Snow's Comin'

It started . . . just fifteen minutes ago . . . and this time it's stickin'!

This was taken with no flash so you can actually see the snowflakes.

This was taken with flash so you can actually see the snowflakes starting to accumulate . . . maybe by tomorrow morning it'll be all white and sparkly . . . stay tuned!

Life is good!

Sweet Amy

Sad news at Simply Country Farm. They adopted a sweet fourteen-year-old kitty from North Fork last January. "Amy" had belonged to a little old lady who had passed away. The kitty was loved and cared for especially by ten-year-old CD pictured here. Sweet Amy died in her sleep. She will be missed by the entire family. God bless you Amy.

When the news was broken to CD he asked for a new kitty for his birthday next month . . . "One that will live longer?

Life is good!

Christmas Morning with the Grandkids

Here at Simply Country Farm we have a 16-year old, a 13-year old, and a 10-year old grandchild. Christmas morning was a bit different this year . . . we didn't get up until eight o'clock, about 2 1/2 hours later than usual. . . now that tells you something about the kids right there. The grandkids are getting older! Actually CD was up at 6:00 a.m. but quietly watched TV until the rest of us got up. All the gifts were wrapped under the tree so there was no worry about sneaking peeks at what Santa brought.

Watching the kids search their stockings while sipping a freshly brewed cup of coffee . . . nothing better on Christmas morning.

This is one excited teenager . . . getting her own cell phone, which she has wanted since she was twelve.

And here she is "rubbing it in" with her jealous 13-year-old brother who will have to wait a few years before getting his own cell phone.

JD, dramatically reacting to receiving the game "Pit" which he and his family learned to play and love at a recent Christmas party.

Just enjoying the morning with family.

The Tampa Bay hat sent to him by his mid-western family . . . something he has badly wanted and not been able to find.

That smile stayed on her face all day!

What ever happen to cowboy guns kids got when I was a kid?

Another favorite gift.

Life is good!

Waiting for Christmas

Cookies all baked and wrapped ready to go . . . these are the last two to be delivered today!

Life is good!

Christmas Cookie Disaster

Jen, Ken, Karah and the boys were off to the basketball game . . . I had the whole kitchen to myself! On my "to do list" for today was to bake Christmas cookies. Jen has six plates to fill for gifts plus one for PD's office staff. She baked Peanut Butter Cups yesterday. On my list for today was a recipe I was given by my sister Patty, for Orange-Frosted Cranberry Cookies. I've always loved orange-cranberry scones so what could possibly go wrong with a recipe with those ingredients? 

I followed the recipe to the "T" and when I took them from the oven this is what I got. Actually the first batch was done on a jelly-roll pan type cookie sheet and I tossed the whole thing out. I thought maybe the dough wasn't chilled enough, that it had softened up in the warm kitchen. I put the dough in the fridge for a half hour and tried again. I also made them a bit smaller, since they spread out so. Thus, the photo shows the second batch. 

By this time Jen and family were home and witnessed me taking them out of the oven. I was ready to toss the whole batch out and Jen said "No, wait . . . this would be good crumbled up and used on top of muffins!" So I let it cool and it crackled up just fine and will be put to use later. 

Picture this crumbled up on top of a homemade muffin . . . yummo!

Scratching my head thinking about I did wrong, I decided that I must have miscounted in measuring the five-and-a-half cups of flour so I reached in the flour container to add more flour and Jen exclaimed "Wait, THAT'S not flour . . . THAT's powdered sugar!" She keeps her flour and sugars in large plastic screw-cap containers . . . have you ever noticed how much powder sugar looks like flour? Duh! That's where I messed up . . . powdered sugar in place of flour.

Cookie disaster rescued . . . after adding flour to the balance of the dough the cookies now look like cookies. And JD tested them and said "Grammy, these are amazing!"

Life is good!

Getting ready for Christmas . . .

Tree up and decorated . . . check

Presents wrapped . . . check

Midwest presents shipped . . . check

Seattle presents shipped . . . check

Cookies to bake . . . not yet . . . maybe today!

