Hairy legs....

I had a dream last night that I was at work with no pants on. Just a top and my undies and my legs were as hairy as a sasquatch.

I hate the dreams when I forget my pants. When I finally realize it, I am so horrified but I don't have a skirt or pants to correct the situation so I have to fake it and pretend it is the latest fashion wave to walk around in your underwear at work with hairy gorilla legs.

Glad when I'm in the real world, fully awake that I have never, ever... not even one time, gone to work without pants on.

Aftermath

Thanksgiving was great... I was an undead zombie by the end of the day tho'. Our guests asked where our dishwasher was... Furry Husband and I looked at each other. I pointed to him, he pointed to me.

It's all manual labor baby... no fancy, modern mechanical dish washin' invention here!

The chocolate cream pie was most excellent if I do say so myself. I had a pie crust catastrophe that I'll share cuz maybe I can save someone from the same mistake.

The recipe called for a blind baked pie crust. I thought that meant I had to wear a blind fold. I pulled out my Joy of Cooking to double check. Oh. PRE-baked pie crust. Blind bake is an over the pond English term for "pre-baked"....

I looked at Furry Husband, "Honey, you can put the blindfold away now."

Said I should bake it at 450 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. I dug out the pretty deep dish white ceramic pie plate, put the crust in, poked lots of holes in it with a fork...

Oh. Hmmm. The Joy of Cooking says I should weight the crust with dried beans....

I looked in the cupboard. No dried beans. Wait! Here we go! I have some dried lentils. Lentils are beans right? I poured the lentils into the pie crust and popped it in the oven.

10 min. later I checked the crust.

What the?

The crust slid down the sides of my pie plate! There was this little smooshed disc of pie crust...

I pulled it out of the oven and called my neighbor who bakes a pretty mean pie crust. I told her what had happened.

"Did you use a glass pie plate?"

Yes I say...

"Yeah, that happened to me once too - the glass gets too slippery and hot and the crust can slide down the side"

She said she's salvaged pie crusts by smooshing them back up the sides if they aren't completely done.

Under the lentils the crust wasn't done yet. I was gonna try to salvage. But first I had to get the lentils outta there.

NEVER and I repeat NEVER use lentils as dried beans to weight a pie crust. They are small and flat and they sink into the pie crust. I was scooping them out, picking and digging at the pie crust - cursing the day lentils were invented. I couldn't be sure I'd gotten them all. Did I mention they are similar in color to a pie crust?

Decided that I didn't want to risk having any guest bite into a creamy piece of chocolate cream pie only to bite down on a dried lentil and break a tooth. Besides, the crust was looking like a moon scape all pocked and pitted with craters. Not a pretty crust at all. Furry Husband was looking at it very dubiously.

BAH!

My stubborn nature will have to give in and recognize defeat. I ditched the crust.

I made another and put it in my deep dish pie tin - that's pie TIN - no glass.... it turned out beautifully golden and flaky and all was well. I poured the chocolate filling in... cooled in the fridge and topped it with whipped cream the next morning. Fabulous. Everyone loved it. No lentils anywhere.

No one needs to know about the pie crust, glass pie plate, lentil nightmare.

Shhhhhhhh.

Goats in heat...

Speck went into heat. Poor Speck.

We decided not to breed the does this year. We want to do a little goat experiment and try a 2 year lactation....

Maybe I should rephrase that. Not so much poor Speck but...

Poor Mario.

Our buck is on the other side of the fence from Speck who is peeing and flagging her tail in front of him. He's moaning and crying and it truly sounds like he is dying a very slow and terrible death in his pen. He's fine... just a little... um... well... "blue".

We got a call from a woman who wants to bring a doe for breeding this month. Unfortunately, I don't speak goat-ese and I can't tell him he is gonna get a little lovin' this year.

Poor Mario.

Thanksgiving

Is everyone ready for a feast?

I love Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday... centered around good food, good friends, good wine... warmth and fabulous cooking smells coming from the kitchen.... mmmmm.

I save recipies that strike my fancy, keep them in a binder with sheet protectors and this time of year I look through them to decide what new dishes to try.

I'm trying all sorts of new things this year.... a new apple sage stuffing recipie from Good Housekeeping, parmesean thyme roll recipie from Cooking Light, roasted artichokes and fingerling potatoes along with balsalmic roasted pearl onions from Martha Stewart's Food, chocolate cream pie recipie from a co-worker with amazing kitchen dexterity and caramel croissant pudding from Food & Wine magazine....

