Easter hams & a cookbook review

If you need ham for your Easter dinner this weekend, we have half a dozen for sale here at the farm! Real hams, not pressed processed ham product. So tasty!


Ham with roasted cabbage - yum!


Have you seen Jamie Oliver's new show? It's on Friday nights on ABC. So far we've watched the first hour of the premiere and have the second hour taped.

Over the weekend I picked up his Food Revolution cookbook. The picture above is my preparation of Jamie's (yes, we're on a first name basis) recipe for roasted vegetables from the book. They were so simple to prepare and tasted amazing! Madeline was literally snatching parsnips right off Matt's plate :) There's a wide range of meat, fish, vegetable, pasta, breakfast and dessert recipes. All of them look delicious and totally doable. Plus the photography and design are beautiful. 5 stars!

Things making me happy this week...

A new craft project...


Garden drying out...


Green... (Chives are always eager to get started in spring)


Flocks of red-winged blackbirds in the trees outside my office window

What's making you happy this week?


1 year ago:

Spring cleaning

Interested

Spring is...

Worry

Gratuitous cuteness

How to Cook : Creamed Chipped Beef

Seeing as how it's St. Patrick's Day (for one more hour), it seems a fitting time to tell you about a new product we have: dried beef! To be honest, I almost decided to just stash all of it in our own freezer and not sell a single package of it. It's that good.

I had intended to make reubens with it. But I kept forgetting to buy the right kind of cheese, and finally I was tired of looking at waiting patiently in the refrigerator. So I made creamed chipped beef instead...simple, fast, easy. Poured over homemade biscuits it was divine! Served with a side of fried eggs - now that the hens are laying a bit again - a perfect weeknight supper.

Creamed Chipped Beef

1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
3 c. milk
16 oz. dried beef, chopped

Melt butter in pan, then whisk in flour until smooth. Slowly whisk in milk. Cook, whisking constantly, until thickened. Stir in beef & heat through. Serve over biscuits, toast, or mashed potatoes.

Eight

Eight things about Rafe Henry, age 8

1. This has been said before, but still... you love football. To the point of obesession. Other sports are fun, too, but really they're just a way to pass the time until it's football season again. My powers of "tuning out" have become finely honed. You start at the far end of the dining room, run through both the dining room & living room, tossing the football into the air as you near the far end of the living room, then catching it and diving into the loveseat endzone.

Over, and over, and over again.

I've made you promise to buy me new furniture with your first NFL paycheck.

2. You think that the phrase "man cannot live by bread alone" does not apply to you. You'd happily live solely on carbohydrates.



3. For your birthday you asked for cross country skis. We discussed with you many times the fact that by the time your birthday got here, the snow would be about gone. You didn't care, so you did indeed get skis & poles & boots today. And you went out & found a bit of snow to try them out.

4. For your birthday your dad decided it was time for your first real gun. A Red Ryder BB-gun, to be exact. That, combined with the bow & arrow Santa brought you for Christmas, means that small birds & mammals had now better watch out.

Please take care of whatever creature has been wreaking havoc on the garden the last couple of years.

And hey! With the skis and the gun...you can train for the biathalon :)



5. You continue to do well at school. Your reading level continues to climb. You like math. You have a ton of friends. In short, you love going to school. Parent-teacher conferences are fun :)

6. You still like your mama to tuck you in at night. I don't mind. Not at all.

7. As energetic as you are, it's often surprising how cautious you are. The first thing you said when you opened your new gun was, "Is this a real gun? I didn't want a real gun." But once you found out that it isn't loud when it fires, you were all over it.


Birthday cinnamon roll with a tealight birthday candle. Yep, that's how we roll around here.

8. You bring laughter, and noise, and strange sounds, and hugs, and imagination, and more noise to our home every day. And for that I am forever grateful.

Happy Birthday, Rafe Henry!

Love,

Yo Mama


1 year ago:

Adventures in cow buying

Seven

Snow day

Last Friday was a scheduled day off from school for the kids. I asked Rafe what he'd like to do and he was ready with an answer...cross country skiing!


birch trees on blue sky

Sounded good to me! It was a beautiful day, and the snow's been melting. There aren't many good snow days left so better ski while we can. He & I headed out to the nature center and he got all suited up.



Unfortunately I'd messed up my back at work the day before, so no skiing for me. It wasn't the skiing I was worried about, it was the falling. So I just walked. (Yes, I'm a software developer and I messed up my back at work. I can't explain it, either.)



After following the path through the woods,



we came into the open where Rafe decided to forge his own path, leaving his own tracks amongst the wildlife tracks crisscrossing the field.



Once he'd finished the circuit,



it was time for some sledding. That hill looked rather tall & steep to me, but he was undaunted.



He caught some good air and ended up with "a new world record! Mom, do they have sledding in the Olympics?".



Is this how those crazy people get into bobsledding?


1 year ago:

Cuteness ensues

Sleeping arrangements

Spring is coming...

Picked up the first eggs of the year today, and are they a sight for sore eyes! The sun is shining... there's a nice slow melt going... and the hens are laying again. Spring is coming!

Iowa Food Coop, March

The shopping cart is open at the Iowa Food Coop!. You can find our products here. The shopping cart will close Saturday, March 13th (I think at 11:00 p.m.) with delivery on Thursday, March 18th.



These pigs here are our first litters of the gilts we bought almost a year ago and our Berk boar, Ollie. I'm in love with these pigs. They're vigorous and stocky and they're going to make some mighty fine bacon.



And they're photogenic. Can't forget photogenic. That's an important trait around here!

I haven't even gotten around to sending out our yearly newsletter & order forms yet, but already reservations are coming in for whole & half hogs! These will be ready late-April, so let me know if you want on the list!