Giving Thanks and Growing Too

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Anisa

Oh the holidays are upon us!  The Schell family had a great Thanksgiving.  I was inspired by my best buddy, Jenny, to start a new tradition… homemade cinnamon rolls.  I’m not much of a baker, but the night before Turkey Day, I made the dough, let it rise, did the kneading, rolled them out and filled them.  It was so neat to wake up on Thursday morning and have them ready to pop in the oven after their quick 30 minutes at room temperature.  And they were pretty tasty, though I may make a few modifications in the future.

So, while the cinnamon rolls were baking, we sat down to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.  I’ve missed this the last couple of years, so I was really excited to see all the balloons and floats, and envy the Rockette’s perfect legs.  🙂

As the parade finished up, and after the rolls were thoroughly enjoyed, I started to work on the side dishes I was bringing to Rick’s mom’s house for the big dinner.  I made a traditional green bean cassarole (the one with the condensed soup & french-fried onions), and this awesome Brussels sprout recipe that I got from Better Homes & Gardens:

Creamy Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients

  • 4  slices peppered bacon
  • 2  lb. Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved through stem end
  • 3/4  cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
  • 1/2  tsp. kosher salt
  • 1/4  tsp. black pepper
  • 3/4  cup whipping cream
  • Cracked Black Pepper

Directions

1. In 12-inch skillet cook bacon over medium heat until browned and crisp. Drain on paper towels, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings in skillet.

2. In skillet add Brussels sprouts to drippings; cook and stir over medium heat 4 minutes. Add broth, salt, and pepper. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 5 minutes. Uncover; cook 2 to 4 minutes or until liquid is nearly evaporated. Add cream. Cook 4 minutes more or until thickened.

3. Transfer sprouts to serving dish. Sprinkle with crumbled bacon and cracked pepper. Serves 8.

The sprouts were a hit.  All the normally-non-sprout-eaters, seemed to like them, I received lots of complements.  And Rick insisted that I make them a part of our regular meals.  So I’d say they were a success.  Everything really is better with bacon, I guess.  🙂

We ate ourselves silly at Kris’ house, and her turkey turned out very well… very moist.  One of the best turkey’s I’ve ever had actually.  But when it was time for dessert, I began to wish I had rice pudding.  Kris’ homemade cheesecake is delicious, but there’s nothing like my mom’s rice pudding. 

So we went down to my mom’s on the way home.  I had a couple of cold, but perfectly rare pieces of the left over prime rib she made, and, of course, finished off what little rice pudding she had left. 

Rick and I also took the opportunity to tell both of our families the big news:  we are going to add another little Schell to the family!  That’s right.  I’m about 9 weeks pregnant, and yes, sadly, I’m just as sick as I was last time.  But, it’s worth it, as they say, so in July, Henry will be a big brother. 

That about sums up our Thanksgiving festivities.  We are excited for Christmas this year, and have already got some pretty fun things on the docket for the month!  Will share and post pictures as I can! 

Categories: Food, Recipes | 2 Comments

Vendetta…

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Rob

Ven-det-ta

–noun

1. a private feud in which the members of the family of a murdered person seek to avenge the murder by killing the slayer or one of the slayer’s relatives, esp. such vengeance as once practiced in Corsica and parts of Italy.
2. any prolonged and bitter feud, rivalry, contention, or the like. 

Foxes of the world, you are now officially on “the list”.  Also on this ‘list’ are elk, squirrels, and that fuzzy little mink-like animal that dropped a stick on my head. 

I LIKED that stupid yellow chicken.  Even if she was an absolute moron with no brain and a strong desire to run across the street into the neighbor’s yard.  This is probably the same fox that injured the red chicken.  Either way, in the words of Sideshow Bob’s italian baby boy, “Vendetta!  VENDETTA!!!” (pantomime the large kitchen knife moving in a stabbing motion, or in this case, a .22 bullet with the word ‘Foxy’ etched into it).

Categories: Chickens | 2 Comments

Sad Day…

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Anisa

daisyI regret to post that yesterday morning at about 3:45am, Daisy the chicken lost her life.  We had another fox attack, and we were not so lucky this time.  We heard the fox in time to chase it away before it could get away with it’s meal, but alas, “Yellow Chicken” didn’t make it.  She is survived by Mayzie, Lavender, and Poppy (aka “Green Chicken,” “Gray Chicken” and “Red Chicken”).  Though her eggs will be missed, Her friends and family will carry on.  She will be remembered as the fat, fluffy one.  The one who was smart until Josie jumped on her once.  The broody one and the instigator.  Rest In Peace, Daisy, the Yellow Chicken. 

We did not eat her.  Rick still seeks revenge on the fox.

Categories: Chickens | 2 Comments

Vegetarians…

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Anisa

vegetarian veg·e·tar·i·an: noun, old Indian meaning lousy hunter.
At least that’s what my dad always said. 😉

We spent the last ten days up in Kremmling.  Rick was hunting for elk.  Alas, he was unsuccessful.  But, we had a good time, and we didn’t get skunked completely!  Rick’s trophy for the week:  a squirrel tail.

