Good Food

All right. I'll bite. I was catching up on my reading of Jim Long's blog (scroll down on the right to see blogs I visit) and now he's made me hungry for beer bread. And it's not the Super Bowl yet! LOL I printed out his recipe and had to find mine to compare. His recipe is definitely better. My recipe is your basic 3 cups of self-rising flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 can of your beer of choice, all mixed together and baked in a greased bowl for 50-60 minutes at 350F till done. I like to bake the bread in a bowl because I carefully hollow out the bread leaving a crusty shell that I fill with melted sharp cheddar cheese to which I've added a pound (or two) of bacon bits. The removed bread is cut into bite size pieces. Then I put the cheese bowl in the center of a larger round platter and place the bite size pieces around it as finger food. Jim's bread recipe is heartier and more filling. I don't have a lot of herbs in my herb garden yet so I think that for now I would switch the wheat flour for rye and toss a tablespoon of caraway seed in the batter, then continue as with my usual recipe and the bacon-cheddar filling. A nice hot pepper-Monterey Jack might work with that, too. Hmmm. . . . Super Bowl . . . .

Brrrrrr

We got another 3" of snow last night. My garden boxes are buried. At least it wasn't -20F again.



Tom says he will clear out the driveway tomorrow with the snow thrower. I am giving up on cutting more fence posts until the snow starts to melt because the snow in the woods is just too deep to work in. I will work on putting together the chick brooder.

I was going to order some more pear and apple trees, but with the economy the way it is, I think I'll hold off. I did order some yellow birch and sugar maples from the Extension Office that I'll plant along the creek bank to improve the buffer area. I have a new field diagram for you so you can see how the field will look this year:



I caught Cliff High from Half Past Human on Rebecca Jernigan's radio show at http://www.journeyswithrebecca.com tonight. You can listen for free to the archived show; it should be up on the web site some time tomorrow. Who needs nightmares when you have reality staring you in the face! Well, no matter what, I will do my best to take care of my family and help my neighbors. That's all anyone can do. Just take things one day at a time. I believe the saying goes, "All that is sure is death and taxes."

Stay warm!

Good Day for Working

This morning the thermometer read -18F and warmed up to hover around 10F. For a change the sun shone and there was no wind, so I bundled up, grabbed my Forest Axe, measuring tape, and Western Saw and slowly broke a path through thigh deep snow in the woods and managed to cut down two trees that gave me 6 more fence posts. I don't have a skidding chain, so I cut a length of clothesline and managed to pull most of the posts to my started post pile with that. The clothesline worked pretty well, but I am sure the snow pack helped. If I can keep this pace each time the weather lets me work outside, I should have all the posts I need cut before the chicks come in March. And I should lose the 40 pounds the doctor wants me to lose!

It's funny how events tend to run in spurts. Today, for instance, was my "Communications" day: I got my Amazon order (thank you, Kim, for the Christmas gift certificate!) of the ARRL training books so I can study and apply for a shortwave radio license, and today I received wonderful calls from dear friends and relatives.

I'd say it was just about a perfect day! Think I'll fix a cup of peppermint tea and peruse the new A.M. Leonard catalog. . . .