Tracks & Footprints

It snowed on Tuesday, as I already mentioned. By afternoon, the temperature had fallen enough that it was sticking. We got a decent enough covering for the kids to go out and make some dirty snowballs and require their snow clothes to be washed. Yay, more work!

Speaking of work, as some of you already may know, the principal of the kid's school called me a week ago a wanted to know if I wanted a job. I don't really need another job, but they needed someone and were in a pinch and so, after 10+ years of being out of the outside workforce, I am now a district employee. Strange how that works. I swear, if you want work, come to Kansas. There's jobs (and general work!)  here! Shoot, sit at home and they'll call you, apparently!

The school receives grant money for fresh fruit and vegetables. That produce needs to be washed, cut and divvied up between classes ('three-school' (friday's only), pre-K (2 classes, AM & PM), Kind., and 1-6th) and since I do that on a smaller scale at home, they need someone now and I am free (sort of), I figured, why not? So, hi ho hi ho, off to work I go to do what's necessary to calm the fiery dragons keep the kids healthy and fed. Tuesday I counted raspberries....I don't even want to know how many I counted. Yesterday I cut and counted cauliflower and then apples and I did a good 150+ apples- cut, core, slice, divide. I was beat! BUT, the cool news in all of this is, the goats benefit too! Guess who gets all the 'throw away' goodies?

Since there is often much to much for the girls, it's yet another reason to get some pigs! I hadn't even thought of the school cafeteria for excess food. This should work out real well and if we're lucky, these pigs will cost us near nothing and provide a lot of yummy bacon...and imagine this, it may already come pre-apple-seasoned <grin>!

It'll take some time to adjust my schedule and certainly Rachel and her leg has thrown a bit of a monkey wrench in things in that we're taking them and picking them up but on the days I work late enough, I'll just stay and hang out and help in the classrooms until school's out.

They asked me if I wanted to be a back up cafeteria aide (if someone were to call in sick (there's only 2 of them!) and I quickly nixed that, they have to be in at 6:30! Not that 6:30's a problem, goodness knows by the time stamps on some of my posts, but with milking chores (and kidding coming up) and store business and work + general life, there's no way. And to be on call? I just can't (and don't want to) do that. I love being at their school, I wish everyone could attend a school like this but I have to draw the line!

On to snow though, here's some photos of the kids out playing. Yesterday Rachel asked me if people with broken legs can sled. I told her people who sled end up with broken legs. I'm so not fun! Bwaahahahahaha

Note the crawl tracks on the left and the footprints on the right. Oh, and the kitty prints on the far left.

Notice Rachel tasting the snow!

Just Goats

Tuesday it snowed...all day. Surprisingly most of it did not stick until later afternoon when the temperature dropped. It was actually quite nice doing barn chores watching big white puffy flakes fall. It was even nicer to see they were melting as they hit the ground. As I am sure you know, I HATE snow. Snow that doesn't stick is my favorite, minus the muddy aftermath but honestly, I prefer dealing with that (as we don't have much because our soil drains well).

The girls, as you can see, do not like snow either and much prefer to be inside their barn cozy and warm and dry while eating their breakfast and dinner. They are looking quite well, if I don't say so myself.











This is Ann, one of the new gals we brought back from Ca. this past summer. Obviously it is not snowing, this was taken before Tuesday when the temps were in the 50's and 60's and just glorious!

I let the boys out into the west pasture on Sunday afternoon. There isn't much to eat out there yet but they were so happy to get out and run around and jump and nibble on the cedar trees.

I took the girls way out to the back property line. There isn't much to eat these days but it was still so nice to feel the warm sunshine and think about all the cottonwood leaves and green grass softy blowing in the breeze. We really have a gorgeous place. I literally could spend every day out there morning to night, providing the temperature doesn't cook me.

Garlic herb popovers

If you've never made popovers, you're missing out. They are, for me, like Christmas Eve as a child, minus the roast beef...like yorkshire pudding all over again, minus the pan drippings.They really are so easy and a quick way to make up a little something when you need a bread-y side.A good way to use up eggs and milk too, and while I haven't yet made them with anything other than white flour, I am sure the white flour could be cut with wheat or something for a denser hardier healthier popover.

My popovers come out more like yorkshire pudding, a little heavier and while they do certainly puff like a popover, I feel they have a bit more substance to them. They aren't as pretty as the 'real' popovers, probably due to the fact that I use muffin tins and not popover pans but I'm a firm believer in unitaskers and popover pans are good for nothing more than popovers and therefore they don't belong in my kitchen.

 

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of milk
3 eggs
3 tbs. butter (room temp)
2 pinches of salt (I use kosher)
1.5 cups of all purpose flour
Italian herbs for sprinkling (dried or fresh)
Garlic powder (or you could certainly use fresh minced garlic mixed IN the batter, I would not sprinkle it on top though. It will likely burn)

Preheat oven and pan(s) and an oven proof pan of water to 450 degrees. This will make about 14-16 popovers in regular size muffin tins. While the oven and pan(s) are preheating, mix milk, eggs, salt and room temp butter with an electric mixer for about 1.5 minutes.

Add in flour (the recipe I used that I tweaked called for it to be sifted but I did not) and mix on med-high until smooth.If you prefer to have your herbs incorporated into your batter and/or are using fresh garlic, add it now.

Remove muffin pans from oven and spray with non-stick spray or use the butter wrapper and grease each tin well. Be careful, at this point it will probably be very hot. Fill each tin by 2/3, sprinkle with herbs and garlic and pop back into the oven. After approximately 12 minutes, lower the temp to 350 and cook for an additional 10-12 minutes or until they are as brown as you like them.* We like the edges golden brown and our centers still yellow (but cooked). Remove from oven and cool.

There are lots of variations on this recipe. you could make them for dessert and add a bit of sugar to the mix, top with strawberry sauce and ice cream, go savory and add fresh herbs of a different sort. These go great with stew or soups! 

*I use an electric oven. The original recipe called to cook them 20 minutes at 450, then cook at 350 for 10 minutes. I found that to be much too long because by 12 minutes, they were looking brown, any longer at that temp and they would have burned. Incidentally, I also tweaked the original recipe quite a bit but used it as a general guideline for this recipe that I have posted.

Wordless Wednesday: A Little Snow