Is it just me or is four a wee bit early to plan on having a lemonade stand?

Well, try telling that to Eleanor. She didn’t care.

It worked out well because my mom was planning on having a yard sale at the end of May so we figured we might as well just team up.

The problem is, I think I’m a little OCD or something. I couldn’t just go pick up some packets of lemonade and let her have at it. Oh, no no no. We had to buy lemons and strawberries. We had to puree the strawberries. We had to use agave nectar (In my defense, Chris bought a lot of it through some deal on amazon).

Then, I was all like, “Well, they’ll need something to eat with that lemonade.” So We needed mini cupcakes.

My little bro trying to steal the cupcakes.

It’s starting to sound a lot like it was my lemonade stand, right? Yeahhhh. Well, Eleanor did help me make the lemonade, she put the liners in the pans and the sprinkles on the cupcakes and when it came to selling, she did all of the work.  But yeah, I should have remembered KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Not me though. Not my friend Nikki either. She made the sign for the lemonade stand! A grand sign at that.

Eleanor’s Strawberry Lemonade!

At the end of the two days, I spent considerably more than she actually made. Of course she doesn’t know that. All she knows is that she took that money and bought herself the Dora Mermaid she’d been eying (unbeknownst to her, I chipped in some of the money for that too).

I’m sure there will come another day when she wants to do the whole lemonade stand, a time when she’s more capable of doing it by herself with minimal supervision from me. When that time comes, I’ll gladly shell out a few bucks for lemonade packets.

I’ll probably still make cupcakes though.

Speaking of which, these cupcakes are actually made with my mother-in-laws buttercream frosting. It’s one of those things.

You know.

One of those things that your mother in law makes that turns your manly man husband in to a six year old boy.

While it’s not my favorite Italian Meringue Buttercream, I will say that it’s still considerably better (to me) than a traditional buttercream. It’s a bit lighter and not as sweet. I’d say it’s kind of the middle road between traditional buttecream and IMBC. It’s easy, still homemade, but kind of a twist on just butter and powdered sugar.

Fran’s Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup whole milk
• 8 tablespoons vegetable shortening
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter- room temperature
• two cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the shortening, butter and sugar together until fluffy. Two minutes or so. Warm your cup of milk. Not boiling, not even quite scalded, just warm enough to dissolve the granulated sugar. Sorry I don’t have exact temps, just going off of the directions I received. In a slow stream, add the warm milk to the mixing butter/sugar. It may slosh around a bit at which point just turn the mixer down to low. Eventually it will all incorporate and you can turn it back up to high to whip a little air in to it. Add your vanilla in and you’re done!

Like most frostings, you can add chocolate or different flavor extracts/colors to fit your needs.

Enjoy!

Whooo!

Has it really been that long since I last blogged?

Sigh. Yes.

Well, last I wrote, we had gone out to a farm and met with a farmer and his family about getting in on eating some of the animals they raise. Since I wrote that, we’ve been back to the farm twice.

Both times, we (er… mostly Chris) helped the family process their chickens. Even though I’m kind of a wuss and mainly helped at the end with bagging and weighing the birds, Chris and I both agree that while not “fun”, it’s probably up there in some of the most gratifying experiences we’ve had.

You might want to scroll past this picture if you’re a vegetarian. There’s no blood or anything, but if I’m gonna talk about chicken processing, I might as well show you too.

We also went through the process of buying half a cow.

Now, I know you’re not supposed to name what you eat, but for whatever reason I decided to name our half of a cow Lionel.

We ended up splitting our half with two other people which sent us home with about seventy six pounds of beef. The main thing I didn’t know about buying half of a cow is the cutting instructions. What parts you want, what you don’t, how many pounds your roasts will be cut, how thick are your steaks, if you don’t ask for a brisket, it’ll get turned in to ground beef and sometimes they end up giving you things that you didn’t want. Like the heart.

It’s still in my freezer.

Way in the back.

I plan on eventually thawing it out and making a nice meal of it for the dogs but as of late, I haven’t had it in me to deal with it.

What I’ve enjoyed most about this whole experience is becoming familiar with cooking cuts of meat that I wasn’t used to. The short ribs were a welcome and delicious surprise while the arm roast cooks down well in the crock pot.

