I feel like I’ve fallen off the face of the cooking earth! Well, maybe not so much “cooking” as “blogging.” Which would be much more accurate. I really have cooked! A LOT! At some point I’ll post “Battle Zucchini”…probably during the winter when I wished I had some of the squash again! There have been a lot of distractions… A new boss again this year (makes the start of the school year a little more work the first few years), a few new tasks added to my job and the learning curve that goes with that, and then there are the girls…
All my life I’ve wanted a horse of my own… A little over a year ago I discovered Horse Plus Humane Society, which was called NorCal Equine Rescue at the time. These absolutely AWESOME folks rescue unwanted or uncared for animals, primarily horses and other equines (donkeys, burros, mules…). Willow (the red-brown, properly called either Chestnut or Sorrel in horse circles) came to live with us in July of 2010. H+HS has been blessed to be able to save a record number of equines this year, but that also means they have an abundance of fully adoptable to semi-adoptable (horses with less training who may require “finishing”) to totally untrained horses. Enter Shasta…the light buckskin (light body color, dark mane, tale and points (ears, feet, muzzle). Both horses are mares (girls), Willow is 17 years old, and Shasta is 5 years old. With 2 horses, more of my free time is spent doing something I love…being with my girls, working on their training.
That doesn’t mean cooking has stopped, but it does mean I’m not blogging much if at all, and I’m not cooking according to any schedule. I’m still cooking up a storm. We eat a lot of Mexican food because we’re in a good area to be able to get supplies, and it’s quick after work. I might spend 7 hours cooking up a pork roast on the weekend for carnitas, but then I’ve got quick suppers a couple nights during the week. The same goes for a poached chicken…it can become either Mexican food (makes the best enchilada meat) or into Asian food. And then…a French roasted chicken…who can complain about one of those? Again…usually left-over meat that can be re-purposed. Carne asada sliced beef or flank steak comes in very handy for carne asada tacos or fajitas. We also eat quite a bit of rice because it goes with everything I’ve already mentioned! LOL! While we had fresh tomatoes coming out our ears, we also ate a LOT of pasta with any kind of fresh tomato sauce I could put together, and a lot that didn’t have recipes! LOL!
Everything is pretty much good here… We have a new way to weed and fertilize the garden… Shasta is a tricky girl. She’s one smart little mustang! She opened the gate and went into the garden to do a little weeding. This would be okay…and will be when I’m sure no one has left any gardening implements lying around. The gate is firmly fastened now…little stinker! There’s plenty of compostable material here now…no question about that! With our heavy clay soil…that’s a good thing! LOL!
There’s plenty of mischief and mayhem that goes along with living here…not only did we adopt the horses from H+HS, we’ve also adopted chickens. I have 4 cute little bantams running with the big buff orpingtons! They don’t seem to bother each other at all. The two roosters each tend their flocks and everyone is happy. Except Mr. Raccoon. He’s been going hungry. Maybe he’ll go somewhere else to find a meal…
I do miss you all… I’m still reading, watching movies and even reading posts now and then…time is just a bit hard to come by right now. I wish you all the best, and I’ll get back here…surely as the winter draws the curtains on outdoor activities! TTFN!
Can't Believe We Ate... 