These Are a Few of My Favorite Things!

The peace and relaxation that comes over my million mile a minute TR, and the care the Cow Boss takes of him the minute they both are on a horse.  Anyone who has ever seen TR in action knows he doesn't slow down, unless he is sleeping.  The minute he gets on a horse with his dad, the transformation is amazing.  Suddenly he is quiet, and amazed by his surroundings.  He actually sits still.  The best part, he loves it.  Except when his dad spins his horse.  Doesn't like that...yet!



Old broke saddle horses, that are ever mindful of their tiny charges!  QT loves riding horseback, and the minute you slow up or stop, he is yelling "GO!  GO!"

Having a patient Cow Boss to let me pack my camera, everywhere!  I like to have the luxury of just taking pictures on the days I'm "helping" him, unless we are roping something...then I pretend like I am out of film or something.  I also like having a good broke horse that I feel like I can pack my camera on!

Being a ranch wife and getting to spend most of my free time outside with my favorite things, my husband, horses, cows, kids, and dogs!

I would be remiss if I didn't include two little boys that love each other and living the lifestyle that my husband and I love so much.

I'm thankful I'm a cowgirl, I have two amazing little boys and a hard working husband, and we all get to do what we love.

Thank you Liz for the inspiration on the blog!

Swedish Coffee Bread

(Courtesy of Perri Duncan)

I made these wonderful coffee cakes for Christmas.  I made a test cake for the Cowboss, TR, QT, and myself, and thought it was delicious!  I had a grand plan to make some for the families that we work with for Christmas, so I spent 2 days baking, and had 6 made up to deliver.  I asked the Cowboss to please take them over when he ran to the ranch headquarters.  He insisted that the boys and I go too, because even though I had them all wrapped up and labeled with cards who each was for, he feared he would find a way to foul it up.  So I bundled up both the boys and loaded them and the cakes into the pickup.  In my infinite wisdom, I decided that the safest place for the cakes to ride would be under QT's feet.  Being the youngest, he gets carried most places, so I wouldn't have to worry about dripping muddy snow on the cakes, and having short legs, he wouldn't be able to mash them.

We made it to and through town, and just before the free way motion sickness prevailed.  Long story short, cakes were not salvageable.  On the upside, our dogs really enjoyed them.  =/

We did really enjoy the one we ate, and I would like to share the recipe with you:

Ingredients

Bread:
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
1-pkg active yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
About 2 cups all purpose flour
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Filling:
1 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 can almond paste
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup slivered almonds (optional)
Enough cream to make it all spreadable
Sugar glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp water


Method


1 Put milk into a small saucepan and heat on medium heat until steamy (but not boiling). Remove from heat. Stir in the butter and sugar until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved. Pour into a bread machine. Add in yeast mixture and egg.

2 Mix in salt and Cinnamon. Slowly add in 2 cups of the flour. After the first two cups of flour gradually add more flour until a soft dough starts to form a ball and pull away from the sides of the bowl.  I slowly add flour and when it doesn't stick to my finger in the bread machine, I leave it alone!

3 Let bread rise in bread machine.

4 Press the dough down to deflate it a bit.  Spread it into a 8-inch by 16-inch rectangle on a lightly floured, clean, flat surface.  Brush the dough with melted butter, leaving at least a half inch border on the edges so the dough will stick together when rolled. Mix together the sugar, cinnamon, almond paste, and cream.  Spread the dough with the mixture and sprinkle with slivered almonds.

5 Carefully roll the dough up lengthwise, with the seam on the bottom. Carefully transfer to a greased baking sheet. Form a circle with the dough on the baking sheet, connecting the ends together.

6 Using scissors, cut most of the way through the dough, cutting on a slant. Work your way around the dough circle. After each cut, pull out the dough segment either to the right or to the left, alternating as you go around the circle. The dough circle will look like a wreath when you are done.

7 Cover lightly with plastic wrap and set in a warm area for a second rise. Let rise for about 40 minutes to an hour; the dough should again puff up in size.

8 Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. After the first 15 minutes of baking, if the top is getting well browned, tent with some aluminum foil.

9 Remove from oven and let cool completely. Whisk together powdered sugar and water to create a final glaze (optional). Add more water if the glaze is too thick to drizzle, add more powdered sugar if the glaze is too runny. Drizzle the glaze in a back and forth motion over the pastry.

Enjoy!  I modified this recipe from the Simply Recipes Blog to use in my bread machine, and to feed a smaller family.  The original recipe makes 2 wreathes, or if you would prefer braids.  I also filled a couple with raspberry filling, and a couple with poppy seed filling.  You can fill it with anything you would like!

Great, now that I am hungry, I'm going to go and raid the fridge!