No really, we did have a nice time.  We arrived last Friday afternoon.  The first few days it was Rick, H, Josie & me; Rick’s brother, Scott; Rick’s Uncle, Alan; and Rick’s grandpa, Lyle.  Monday night, Alan and Rick’s grandpa left, and Rick and Scott continued the pursuit of elk (and deer) on their own.  Meanwhile, I played camp cook.

Scott & Rick did bring home some blue grouse (Rick got four), and they took the afternoon off one day to go fishing with H and I.  We headed up to a lake near Alan’s cabin, and I fished for the first time in who-knows-how-long.  The lake is well stocked (it’s a private lake, so yes, we cheated), and we were getting strikes left and right!

I think overall we caught eight to ten fish, but we only kept four.  Scott reeled in the largest.  A real beauty.. probably at least 18″!  But it was on Rick’s line.  Thus began the great debate over who’s fish it was.  But I think the pictures speak for themselves:

    

I caught and released a “little” one (probably about 10″, small for the lake), and then, right before I left, I landed this guy using my dad’s fishing rod.  I think Rick was having trouble with the camera, or, more likely, I was having trouble with the fish, but here is what we have to show:

Here’s a better view of his size… not counting is head of course.  Over all he was probably about 15-16″ before he was cleaned:

The other two keepers were in the 12-13″ range.  My fish and one of the smaller ones fed the four of us for dinner.  The other two (including the biggie), fed Rick, Scott, Alan, and Rick’s 13 year old cousin, Preston for lunch a few days later.  With some left over.

A good time was had in the cabin as well.  I couldn’t believe that the guys didn’t pull practical jokes or anything, but they did take turns cooking, and we enjoyed all kinds of good food up there.  Scott made spaghetti with Italian elk sausage, and Alan make pheasant-noodle soup.  Yum!

H and Josie enjoyed their time running around too, and it even snowed halfway through the week.  H didn’t like getting snow on his shoes, but he did enjoy tending the fire with Uncle Scott.

    

You can tell we’ve emphasized staying away from the hot stove though!

Wednesday night, Alan and Preston came back up to the cabin to continue hunting.  Scott shot at a couple of animals and missed.  Preston missed a cow as well.  Alan saw some cow elk up there, but he only had a tag for a bull.

Lucky me though… I dropped the guys off on top of a mountain and then drove down to the bottom to wait for them.  I saw three cows run from the trees and jump a fence into private land.  More than Rick saw all week.  Rick, unfortunately didn’t even see an animal that he could shoot.  Only a moose, some does, and a buck.

But we enjoyed our time in the great outdoors anyway (especially the fishing).  And after the grouse are gone, I’ll see if I can find another definition for the word vegetarian.

Categories: Food, Hunting | 1 Comment

Everything in Moderation. Including Moderation.

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Anisa

My friend Genny always has her fingers on the pulse of the natural vs. artificial debate.  Check out her blog here for a couple of commercials put out by the Corn Refiners Association promoting High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), along with a spoof on the commercials promoting the Nazi political party.  Pretty funny, and at the same time, not at all funny. 

The commercials at the end say “Get the Facts” at SweetSurprise.com.  Please do.  You can connect to that website and another one called HFCSfacts.com through the Corn Refiners Association web link provided above. 

There is a lot of controversy surrounding HFCS.  There is debate over whether it is a “natural” sweetener or not.  It comes form corn, yet has to be incredibly processed to make it into HFCS. 

There is controversy over the environmental impacts of the corn industry and over the government’s involvement in the industry both politically and economically (the farm bill, in particular). 

The results of the most recent studies (as stated on any of the Corn websites) is that HFCS is safe to consume in moderation, just like table sugar.  Yet, there is controversy over it being addictive, contributing to the surge of obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol in America since the 1980’s.

Here are a few articles (not studies, mind you) that I found interesting on the subject.  They address the health issues, economic controversy and the environmental impacts of the High-Fructose Corn Syrup industry. 

     Washington Post      New York Times      Mayo Clinic      Advanced Health Institute

Happy reading.

Categories: Food, Recommended Reading, Urban Homesteading | 4 Comments

Easy as Pie

Posted on October 4, 2008 by Anisa

Yum!  Earlier this week Rachel shared some delicious home-grown concord grapes with us (be sure to scroll down to see the picture).  They were so sweet and good, I just had to try making this pie with them.  I didn’t have a 4″ grape-leaf cookie cutter as the recipe calls for, so I used many leaves from a small cookie cutter that I had instead.  I only baked them 15 minutes, but they still turned out a little browner then I had intended. 

