I took this photo in Wyoming last summer. It's a big field on the drive from our house into the small town of Wilson. I cannot wait to get out there next week to see the horses and all of my friends.
Heartbreak – again – on the Farm
Posted by on June 11, 2011 1 Comment
I have been so busy lately I haven’t had much time to update my site. Things have been busy here on the farm with summer actiivities in full swing.
And as if he heartbreak of losing Cissy after the birth of the babies wasn’t enough, on Thursday morning I went out to feed the farm only to discover that my small brooder coop had been broken into by a predator – probably a raccoon or possum. . Unbelievably, I lost every single chick — and there were 20 or 22 adolescent chicks in that coop — except one. We don’t know how this guy managed to escape the attack, but in the morning he was the lone survivor. We have yet to come up with a suitable name for him. He has, thankfully, been welcomed into the larger flock and is now living over in the big coop.
The lone survivor of the chicken massacre of 2011
Sometimes I just feel like I can’t take anymore heartbreak in this farming life. It’s been a rough month here on the farm.
The goat house and chicken coop construction has not been moving along as quickly as I feel it should be, but like watching a large jigsaw puzzle being put together painfully slowly, it is, bit by bit, getting done.
The rear of the chicken coop in the beginning of the week.
Front of the coop and nesting boxes at the beginning of the week
Rear of the coop by the end of the week. Walls and washable wall material has been installed and rubber flooring laid down.
By the end of the week this is what the front of the coop looked like. Only one small piece of the scrubbable wall material left to be installed and the trim around windows and nesting boxes.
The cupola was installed on the roof, and that solar panel to the left of the cupola will power...
The solar ceiling fan built into the cupola's base. It runs off a thermostat on the wall and kicks in when it gets to a specified temperature in the coop. How cool is that?
I expanded my garden bed this spring, but quickly realized with the goats having free-roam of the property until the new fencing is installed anything I planted would be eaten in minutes flat. I decided to make some protective fencing myself. So, through the heat of these past two weeks I’ve been building fencing. Evan has been helping me quite a bit when he gets home from school.
The final step was cutting off the excess of the mounting posts with a circular saw.
The finished garden enclosure with an entry gate. It's not fancy, but hopefully it will keep the goats out.
With all of the work it took, we still don't have that much room to plant things. Evan and I spent some time this afternoon getting stuff planted in the cold, dreary weather.
It’s frustrating to do all this work and still have such a small piece to plant in. I’d love a really big garden one day. There are so many fun things to grow!
Grace & Kiki are growing like weeds! They practically call me on the phone now when it’s bottle time and Grace can suck down her bottle, which is up to 8 ounces 4 times a day, in about 2 minutes flat. Kiki is a little more lady-like about it and likes to take a break or two while drinking hers. I have discovered it is very difficult to get a good photograph of goat kids…they move constantly.
My goal this week is to get them down to 3 feedings a day. I have to leave for Wyoming on Friday to take Evan to camp and I’d like to reduce the burden on everybody by getting the bottle feeding a little less frequent.
Grace has discovered that sucking on an earlobe is remarkably like sucking on a goat’s udder, so whenever you’re holding she’ll root around for your ear and suck away. And yes, those are goats in the house.
And Kiki discovered Princess Kate’s tiny udder the other day and was sucking away on that. Look at Kate’s face!
It was one of the cutest things I’d ever seen, until about 20 minutes later when I was looking for Kiki and found her under the contractor’s truck where she was covering Princess Kate’s face with kisses.
The chicken’s are anxiously awaiting the move into the new coop this week. They are so smitten with the goat house I don’t know what they’re going to do when they realize this new structure is for them! I am constantly finding them in the goat house, and yesterday there were a total of 6 eggs in the goat’s stall – 3 in the hayrack and 3 on the ground.
Just wait until they get a load of the nesting boxes with individual windows.