Beautiful tree at Simply Country Farm!

Life is good!

Life in the Country

We've been at Simply Country Farm for less than 24 hours and have already witnessed three beautiful six-pointed deer strolling up the driveway as if they owned the place. Then this evening my nine-year-old grandson came running into the house and exclaimed gleefully  "Grammy, ya gotta come check out the orphan fawn!" So I grabbed the camera and went out the front door to see what he was so excited about.

Apparently this little critter has no family and has visited often.

He or she is quite tame and not shy at all.

She's (I've decided she is a girl) just adorable.

And she's naturally attracted to Karah.

After she decided there was nothing to eat, she went along her way. We think she honkers down for the night in "our" woods. I hope she stays safe so that she can visit again.

Soon the sun began to set spreading beautiful hues of pinks, oranges, lavenders and blues across the sky.

Beautiful, peaceful . . . all is well!

Life is good!

A Bump in the Road

A year and a half ago I developed some kind of allergic reaction to some sort of fungi which I must have inhaled. It affected my lungs so much that it has done some major damage. The doctors still haven't been able to pinpoint what fungus nor from where it came. Because we travel from here in our little mountain community of Coarsegold up to Oregon for three to four months of the summer, and I've been having trouble breathing in both locations, it's been difficult to figure out where the culprit lives. I've been seeing a pulmonologist in Fresno who, after a biopsy of my lung, has at least given my condition a name.

Ready? . . . 

Exasperated Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis. 

He suggested that I remove myself from both the travel trailer and the park model we live in at Park Sierra, because he feels the culprit is in the AC ducts in either or both rigs. So our daughter and son-in-law generously offered to house us in their guest room for three months.

They are growing up so darn fast . . . we now have two teenagers in the bunch!

 Yesterday we moved in . . . now it's a wait and see if the new meds do their job in removing the inflammation on the lung tissue and keep it from coming back.

The best part of this diversion is that we're with our loving family and get to enjoy the grand kids on a daily basis.

Life is good!

Time for Christmas Tea

Attending the Christmas Tea at Sierra Pines Church has been our tradition for the last three years, and will continue forever, Lord willing! Jen, KL and I have a great time getting together with over 150 women from the church and enjoy buying tickets for the enormous amount of raffle baskets donated by various members as a fundraiser for the Youth Groups. Jen and KL were lucky winners tonight. 

Tea Sandwiches, Miniature Quiche, Filo-Wrapped Spinach Morsel, and a lovely Cranberry/Orange Scone

The tea cup and saucer is a party favor we get to take home!

Three generations having fun together! Thanks for a great evening, Jen. It truly put me into the Christmas spirit!

Life is good!

A Fun Date Night in Fresno

Last Christmas we were given a great gift by our Midwestern family . . . tickets to go twice to the Roger Rockas Dinner Theatre in Fresno. We looked at the six shows offered during the year to make our choice. In April I chose one of my favorites, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma and last night we enjoyed Ken's choice . . . Sugar Babies — no, not the candy — the burlesque show.

Quite frankly I realized that I didn't really know what a burlesque show was. I had thought we'd be watching a bunch of fan-dancers, and high kicking sparsely clad young things.

But in addition to musical numbers, Sugar Babies featured classic skits like the famous "Little Red Schoolhouse" which was my favorite.

And of course we did get a complimentary treat during the intermission— a tiny box of the candy was given to each table to share!

Roger Rockas is a great place to go for a night out on the town—great food, great service, and certainly great entertainment. Thank you so much Midwestern family . . . a wonderful Christmas present that was enjoyed clear up to December!

Life is good!