Fun in the Snow!

The cowboss and I took the boys sledding yesterday.  TR had a blast!  QT...not so sure about it all!

Of course we brought SiSi too...can't go anywhere without her!

It turns out she made it into just about every picture!  We just couldn't get her to actually ride on the sled!

 QT was happy to just watch from afar!

More of the wonder dog and TR!

We conned QT on to a sled with dad.  Trent wanted to push them all the way to the bottom...Note SiSi in the corner there!  Mom tried to go down the hill with QT...they crashed bad.  Mom doesn't bounce like she used to, and has the bruises to prove it!

After the crash...

This is the funniest part of the morning.  TR ran into a sagebrush, the sled stopped and he didn't.  The cowboss yelled down the hill "Are you okay?"  TR responded "NO!" got up, hiked about 10 paces and sat down (note SiSi with him...).  He was so mad at the cowboss he wouldn't even turn around to talk to him.  He just yelled "I'm mad at you!"  I think he blamed the cowboss for his wreck!

We all had a good time, then we had to go and put out block!



And she cooks too!

I invented my own recipe the other day, and it was pretty good.  Long story short, I impressed myself!  So I thought I would share it with you!

What you need:
1 crock pot
2-3 Chicken breasts
3 colorful bell peppers
1 big purple onion
1 small can of unsweetened pineapple juice
1/3 c. Captain Morgan Rum  "And why is the rum gone?!!" as my favorite pirate says!
1/4 c. plus 3 tablespoons Soy Sauce (bug juice as we call it at home) divided
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. Fresh grated ginger (go with the fresh stuff, not the dried stuff!  I keep mine whole in the freezer and grate off what I need when I need it).
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 tsp. Ground red pepper
2-3 T. Corn Starch
1 lg can of crushed pineapple

How you do it:

Put pineapple juice, rum, 1/4 c. soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and red pepper into crock pot and stir together.  Add your chicken, put the lid on, crank up to high, and forget about it!  Let it cook until it is cooked to death, and chicken pretty much falls apart.  I think I forgot about mine for 5 or 6 hours!  I also put the chicken in frozen....  Anyway, after the chicken easily shreds with a fork add chopped onion, pineapple, and bell peppers.  I used 1 red, 1 yellow, and 1 orange bell pepper because they were what I had and they needed to be used.  Combine corn starch and remaining soy sauce in a small bowl with a whisk until there are no lumps or bumps in it.  Add to the crock pot and cook for an additional hour or veggies are tender.

Serve with rice if desired or eat straight from the pot.  Well don't really eat it straight from the pot because it gets really hot, and will cool faster in a smaller bowl!

Enjoy!  And if you have any good ideas on a name let me know!

Winter Work

Wool socks and cowboy boots mashed in black
lace up overshoes complete with jingling
jangling spurs, frozen in monel stirrups, 
tied snugly so toes can't move.  Long handles,
jeans, and brand new brown armitas with fringe
frozen together in sections.  Wool coat, wild
rag, and scotch cap hiding ears from  frost
bite.  Green Handy Andy chore gloves, numb
fingers and toes guiding an unpredictable
grey horse in fresh white snow.  I ride along side
my dad.  Cows ready to start calving,
temperatures in negative digits, its cold! 
We gather the herd and hold rodeer.  Dad
sorts out those who are close enough, and we push
them to the dry warm barn for the night.

Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow!!!

For some odd reason Christmas carols are running through my mind this afternoon as I drink coffee, shop online, and watch the snow outside.  We've got a good foot of snow now I think, and I dread the thought of actually having to do something besides ride in the pick up in it.  It looks like more is on the way too!

I really do enjoy the winter.  I tell the cowboss it is because I can sit inside with my cup of coffee and watch the snow fall....I don't have to be out in the snow!  He doesn't always think I am funny.

I do have a lot of fond memories of the winter and snow though.  Many a cold morning I was out helping my dad feed cows growing up.  I didn't appreciate it then, but I learned a lot about life on those snowy weekends and holidays, the value of hard work and the reward of a job done.  I hated feeding cows.  It was cold, the hay made me itch all over and sneeze, and would have rather slept in on a Saturday morning.  It wasn't always work though, there were a few times we would take old innertubes and tie them behind the wagon and dad would pull us through the snow.

One time we had a cow calve a little early about 1 1/2 miles from the house on the river.  It was supposed to get kind of cold that night, so dad decided my brother, sister and I should go down horse back and bring up the cow and he would run down in his new (to him) tractor with the bucket.  He would load the calf in the bucket and take him home. 