My Kitchen Aid Mixer
Posted by on June 9, 2011 Leave a Comment
If my house was burning down I would save my children, my husband, my pets, my computer and my KitchenAid. Everything else I can replace. Even my computer can be replaced. My KitchenAid mixer – this KitchenAid mixer – however, can never be replaced.
Sometimes I actually feel like setting a match to the house and just starting fresh. All the STUFF just gets a little overwhelming sometimes and seems so unnecessary.
There’s a long story to this mixer. First of all it’s probably 28 years old if my memory serves me correctly. Still going strong. I still have all the original beaters and bowl. I’ve added 2 new “swiping” beaters in the last few years which almost eliminate the need to scrape down your bowl. If you don’t already have one I highly recommend you seek one out. It’s never overheated or stopped working on me. I know there’s debate among Kitchen Aid fans as to which is better – the model that has the crank lift or the model like mine where the top lifts up. I prefer mine.
I’ve been cooking practically since I could stand on a stool and reach the counter. I didn’t start with anything fancy. Cake mixes mostly. Sometimes I’d branch out and make some brownies or Jiffy corn muffins, but I made a lot of cakes.
My parents divorced when I was around 8 and my sister and I then lived with my father. I started cooking more then. Experimenting with actual meals. At that time my sister (who is 20 months older than me) wanted nothing to do with the cooking — she’s a wonderful cook now.) For a child 8 to 12 year old, I did a lot of cooking.
We didn’t have a lot of money, but my dad and I were saving to buy me a Kitchen Aid mixer. Every week we would put money aside for it. We finally had enough and were going to go buy it that coming weekend. That week my father, who was a carpenter, fell off the roof of a house he was working on and broke his back and crushed his foot and spent about a month in the hospital. My sister and I ended up using up that ‘mixer fund’ for essentials, like food and stuff, while he was in the hospital. I never did get that mixer, but I did get my father back in pretty much one piece.
So, I survived the rest of my childhood with my electric hand mixer. I think maybe we had one of those really awful electric stand mixers that had the glass bowl that fell off the stand as you were mixing too.
My parents moved on. Both my father and mother remarried wonderful people.
I think it must have been my 19th birthday. Maybe my 20th. It also may have been a Christmas present and not a birthday gift; that was a long time ago and my memory is fuzzy. My father and stepmom gave me my long-waited-for Kitchen Aid. Truly one of the best gift I’ve ever been given. Certainly the most useful. This mixer moved to California with me and went through some serious cake decorating courses. It survived professional pastry school done part-time. It moved back to Connecticut with me and has been with me through 1 fiance (never married) and 2 husbands, 5 dogs, 4 kids, and three houses. It never complains. It’s never cranky. It will work at whatever time of the day or night I need it to.
I cook for comfort. When I’m troubled with something or upset about something I cook. When my best friend Patty was dying last year of cancer and it was really close to the end I was frantically cooking. Morning, noon and night. It gives me comfort. It was Christmastime and I made three gingerbread houses. Not simple ones either. Elaborate ones. All different. They were exactly what I needed then and my mixer mixed all of that hard gingerbread dough without a single complaint. I gave two of those houses away to friends. That seemed right. The one my kids decorated I kept for our house.
I have another Kitchen Aid mixer out in Wyoming. It’s that great new Tangerine color that they make. It’s just not the same. It doesn’t seem as sturdy or strong. The engine makes a funny noise. It’s not familiar. Maybe it’s the history behind this mixer. Who knows. Cooking makes me happy. Cooking with my Kitchen Aid makes me very happy.
Originally published on December 2, 2009. Modified June 9, 2011.
Camp Robber
Posted by on June 9, 2011 Leave a Comment
As my ex-husband says, it was hotter than Billie blue blazes out today. Unfortunately I was working outside for a good deal of it. Although the violent thunder storms that ripped through our area this evening have cooled things off slightly, all I could think of was posting a winter photo today. This bird is called a "Camp Robber" in Wyoming. As soon as he discovered our bird feeder we figured out why; he would site there every single day and completely empty out our feeder. Ever day. Pig.
