I milked a cow today

Our 4H club visited Wright Dairy Farm in Reidsville today.  It's been in business since the 40's and is family owned and run.  Quite an impressive and interesting operation, yet it had an air of simplicity about it.  We arrived in time for the afternoon milking, which is done by machines.  We stood in the milking room, below the cows, for they are at chest level so the one doesn't have to bend over to milk them.  The cows look huge standing above you and the smell ...Mr. Wright let us all have a turn at hand milking and it is hard work.  The cows, all 300 of them, have to be milked twice a day.  Thank goodness for machines.

After that we went into the barn where the calves were waiting to be bottle fed.  They were all eager and searching, just like an infant waiting to be nursed by her mother.  The girls petted the calves as they continuously licked their hands.  The barn smelled of hay, dirt and manure.  Young kittens watched us, hoping for a spill. Another barn held the older calves who were being weaned, one area had four pregnant cows waiting to give birth.   Always work to be done. It gave me a new appreciation for the farmer.  There used to be 60 dairy farms in Rockingahm County, now there are four.  It is a hard business, but one that our nation could not live without. A big thank you to the local farmer who works from sunrise to sunset.  I am sure it's been a long while, if ever, that the Wright family has had a vacation.

Cute little fellar waiting to be fed.

  

These mama cows are waiting to be milked.

Baking for a crowd

I took on the assignment of baking 125 cookies for a church conference back in February.  The weekend arrived of the meetings and it was time for me to start baking.  Fortunately my 14 year old daughter, Nan, wanted to assist me.  Cate, 16, helped with the packaging later on.  I had chosen my Chocolate Oat Crunch cookie recipe because it is one of my favorites. It  is a yummy substantial cookie, consisting of oats, coconut, chocolate chips, with a hint of cinnamon.   I decided white chocolate chips would be a nice addition.  This recipe calls for 3 cups of flour and 3 cups of oats, so it makes a large batch of cookie dough.  Three recipes would do the trick, I decided.
We began baking at 1 pm and until 6 pm the oven was in full use.  As the cookies cooled, I drizzled each one with white chocolate.  Once that had hardened, each individual cookie was place in a cellophane bag and tied with a pastel ribbon. Cate, Nan and I formed an assembly line and soon the job was finished.  I arranged them in my long wooden basket and set them on the table for a final count by my husband, eighty exactly, so I threw one more in for good measure.
The next morning he was going to the conference breakfast at the church and was able to deliver them for me.  How nice to complete the job.  I really do have a deep love for baking.  It was not a burden at all, but a joy.

Soft Pretzels

There is nothing better smelling than bread cooking in my oven and for someone who is wheat and gluten free it is a smell that I don't often get to experience .  It is tortuous anyway!  But on this Friday afternoon, Nan, my 14 year old daughter was in the mood to "cook something".  And since she and her older sister have a teen function tonight that required them to bring a snack, I told Nan she could cook something for the party, serving two functions at once.  We looked beyond the usual chips and dips, cookies and brownie recipes, especially since Nan is hypoglycemic and can't have sugar, and I found the perfect recipe for soft pretzels.
The recipe is quite simple, and she is used to making bread, having made pizza dough before.  I will say it was time consuming process because the pretzels had to rise for 45 minutes, then immersed in almost boiling water for 30 seconds and a final baking at 475 for ten minutes.  But it was well worth the wait and I am sure they will all be gobbled up quickly tonight.  Ahh, for just one taste....

The pretzels rose for 45 minutes.

The hot water bath.

The finished product with cinnamon sugar.

Closeup of pretzel with kosher salt.

Nan with her creation.

Soft Pretzels for 12

1 1/3 c hot water
2 1/2 ts dry yeast
1 1/2 ts sugar
Mix these well and let proof for 5 minutes.

4 c flour
2 TB butter
3/4 ts salt
Add ingredients to yeast mixture and mix well, I used my kitchen aid mixer for this.  Cut dough into strips and roll into ropes and shape into pretzels.  Place on greased baking sheet, cover and let rise for 45 minutes.

4 c water
1 1/2 ts baking soda
In a cast iron or other non aluminum pan, bring water and baking soda almost to a boil.  Gently lower pretzels into water for about 1 minute, turning once.  Do not let water boil.  Remove pretzels and return to greased baking sheet.  Sprinkle with kosher salt and bake at 475 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy a hot pretzel--just like the ones in the mall!

Miracle Mixer

Last May 29th my daughter, Claire married a wonderful man, Witt Davis.  We love having another son in the family.  So about this time last year my life was full of wedding plans.  It was a lot of fun, but a great deal of work and it's nice to be able to reflect upon it all this spring.
I remembering being so excited when I found Claire the "perfect" shower gift.  But I really cannot take the credit for this find, God led me there.
Hart and I have a lunch date every Friday that we are free.  We normally go to our local Chinese restaurant.  They serve a delicious hibachi shrimp dish, my favorite.  But this was a Tuesday and I must have just gotten back from running a lot of errands, because I talked Hart into taking me to lunch that day.  As we were eating, we talked  about the shower coming up and how I wanted to get Claire something really special.  Hart , knowing what I'd really like to get her , said he wished we could afford a Kitchen Aid Mixer, but the cheapest are around $200.00  to $300.00....  When you are paying for a wedding, you count every penny and an extravagant shower gift was not in the budget.  Yet, I knew,  a Kitchen Aid Mixer would have been perfect.  You see Claire is the one who loved to cook of all of our girls.  And Hart says, even now, he can tell when Claire is home, because the mixer is running!  She was accepted into culinary school in Paris, but for various reasons, did not go.  Oh, well....so much for my dreams, I thought.
After we eat on Fridays we usually go by Goodwill for Hart likes to look for first edition books.  I usually browse the housewares.  So as I was walking through the appliances on this particular Tuesday I noticed a dirty, large mixer on the bottom shelf.  I bent down and lugged it onto the floor, frantically motioning for Hart to come over.  It was a Kitchen Aid Mixer!
I found an electrical outlet and we plugged it in, it worked!  All three beaters were there.  The bowl was in perfect shape.  And did I mention the color was almond.  That's the unusual color that Claire had chosen in her Bridal Registry.  The only problem I could see was that it had some grease on it.  Best part?  It was only $25.00.
We were so excited and couldn't wait to get home to clean it up.  And it came clean beautifully, not a scratch on it anywhere.  In fact if I had had the original box there is no way anyone would have known it was not new.  Amazing?  Yes, because I have an amazing God.  It reminds me of  Psalm 37:4,  "Delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart". I told the story of the mixer at the shower and the women had tears in their eyes.  We call it the Miracle Mixer.