One thing you have to understand about my dad is that he doesn't have any cranky cows on the ranch.  If one of us kids were to tell him differently he would say, she's just bluffing and toughen up.  We head down there to get  Cow Number 302 with the bob tail, and wait for dad get there with the tractor.  The plan is dad will get in the bucket, rope the calf, and drag him into the bucket, hop back on the tractor and haul him home.  Leaving the three of us to trail 302 back to the ranch.  Easy enough right?

Except no body stopped to explain things to 302, and she was a little on the fight.  She hit a horse a time or two while we were distracting her long enough for dad to get in the bucket.  I had my sisters horse so she could operate the controls on the tractor, and she didn't really know which lever did what.  My brother and I got the cow and calf hazed over to the tractor and dad got the calf caught, and 302 tried to climb in the bucket with him.  I'll never forget dad yelling "Lift me up!  Lift me up!" and my sister lowering him down to the ground!  Luckily she soon realized which lever was the right one and got him lifted up out of harms way.  We got 302 and her calf safely home and tucked in for the night without much excitement after that.  The thing that stands out the most in my mind though, was riding around the "blind turn" and seeing our house, lit up like a Thomas Kinkade picture, as the sun was nearly set and the snow began to fall.



This is a Thomas Kinkade print titled "Christmas Eve."

Zucchini

We woke up to a skiff of snow yesterday morning.  TR got pretty excited when he saw it on the deck and thought I should get the snow shovel out and shovel it off the deck.  Can you imagine me in my pj's and flip flops shoveling snow?!!  Fortunately for me it had all burned off by the time I got dressed for the day.

The skiff of snow did put me in a baking mood though.  In August my friend Timmy gave me a couple of 8 ball zucchini.  Normally they are dark black in color and a little bigger than an 8 ball (hence the name).  These were 8 ball zucchini on steroids.  I think I got about 20 cups of shredded zucchini, and about 20 lbs.  Who wants to bake in a house without air conditioning in August?  Not me, so I froze it all in 4 cup increments, thinking that When I was ready to make zucchini bread I would just pull out a package and go.  Great in theory right?

My first problem was that the recipe I found only called for 2 cups of zucchini.  No biggie, I'll just double the recipe I thought.  So I started mixing the 4 cups zucchini, 6 eggs, 4 cups of  sugar, 2 cups of oil etc.  My mixer was full before I could even think about the dry ingredients.  That's alright  I'll just use my really really big bowl, and everything fit.  So I am sitting there looking at all of this batter thinking to myself what was I thinking?  I don't even have 4 bread pans, and I already have a loaf of cinnamon bread rising on the oven.  Stop the Presses!  Light bulb has come on!  I will make muffins!

So I drag out the muffin tins.  3 dozen mini muffins later in the nonstick pan, 1 dozen regular muffins in the Pam coated muffin tin, I remembered that I actually had those nifty paper cups that you put in the tins and you have less clean up etc.  Oops!  That's alright though, one pan is non stick and the other one I used Pam on, and just enough batter left for 1 loaf of bread.  I was even able to fit everything in the oven at the same time!

This would be a great time to mention that I hate my cook stove.  For one thing, it doesn't heat evenly, and it is about 25 degrees colder than what it says it is.  For two, it isn't level.  But guess what, I forgot all of that.  Within about 15 minutes it was smoking, and smelled like burnt sugar.  No big deal, it's probably just burning off something that boiled over previously.  (If you wondered, I don't bake often)! 

The timer went off and yep, sure enough everything was done.  Some more than others.  Some a lot more than others.  Some were black.  Only 4 were really black, and they were easily removed from evidence.  TR was excited, but I made him wait until they cooled off  so we wouldn't get burned.  Mini muffins would be perfect for him.  After 5 minutes I couldn't handle the "Mom.....Mom.....MOM!!!" anymore and went to get him a muffin.  Guess what.  That's right.  Those bad boys were not coming out of that tin for anything.  Non stick my foot!  We improvised and ate half a tin of mini muffins with a fork.  They weren't that great.

Mine didn't come out like this.  This is what I envisioned my zucchini bread looking like, but no such luck.

What I learned yesterday morning:

1.  Make sure you like a recipe before you use half a dozen eggs, 6 cups of flour and 4 cups of sugar doubling it.

2.  Wilton lies.  Just because they say their muffin tin is non stick doesn't mean it is. 

3.  If you have those nifty little paper liners, use them!  Then you might not even have to wash the tin when you are done.  (Mine is still soaking).

4.  Just because 3 muffin tins and 2 loaves of bread will fit in your oven should you try to bake all of them at the same time.  Next time we will try maybe 2 muffin tins at a time, or 2 loaves of bread at a time....If we ever try again!

Oh yeah, and if you have a really good zucchini bread recipe, I still have 16 cups/pounds in my freezer!