AND both Furry Husband and I have been watching a lot of Food Network. I think we are ready to raise the bar this year.




*dang*

Need a new keyboard.

Drooled and slobbered all over this one.

Gross.

What are you guys having for Thanksgiving dinner this year?

I did it, I did it, I did it!

Oh I'm sure many will think this is no big deal.....

I rode Sera bareback for my ride with Rex this week. BAREBACK! I honestly didn't think I could do it... just figured it was a thing from my youth... long gone....thought I'd get up there and slide right off... bloop. Into the dirt.

I wasn't sure what Sera would do... and I am really NOT at all graceful. I'm not one of those people who can lightly hop on or swing themselves up.... I clumber and wallow and grunt and make anyone watching wince in pity for all my flailing struggles.

I lined Sera up next to the mounting block... hmmm. She's still to tall for me to just put my leg over..... and I'm afraid to go belly first over her back because I'm not sure what she's going to think or how she'll react to all my clambering.

Lucky for me, Mrs. Kravitz's husband was there and he gave me a leg up.

He held his hands out cupped.

I looked at him dubiously. I'm pretty sure I outweigh the man.

"Don't throw me all the way over her back to the other side o.k.?" I hesitantly step into his cupped hands and I stand...

"Are you sure you can hold me?" (still standing in his cupped hands)

he grunts as he is holding my full weight while I dither and fret ...." just....umph get....hurg on....oof"

I swing a leg over and I'm on my lovely, fabulous mare bareback!

Oh! She has a spine! I am now intimately familiar with my mare. The last horse I rode bareback was my old gelding... he is very round and stout....backbone nicely covered in lots o' flesh and roundness. I was never that intimately familiar with Brandon.

We walked and trotted and cantered.... oh it was great fun. Like being on the best carnival ride in the world.

I almost came undone when we were doing trot half-pass... normally I weight my stirrup in the direction of travel. I went to weight my stirrup and whoops! There ARE no stirrups, you are bareback Shanster - duh. Almost slid right off the side... but I corrected and on we went.

Oh, it was so much fun. I really love, love, love, love my red-headed mule, Sera Sue.

And it was so much warmer... the day was 28 degrees, cloudy and 98% humidity. Brrr. I'll be doing much more bareback this winter. Know it will help with my balance, strength and confidence.... while keeping me nice and toasty.

Must. Love. Darkness.

Oy. I'm struggling with the short days and the dark when I get up and the dark when I get home. It's not doing much for my riding motivation.... I'm trying to convince myself to love the darkness. What other choice do I have?

I also know it's winter cuz Furry Husband turned up the thermostats. We have electric baseboard heat and he turns up the dial in each room.

Then we do this funny little dance all winter long. (you'd think we were Sandhill Cranes doing a bizzare mating ritual or something...)

He pulls this solid wooden bench in the kitchen far from the wall thinking it will burst into flame because a baseboard heater is behind it. I move the bench back to what I think is a resonable distance. He pulls it out. I move it in.

Allllll winter long.

I also prefer our bedroom to stay a bit on the chill side. Nuthin' like snuggling under the covers and being warm when it's chilly. Furry likes the bedroom on the toasty side. Again, we sneak around and I turn it down then he turns it up... I turn it down... he turns it up.... over and over it goes.

It remains a peaceful if not rediculous battle of the wills so far.... just another sign. I know without a doubt - winter is here.

Goats bring visitors....

Had a visitor yesterday come by my place to learn to make cheese.... she's going to write it up for a Colorado Springs newspaper food article she does. I'm not sure what to expect but I do know she is a gifted writer. When she sends me the article, I'll link to it here k?

I worked a chevre and a feta recipe backwards so I'd have the cheeses in their different stages for her to see.

It sort of blew my mind....

I watch Food Network... and I have a new appreciation for all those prepared steps they gots goin' on.

I tried to organize things smoothly...I think they went o.k.... we made a garlic/dill flavored chevre, a walnut/honey/cinnamon chevre and a basil infused chevre.

Oh, I also dipped into that soft rind cheese I made 3 weeks ago. It's decent! I was hoping for a creamy middle like a camembert or brie... it wasn't like that but it's definitely different than anything I've made before. I wish you could taste it!

I have 4 more containers of cheese in various stages in pots or hanging in cheesecloth from my kitchen cupboard handles draining into other pots... my kitchen looks a little like a kooky science experiment, but that means lotsa good cheese for me this week!

Cheese.

It's a glorious thing.