~*~ Facebook ~*~

Some days are simply too busy for much Facebook time; other days there is nothing cute, interesting, meaningful, or funny to share. Then there are days like today. "ooh. I should put that on Facebook!" So, instead of driving everyone crazy with way too many inconsequential posts, I'm going to put them all right here and be done with it!

• grrr. are ALL men like this?
• YAY!! the sun is shining
• A guy who stopped by the farm yesterday (someone we hadn't previously met) came to help Weldon cut the corn today. amazing!!
• froze 12 cups of black-eyed peas and fixed some for lunch. They're really good cooked with corn. mmmmm
• Considering how much I loved my time in Haiti, I sometimes ask myself why I left and didn't stay in touch with anyone there.
• God is making popcorn for the angels! Guess not. Turned out it was just tons of acorns clunking down on all the tin roofs around here.
• Rolly went to his new home this afternoon. makes me happy and sad.

They're going to call him Thor

~*~ Fry Baby, Fry ~*~

I'm from up north, y'all. But do I try to adjust to southern ways and do things with southern charm? You betcha! I mean ... Yes, ma'am!

Take okra. Please! Take okra!! No one seems to really love it, but everyone plants a ton of it in the garden and then tries to give it away to the neighbors. I had never had okra before coming to the farm and I haven't had much since then. It's just so dang slimy!

However, my lovely mother-in-law has shown me a good and easy way to cook the stuff. Yes, it's a little slimy while you're cutting it, but at least it isn't slimy when you put the finished product in your mouth.

Are you getting excited or simply trying not to gag? This is a "wing it" recipe, by the way. I usually have to have exact measurements, so if I can do this, you can too!

Fried Taters and Okra

Ingredients: butter, onion, potatoes, okra, salt & pepper, corn meal

Start by choosing your frying pan. That will determine how much room you'll have for the ingredients. Chop your onion, cube the potatoes, and slice the okra into rounds. I suggest you use at least twice as much potatoes as okra, but that's just me.

Toss a hunk of butter in the frying pan and throw in the onion and potatoes. Fry until the potatoes just begin to get soft. You can put a lid on it to speed up the process. Then add those charming little okra (okras?). Add salt and pepper, or get creative with some additional spices. I don't care.

If you want to use precooked potatoes, fry the okra and onion first and then throw in the cooked potatoes. Either way, once everything is in the pan, if it's looking a little dry, add some more butter and continue frying until everything is cooked and sizzling nicely.

Next step, sprinkle yellow corn meal over the whole works. Stir. Repeat. The potatoes and okra should have a nice coating of corn meal, but there shouldn't be excess piles of corn meal sitting in the bottom of the frying pan.

Continue to fry until everything looks delightfully browned. Dish it up and holler, "Come and get it!"

By gully, that's good eatin'!

~*~ How to Get a Job ~*~

My paternal grandmother painted this picture in 1915.

I kept the unframed watercolor tucked away among papers and books for many years, but in 2005 I had some Christmas money saved up and I decided it was time to get it framed.

I went to Hampton House Art & Frame in King, NC, and hemmed and hawed over mats and frames. The woman was very helpful and knowledgeable, but she listened to my ideas, too. Everything is top-notch quality to make sure the painting will be preserved and won't fade away with the effects of time, air, and light. I was (and am) delighted with the finished product.

Fast forward to 2009. I met a lady at the milk barn with the last name of Hampton and before long we connected via Facebook. A short while later, the little light bulb went on in my head and I confirmed that she was, indeed, part of the "Hampton House" family.

In January 2011, I sent this note to Lara Hampton: "It was good to see you this morning, Lara! And when I saw you, I had a few strange thoughts. I thought, 'There aren't very many artsy places in King ... except for Hampton House!' I thought, 'I might like to work there. I wonder if they're hiring?' Silly, I know ... but I'm serious. I have 11 years experience in typical office/receptionist work. I have no formal training in the art world but I'm quite artistic. Let me know if you should ever have an opening that I might be able to fill."