This is what half of a cow looks like all processed and packaged up.

Same goes for the chickens. I’d never cooked a whole chicken before. I blame my mom for the fact that I’m not big on eating chicken on bones- she still says that she doesn’t know what to do with a whole chicken. Too much work. Now, I can cut the backbone out of a chicken with my eyes closed.

There’s a great recipe on Skinnytaste.com for Peruvian Roasted Chicken with Aji Verde. Don’t be lazy and not make the sauce. It is so good. Don’t get me wrong, the chicken is too ( I’ve made it twice now) but it’s an awesome vessel for Aji Verde.

Each visit we left with a few dozen eggs and some of their personal stash of meat as a thanks for helping. The first time it was pork chops (while I love pork generally, I haven’t had a pork chop in 15 years) and last time it was some awesome hotdogs and beef brats. Turns out the processor where we had the cow done will make sausages out of your meat for you!

Next time, next time.

We also came back with something else our most recent visit:

Meet our seventh (yes, seventh) pet. Coconut. I haven’t had a kitten in a long, long time. Or any young animal for that matter. The other cats and dogs in the house are all older and except for one were adopted as adults.

So far he’s broken two drinking glasses and a candle holder, knocked down the same vase of flowers four times and has (playfully) attacked every living being in this house. Man, kittens are work.

Things have been crazy around here for the past few months but it now looks like they might be finding a groove. With that, I plan on posting some of the other things I’ve been doing over the past few months. Pictures included.

Over the past couple of years, Chris and I have been working on becoming more conscious not only of what we eat, but where the food comes from. Making very slow strides to buying organic dairy and meat when financially feasible. We had looked in to purchasing a portion of a cow before, even at a quarter, it’s a big chunk of money to put down. Even though over the course of time we’d use it, it wouldn’t cost a lot more money than what we typically spend on buying conventional beef.

After talking to Lillian last week and discussing the idea of splitting a quarter of a cow (which would be around 50-60 pounds of beef a piece) and doing a little research on farms, prices, etc, I set up a trip to visit the Nadig Family Farm in DeKalb, IL.

Baa!

After a little over an hour drive, we arrived at a very small farm. Maybe ten acres. With the house towards the front, there was a barn off to the side and a large field where I could see chickens grazing, sheep grazing in a distance behind them and cows a distance from them. John greeted us and promptly led us to the small barn toward the front housing what must have been over 100 chicks about ten days old. They would be heading out to pasture in a week or two and ready for processing mid-June.

Next we headed down to where the egg laying chickens were (I’m sure there’s a more correct term that I’m not thinking of here) and he spoke about the different kinds of grasses, the ones that the cows don’t like, the sheep are more than happy to eat, etc. He mentioned that he had made a visit out to Polyface Farms and got to spend time with Joel Salatin. If you’ve seen Food Inc or read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, you know who Joel is and probably think he’s just as awesome as I do. Okay maybe not, but I think he’s awesome.

Up a bit more we met up with the sheep that were behind a very thin flexible but a very electric fence. With all of their wool, it didn’t faze them a bit, existing more so to keep predators out. John turned off the current and we hung out with the sheep for a while. Eleanor playing with three of John’s kids, me taking pictures of the sheep while Chris and John did some sort of dude talk that I’m sure involved farming, country living and the fact that we totally don’t live in the country.

Mom and day new lamb

Eventually we wandered over to the cows, seven (I think) in total. Three dairy cows, a calf about 3 months old, two steer and one dairy cow on the mend. Although a little bit thin, John had been working on her for a while now using some homeopathic remedies that he explained to me in a bit more detail than I understood. His excitement about every aspect of his farm was contagious though.

mom and baby cow

We eventually wandered over to the pigs in the barn. Two separate pens. One with the older pigs, the other with piglets. The piglets were a decent size even though considerably smaller than the adults. John chucked in a fairly large cardboard box in to each pen. It was like Christmas for the pigs! It was a fascinating and happy sight to watch the pigs wrestle with the box. Not that I’ve seen many, but I don’t think I’ve seen happier pigs before. What caught my attention (after the pigs themselves) was the lack of smell. I mean, it smelled like a barn, but nowhere near as offensive or ammonia-y as others I’d visited.

piglet

We chatted with John about several things, one being that he actually grew up on a conventional CAFO housing around 6-700 steer at any given time. He talked about what made him switch years ago. Citing the basic idea, “When you know better, you do better” with a bit more detail. When I asked how his dad felt about about what he was doing. He was silent for a moment and simply said, “He doesn’t really care”. There was a sad tone to his voice and implied the adage of not being able to teach an old dog new tricks. I didn’t nose any further in to that one and decided that it would be a good time to buy some food.

