The Call for Carbs

The call came and went.....it's okay...now....

I shed my tears of frustration....my mack daddy laughed.....and then hugged me tight...

We'll make it.....

So in celebration...I made carbs.....oh-so-hit-the-spot-make-you-smile-melt-in-your-mouth-and-get-seconds-angel-hair-pasta-with-a-hint-of-cream-and-basil....

Thanks to Liz, it is the easiest of easy, but totally satisfying, I thought I would share....so I am not the only one watching my bum jiggle...

please....join me...really....

Tomato and Basil Cream Pasta

 - Boil one package of angel hair pasta....(I am almost up to two bags...yikes..someone is going to have to stop eating!
 - While that boils for 6 minutes, heat a large frying pan with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, throw in 1 tablespoon chopped garlic...I am all about the big jar of pre-chopped garlic from Costco!! So much less stress!
 - Toss in about two cups...more or less...of cherry tomatoes chopped in halves or thirds..or whatever makes you happy.
 - Tear up fresh basil and toss in...lightly stirring....I go light on the basil...my kids aren't big fans and saved some for me to put on top
 - and for good measure I added a small handful of REAL bacon bits....then I can tell the mack daddy that I did serve him some meat...
 - Pour in the cream...and I mean the heavy cream....about a cup.....you can add more.....but I have messy hooligans..so I didn't make it drippy...just a hint is perfect.
 - Salt and pepper
 - After the angel hair pasta is cooked and drained....dump in the skillet with the cream sauce.....gently manipulate the pasta to cover....too much stirring will make it mushy...not good...not good at all.

serve up with fresh grated parmesan....my hooligans, including their mack daddy and the mctwins scarfed it up....here is proof...

It is good for growing your hair as well as your bum...at least #7 hopes so.

And don't tell anyone, but I didn't serve it with bread or salad or anything....just pasta....why ruin a good thing? And the best part...besides the cream...I made it in less then ten minutes...

Doesn't get better then that.

Love, me without a farm

Seeing a Man about a Horse

I should probably finish cleaning the house..but since I have been awake since five am with the best and most beautiful twinners ever... a lot has been done...so I can take a break....

and maybe wish  little......for a phone call.... 

You see I went on a road trip with my mack daddy (read husband there, because after all, it really is) yesterday down  country road, to see a man about a horse (that's code for job interview)

It was a nice country road, well traveled but quiet.  Wide open scenery, lovely but very cold snow.....um....1 degree at one point!  Some of the snow was clean and pure and undefiled by tracks and others were dotted with deer track...and lined with snowmobile tracks, other sow was just muddy from the cows milling around.

But it was all beautiful.

I found myself looking at the houses and picturing myself there...this isn't really the house, but you get the idea.

I could live there, I could live anywhere I have decided...except maybe smack dab in the middle of a big ole city there I can't have a garden.....or  cow....

but I have decided to bloom where I am planted.

I think I am blooming here.....I love it here....but I would also love it other places,  other places that he is seeing a man about a horse.

one horse would really take us home...and I mean home home. Home where three of my seven bloomer buttons were brought home too, and where their father has a history going back four generations, home where my heart has always been.  It is almost to wonderful to think about...so I don't..because then I will want it too bad....and jinx the whole thing....

so we wait and we go on road trips, and yesterday's cold white trip was good too...it would take me back to where some of my family has been for four generations....it's just a whole lot colder!

So I could and would bloom there or here or wherever.....

I would just like to bloom..... (don't look at my bum...cuz it unfortunately bloomed long before its time)

I would like somewhere to grow old and establish roots.....

it can be somewhere that we already have roots, or maybe somewhere completely new....but I need some roots....and a front porch....

.....and a cow.....

I need my bloomer buttons to feel like they belong....to a town...to a house....to a place...

 oh don't get me wrong they all feel at home at home home....

but I can't think about that too much....

I get weepy....in fact I am weepy now...so nothing new....

 (I used to get weepy every time we left this town after coming home to visit.....but then we found this community...and I don't get weepy that much...unless I think of my children growing up where their father and four of his progenitors grew up and lived and died and loved....then I am really weepy)

sssssooooooo....I am ready to bloom where I am planted....but I have no idea where that is supposed to be....so I am frustrated.....and weepy....and waiting.....

There is the scripture that says....

"Be still and know that I am God"....

I don't know how to be still.....and to have patience and wait.....I try...really I do.

So please......say a little prayer for me and mine...that we (I) will have patience ....and to bloom where we (I am) are planted.....and that the man with the horse will decide that it is ours to keep.....

love, me, weepy...but not wailing yet

p.s. ou cn click on the title for a better talk then mine...

WHen Life hands you Lemons.....do not use tin.....

Ummmmmm........note to self...

DO NOT make Lemon Meringue Pie in an old tin pie pan......

Can you say terrible after two days in the fridge!  It was like sucking on  penny..... (don't ask...)

Shouldn't I have known this already?!  You would have thought!

When Life Hands you Lemons....make Lemonade......REALLY!

We were down in beautiful Kanab this weekend.....they call it God's country for a reason!  Blue sky, red dirt, clean air and 70 degree weather......It is snowing while I type this very post.....

I should be depressed, but we need the moisture.

So we won't be sad...we will make lemonade!

While down in my home country, Mack's visiting aunt gave us a gazillion fresh lemons of her tree...

oh how would it be??

Seriously, I ask you?  To go out and pick a lemon or an orange right off your very own tree?

It would be just fan-dab-tastic!  But of course I can't do that....and it makes no sense (for me at least) that have to be money wise to go out and buy fresh lemons every time we want fresh lemonade....that is what concentrate is for....though that may be loaded with undesirable stuff too...

so I am juicing these fan-dab-tastic lemons for a later date.....and zesting them as well.