And here we are in the present day. We barely kept our heads above water when we were milking 30 cows; now we are milking six! (Never fear! Cows will start calving in about a month and we'll be back up to 24 - 30 in no time at all.) However, I seriously started wondering if I should start looking for a job. And I seriously questioned who in the world is going to hire a 61-year-old woman for a job that some young whipper-snapper would snag in no time flat!

So, in my usual style, I began praying: "Lord, if it's time for me to get a job, you're just going to have to drop it in my lap. That's all I know. Amen"

This past Saturday I got a note from Lara: "Hey Cindy, still interested in trying out a part time job?" (We had never spoken of the little note I had sent almost 2 years previously. You can imagine my shock!)

I went in this morning, met with the family, got the tour, and I'll start with a few hours on Thursday. I get to learn the whole framing business! Well, that's the plan, anyway. We'll see how it goes. One step at a time. I love it!!! (Oh, and let's keep it quiet about my being 61, okay?)

"Lord, You're AWESOME!! That's all I know. Amen" 

~*~ Bread & Butter ~*~

Piece of Cake? No, thanks! These days I'm really loving a slice of chewy, crusty bread, hot out of my very own oven. With a little advance planning, you can make your own tasty loaf. But you'll have to start it yesterday if you want to take it to grandma's today :-)

Although your oven will be plenty hot (450 degrees for about an hour and a half), you won't be sweating, because this is no-knead bread. That's right: no-knead bread! I found the recipe at Simply So Good, but the original recipe can be traced back to Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery, as reported in various issues of The New York Times.

The "Simply So Good" link above will show you lots of pictures and you can read the answers to many "Frequently Asked Questions" as well as multiple pages of comments. When I first started, I made three loaves in three days, each one better than the one before, so I'll give you the recipe and tell you what has worked for me. Then, maybe, it won't feel so scary the first time you try it.

Before we begin, let's talk about your bread pan. Put it away! In order to get a chewy, crusty loaf of bread, you'll need a pot with a close-fitting lid that can withstand 450 degrees. It can be a cast iron pot or the insert from your crock pot or a deep Pyrex baking dish. It must have a capacity of 3 to 6 quarts. Read the comments on the Simply So Good blog and you'll be amazed at what people have used. Key point to remember: 450 DEGREES!

Crusty Bread

3 cups unbleached flour

1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon SAF instant yeast   

1-1/2 cups water

Here are my tips/notes regarding the ingredients. The flour doesn't have to be bread flour. The salt can be sea salt or kosher salt. Ordinary table salt should work, but I haven't tried it. I don't know what SAF instant yeast is! I use regular, granulated yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup of warm water. That way it is softened and ready to work quicker, perhaps more like instant yeast. And, actually, I've started using just slightly more yeast, more like a rounded 1/2 teaspoon. The amount of water is an estimate; and remember that you may have already used 1/4 cup in dissolving your yeast.

Let's get started. If you're dissolving your yeast in water, do that and set it aside. Whisk the flour and salt together in a large bowl and stir in your yeast. If you have the instant yeast, simply whisk the flour, salt, and dry yeast together. Now, stir in about a cup of water. If it looks too dry, slowly add some more (up to 1-1/2 cups total liquid) until it looks just right (slightly sticky rather than too dry). Don't worry about stirring it to death or making it look all smooth and pretty. Now cover your bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for 12-18 hours. You have to plan ahead on this, obviously, but if it sits longer than 18 hours, no problem!

So ... now it's tomorrow! When I'm ready to start, I get out a piece of parchment paper, sprinkle it with some flour (not too much), and dump my dough onto the paper. Using my spatula, I fold the dough over on itself once, twice, or thrice, thereby working in just a little more flour. Using the spatula, I push the loaf into somewhat of a round ball. Then I cover it with the same piece of plastic wrap that had covered the bowl.

