Category: cooking and recipes

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I’m a farmer

Well I checked to make sure my insurance was good with the animals, made sure I had all the proper permits, and even got a pair of pot belly pigs, pygmy donkey’s, and a miniature horse so I guess I’m now officially a ‘farmer’.  I got the little donkey from the ‘Little Ass Farm’ up the road.  I love the name of that place.  It’s a sweet little donkey too.  Her name is Blossom.

So far, the animals have been a huge success.  I even have people stopping by just to see the animals.  Yeah, I do charge for them to pet my animals.  Hey, you gotta pay for feed for all those critters ya know.  I even got a pair of pheasants and some quail too.  Man those are some pretty birds.  I can sell the babies they hatch because I’m not eating their eggs, that’s for sure.  Maybe we could have ‘pheasant under glass’ for dinner if they raise babies.  I’m not killing them if we do.  That’s going to be someone else’s job, not mine.  I’ll just sell the babies, I’m not eating any of the animals!!

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Another Monday

Well here it is another Monday after a pretty busy weekend thank goodness.  The funny thing is I got an interesting suggestion from one of my ‘guests’ this weekend.  They asked me why I don’t have chickens to have fresh eggs for the guests since I have a garden to provide fresh vegetables for them?  They were saying the chickens would also provide education and entertainment for the children since a lot of the city kids have never seen a chicken up close and personal or seen eggs being gathered either.

I thought that was an interesting question so I called a friend of mine that does all my repairs and building that I need done and asked him about building me a chicken coop.  He said it wouldn’t take too awfully much to fix one since there’s already a small barn on my property.  He said he could attach it right to the side of the barn and make it so that the nests are inside the barn in a small fenced in area where the kids can see the eggs in the nest but can’t get to them.  He’s going to start on it tomorrow.

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Happy 4th of July

I sure hope you guys are having a ‘blast’ today.  We have a special July 4th package deal going on where the whole house is decorated for the 4th, and we are having a huge picnic type dinner for everyone in the community too.  The other local businesses like the tubing guys up river are throwing in with me and offering tubing and canoeing along with my package.

It’s kind of a bring your own fireworks type display and everyone brings a side dish too from the community.  Watermellons are in the river getting good and cold and so is the beer.  We always have the best time, and the house is booked solid for the whole 3 day weekend. 

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Ethanol

I heard that you could get a permit to make your own ‘ethanol’ for your own private use.  Heck, no one calls it ‘ethanol’ up here and there’s plenty of it still made without a permit but I didn’t want it for anything but my mowers and stuff like that.  Well now I know why these others don’t have a permit. 

Sure the government will give you a permit but you have to jump through about a hundred different hoops to get it.  You even have to give them your ‘recipe’ for the ‘ethanol’.  By the time they issue the permit, you’re tuning into oil in the ground yourself.  That and I don’t think these other guys are putting what they make in the tank of their lawn mowers either. 😉

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Summer Squash Recipe

I found a great summer squash recipe that has become a favorite here too.  It’s a New England Summer Squash casserole type dish.  I thought you might like to give it a try.

  • 2 pounds (about 6 cups) of Yellow Squash
  • 1/4 cup chopped Sweet Vidalia Onion
  • 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
  • 1 cup Sour Cream
  • 1 cup shreaded Carrots
  • 1 8 oz Herb Seasoned Stove Top Stuffing mix
  • 1 cup melted butter

Boil Squash and onion for 5 minutes and drain. Combine chicken soup and sour cream. Stir in shredded carrots. Fold in squash and onions. Combine stuffing mix and melted butter. Use a 12 x 7 casserole dish. Put half of stuffing on the bottom of the pan, then the squash mixture and top with remaining stuffing.  Bake at 350 degree for 25 – 30 minutes or until heated through.  Serves 6 unless they really like it and then it only serves about 4.

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Good Food

During the spring months, I plant a small garden out back and feed a lot of my guests from it.  The fresh vegetables and fruits are what I’m known for. 

I even serve venison when I can get it.  That’s deer for those of you who might not know.  There are a lot of Christmas tree farmers up here and they get special permits to shoot a deer that finds their young trees rather tasty and they bring me the meat.  It’s taken to a local meat packer who takes care of cleaning it and cutting it up for me.  Then it’s wrapped and frozen. 

Good stuff if you know how to fix it right and I must do a pretty good job of it because it’s one of the things most requested here.