Thoughts from my head

 A customer made a comment today at work. I didn't think much about it in till after I got home from work.. I had just made dinner, The dishes were done. I was putting a load of laundry in when I realized  she was right.  Here is that comment.

                        A WIFE IS AN  EXTENSION OF A MOTHER FOR A MAN.

Candy's Baking Mix

 I had seen this on Candy's site.   http://lazyjbarcfarm.blogspot.com/   I wanted to try it ,but like I do sometimes I put it on the back burner. What a big mistake! I have to say there is one part of the recipe I will change. It says to use a large bowl. Believe me you want to use a extra large bowl. I had flour everywhere when I tried transferring it to a larger bowl. It makes a lot. which is a good thing because you will use it for so much.  Candy was also nice enough to give us recipes for using it.First thing I did was make waffles. I have never used wheat germ in a baking mix before. But omg it was so good!

 Not only do they taste great, they freeze really well. We took some out of the freezer this morning and threw them in the toaster. They tasted like I just made them.  Candy has a great blog . There are so many reasons you should check it out. You won't regret it.  ADD GET THIS RECIPE! A MUST HAVE!

Whiskey Flats Days

My husband and I went to the Whiskey  Flats Festival. It was a wonderful day. There was so much to do and see. This is only a small part. They had a encampment of the old west.  Everyone was dressed and living as if they were in that time period.

These are single piston engines, the one on the left was driving a saw mill blade. Only a few mills used these machines. Most used water or mules.

                          This was the center of the encampment The benches surrounded a open fire

                                              And they said Wild Bill was dead.    

   This gentlemen was nice enough to let us take pictures of his tent.

His wife was just taking out a cobbler that she cooked in her wood burning stove. I was really impressed.

                                     This is the loaf of chocolate chip bread she made earlier

    The Chili simmering on the stove smelled great. The next four picture are more of the inside of the tent.

 I  enjoyed talking to this couple. They have been doing this for quite a while. They really enjoy it .

Like any old west encampment, they had their Saloons. A lot of them were not like what you see in the movies. They were very roughly built.

  She makes her own Apple Pie Liquor.  She has won awards for it. She offered us a taste. We weren't sure  at first about that.

 It turned out to taste pretty good. There was no burn at all. She was nice enough too give me the recipe. Maybe I will make it some time.

                                              They had their own little merchant's store.

    This was the camp cook. Notice the chuck wagon. It was loaded with food from that time period.

             This was either a gypsy wagon or Snake oil sales men wagon. I not sure which it was.

                  Even the wagons had wood burning stoves. I wounder how many wagons caught fire.

                                              This is the other side of the wagon.

 Our next stop was the Indian encampment.  On the right side of the picture is a traditional burial site.

                                              This was the Chiefs tent.

     She wasn't to sure about me taking her picture.

       The Chiefs daughter was showing us how they made their breads.

                  These are the stones they cooked on. Makes you  appreciate your modern stove.

  Hope you enjoyed the tour of the encampment. Whiskey Flats was a lot of fun. I will post on the museums and craft fairs in a future post.

Finally finished my apron

 I made this apron for a apron challenge on one of the blogs. But now I can't remember what blog it was. Don't you just hate losing your memory.  The good news is my friend Miriam is going to love this.  She can tie it at the sides or just throw it over her head. The next apron I am trying is a jean one. Wish me luck.

Love this dog

This is the dog I want. I was told it's a toy poodle. It looks like an Ewok to me. I think it's so cute!  It's little enough to take with us on trips. I saw it at the swap meet in Vegas . I got to play and hold it. I just fell in love with it. I showed my girls the picture. They were not impressed. They informed me Sabrina would eat it. It would make a nice snack for her.

Tiff's breakfast pizza

I have to brag on my daughter. I was really tired after work and her dad was home sick. So she volunteered to cook dinner. She went thru the frig and found pizza dough. So started her creation of breakfast pizza.
                                             Tiff's Breakfast  Pizza
1 container of Pillsbury  Pizza Dough
1 pound of ground sausage
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tablespoon of flour.
1/2 teaspoon of creole seasoning
6  eggs
dash of garlic salt
1 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper

Roll pizza dough out on pan. Cook for 9 minutes at 425. Cook your sausage till done. Whisk the flour into milk,add to sausage. Add the creole seasoning and salt and pepper to taste. Cook till gravy is the thickness of a pancake batter.   In separate pan  scramble eggs with garlic salt and pepper. Place the sausage gravy on the pizza dough .Spread out all the way to the edge. Add the eggs and cheese,also spreading to the edge. Place back in oven and cook till cheese is melted.