Seeing those dairy cows made me eager to try some of their milk. He never mentioned it being for sale (I later read into the state’s rules on raw milk sales and figured out why) but was happy to oblige when I brought it up. Being that we’d never made such a purchase, we didn’t know that we were supposed to bring our own containers. So, while Chris made a trip up the road to buy a couple gallons of drinking water to use as temporary vessels, I chatted with John’s wife Charlotte and she showed me some of the beautiful wool she had dyed and spun thanks to the sheep. I was so in the zone that I didn’t even think to pull out my camera to take a picture of it. Along with the milk (that was gathered that very morning), we bought a few dozen pastured eggs (also gathered that morning) a couple pounds of 90/10 ground beef, a pound of filet and put a deposit down on two chickens that would be ready June 16ᵗʰ.

Eleanor had been off playing with their children for a while now and when it was time to bid farewell, it was nothing short of disastrous. We eventually got her buckled in and hit the road, the first 15 minutes of the drive making our ears ring from her whining. Ah, the life of a four year old.

I am planning on detailing our first meal using some of the items we bought that day, but it’ll have to be another post as this one has gone on a lot longer than I intended.

Okay, I know it’s not really called Corn and Beef. It’s been an ongoing joke for a while though. Two Greek men I’ve known in my life, with no relation to one another (other than being Greek of course) have called it that and it’s just kind of stuck.

Last year around this time, I found a jar of saltpeter in Williams Sonoma. They simply called it curing salt. It was at that moment that I knew that this year I would be making my own corned beef for St. Patrick’s Day.

Whenever I enter such unknown territory, I turn to Alton Brown. Surprised? I didn’t think so.

The recipe really wasn’t all that hard. What I found to be the hardest was A) Finding Juniper Berries and B) Waiting. For the record, Whole Foods sells juniper berries.

Oh, and deciding which cinnamon stick to use. I’ve got a lot of cinnamon.

I ended up going with the Indonesian sticks.

After gathering all of my ingredients together, the next task was to find a “zip top bag” big enough to hold a five pound beef brisket and all of the brine. Rather than do all of that searching, I busted out the Foodsaver system that my mother-in-law had given me. I didn’t vacuum it, just cut the bag and heat sealed it. A lot more sturdy than any “zip top bag” I would have found, I think.

Five days in, it looked like this.

Visually, nothing really to write home about I guess, but I knew. I knew what it would be.

St. Patrick’s Day rolls around and I’m giddy with excitement to finish up this process. Boiled it down as instructed. The last thirty minutes or so I tossed in some red potatoes and carrots. When I pulled the beef for a ten minute cool-down, I dropped in a head of cabbage that I had cut in to quarters. Alton had a bit of a different recipe for “Corned Beef and Cabbage” that I didn’t follow. When it comes to eating this meal, I know how I like to eat it and didn’t plan on changing that.

The only condiment required here is some horseradish.

The verdict? Awesome. I was surprised that I was able to smell and subtly taste all of the different things I’d added, yet it still tasted like a really good corned beef… nothing was overpowering. Corned Beef and Cabbage really is one of my favorite meals of all time.

Since I’d gone through all of that work for St. Paddy’s Day dinner, it was only right we’d have something for dessert. Nothing too heavy, as I knew I’d be pretty full of awesome. First, it was just Rice Krispies Treats. Then I figured I might as well throw in a little green food coloring given the day. Since they were green, I should put in some mint extract. Then to add some contrasting color, I went ahead and drizzled some bittersweet chocolate over the top.