Sunday Turkey

We purchase a five-dollar-turkey last week while grocery shopping at Vons — taking them up on a deal as long as we spent $25, which just isn't hard to do these days. It's been in the fridge defrosting and today was the day to cook the turkey. I am a big fan of Pioneer Woman and decided to try her method of cooking a turkey. She uses a brine for her turkey but I chose to skip that part. What I was more interested in was the actual roasting method. I stuffed my 14 1/2 pound hen, placed her in one of those disposable aluminum roasting pans, drizzled a bit of olive oil on her, covered her with two layers of foil carefully sealing the edges around the roasting pan. Then roasted her without looking at her again for 2 1/2 hours in a 275° oven. The foil was removed, a cube of softened butter was smeared all over the bird, the oven turned up to 375° and she cooked at that temperature until the meat thermometer reached 170° — basting every 30 minutes. It only took another 45 minutes

We love to watch the food channel and several of the chefs cook their turkeys using this slow, low-temperature, and it really works. I'll forever cook my turkeys this way . . . it was the juiciest, most tender turkey we've ever had!

Ken wanted to try a carving method that several top chefs also use. We've normally sliced the turkey breast holding the knife so that it cuts down the breast while it is still intact. After removing the legs, thighs, and wings— the "new" way is to cut the whole breast off the carcass, lay it flat on the cutting board, and slice it vertically — against the grain. According to Alton Brown the meat is more tender cut against the grain and tougher when cut with the grain. This is a great trick and looks nice on the serving platter.

The breast halves ready to slice vertically. We'll have enough turkey to enjoy the rest of the week. Plus a nice pot of soup will be on the stove soon, and that's one our favorite parts of roasting a turkey!

Life is good!

A first!

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving feast up at Simply Country Farm today. We were in for a real treat because until now I've only heard about folks frying a turkey and have never done one myself . . . well today we witnessed up close a personal that very thing.

The turkey had been injected with an herbal marinade and refrigerated for a few hours. Here Jen is drying both the inside cavity and the outer skin of the turkey so that it wouldn't spatter when lowered into the pot of hot oil. Notice how their yellow lab, Murray, is so hoping something would drop down to his level.

In the upper third of this shot you'll find Ken trying to stay warm down at the fire pit. The deep fryer contraption was set up on the hillside near the fence around the corral. We were all a bit jittery about this new procedure.

Very slowly the turkey is lowered down into the bubbling hot fat (peanut oil).

The fat boiled up over the turkey but then settled down to start the frying process.

After only 40 minutes it was time to shut the whole process down and pull out the fried turkey. We were excited to see how well it cooked.

It looked nice and browned.

Out it comes!

Jen had roasted a turkey "traditional style" so there were two birds on the buffet table. The sides included mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, two kinds of stuffing (a traditional and another with habanero sausage), a wonderful string bean recipe that included bacon and pine nuts, rolls . . . appetizers were served a couple hours before dinner, and both pumpkin pie and apple pie served for dessert!

Life is good!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Scarlet Begonia

I've never met a Golden Retriever I didn't love, and Scarlett is no exception!

While visiting Jackie and Rick we were introduced to Scarlett Begonia, a three seven-month-old Golden Retriever, who lives in the rental next to the adobe house. Her owners both work so, needless to say, Jackie and Rick love playing with her and making sure she gets at least one good walk/run through the vineyard every day.

She loves to run through the vineyard, and she's good at running full speed back to you when called.

She waits patiently while Rick cracks walnuts, from their huge tree growing in the middle of the vineyard. Scarlett loves walnuts!

Life is good!

Healdsburg Fall Visit

Finally we got over to see Jackie and Rick. We missed our fall and spring visits last year due to my "health issues" and we're so glad to make it this year. We always have fun there no matter what we do, we just enjoy being together.

Jackie loves to shake up a great Martini to start off the evening!

She and I enjoyed sipping our drink while sitting out at the Sky Bar, watching the colorful view as the sun set.

Jackie and Rick planned a wonderful dinner of grilled swordfish flown in from Hawaii that morning, a scrumptious garlic broccoli, served along with a Caesar salad, and cooked beets picked fresh from the garden, and of course a nice red wine . . . yummo!

Does that not look delicious . . . and it was!

The next morning we took a walk in the vineyard. The harvest is done for the year and Jackie and Rick are getting ready for their trip to the Baja house for a much needed vacation.

The vineyard looks so pretty this time of year!

And don't the leaves from this persimmon tree just call out loud 
"It's fall!"

Life is good!