 I was really surprised how good this was with the mozzarella cheese.  She did a great job for cooking dinner right off the top of her head. This will be going into the family cook book. It was so good. I can't wait to have the left overs for breakfast tomorrow.

Please help

 I hope my blogging friends can help me. I have two problems I need help with. First, does any one have a recipe for sugar-free cookies.  There are two older guy so come into work,who live alone. Charlie and John. Us girls will make treats for them But John can't have sugar so unfortunately he goes with out. I would love to find a good sugar free recipe for him and surprise him with cookies.

Second I lost my voice  at work today.  Everyone got a good laugh out of it.One person said I sounded like a chipmunk. Another said I sounds like I inhaled helium. Does anyone know how I can get my voice back by tomorrow. And yes I know not to talk. As hard as that will be to do,especially for me. I am not sick .My voice just stop working. I will be thankful for any help I can get on these two problems. Good thing is I don't have to work again till Monday.

This is what happen when I am bored.

I was left on my own to come up with ways to entertain myself. So I started dreaming about my future homestead. Which lead to looking up images on the internet. So welcome to my  dream homestead. Kathy my ex sister-in-law (now a great  friend) lived in a house just like this. I have always loved that house. Now it's on my dream homestead.

A course I have to have a barn. I have always loved red barns with white trim. This one is perfect..

                                                 Everyone need a green house. It,s just part of life.

Doesn't my dream veggie garden look great.I just wish my real one looked this good.Ok, I know it's winter.

                                                                 He's watching you.

                I may have the goat before the homestead. My husband is thinking about getting a miniature .

                                                        I love baby pigs.they are so cute.

                                                     I already have the chickens. That,s a good start.

This is a must.We have to have wood surrounding the 5 areas. Well there you have it. My own little dream homestead. I am now putting this in my draft folder. If you see this, you will know I couldn't come up with something to post. Or I was just to lazy to write something. HA HA 

My Valentine Challenge

This year I gave my Husband a challenge. I started thinking about past Holidays. And I realized the one I remember are the ones where we didn't have money. When we were first married we didn't have any extra money to burn. So for our first anniversary he took me on a over night camping trip. We went out into the woods and had cake and wine under the stars. Then slept in the back of his truck. That has always been my favorite anniversary. One mother's day  he made me dinner. Then disappeared up stairs. He ask me to come up. I walk in the bathroom and fell in love with him all over again. There were candles every where. (That explains the missing candles around the house) The tub was full of bubbles and a glass of wine. set on the edge of the tub. As he walked out, he hit the CD player and Kenny G  started playing. I was in heaven. And no kid dare knock on the door. My favorite Valentine was when I got my Opel ring. He took me out to dinner (which was a real treat back then) During the dinner he gave me my ring. It was a heart shape Opel surrounded by gold with three little diamonds. He had saved  very extra cent he could get his hands on to get me this ring. It took him almost  6 months. We are now married 22 years and I still wear that ring.   Those are the times I value more then any other . He has bought me many wonderful gifts and we have celebrated many  great holidays.  But I realized the ones where we didn't have money were the best. Those are the ones that stay in my memory So this year I told him we were going to do Valentines with out spending any money on each other. And no cards, that would be to easy. On my end I made his favorite breakfast. Bacon and Raisin Cinnamon French Toast with my homemade blue berry syrup. I added a strawberry covered in white chocolate  with two hears in dark chocolate to his plate. He so bet me at this challenge. After breakfast he handed me a love letter. Did I mention I LOVE this man.

The Country Homemaker Hop- Week 7

“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. ”
― C.S. Lewis

Are YOU a Country Homemaker? 

Do you make nutritious meals from scratch, labor in a vegetable garden, or raise livestock? Do you do these things because of the love you share with your family and a desire to provide the best for your loved ones? If you answered yes to any of these questions, than like me, you must be a country homemaker and WE WANT YOU!