BUT the pie was delish… like grape jelly only better.  I’m not one who normally takes on big, involved recipes.  Usually I get frustrated or bored, or overwhelmed.  But this pie wasn’t overly difficult or time consuming, and all the required refrigeration during the prep made it easy to work on between nap times and keep the kitchen fairly clean.  I did use a premade Pillsbury pie crust (a rarity, since I actually make pie crusts often for fruit tarts that Rick and I like to have), but as I was getting closer to assembly of the pie I could feel myself wanting to quit, and I could never live with myself if I let the grapes go to waste.  Next time I WILL make the crust myself…homemade is SO much better.  But the short cut paid off, and the pie smelled heavenly every step of the way.

    

Thank you again, Rachel, dear friend, for sharing your crop with us!  We loved it!

Categories: Community, Food | 3 Comments

This is how we hoe the weeds…

Posted on July 27, 2008 by Anisa

Ok, lots of people have been curious about the farm.  I started going up to Kersey once a week (on Tuesdays) to work for a few hours in exchange for a discounted membership to Monroe Organic Farms’ CSA. 

IT’S INCREDIBLE! 

The first few weeks we did nothing but hoe weeds.  And hoe more weeds.  And hoe a few more weeds.  And there were no vegetables yet, because of the weird spring weather.  But that time passed quickly, and now we have veggies coming out of our ears!!! 

So far we have enjoyed aspearagus, four different kinds of onions, three varieties of potatoes, four kinds of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, strawberries, the sweetest white turnips I’ve ever tasted, red turnips, candy striped beets, cucumbers, fennel, kohlrabi, carrots, purple (yes, you read that right) bell peppers, sugar snap peas, snow peas, green beans, yellow straight-neck squash, Q-ball squash, and of course, zucchini (lots of zucchini).  Last week, Dave, the guy I carpool with shared some apricots from his fruit share with us.  Oh man.  Amazing! 

This week, we’re going to dive into musk melon, watermelon, eggplant, green bell peppers and sweet corn!

Everything we have gotten has been incredible!  Full of more flavor than anything  that you can get from the store, organic or not.  The red potatoes are to die for, and even the onions are good.  I can’t wait until the tomatoes come on! 

The thumbnail is a picture of a salad I made Friday night.  It included Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, turnips, beets, purple bell pepper and walla walla sweet onions.  I made an orange-balsamic vinaigrette with garlic and fennel for the dressing.  Wow!  I also topped it with some sliced almonds, but we ate it before I could get them in the picture.  Everything was from the farm.  (Well, not the balsamic vinegar, almonds, orange juice or olive oil, but all the veggies and other dressing ingredients were!)

This has been the coolest experience too.  Every week, now that the veggies are on, we get to the farm at 7:00am and start counting out bags for the veggies.  We bag the beans or peas, and then we put together the shares for all the members.  People can buy a Full share, Half share, or Single share. 

The full share, right now, is packing a 50lb onion bag FULL of veggies.  The single share fills a 10lb bag, and the half share is in between.  Rick and I bought a half share and have tons of veggies to store by the time the next Tuesday rolls around.  It’s probably a good 25-30 pounds of produce a week.

 

So, at the farm we fill all the bags for both the working and non working members.  We then load the bags, along with the egg shares, fruit shares and honey shares onto trucks that go to different distribution centers throughout the city for the non-working members to pick up.  After all of that is finished, if there’s still time, we go hoe more weeds, or pick onions, or squash, or whatever chores Jerry has for us to do. 

This happens every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, each day with a different group of working members.  A lot of produce goes on these trucks!  And all of it from Jerry & Jacquie’s farm (except the fruit and honey which come from a farm on the western slope – hooray for that partnership). 

This is such a cool way to get your food.  And not only is it far less expensive than the grocery store, but it’s both nutritionally and economically more healthy!  Even with the cost of gas to drive that 120 miles once a week, I am saving hundreds on my groceries, getting fresher, healthier food, and supporting a local farm!

Do the math… it might be worth it for you to join a CSA in your state (or if you live here, get on the 2009 waiting list for Monroe!).

Categories: CSA, Food, Urban Homesteading | 1 Comment

The List: one more down!

Posted on July 19, 2008 by Anisa

Well – another item crossed off the list!  Rick bought his bike Friday, and he really picked out something awesome… I had a twinge of jealously, I must admit. 

He got a nice bonus at work this quarter and decided to finally upgrade from his 12 year old + Diamondback that he’s been riding to and from work.  This steel workhorse was at least three sizes too small for him (heck, it was smaller than MY bike), and weighed more than my bike with Henry in the trailer attached to it!  No joking. 

So, I was happy for him when he decided to spend the money for the better components, lightweight aluminum frame and comfortable ride of the Gary Fisher Marlin.  That’s the pic up there in the thumbnail.  Yay for him! 

Also, if you’ve been watching my list, you’ll notice that I changed a couple of items in the “Travel” section.  I was thinking about what I really want in the next 2.75 years and I felt like a month in Europe was not something I wanted to do while Henry was under 5 years old.  And there are a lot of things in THIS state that I’ve never seen (and I’m a native!!).  So, since the rules never said anything about changing your goals, I did a little editing.  🙂

Categories: Urban Homesteading | 1 Comment

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