Voila! Grasshopper Rice Krispies Treats. How about that?

While my favorite part of all of this was the initial dinner, Chris was excited for breakfast the next day.

You’ll never want the canned stuff again after having this just once.

When I said that I was going to do this, a friend of mine said, “It’s a process I recommend heartily.” I would have to agree. Culinarily speaking, probably one of my most gratifying experiences to date.

Corned Beef

Recipe from: Good Eats 3: The Later Years

• 2 quarts water
• 1 cup kosher salt
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons saltpeter (optional)
• 1 stick cinnamon, broken into several pieces
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 8 whole cloves
• 8 whole allspice berries
• 12 whole juniper berries
• 2 bay leaves, crumbled
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 pounds ice
• 4-5 pound beef brisket, trimmed
• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
• 1 rib celery, coarsely chopped

Method

Put the water in a 6 to 8 quart stockpot along with the salt, brown sugar, saltpeter, cinnamon, mustard seeds, peppercorns, cloves, allspice, juniper, bay leaves and ginger. Cook over high heat until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the ice. Refrigerate the brine until it drops below 45°F.

Put the brisket in a 2 gallon zip top bag (or a vacuum sealer bag!) and add the brine. Seal and lay flat inside a drip proof container, cover, and refrigerate for 10 days, flipping the bag over every couple of days and checking that it isn’t leaking.

After 10 days, discard the brine and rise the brisket well under cool water.

Move the brisket to a large pot and add the onion, carrot, celery, and enough water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to a boil over high heat.

Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2½ to 3 hours, until the meat is fork-tender. Remove from the pot and cool for 10 minutes before thinly slicing across the grain.

Friday night through most of Saturday, Eleanor stayed with my brother and his wife. Sunday, we took her to Chris’s parents to visit for a couple of days. Yesterday I did some hardcore cleaning.

Today, Maven’s coach came by to drop off her certificate. She asked that I take a picture of Maven with it to put up on her site.

That’s where things started to go south.

Oh me oh my I’ve got too much time on my hands.

I think it goes without saying that a large amount of people are hooked on Pinterest. With good reason!

My most recent experiment via Pinterest was these pretty coasters:

Between buying a jar of Mod Podge and Pinterest, I didn’t stand a chance.

Although this is a simple project, I’ll give you the rundown on what I did.

What you’ll need:

• Classic Mod Podge (I used glossy)
• Ceramic bathroom tiles (These are 4.5×4.5″ I believe)
• Pictures!
• Scissors
• Paint brush
• optional paper for bordering

Here’s what I did:

I opened up my pictures and cropped them to 4X4. I’ve got a color laser printer so I used that to print them. I’d advise against this using inkjet as the color will run once the Mod Podge hits it. Alternatively, take your favorite 4×6 picture and hack off two inches wherever you can.

I traced the tiles on to the back of a piece of scrapbook paper and cut it out. Using the paintbrush, I spread a thin coat of the Mod Podge on to the tile and smoothed the paper on to it. Then, I spread another coat over the paper and did my best to center the picture on to the tile. Smoothed that out as best I could (don’t want air bubbles!) and finished it off with another coat of Mod Podge.

Although I haven’t done it yet, I’ve got a few sheets of felt I plan on gluing to the bottom of the tiles to keep them from scuffing up tables.

Well, there you have it. Simple, right?

Go forward and decoupage!

I’ve always considered myself a “big dog” kind of gal. The only little dog I’ve ever wanted was an English Bulldog. Long story short, three years ago I ended up adopting two dogs. They came together. One was big (a hound schnauzer mix I’m told) and one was very, very little. A miniature dachshund. Continue reading →

The thoughts in my head are kind of jumbled around and I’m going to do my best to turn this in to a coherent, productive post.

I’ve spent the last six months or so trying to figure out how to make this photography thing lucrative. I’ve beat myself up, compared myself to others, you name it, I’ve done it. It’s easy to read posts like The Danger of Comparing Yourself to Other Photographers and know that it’s right, but find it hard to follow through.

Continue reading →

This past Sunday we had planned to go to Chris’s parents house. That itself isn’t uncommon, what we ended up doing in addition was nothing short of creepy.

Continue reading →