Fwee!

Happy Birthday, Dear Willie!

My third born is three.

I don't know what to say about this boy.  Right now, he's a Momma's boy.  If he's hurt, hungry, angry, sleepy, happy, or one of the other seven dwarfs, he runs to Momma.  It's a blessing and a curse.

He likes to wear princess dresses.

He cracks me up every day.

He's scared of giants and locks all of our doors at night to keep the giants out.

He loves to help his daddy and is not afraid to try anything.

I'm afraid he may try to jump off the roof one day.

He's our 95/5 child.  95% of the time he is good, 5% - well that's the percentage we're worried about.

For those of you that may of missed it, here's his life (thus far) in photos.

I don't mean to brag . . .

I don't mean to brag, but I really know how to cook a roast.  It has been my wedded ambition to learn how to cook a roast perfectly - to achieve that balance of moist, tender and pull-apart harmony.  For the longest time I never could achieve it.  I'm not sure if it because I was buying meat from the grocery store and now I have  a freezer full of the best cuts of locally raised grass fed beef or if it is because I have better equipment or what it is, but now, my roasts ROCK!


One of the secrets I feel is  the most important in achieving the perfect roast is to sear it prior to cooking it.  If you don't know what searing is, it is a very simple technique.   Obviously, the better cut of beef you start off with, the better the results, but I've had great success with this method with the most random cuts.  One of the customs that the Burmese share is that when they butcher a cow, they offer us a portion of the cut.  It usually transpires like this.  Several Burmese men are hacking away at the cow dividing it into piles.  One of the men will cut off a piece, say to Erik, "Hey Boss!  For you, Boss!"  and hand Erik a warm piece of flesh.  It's not as gross as it sounds.  Then Erik carries it to the house where, the first time, okay, I was a little grossed out.  But, thankful and respectful of the gift, I took the meat, rinsed it thoroughly, cut the silver skin and excess fat off and put it in the fridge.  A day or so later, I took the meat out for cooking.  I don't know what portion of the cow the meat was cut from but my fool proof method works!

Take your piece of meat (this works with pork roasts too. I have not tried searing a chicken or turkey) and season it well on all sides with your favorite seasonings.  By well, I mean douse thick!  My seasoning of choice is and has always been Garlic Salt.   I use this Spice Club version that you can buy at Aldi's for about $1.30 a jar.  It is a nice coarse salt (similar in size and texture to sea or kosher salt) and they also add parsley flakes to the mixture which is a nice touch.  I like the parsley because I can see how much I am spreading.  I also enjoy the Spice  Club Steak and Pork chop seasoning.  It comes in a self contained grinder.  The Spice Club selection also includes a Country Herb mix that I would compare to an Herbs de France type seasoning.  All are very good.  But, in my mind, nothing beats good old Garlic Salt. 

Pour enough oil in the pan to barely cover the entire bottom.  You can use whatever oil you prefer - I've used vegetable oil, canola oil and olive oil.  Extra virgin olive oil doesn't do as well in searing, but it does add flavor.  Most of the time I use vegetable or canola oil.  Heat the oil until it is very hot, then take your seasoned meat and put it in the pan.  You'll see a frying effect happen - the oil will bubble up a bit on the sides of the meat as it cooks.  It will smell heavenly after about 25 seconds!  Allow the meat to cook for about 5 minutes or until you see a nice cooked crust forming.  Turn the meat and repeat the procedure on each side - even the tips.  

After you sear the roast thoroughly, immediately put it in your cooking device.  I asked for and received a 7 quart enamel cast iron dutch oven for Christmas last year.  (Thank you to my Mother-in-Law).


I love cooking in this pot.  The brand is Chantal and is much cheaper than the classic Le Creuset cookware that is so famous.  I was at TJ Maxx the other night and saw several sized of this particular brand there ranging from $39.99 to $79.99 I love this pot and am considering asking for a second and third!  Typically, I do everything for the roast in this pot including sear the roast in this pot, but for some reason I did not have a photo of doing that.  When you are done searing the meat on all sides, you can transfer the roast into an oven safe pan or crock pot,  just add a little bit of water and some beef bouillon cubes/ beef broth, put a lid on the pot and put the entire thing in the oven.  If you are transferring the roast to a crock pot (something I typically do in the summertime when I do not want to heat up my house by using the oven, I place the seared beef in the crock pot and put the pot on the "keep warm" setting).