Preheat your oven to 450. According to the instructions that came with my Lodge cast iron pot, it shouldn't be subjected to rapid changes in temps, so I put the pot and lid in the oven while it is preheating. When the oven is preheated, put your EMPTY pot and lid in and let it heat for 30 minutes. (My pot and its lid are in the oven during the preheat time and then for another 30 minutes - close to 45 minutes total.)

Here's the beauty of working on parchment paper. When your pot has heated for 30 minutes, remove it from the oven (VERY CAREFULLY. IT IS HOT!!), remove the lid, and carefully lift your dough by the four corners of the parchment paper and place it in the pot. Cover the pot with the still-very-hot lid, put it back in the oven, and bake for 30 minutes.

At the end of 30 minutes, remove the HOT cover, and continue baking for 15 minutes more. Remove the extremely hot pot from the oven, and lift the parchment paper and the beautiful loaf of bread from the pot. Place on a cooling rack to cool.

Hey! What are those dark spots on my bread? Ah. I added craisins and almonds to this loaf. Mmmm. And in the loaf below, I used about a half cup of whole wheat flour in place of some of the white flour. Delicious!

If I can find some semolina flour that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, some of it will go in the next loaf I make. I'm also thinking about increasing the ingredients by half to result in a bigger boule. But that just means I'll be eating more bread. That's not a bad thing, is it??

~*~ A Few of My Favorite Things ~*~

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, "The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings." How's that for understatement! In honor of his charming couplet, I'd like to show you a few of my favorite things.

the smell of spring

family far and near

music!

silliness :-)

red raspberries

kittens

my farmer

 

treasures

faith in a loving God

 

My home is so full, my head is so full, my heart is so full of such a great number of things ... no wonder I'm as happy as a pig in slop! Not quite as poetic as Stevenson, but you get my drift.

What's included in your "number of things"?

~*~ God Leads Us Day by Day ~*~

It's a rare day that you will find me speaking to someone I don't know in the grocery store or anywhere else, for that matter. One-on-one or in a small group, I am quite shy and don't necessarily jump in with my opinions, but put me in front of a group and I can go on and on. It's not something I was trained to do, but it comes quite naturally. Perhaps it stems from my need to feel like I'm in control. With my thoughts prepared and in order, I am more secure in what I want to say and how I'm going to say it.

On May 11, I was blessed to be able to share some thoughts with the women of Ardmore United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, NC. This was my first "official" speaking engagement and I think it was well-received. In order to put it on YouTube I had to give it a title, so you can watch it at God Leads Us Day by Day.

I'd love any feedback or comments that you would care to give me. Thanks for checking it out. 

~*~ Spring Flowers ~*~

A gardener I'm not, but I love flowers and growing things. I especially love them when they can survive without me. I'm getting better at pulling weeds and remembering to water the thirsty plants in the hottest summer; other than that, I'm pretty clueless.

Without further ado, let me show you some of the hardy flowers around our yard.

The jonquils were here before I came and they haven't died off yet, so you know they're tough and very low-maintenance!

Edith gave me the rhododendron a few years ago. Last year the deer ate all the buds so it didn't bloom. But look at it this year .... woohoo!

Two years ago, Katie and I dug up some iris bulbs from Pat's old place. Two bloomed last year, but this year they've gone crazy! The vast majority are bronze, but there are about 6 big purples. I just may get brave and try to plant a few more varieties.

Katie got me started on peonies back when I lived in Charlotte. (Are you noticing that everyone is trying their best to turn me into a gardener?) This is the first white to bloom. It smells simply luscious!!! The other plant is full of big pink buds. Edith gave me another little peony plant (plant? bush?) last year. It's still pretty small, so we'll have to wait and see if it blooms and what color it will be.

When I'm retired and have absolutely nothing else to do, perhaps I will turn my thoughts and hands to working the soil and growing flowers and vegetables. Don't hold your breath.