This photo was taken several years ago when I attended a photography course in Dubois, Wyoming given by the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts. It was early one morning and this bunny was giving himself his morning cleaning. I love this shot because of the way the sun reflects through the hole between his head and his leg.
A stone conversation bench at the New York Botanical Gardens
A Frosty Morning, Teton National Park, Wyoming
A blowing snowdrift glistens in the sun, Jackson, WY.
A rusty green truck at the ranch in Arizona where I did a cattle roundup a few years ago.
This photo was taken this past summer in Dubois, Wyoming. I love taking photographs of cows.
I was as in the mood for a good chicken stew a few weeks ago, so searched my favorite cooking website and found this recipe. As usual, I made a few minor changes (they added flour to thicken the sauce in the end and I didn’t find this a necessary thing to do), but the end result was really spectacular. The whole family loved it.
Now the original recipe calls for it to be cooked in a slow cooker. I will definitely be bringing this recipe out to Jackson over Christmas and setting it to cook one day when I’m out skiing. However when I made it I chose to cook it in the oven at a very low oven (like 225o F) in a heavy stockpot with a tight-fitting lid. A word of caution – and I speak from experience here – this chicken gets fall-off-the-bone tender, so if you stir the stew too much when it’s cookings you’re going to end up with a bunch of small bones to pick out of your meal. You can eliminate this issue by either not stirring it as much as I did, or using boneless pieces of chicken, but the bones will add more flavor to the dish. It was meant to be cooked in a slow cooker, so I think the not-stirring option is probably the best one.
Prunes or raisins can be substituted for the apricots. If you are unable to find hot paprika, substitute sweet paprika and add cayenne pepper to taste. Cooking on the high setting will yield tough, stringy meat. We recommend cooking chicken exclusively on the low setting. TIME: 4 to 5 hours on low
Dry the chicken thoroughly with paper towels, then season generously withsalt and pepper. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Carefully lay the chicken thighs into the skillet being careful not to overcrowd, skin-side down; cook until golden, about 6 minutes. Flip the chicken over and continue to cook until the second side is golden, about 3 minutes.
Transfer the chicken to a slow cooker, or if you’re using the slow-cooking oven method I used, you can keep the chicken in the same heavy pot you browned it in. Using paper towels, remove and discard the browned chicken skin. Pour off all but 2 teaspoons of the fat left in the skillet and return to medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown the remaining chicken, transfer it to the slow cooker, and discard the skin.
Pour off all but 2 teaspoons of the fat left in the skillet and return to medium heat until shimmering. Add the onions and ¼ teaspoon salt; cook, scraping the browned bits off the bottom of the skillet, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic, cinnamon, cardamom, and paprika; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the apricots and the chicken broth, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom.
Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Transfer the mixture to the slow cooker until the chicken is tender but not falling apart, about 1 hour longer. If you choose to use the oven method as I did, then place the chicken back into the mixture, put a tight-fitting lid on the stockpot and place into a 225o F oven for about an hour, until chicken is tender but not falling apart.
Transfer the chicken to a carving board and tent loosely with foil to keep warm. Discard the cinnamon stick. Set the slow cooker to high. Stir in the cilantro and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Return the chicken to the slow cooker and allow to heat through before serving.
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In mid-December I brought my goats up to Misty Highland Farm in Killingly, Connecticut to drop them off for breeding. She has a few beautiful bucks and junior bucks that we are hoping create some beautiful kids.
Driving up I had the most amazing sunset going on in my rearview mirrors.
We chose Revellee for Melina. He’s very handsome in a beautiful caramel color with a long beard.
For Cissy we chose this handsome young buck named George. He’s much younger than Revellee is, so he doesn’t have that great buck beard yet. He’s a lovely chocolate brown color. Cissy is technically a chocolate brown but is so dark she looks black and you can only notice the chocolate highlights when the sun is hitting her just right. I’m hoping by combining Cissy with George’s lighter chocolate color we’ll perhaps get some really nice chocolate kids.
The girls ended up staying at Misty Highland Farm through our Christmas vacation, and it was nice to know that they were in such good care and company while I was away.
When I first brought them up to the farm they were a little overwhelmed by all of the other goats, who were of course very curious about the new arrivals.
One doe in particular was fascinated with the bling on Cissy’s collars (rabies and I.D. tags). She was apparently jealous of the fancy bling and was trying to steal it for her own.
After watching them for a while I needed to head back home. I felt bad for my girls as they were pretty overwhelmed by all of the goats. They clearly wanted to hop right back into the car and go home with me. Sue did end up separating them from the herd for the first few days so they could get acquainted through the fencing.
After a few days they did integrate into the big herd of does. Melina head-butted her way up the ranks of seniority and fit in quite well, but poor cissy wasn’t quite as forceful and mostly just hung close to Melina.
We are certain that Melina is pregnant so we should be expecting her kids around the 9th or 10th of May. Cissy came into heat and was bred to George, but didn’t get to stick around long enough to see if she came back into cycle. We are keeping our fingers crossed that they had a ‘successful union’, and if so, we expect her to kid around the 27th of 28th of May. Obviously I have pretty much cleared my calendar for the month of May.