 I do not preheat the oven because I cook the roast LOW and SLOW, plus, I am careful of drastic temperature changes with the cast iron.  If you change temps too drastically too fast, you can crack the cast iron!  I highly recommend getting the roast on pretty early in the morning - I typically try to get it done by 9 am.  I set the oven to 225 degrees and let it cook at that temperature all day.  Seriously.  I don't take the roast out until we are ready to eat that night, which is usually 6:00 or later.  

When it is done cooking you will find a roast that, with gentle pulling, will fall apart and shred into pieces like this:

The juice will make delicious gravy if you so choose.  If I am going to make gravy, I try to remove the roast whole onto a cutting board so I can make the gravy right in the same pot as I cooked the roast.  Gravy used to mystify me as well, but I learned a great tip at a cooking class.  Use corn starch to make  a slurry (a thick mix of water and cornstarch) to make your gravy.  I don't really know the scientific culinary reasons why, but since I started using cornstarch, my gravy is thicker and I don't get those lumps in it that you can get from flour.  Most times, I just shred the beef right into the pan and we eat the beef smothered in the au jus.  

The best part about cooking a roast this way is that if you cook a large enough roast,  it lends itself to several diverse meals.  Meal one can be a pot roast with potatoes and carrots.  Meal two can be beef, bean and corn enchiladas and meal three is usually some type of shredded beef sandwich.  I recently had a yummy little appetizer at Applebees of shredded beef in an asian sauce topped with some cabbage and stuffed into a fried won-ton wrapper.  I am thinking this would be really easy to duplicate at home and I plan on trying to make it the next time I have some left over shredded beef!

You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me . . . GE Profile!

It's been a very sad week inside the house at Goodness Grows Farm.  I've been mourning the loss of my new used dishwasher.  About 9 months ago, my original Maytag dishwasher that we purchased for the house when we remodeled, stopped working for the second time in 6 years.  It had nothing to do with using well water (as many suggested) we have a whole house softener and filter.  Our lines are clean!  We deduced that it was the control panel that malfunctioned, so after some investigation into prices online, we came to the conclusion that between the service call (even using a non-Maytag associated repairman), parts and labor, we'd have about $300 into the dishwasher which is basically a new dishwasher.

Being the craigslist loving folks that we are, Erik immediately started watching "the list" for a replacement. He found this one (please excuse the fingerprints):

It is a GE Profile and I LOVE IT.  It has three separate spinners that force water into the machine and clean the dishes.  This was such an awesome deal.  The guy selling it was a contractor who had been contracted to remove the "old" stainless steel appliances from a kitchen in a condo.  The lady who bought the condo wanted black appliances.  This dishwasher was only two years old and was used by someone who spent half her year in Florida.  It was perfect.  

It has many different wash cycles and the best part is that you can select which level of clean you need, not like my old, plain, Maytag, that you just pushed the button and had to wait over 2 hours for the cycle to complete.

This one has a "Speed Cycle" that completes a cycle in just 34 minutes!  44 minutes if you choose the "heated dry" option!

There are lots of other options too -  china/crysta, rinse only, glasses, normal wash, anti-bacterial, pots and pans . . .  it's wonderful!

And it's not working : (

So now, my new best friend is:

And my kitchen sink looks disgustingly like this:

And my kitchen countertops look like this:

And I can't stand it!

Erik is going to check tonight to see if it is possibly the waterline that is causing the problem.  It's a sad day in my life that I'm actually hoping that we have mice and that the mice crawled behind the dishwasher and moved the waterline and that's why the dishwasher isn't filling and running.  

Otherwise, I fear it's back to craigslist.  And I can't go back - I've lived with a high end appliance for almost a year now - going back to a low end dishwasher will be too hard.  

At least that's what I think until I go into the kitchen and see my sink full of dishes and realize that any dishwasher would be better than having to stick my hand into that gross, food filled water to clean my dishes!  

Goodness Grows Farm and Market?

