Just in case you were hungry after that last post.... FOOD!!

Elly May has been on a mission to accomplish bagels. And I think she has.
From start.... to finish.

Beer braised short ribs . Mmmmmm. They were the best I've ever had . Home brew is definitely a good idea.

We haven't had hot dogs in .... a very, very, very long time. But wonder of wonders, they are now making grass fed, no nitrate hot dogs. A friend found them at some organic market and gave them to us for a treat. And what a treat it was! Not that we are going to be eating a lot of processed food .... but every once in awhile, these sure are good! And to be cooked over actual , wood burning flames... mmmmmm

Sandwiched between airy , nutritionless, white bread.... Divine.

We have FINALLY found a way to deal with all the gazillion pounds of hamburger that come with getting a whole beef. You see, certain menfolk around here aren't crazy about ground beef, be it in hamburgers or tacos or meatloaf... or in anything for that matter . But when you get a whole cow, most of it is ground beef. So you have to get creative. Elly May decided to try jerky . And it is great! And those picky "I won't eat ground beef " people will actually eat it! Yay!

As warm weather has set in, (well, mostly, it is kind of June gloomy out there right now) we have dug out the ice cream maker and started experimenting with various mixtures to freeze up into iced delights. First off... was chocolate. Because chocolate is the most important flavor there is. It just is. And I despise chocolate ice creams that have all the color but none of the flavor of chocolate. So we set out to make killer chocolate cream. And we did. But I don't have any pictures of that. Only the butter pecan . And it was good. Very good. But I still like my chocolate macadamia nut best.

Made with organic sugar and raw milk and cream from 100% pasture raised cows (Go Organic Pastures!!! we love you !!!) . Also fresh egg yolks from our chickens . So this is really a health food right?

Bread , the staff of life..

I'd always had great plans for our Thanksgiving feasts. Like actually making the dinner rolls... among other things. But when it came down to crunch time.... I usually ran out of energy and those plans went out the window. BUT, this year... Elly May was doing most of the work as I was sort of side lined with health matters . Good thing too because this way we got actual , home made , delicious rolls. She spent hours making them... but it was so worth it.
The dough, made the night before. A double batch , which she decided to combine into one bowl despite some peoples voiced concerns about future rising issues and overflow. No matter, it all fit at the time.

Of course, this is what greeted her the next morning. I think it was worth it just for the wow factor. The blob is out to get you!!!

Deft hands make rolls.

Lots and lots..

And lots... of rolls.

Only so many will fit in the oven at a time , so they were done in batches.

More rising..

Think we have enough ? They were grand . And there are plenty for leftover sandwiches.

The Pie Saga

Elly May is a master pie baker. They are the best ever. Pie day was Wednesday , well , among other things. We were doing a lot on Wednesday. Well , Elly May was anyway.
Blueberry..

Ahem.. are those teeth marks? No.. it couldn't be... J. B..... we won't tell anyone. And we shall keep things pushed a little farther in from the edge of the counter in future.

You have to see this.. I could never figure it out when I made pies. I think it has something to do with straight lines . I can't do straight lines ... but Elly May does straight lines very very well.. and can weave too!

The first layer..

Isn't that cool?

It is like fabric.

The work of a fine artist.

Baked to perfection.

Apple pie.

Crust for Butternut Squash Pie. We grew the butternuts.. In our opinion , butternut makes a FAR better pie than pumpkin. But that is just our personal preference.

We ran out of milk so this ended up with some cream in it and it was very very decadent.

The finished apple.

Decorations for the squash pie.

Aren't they cute?

Ta da! Now on to the rest of the stuff.. she made a lot of bread too. More on that later.

Kitchen Rambles

Well, no... he isn't part of the kitchen stuff but he is cute , so there. He likes to look out the window to check out what is going on.

Sick person soup. :-) I like to have broth on hand for whatever I feel like doing. It comes in extremely handy when you are sick and need to throw something together fast. I'd made this broth up before I fell ill and then I was able to just throw some onions, garlic, carrots , pre-cooked rice and a touch of cilantro (at the end) for a very nourishing and comforting soup.

Elly May was reading "Her Father's Daughter" again by Gene Stratton Porter again and there was a recipe for cactus candy she wanted to try. So we found some at our local farmer's market and she went to work peeling them. Not as easy as it might seem at first.

They are rather flabby when finished..

They get chopped and soaked in cold water overnight. You end up with this really mucousy liquid that is not unlike dog drool... anyway, that gets drained and then the nopales pieces are simmered in a sugar water mixture until it all cooks down . Then they are laid out to dry into little candies.. I didn't have any but I hear they are super sweet.

Bread.. the staff of life.

Aren't they beautiful?

A crown of rolls.. she made these for the lamb stew we had .

It was very very yummy. I even had lamb bones left over from 2 lamb legs we'd had earlier in the year at Passover and I made lamb broth out of those after roasting them. We had bought a whole lamb (well , it was frozen and in pieces..) from Chaffin Family Orchards (same place our chickens come from) and it was (and still is) absolutely delicious. Very very tender and not gamey at all.

Dog pile.. I can't see how this is comfortable but they seem to think it is. I know I wasn't that comfortable. They are heavy bruisers. But we all wuv each other vewy much. :-)

Elly May in the Kitchen

Mocha nut chiffon cake.... mmmmmm

Matzo

No pictures of the finished stuff, but just imagine it all stiff and crispy and looking like a giant cracker.. ;-)

Foccacia

Elly May at it again. Butter, garlic, rosemary and thyme..... inhale...This didn't last very long either.

Elly May's Baking Adventures

Elly May is rather obsessed with bread. Eating it, baking it, playing with it. Lucky for us. Here are some of her latest projects... Sticky buns with a challah dough base.. should have taken a picture of all the smoke in the kitchen with this one... it was rather impressive. Some of the sugary topping leaked over the edge of the pan and a pan had not been placed under to catch such drips... so they ummm, kind of burned. And there was smoke billowing out of the oven which made J. J. a complete wreck, trembling in the corner. We knew he didn't like fire (he barks at flame) but didn't know smoke would have such a deleterious affect on his psych. Poor guy. But boy were those good sticky buns!

Challah . This lasted about 5 minutes..

A far off planets surface... heh...no really. Just yeast and honey.

More challah in a "turban" shape. Oh if you could smell!!

Croissants..