Giant Porcupines
Posted by on June 6, 2011 Leave a Comment
We will see a porcupine in Wyoming on occasion, but these Giant Porcupines at the San Antonio Zoo in March were really big!
Fresh Strawberry Pie
Posted by on June 6, 2011 Leave a Comment
At the Union Square Farmer’s Market in Manhattan this weekend were the first strawberries of the season! I was so excited I bought 4 quart containers of them!
Fresh Strawberries from Manhattan's Union Square Farmer's Market
There is just nothing like the taste of fresh strawberries locally grown. They really make you understand how little the strawberries you get at most grocery stores all year actually taste like strawberries!
I’d seen this recipe in the most recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and knew this was what I would make with these beauties. I don’t think I’ve actually ever had strawberry pie. I guess I started out at the top with this recipe, so it will be all downhill from here. This was pretty easy to make, and it was really terrific and so full of flavor. I added slightly more strawberries to the glaze mixture than the original recipe called for, and since I had a deep-dish pie shell, I added some extra whole strawberries to the pie as well.
Fresh Strawberry Pie
Makes one 9-inch pie, serving 8 to 10. Published May 1, 2011. From Cook’s Illustrated.
Why This Recipe Works:
We knew that the success of our Fresh Strawberry Pie recipe hinged on getting the thickener just right. When none of the thickeners that we tried worked on their own, we decided to use a combination of two: pectin (in the form of a homemade strawberry jam) and cornstarch. In our strawberry pie recipe by themselves, pectin produced a filling that was too firm and cornstarch one that was too loose. But together they produced just the right supple, lightly clingy glaze that was perfect for our strawberry pie.
To account for any imperfect strawberries, the ingredient list calls for several more ounces of berries than will be used in the pie. If possible, seek out ripe, farmers’ market–quality berries. Make certain that you use Sure-Jell engineered for low- or no-sugar recipes (packaged in a pink box) and not regular Sure-Jell (in a yellow box); otherwise, the glaze will not set properly. The pie is at its best after two or three hours of chilling; as it continues to chill, the glaze becomes softer and wetter, though the pie will taste just as good.
Ingredients
1 pre-baked pie shell
4 pints (about 3 pounds) fresh strawberries , gently rinsed and dried, hulled (see note)
3/4-cup (5 1/4 ounces) sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1-1/2 teaspoons Sure-Jell for low-sugar recipes (see note)
Generous pinch Table salt
1 tablespoon juice from 1 lemon
Whipped Cream
1 cup cold heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
Instructions
FOR THE FILLING: Select 6 ounces (I used 8 oz.) misshapen, underripe, or otherwise unattractive berries, halving those that are large; you should have about 1½ cups. In food processor, process berries to smooth puree, 20 to 30 seconds, scraping down bowl as needed. You should have about ¾ cup puree.
Whisk sugar, cornstarch, Sure-Jell, and salt in medium saucepan. Stir in berry puree, making sure to scrape corners of pan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with heatproof rubber spatula, and bring to full boil. Boil, scraping bottom and sides of pan to prevent scorching, for 2 minutes to ensure that cornstarch is fully cooked (mixture will appear frothy when it first reaches boil, then will darken and thicken with further cooking). Transfer to large bowl and stir in lemon juice. Let cool to room temperature.
Meanwhile, pick over remaining berries and measure out 2 pounds of most attractive ones (I used a little more than 2 pounds since I had a deep-dish pie shell); halve only extra-large berries. Add berries to bowl with glaze and fold gently with rubber spatula until berries are evenly coated. Scoop berries into pie shell, piling into mound. If any cut sides face up on top, turn them face down. If necessary, rearrange berries so that holes are filled and mound looks attractive.
If any cut sides face up on top, turn them face down. If necessary, rearrange berries so that holes are filled and mound looks attractive.
Refrigerate pie until chilled, about 2 hours. Serve within 5 hours of chilling.
FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM: Just before serving, beat cream and sugar with electric mixer on low speed until small bubbles form, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium; continue beating until beaters leave trail, about 30 additional seconds. Increase speed to high; continue beating until cream is smooth, thick, and nearly doubled in volume and forms soft peaks, 30 to 60 seconds.
