midnightsjane

One of the things I like to do most to relax is cook. I am a good cook, if I do say so myself. I learned to cook by watching my Mom and Dad, and by helping out with the meal prep. I don't think I was actually taught, but I did pick up some of the tricks of the trade when I worked in the local café after school. I learned to make burgers (with ready made patties of course), I could fry up chips from potatoes I peeled and cut, and I made a mean milkshake by the time I was 16. When Mom and Dad were away on trips my sisters and I were responsible for meal making, so I learned to cook simple things. I've got fond memories of watching my Dad whip up his specialties; he made the most incredible steak, and he enjoyed making Sunday dinners. He had a special gizmo for peeling potatoes, because he only had the use of his left hand (the right arm was atrophied and paralyzed because of an accident he had when he was 23); it was a board with spikes in it; he would stick the potato on a spike and peel away. He would make the roast and potatoes and vegies and use every single pot and pan in the house, and we girls had to clean it up afterwards! We kind of dreaded Sunday dinners when Dad cooked...doing dishes took forever. He made the best frying pan fudge, too. It was creamy and sweet, and I'm salivating thinking about it now. Anyways, the moral of this story is that I came away from home knowing how to make meals for myself, something a lot of my friends couldn't do. I think every parent should try to make sure their kids have at least a rudimentary knowledge of cooking, because it sure beats eating out all the time.
One of the things that I like about being able to cook most is feeding other people. It's so satisfying to spend energy taking the raw ingredients and melding them into a tasty dish, then serving that dish to family and friends who give me pleasure by enjoying the end result of my efforts.
Since I live alone, I don't cook for others all that often. I do cook for myself, heeding my mother's advice to make at least one good meal a day, and enjoy it, because I'm worth the effort. But when I want to cook for someone other than myself, I cook for my good friend Sue. She's so busy these days with all that's going on at the farm, she doesn't always have time to cook, so I do it for her sometimes. (Plus, I promised her mother, a rather formidable woman, that I'd make sure Sue took care of herself. I don't want to risk the wrath of Peggy!)
Tonight I made a leek, potato and mushroom pie, and a mushroom and pea risotto. I made the risotto using chicken broth I made from scratch, using up the carcass of a chicken I had the other day. I was happily busy in my little kitchen for about three hours. A nice way to spend an evening, and now I have food to take to the farm tomorrow, plus some left for my own meals. Win-win.

After a busy day at work I was in need of something more than a scrambled egg for my dinner, but what? I had a pork chop in the fridge, so I decided to cook that. Put it in a little olive oil and butter in my cast iron frying pan, then tossed in some diced potato. That started browning nicely, but seemed a little boring. So I grabbed a ripe nectarine and sliced it, then added it to the meat and potatoes, threw in some fresh green beans and drizzled the whole lot with a little black bean honey garlic sauce. Covered it up and let it cook until the potatoes were tender and the chop was done, about 10 or 15 minutes. It smelled delicious, and it looked really pretty, too. Put it all on a plate, and then enjoyed every single bite. It was totally yummy, and very easy to do. It looked elegant enough to serve to company, so I'm definitely going to remember this one. Yay, me!

Yet another day of sunshine! How can we stand it?? LOL. Very well, thank you. Keep'em coming, weather gods.

I'm tuckered out. Cleaned 10 stalls in about 4 hours, swept the barn floor, brought horses in from the paddocks, fed dinner, filled water buckets, cleaned paddocks, and then helped Sue groom Phaedra. I was happy to have to sit in my car for an hour to drive home!

Phaedra is getting really close to having her baby; she's due in two weeks, but looking at her today, we're not sure she's going to wait that long. The baby has dropped since yesterday; poor Phaedra looks like she has a giant beach ball hanging from her tummy! Could be soon... oh, my. We're excited..and there is Kismet's baby coming too, in about 4 weeks. We're going to be pretty tired by the middle of June, for sure.

I was too tired to go to the grocery store on my way home, so I had to do some serious improv for dinner; looked in my cupboards and found pasta (I always have pasta on hand), frozen peas and green beans in the freezer, eggs, cheese. Cut some fresh chives and sauteed them with garlic, then tossed the cooked peas and beans with the linguine, threw the whole thing into the pan with the chives and poured in a beaten egg. Stirred it all together, added some shredded cheese, salt and pepper, and called it a meal. It was quite tasty.

I didn't have any bread, so I decided to make some non yeast bread. I just took a nice loaf of oatmeal-wheat bread out of the oven, and it smells so fine. Can't wait to taste it. I must do this more often. I used to bake all my own bread, but I haven't done so for a number of years..I need to get back into it.

I'm ready to settle down with a cup of tea and some fresh bread now. Maybe I'll put a bit of stewed rhubarb on the bread...mmm.

Oh..My roses are getting buds! finally. It's been a long time coming