DO you know how much they want in the store for the dried lemon zest.....too much I tell you!

So this is a bit of work...I admit, a bit boring as my youngest son has commandeered the TV for cartoons....(no Days of Our Lives for me)

But just imagine the fresh taste the zest and fresh juice will add to pies and cakes and cookies and fish and chicken and salad.....yum (can I have lunch twice? I am hungry again)

And just think of all the pure vitamin C you are getting, that will boost your immune system, not to mention the natural unrefined sugars that can give you a boost and it naturally moderates your ph balance....and we women all know what happens if we are out of balance...

well I don't..Mack says that I am out of balance all the time...so not a clue here...

but if lemons will make me balanced, I am all for them!

So I have frozen the juice in ice cube trays (actually mini cupcake pans... have no ice cube trays...I am cool for them) that I will transfer to a bag later and I have pretty little yellow lemon zest resting nice and easy on freezer rack, after which, I will be able to break a little off when I need it.

And sitting oh so prettily and dainty is a nice tall glass of lemonade....and if ya'll were here with me visiting... I would go all fancy and garnish it with a fresh slice.....but it is just me and the boys....

now where is my sunshine.....and rockin chair

Enjoy!

Thanks Aunt Linda!

Easy Homemade Greek Yogurt

Soooooo...I should be mopping the floor while the babes are napping and JD is absorbed in cartoons (aren't I a terrific mom....o...whatever...he is sick...a sick kid totally has free reign of the cartoons!)

but, instead, I am going to post the homemade greek yogurt recipe and ways that I use it.....while your kiddos are sleeping and you are blog surfing.

See we are both productive...sorta...

.

I decided I needed to make my own yogurt after we knew that one of my twins (see the little squeak above) needed a daily dose of yogurt to keep the thrush away and keep her tummy active (if ya know what I mean!).  But have you read what is in store bought yogurt?  ...and the kids versions are just as bad if not worse! Aiyyiyi.what would our grandmothers think?  well mine didnt like yogurt...so they would have thought no way am I trying it.....

My thoughts were...I need a cow....

but instead I turned to the internet...

I don't know what I would do without the internet.....oh yeah...I would have gone to the library...

but I found many a helpful ideas out there! For you newbies out there......mom...grandma....click on the hi lighted words greek yogurt...it will take you to the link!)

Here are my side notes to this demonstration...first, I used 1% milk, which worked, but I imagine that whole milk wold be ooo so much creamier...but the reason  made it with 1% milk is because I wanted a lower fat yogurt.....not that milk fat is bad for you....

milk fat, or rather cream makes the world go round and makes it so much easier to take a bite out of life...

let's count the ways.....

sour cream....can't live without it
butter...won't live without it
cheese...have to have it
cream cheese...just love it!
buttermilk....must cook with it
cottage cheese....shouldn't live without it

should I go on......ok...you get the point!

I also didn't add in the honey, I like my yogurt a little tart...that is how I like all my honey's..ok my one honey, but if you want to make different flavors here is another helpful website .

So (I just realized why Carrisa uses that dang word so much!) one of my favorite ways to incorporate this yummy greek yogurt is really Mack daddy's...he brought the recipe home from Iraq with him.....

and that is homemade crusty bread.....of which I will give you the secret recipe once I get permission from the source.....

For lack of a better title....I'll just call it Mack daddy's dip

Mack daddy's a dip? No I would never say that...

ok you can call it Greek Yogurt Dip if you must

- Place yogurt on a plate (with a deeper rim) and spread it out, do it s thick as you like.
- Sprinkle ground cumin all over the yogurt...the more the better...cumin is my favorite spice...next to posh!
- Gently drizzle olive oil (if I was cool like Racheal Ray I would call it OVOO, but I'm not, so  won't pretend!)
- Dip in nice crusty bread, or cucumbers, red peppers and carrots or whatever sounds good at the moment...if I get desperate, I am not above dipping ritz cackers...and sometimes it is a double dip.  sssshhhhhh...more for me!


I also love this yogurt with homemade granola (no store bought granola......it is so BAD for you!), making pound cake (except the one I made last night...went online to find a more lemony one...ugh..it was terrible! So if any of you have a wonderful tarty lemon pound cake recipe...please send it my way!)

I also love it on baked potatoes and anything you would top with sour cream....Mack isn't a fan...but it has a wonderful creamy texture and better for you if you think you need to be watching your fat intake (which far too many of us do! read here)

I am also going to try out making cream cheese.......so wish me luck and a cow long with it!

Hope you like!!

Joy in the Journey

Why?

Why you ask?

Because I can......

and because the kids think the other blog is all about them and should in no way have my ramblings.

So they win..and I win....this is and will be about us.

You and me babe...on the road to somewhere....

For me it will be about being the best that I can be, where I am and showing you my mistakes as well as my triumphs.  I am a secret farmer married to a used to be cowboy...with a wrangler butt.  yum!  Technically he is still a cowboy, we just don't have any cows to mosey anymore or hay to cut....or any of those other chores...and we find ourselves far North of where we started.

But this is okay, because one day we hope to return to the country life, complete with chickens and lambs and a cow.... jersey cow to be precise.  So along the way, I thought I would document my pretend life on the farm as I can and bake and garden and create the life I want....way up North.

There are so many great blogs out there, that you may not have time to even have a lookey lou here....but that's okay, I understand the craziness of life...but maybe this is just for me to remember where I want to go and to find joy in where I am at and joy in the journey.

But either way I hope that one day we can sit on my front porch, look out and realize it was a good journey to document.

And if you want further inspiration about joy in the journey, just click on the title, it states it all much better then I.