zucchini-bars/
However, I would leave the cinnamon OUT of the frosting.  Or just forego the frosting all together.  The bars are great and moist on their own, and I thought the frosting gave it kind of a cinnamon roll like flavor, which wasn't what I was going for. 

Here are my helpers making the bars. Rose is sifting. I have learned that SIFTING IS IMPORTANT and if a recipe calls for SIFTED FLOUR, it means to sift it BEFORE you measure it!

Happy muffin making!

I Can't Believe Summer Is Almost Over!!

Summer has just flown by, so here is short photo essay of what has gone on around here....

Rose actually posed for a picture

Luckie, our "rescue" mare from the winter, finally filled out and started to look beautiful.

Wyatt played in the sandbox

 

Hilda and the rest of the crew ate and got a nice grass bloom

Rose and Wyatt played on the swing

Captain has done absolutely nothing useful

The end.

Georgia Cooking in Colorado Kitchen

For my birthday I got the cookbook Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen by Trisha Yearwood.  My favorite song by Trisha, Believe Me Baby I Lied, circa 1996 was one of the first country tunes I ever heard.  And I have never looked back.  Except when I listen to Tupac or Pink or Daughtry. But I digress.  Her cookbook is awesome.  You don't have to be a cook to cook most of the stuff in it.  None of it is intimidating.  Caveat, very little of it is good for you. 

The first thing I cooked out of this book was Chicken Broccoli Casserole (or Chicken Divan for you southern folk) and Braden really liked it.  Rose refused to try it.  She is a picky little thing.  

Next, I made sausage balls.  I used some home grown Italian sausage, homemade biscuit mix, and cheese.  Seriously, DON'T buy biscuit mix. You are saving yourself the trouble of measuring baking powder, flour, and salt and you have added preservatives.  So, just make it yourself! Anyway, sausage balls involve mixing the three above ingredients and baking the 1 inch balls.  My Aunt always used to make these for holidays and parties.  I didn't really like them when I was younger when my tender palate couldn't even handle the spice of sausage.  Now, I can at least handle that.  These were yummy and would be good for breakfast, brunch, or appetizers anytime.

So, if like me you aren't great in the kitchen, go get this cookbook and start cooking.  I am going to try some of the desserts next.

The Morphing of a Varnish Roan Appaloosa

Our miniature gelding, Doodle, is just 2 years old and I want to chronicle his coat color through the years.  The varnish roan pattern of an appaloosa is very interesting.  I like coat colors and their variations in general. While I am not a huge fan of the appearance of the appaloosa horse, their coats are quit interesting. These varnish roan horses change color every year until at 8-10 years old they are at their final coloration. Doodle's mother, LHR Sizzlers Sweet Sixteen, is 11 years old demonstrates the varnish roan pattern above as an 8 year old and as a 10 year old (right) Although the 10 year old picture leaves some lighting to be desired, you can see her stifle and the spot on the point of her hip are obviously lighter.

When her son, Doodle, was born in April of 2007 I immediately discerned he was an appaloosa because he had characteristic mottling of his muzzle and vertical tiger stripes in his feet.  Here is the cute little bugger at about 2 weeks old.

Doodle is also a unique silver dapple.  He is not a typical bay.  His stockings have maintained the mottled appearance and his mane and tail are not black.  His tail is almost a gold color with some black mixed in, and his mane is a mix of black, grey, and gold.   The photo below shows his unique tail color.

                                             

As a yearling, Doodle still looks to be almost entirely a silver dapple.  You can discern in the photos he does have some minor flecking over his rump. I am apparently short any quality photos of him from last year. YOu can see well in these photos though that he doesn't have the black points typical of a bay horse, but his front legs and tail have more of a golden hue to them

As a 2 year old, in 2010, the molt is on!  He looks like he has some sort of fungus! He changed dramatically when shedding off his winter coat (which is not quite through, but I got impatient and wanted to do this blog)  It is hard to believe in a few years he will look just like his mother, except for his baby blue eyes!

                                       

and finally, the finished product. LHR Sizzlers Sweet Sixteen in 2010 at an 11 year old.  Her coloring should not change much more throughout her lifetime.

An at home bento....

I haven't been posting much lately.  My new camera is broken, and my "old" camera has somehow pissed off my laptop to the point they will no longer communicate with one another.  So I had to convince my desktop computer I needed to upload some pictures.  One of them happened to be this "at home" bento we made the other day.  Somehow, we have completely lost our nice stainless steel pico lunchbots boxes.  I am sure they will be found someday (under a seat in the car, maybe?)