Cut pie into wedges. Serve with whipped cream.
Print This Recipe
Recycled Clothing Project
Posted by on June 6, 2011 Leave a Comment
A few months ago I was if I would mentor a friend’s daughter in a school project. She wanted to make an outfit out of recycled materials.
Claire had her friend model the outfit while she talked about the details of the project
When I first got together I clarified what she meant by “recycled” — did we have to make it out of garbage or old chicken feed bags (which would have been totally cute and possible)? She had in her head either using recycled materials or “repurposed” materials. Her original thought was to make a dress out of paper clips. I thought that sounded a little “revealing”, so I said what about making an under-dress out of duct tape? I figured if we doubled duct tape over on itself we could sew the strips together and it would be super strong. Plus, the seams of piecing the strips together would create an added element to the outfit. My old pattern-making days for Simplicity came in handy and I made paper patterns out of paper and we used that to make the three pieces for the top; a single piece for the front and two pieces for the back with darts and an industrial-style side zipper for a really close fit. Duct tape doesn’t have any give or movement so a pull-over top wasn’t an option.
However, once we started trying to piece the paper clips together we realized what a nightmare working with them was. We made rows of squares of 4 clips all linked together, and then pieced them together to another section creating larger sections. They tangled easily and the clips shifted around and it was very frustrating. Even though Claire is a tiny little thing, I imagined trying to create an entire dress out of these paper clips would drive us both into the loony bin. I decided making a dress out of bubble wrap might work pretty well, and adding layers of ruffles, layering pink bubble wrap with clear bubble wrap would make it more interesting.
One night it occurred to me that we could make shoes too for a complete outfit. I drew Claire’s feet on paper and cut pieces of plywood into rectangles a little larger than her feet were. Then I stacked the plywood together, used a lot of wood glue and clamps, and ended up with big wooden cubes. These I cut out with a band saw and then roughed out a wedge-style heel and sanded them to get the final shape. I found a great pink suede hat on eBay that we bought and cut up, sewed them into straps and screwed them into the base of the shoe with Claire standing on the base. They were truly custom-made for her feet.
It was a fun project to work on. I wasn’t able to go to her presentation of it as I had my own children’s concert that night.
Coincidentally, when my sister and I were in the Atlanta airport to come home from the BlogHer Food conference there were several display cases of recycled outfits. I wish I’d seen them before the project and not after; there were definitely some good ideas I could have used.
The dress, handbag and shoes below on the left were made from canvas scraps and are decorated with flowers cut out from coke cans. The coat, below right, is a used coat covered with “fake fur” made with film from cassette cartridges. The larger ruffles on the sleeves and collar are from video tape. I cannot imagine how difficult that was to make!
The dress and shoes below are decorated with paper cutouts!
The outfit below left is a tribute to the car industry: The jacket, skirt and blouse were created with material from a soft-top convertible. The “faux fur” on the jacket was made by curling electrical wire and hand-sewing it to the lapel. The outfit on the right is made with inner tubes from bicycles! Circles were cut out and sewn onto the shirt and were cut into fringe and sewn into the bolero. Larger inner tubes from car tires create the undulating fabric on the skirt. The base of the shirt, bolero and skirt are all sewn from torn hotel sheets.
If you want to read more about this recycled project that I saw on display at the Atlanta airport and others, click the link below:
A Crazy Weekend
Posted by on June 5, 2011 3 Comments
This weekend I was in New York Friday afternoon through about 8:15 Saturday night. Last night India had her first of what I’m sure will be many bar mitzvah’s to go to. Today was Jim’s 55th birthday, India played fiddle in a concert and Maia was displaying a piece of art in a local art show. Now we normally have pretty lazy weekends. The most we have going on typically is riding lessons for all 3 kids Saturday mid-morning through early afternoon. This weekend was nuts.
Crazy.
Hectic.