I still browse the appliance section on Fridays, but I've never seen another Kitchen Aid Mixer.  God surely works in mysterious ways.

Homemade Yogurt

A good breakfast  is yogurt with walnuts, fruit and a drizzle of honey.  If  I'm really hungry I'll have a gluten-free muffin as well.  It's quick, easy and nutritious.  I love Stoneyfield Organic plain yogurt, but it's expensive so I decided I'd like to make my own.  I was in Goodwill and as I was perusing the appliance section I came upon a  Salton yogurt maker for just 2 or 3 dollars.  I figured since it was intact and cheap, I could take the risk of whether it worked or not.
After a good scrub, the ceramic cups are dishwasher safe, I searched for  recipes and found one from the Salton  website that I liked.  I successfully followed the instructions and poured the ingredients into the 5 cups of the yogurt maker and plugged it in.  Voila!   Ten hours later I had rich, creamy yogurt and it's delicious too.

        

My Goodwill Salton Yogurt Maker

                                                  

Plain Yogurt Recipe

1quart organic milk

1 TB plain yogurt (this is your starter).

Bring milk to a boil ( heat until 185 degrees).

Cool milk until it reaches 110 degrees.

Add the TB yogurt starter.  Stir well.

Pour into the 5 serving jars, cover.

Plug in yogurt maker and set the dial for 10 hours.   

I'm looking forward to some freshly picked strawberries to put on my yogurt:)

Precious Moment

Friday night I received the most delightful phone call from my son-in-law, Jered.  He said, "Listen to this, Mom." Faintly I could hear a baby's laugh, hysterical and joyful.  Gabriela has learned to laugh out loud.  So cute.  But what was funnier was the voice directly in my ear of my eldest, Lauren, as she made all kinds of crazy and loud noises, trying to get Gabriela to laugh for me.  And of course once Ela realized she was expected to perform she wouldn't.  But Lauren wouldn't give up and I could hear Jered saying in the background that Ela had been laughing so hard just a few minutes ago. Fortunately I did hear her gleeful laughs at the beginning of the call, but what made me smile was thinking of the joy that this little girl was bringing to her parents and the fact that they wanted to share the moment with me.  Indeed a precious moment.

The happy little girl.

                                                                  

                                                                        

 Gabriela with her daddy.

                                                          


                                                                            






                                                                            

Sausage Making 101

Bright and early this morning, Hart and I began the process of making our own sausage, something we've never done before.  I've had the desire to try this lost art for a while and for Christmas I received the Kitchen Aid Meat Grinder attachment (I picked it out).  But life got busy and I set it aside for when we'd have the right moment to give it a try.  January went and February was almost gone as well, when I looked at my calendar and decided we might have this weekend free.
  Hart researched techniques and recipes.  I ordered the casings.  We bought the necessary ingredients and we were ready to give it a try.  Now we only needed a large block of time.  I voted for early Saturday morning, when we would both be fresh and energetic and our teenagers would still be asleep, so no need for any urgent carpooling.
Hart actually got up much earlier than I did and he began the process by getting all of our tools--bowls, grinder and attachments, and meat very cold.  He had read that it would go through the meat grinder easier if all things were very cold to start with. He also soaked the casings in cold water for about two hours.
I arose around 7 am and came down to a cup of coffee and a slab of very cold pork that needed to be cubed.  Not exactly my dream way to wake-up but by the time I had cubed 6 lbs of ice cold pork I was indeed awake!  Our first recipe was called American Farm Sausage.  Our next recipe was Italian Sausage.  Considering that this is the first time we have attempted to make sausage everything went really well.  We learned a few things and by noon we had about 10 lbs of sausage drying, waiting to be wrapped for future cooking.

We cut up a 5-6  lb pork shoulder into cubes.  

Hart is getting every last bit off of the bone.

The cubed pork and 2 lbs of cut up bacon.

We also used a 3 lb pork tenderloin.

My trusty Kitchen Aid mixer with new meat grinder attachment.

It worked great!

The cubed meat was put onto the tray and pushed through the opening with a special tool.

Next we added spices and seasonings. Plus a cup of red wine for the Italian and a

 cup of beer for the Farm sausage.

Mixing it all together by hand, boy was it cold!

Hart is threading the pork casing onto the sausage stuffer on the mixer.

The sausage mixture is placed onto the tray once more and pushed through.

It comes out of this tube and on to which the casings are threaded.

                                         My job was to guide the sausage as it was being filled

Lovely coils of sausage.

Hart then gently twisted the sausage, careful to let air bubbles escape.

A mornings work produced about 10 lbs of sausage.

Italian is on the left and American Farm is on the right.

The sausage must air dry for two hours before it can be packaged.

Packaged and ready to be refrigerated overnight so that it can "bloom".

Then it can be eaten or frozen for later use.

But we are cheating and having some for dinner tonight.  Shhh...