Rose put all the grapes on their picks and had a great time doing it.  She had strawberries, bananas, peppers, a piece of turkey, cornflakes, and grapes displayed in a big piece of tupperware until I can find some more bento gear to replace my temporarily misplaced lunchbots.

In other news:
The work has started on our new house in Berthoud, though it doesn't look like we will actually get to move in until July. 

Rose's very first horse show is May 2nd. She will be riding Daisy in the leadline class.  Stay posted to hear how that goes!

The first horse show of the year was the Rocky Mountain Paint Horse Association Paint - O - Rama in Denver.  I took my mare, Miss Bonita Dry, at the last minute.  Braden had the day off and we didn't have plans, so I figured I shouldn't pass up the opportunity which is a good thing because now I will be missing the Memorial Day show to attend a wedding.  I have never shown Bonita but she warmed up nicely and was unconcerned with the atmosphere.  For those of you who aren't horse folks I show my horses in an event called reining.  It is basically work you would do with a cow, but without the cow.  You are judged based on your horses talent to do the manuvers, but even moreso on the obedience of the horse to your cues. In the novice amateur class, I placed 6th out of 6th.  Obedience went out the window when Bonita kicked out at my leg twice and took the incorrect lead starting in a cicle. Really? She is 13 and has done this plenty. It was not a pretty moment and I was so shocked instead of flying change (changing in motion) I completely stopped and started again.  Like the judges didn't notice THAT.  I usually run the novice amateur class very reserved, because I have a good chance at winning it so I just take it easy and do the pattern nice and corect and don't try to get any "bonus" points. On this day, I saw I had some competition so I decided to run the pattern really hard and ask alot of my horse and it, obviously, did not work out. In the amateur class, I usually have less of a chance of placing well, so I usually go out there and run it really hard.  I changed my plan after the results of the previous class. I took off my spurs.  I didn't ask her to run as fast, spin as fast, or stop as hard. And you know what? We won.  Out of 10 entries, of at least a few who were World Show competitors in the recent past and most whose horses were plucked directly out of their stall at the trainers barn and brought to the show.  Not out of their owners backyard, out of shape, still hairy from winter, and ridden sporadically.  Needless to say, I was very happy with our run, we earned 9 APHA points which puts us 1 point away from Register of Merit I am hoping we can earn that at the next show in June.

I would post pictures, but unforunately my scanner does not want to talk to my computer either, so when they work out their difference we'll get them up.

Spring is here.....

And in my world that means one thing.  Horse sex. And lots of it. You think breeding horses is easy? Think again.  I have come to the conclusion that we humans have done a fabulous job interfering with nature.  We have stallions that have erectile dysfunction and mares who can't figure out if they want to be bred or not.  It makes for interesting adventures trying to convince two creatures under not so natural circumstances that they should in fact copulate when and where we tell them.  Mr. Handsome pictured above decided last year to take out his frustrations of human interference on his ladies, or at least I can only assume that was the issue.  So now he is outfitted with a muzzle I call his Hannibal mask so he cannot ravage the girls with his teeth.  This frustrates him even further.  The books will tell you a stallion is ready to breed anytime, anyplace. Not when a muzzle has been applied, or when your supper is burning is the oven or you have to leave for the pediatrician in 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes...JUST DO IT ALREADY. 

Here is to a successful breeding season to all of my friends in the business and to a nice spring consisting of just regular old birds that chirp and bees that buzz for the rest of you.

OK, back to sustainability and DAIRY

So we have talked about the dog so I guess I need to get back to sustainability.

I have been told by more than one person if you are going to put your money anywhere when it comes to food put it into milk.  Not just milk of course, but milk and milk products we all eat a lot of like yogurt and cheese.  This really didn't matter to me at first.  I don't drink milk. I just don't like it.  Now I have a 3 year old that likes milk. I am not sold on the health benefits of milk so I don't over do it.  I haven't drank any milk since I was weaned from the bottle around a year old.  I have never broken a bone despite some falls from interesting angles and high places and I have pretty decent teeth.  I ate your normal amounts of cheese, yogurt, and ice cream and I have always loved leafy green vegetables which are a great source of calcium so no one ever worried too much. Through research have come to learn that we humans really weren't meant to drink milk much past the time all of our teeth grow in so about age 3. Being smart humans, we figured out how to nurse all of our lives off of a creature other than ourselves.  When you think about it that way, milk isn't nearly as pleasant sounding now is it?  I have also done research on the benefits of raw milk.  There are many, including greater availability of vitamins, minerals, and beneficial bacteria than in pasteurized milk. 