Exhausting.
Fun.
I do not need a weekend like this again for a very long time.
Friday afternoon we drove the kids to Brooklyn (what without traffic is a 45 minute drive took us 2 hours and 45 minutes!). We dropped the kids off at Kelly & Nicks apartment. I call Kelly my “my 5th daughter”, but we’ve all been so busy we haven’t really seen them since their wedding almost two years ago! Kelly & Nick graciously offered to watch the kids so Jim and I could sneak away to Manhattan for a night and day. We were running so late and were worried that we might miss our reservation at Craft in Manhattan that we practically pushed the kids out the door while the car was still moving.
Kidding.
With Kelly and Nick in Brooklyn Heights on Saturday afternoon
We dropped and dashed into New York. We called the restaurant and managed to push our reservation back a half hour, so we had time to check into our hotel and quickly change our clothes. We stayed at the Bryant Park Hotel. It was really nice. Our room was on the 8th floor and overlooked Brant Park. Beautiful views. Comfy bed. Really great pillows (I am very picky about my pillows).
Our lovely hotel room at the Bryant Park Hotel
The views of the city from our hotel room. We also had lovely views looking out over Bryant Park.
We ate dinner at Tom Colicchio’s Craft. Delicious. The restaurant was beautiful, the service was terrific and the food was really great. It’s not fancy food, just good food done really well. After dinner Jim took me over to see Mario Batali’s new Eataly. Wow. He opened a small market in Port Chester that my friend Justine turned me on to, but this place is the same but on steroids x 20. And at 11:00 at night in Manhattan it was packed.
There was case after case of beautiful italian prosciutto and salami
And row and row after row of italian jams
This Connecticut farm gal was pretty tuckered out by then, so we went back to the hotel. Jim was asleep within 5 minutes and I was asleep before midnight. I cannot remember the last time I managed that.
We got up pretty early and headed out to the Union Square farmer’s market. I bought some of the first strawberries of the season that I plan on making strawberry pie with tomorrow, and we bought several cuts of bison meat. We eat a fair amount of bison in Wyoming, but have yet to find a good source here. Then we wandered over the ABC Carpet & Home and strolled around the many floors there. There’s always fun things to see there. Then we walked the High Line Walkway; the renovated elevated railroad tracks that have been transformed into a beautiful walkway with gardens and fountains and amazing views. It was pretty crowded and a large section wasn’t due to open for another few days, but it was lovely and certainly a great use of the old rail line. On to Purl SoHo where I bought some fabrics for a project for my sister’s baby shower gift, and a book for Cyrena who had bravely taken on farm sitting and bottle feeding for me. Jim even managed to find a few things for himself in SoHo, which is good because I’ve been so busy these past few weeks they would become his birthday gifts. We went back to Brookyln, toured Brooklyn Heights quickly where we met up with the kids, Kelly & Nick, and went back to see their apartment and have a quick dinner with them. Luckily our traffic wasn’t quite so bad heading home.
The High Line elevated walkway
Today Jim turned 55, India had a fiddle performance and Maia had a piece in an art show. I was up past 2 AM baking his cake, wrapping presents and distributing birthday cards. Luckily Maia took over the 7 AM bottle feeding for me.
I don’t want to leave my house next weekend.
New York Building
Posted by on June 5, 2011 Leave a Comment
This strange image is of the side of a building down near Union Square. I don't know if they made the sculpture around the smoke that had to come out of the building there, or if they made the smoke come out there because of the sculpture?
I’ll Be Away for A Day or Two
Posted by on June 2, 2011 Leave a Comment
I’m heading to Manhattan for a day off from the farm. I can’t remember the last time my husband and I snuck away by ourselves. The kids are excited because they get to go stay with our dear friends Kelly and Nick in Brooklyn and explore their neighborhood. I’ll be exploring the farmer’s markets, fabric & knitting stores and other fun things in lower manhattan. I don’t plan on posting while I’m gone, but I’m going to bring my laptop just in case. I do plan on taking a lot of photographs.