Please join us Wednesdays to share your pictures, recipes, household wisdom, homemaking tips, crafts, ideas and stories with the country homemaking community. It's a new year full of exciting new opportunities. Life is what we make it. Let's dig in and discover just what's been going on- on the Country Homestead this week?

The Country Homemaker Hop is being co-hosted this week by a couple of great blog friends Dolly, Heidi, and Michelle. When you have a chance, I invite you to check each of our blogs:

Dolly is Cooking 

Michelle's Little Piece of Heaven

My Simple Country Living

White Wolf Summit Farmgirl

Thoughts from my head

                                                         Times sure have changed.

Remember when you would meet someone along the street and say HI. If you do that now they look at you weird and move to the other side.

Remember sitting on the front porch visiting and enjoying the summer nights. Now we are held up in our homes,visiting via text messaging.

What ever happen to family dinners.Sitting around the table talking about our day. Now it's chow down in front of the TV or computer.

When my Mother said jump. I asked how high. Now kids just till they parents to shut up.

When did Ma'am and Sir become a dirty word?

Sunday dinners.The smell of pot roast and potatoes drifting from the open front door. Now a days it's the sight of the pizza truck or the smell of drive thru.

 Friends sitting around a kitchen table enjoying a visit around  homemade treats and coffee. Now it's a 4 dollar cup of coffee at Starbuck.

Letting our children play in the front yard with out worrying some one might take them.

Knowing there are people to help you in time of need. Not video taping it for U-Tube.

 When did being the bad girl become Ok?
 
 We have gained so much thru the years, But in some thing, sacrifice so much more.

How did she know!

 How did she know she was talking about me. While doing the linky party I found this great site. Spilled on the kitchen table. She was talking about going thru the change of life. It was hilarious. Then she showed this song. This has me written all over it. I couldn't stop laughing it was so true to my life. The bad thing is when I showed it to my husband. He ask if she know me. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Her blog is worth checking out.

http://spilledonthekitchentable.blogspot.com/

My-sister-in-law Michelle's cake

  First off let me say this is the best cake I have had in a long time. But ,it is also the weirdest cake I have ever make. I wasn't sure it would turn out when I put it in the oven. I was happy to see it did.

                                                  RED VELVET PUDDING

1 package (12 oz) whole frozen raspberry (not in syrup) thawed.
1 package Devils food cake.(plus the ingredient to make it.)
2 cups boiling water
1 package ( 3 oz.) raspberry gelatin.
1 tablespoon cornstarch.
1cup choc chips or mini chocolate chip
powder sugar
1 tub of cool whip (thawed )                                                         Preheat oven to 350


In a 9 by 13 baking pan( lightly sprayed with cooking spray) spread out your raspberries. Mix the cake as the directions say on the box. Gentle spread the batter on top of the raspberries. In a small mixing bowl add the gelatin and cornstarch together and stir till well mixed . Add water and whisk till completely dissolved. Pour over cake batter. OK don't panic. I know it looks weird, but it will work out I promise. Cook 40 to 45 minutes. Knife should come out clean of cake batter. Let cool. Add choc chip,then sprinkle with powder sugar. Right before serving, place thawed cool whip on top of cake slices. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. this is what puts the cake over the top. For some reason it blends all the flavors so well together. You can use other fruits. My daughter loves the raspberries. My husband loves strawberry. It your choose.

 Just a little note. Very time I make a cake,I always end up taking some to work since there is only three of us. With this one there isn't any left to take to work.

                        These pictures were taken before I added the whip topping

Spring comes early for Sabrina . To Kite's joy!

 Sabrina has already started to lose her winter coat. She usually doesn't start till middle of March  or first of April.  So spring is early this year or the warm weather is fooling her.

The bad thing is all the hair and brushing.  I got all this hair in just 15 minutes. I had only did half of one side.  You could hide a small dog in there.

 This is the floor after Sabrina had enough and walked away. After a while the brush irritates her skin. So we have to brush her in shifts.  

And a course Kite( aka trouble ) had to be right into the middle of things.

Have you ever tried cleaning up hair while a cat thinks it's his play toy?

I tried sweeping around the cat. That didn't work. He started attacking the broom.  I finally had to lock him up ,so I could clean up the hair. You should of seen the look I got when I let him out.