When Rose was younger and drinking a lot of milk, I bought organic milk. It cost about $5.50 or more per gallon depending on where I purchased it.  At a gallon a week that is $22.00 a month.  The biggest supplier of organic milk to major markets is Horizon, www.horizondairy.com. Although Horizon is a big fish and a big corporation, they do employ family farmers following USDA organic guidelines to provide their milk and I think they do a pretty good job for as big as they are and when you think about it $22.00 a month isn't a bad deal until you compare it to $8.00 a month I could be spending on Wal-Mart's Great Value brand milk.  

Then you get to  learning about USDA organic guidelines.  A cow must be fed organic feed (check) a cow must be allowed 120 days of pasture each year (check). Wait, ummm, where is the cow the other 8 months of the year?  In a feedlot, being cycled through a huge milking barn, just like any other dairy cow being milked for Wal-Mart's milk except the cow is being fed organic feed and if it is given any antibiotics or medications it must be removed from the organic herd for a longer period of time than just the withdrawal period of the medicaiton. Happy cows?  Maybe. Happier cows than those stuck in a feed lot situation all of their lives like a typical dairy cow. Trust me that cows in California are not any happier than cows in Colorado like the commercial leads you to believe.

Oh, and you do know that a cow has to have a calf to make milk, right? Usually a dairy cow is milked for 9-10 months and then allowed to dry up for a few months before she calves again.  This "dry" period is when a cow in an organic dairy is probably turned out to pasture. Back to the calf.  Cows that are going to calve soon are separated into different pens.  They calve.  Their little bitty cute as a bugger calf may be allowed to nurse some colostrum from its mama, or it may just be whisked away.  The calf will be tethered what looks like, or what IS, an oversized igloo dog house within site of other calves but allowed no contact with them.  It will be provided with ample food, water, and milk.  The heifers will be kept as replacements.  The bulls will be sold as soon as possible to anyone willing to buy them and raise them for meat or whatever they desire.  Nature's way, yes?

So where am I going with all this?  Raw milk.  In Colorado and most states, you must OWN a cow to drink milk from it that is raw or unpasteurized.  So these farms sell shares in the cow.  You actually co-own the cow.  In most co-ops, you pay $40.00 or so per month for 1 gallon of milk per week.  Yes, $40.00!!!!  I am not saying it isn't worth it, but compared to $8.00 or even $22.00 per month that is insane.  But now you are dealing with dairies where the cows have names, the staff are bottle feeding and oogling each calf that has been removed from the mother, that is if they have even removed them for the cow is perfectly capable of producing enough milk for her offspring and plenty of humans as well. Your milk is given to you in glass containers providing the nostalgia everyone looks for these days in addition to the sustainability of glass container.   Live in Colorado? Find out about it www.rawmilkcolorado.org. 

My newest idea is the family dairy cow.  Our own family milk bar could provide us with milk to drink, make cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. Would I like one? Yes. Is it feasible? I am not sure.  A cow must be milked twice a day each and every day for 9 months or more per year to stay in full production and her udder doesn't care if it is 20 below or 100 degrees and sweltering, it must be milk and the milk must be properly handled and stored and you will have a date with every 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock of this world for as long as you plan to milk a cow. You need to buy the equipment.  You need to buy the COW.  A halter broke, friendly cow you can milk by hand an run you $1,500 and up.  Heifer calves to raise up gentle and breed yourself? Virtually unheard of, and if they are at the sale barn you can assume there is something wrong with them. After you buy the equipment your initial investment is going to be at least $2,000 and then your monthly upkeep of lets say, $25.00 per month to feed your lactating wonder. I don't even want to do the math to see how long it would take to break even.   So the moral of this story is:

Wal-Mart Great Value Milk - Great value.  For you.  Not for the cow in a concrete barn or her calf in little hut in the throes of mid-west or Colorado Winter

Horizon or other "big ticket" organic companies - Great value for the product. Better for the cow. Still not so good for her calf in the little hut.

Raw Milk - If you are really serious about this sustainability stuff, do your research and join a raw milk co-op in your area and see how you like it.  Most of them have a starting fee, but it will be refunded if you choose to leave the co-p so you don't have much to lose. You can tour the dairy and meet the cows that are giving you your milk and their little doe-eyed dears that came into this world to give it to you and even give one a bottle.  Cute.

A dairy cow in your back yard - Only if you are crazy.  I am a little, so don't be surprised if you see Bessie in the front pasture when you come over next spring.