About a year ago, we're not really sure how, but are assuming that through an internet search, a family of Burmese immigrants found out about our little farm and contacted Erik about coming to the farm to buy fresh chickens and goats.  Since then, we have made contact with several other Burmese families as well as some families from Nepal.  *Yes,  I know that the country of Burma is now known as Myanmar.*  If you are like me, you would have had no idea what I was talking about if I had said, "Myanmarese" instead of Burmese.  If you would like to learn a bit more about Burma/Myanmar, here is a link to Wikipedia.  I know it is not considered a completely reliable source, but it does provide a lot of information regarding the country and gave me some insight as to why the Burmese would be immigrating to the States.

Burma/Myanmar

With that background information, imagine our surprise when the first family arrived and not only did they buy chickens, they slaughtered them right here in our garage.

I admit, I was a little creeped out at first, but it hasn't been such a bad experience and it is a way for us to expose our kids to some hands on ethnic diversity as well as address the life cycle on a working farm.  We've been able to use the experiences as ways to explain to our children how in other countries, people do not have the luxury of grocery stores the way we do and that many of the people that come out to our house came from places where they had their own farms and often killed their own animals for consumption.  They are a bit more hands on than we are, but part of that (again we assume) is because of their religion.  At least one family has explained to us that because of their religion, they are not permitted to purchase their meat from a non-religious butcher.  Some of the families are Muslim and just like the Jewish faith has "Kosher" products, these Muslim families have the same religious reasons.  Again, that is what we assume.  We do not always understand enough of what they say to get a real firm grip on the reasons they butcher here.  I took these pictures last year of some families plucking chickens here and they even did one for Walker.

There is a giant learning curve in terms of providing product for these families as some families only want goat and chicken and shy away from ducks and geese, while others jump at the geese and ducks. Almost everyone has turned down interest in lamb and hog until yesterday when Erik had to quickly run to a local farmer for a hog.  Erik has spent the last 4 or 5 months traveling to auctions purchasing animals and reselling them to the Burmese.

Some people find this practice cruel, but it is actually a very practical method of culling our herds and disposing of other animals that otherwise serve no further purpose.  One lesson you learn quickly by living on and managing a functioning farm is that feeding and caring for animals is expensive.  Often, the animals we purchase at auction have outgrown their purpose.  Some animals were purchased to be "pets" but once they grew up, no longer could be accommodated in their current setting.  Other animals are often older and are likely going to die anyway.  Then there are the animals we acquire because the economy is still rough for folks and having extra livestock mouths may mean not having money to feed your family.  We feel it is unethical to resell an animal we are culling (getting rid of) from our herd to anyone else.  For instance, occasionally we will sell a non-producing doe to the Burmese because it would be unfair to sell her to another farm when their expectation would be that she would kid.  (Note:  Animals culled for medical reasons are never sold for consumption purposes).

Some families just kill the product here and then take the animal home to cut it up and divide it among others.

We found out just last week that some of the original families that buy from us actually bought in great quantity from us not because they consumed it all but because they would go back to their community and re-sell the product.  They wouldn't give our information to their community members because they were worried that we would not be able to keep up with the demand of all the families wanting product from us.  We got a chuckle out of that because if they only knew how much Erik hustled to get product here so that he could satisfy orders, they wouldn't hesitate to hand out our business cards!  

We normally see these folks every weekend.  They usually come on Saturdays and Sundays and the faces vary week to week based on their work schedules but we usually see the same folks every other week.  Today was an unusual week because we had three car loads both yesterday and today.  This has been a very good business experience for us as these customers do not particularly care about the age of the goat, chicken, duck or geese.  Some of the families are very generous and have brought us samples of the food they make with the product they buy from us.  Once they even brought us a big bowl of what we assume is Mohinga, a traditional fish soup.  It was tasty.

Our children are very curious about the Burmese and enjoy going out with Erik to help the customers.  They Burmese often bring their children with them and they try to play with our children.  The younger children do not speak much English, but the school aged children often serve as interpreters.

In fact, sometimes I think they have a little too much compassion.  Here are some pictures of the kids attempting to convince me that they love  these chickens and they must come live in the house as our pets.  

Happy (belated) Birthday, Papa!

My Papa celebrated his 84th birthday this month.  You would never be able to tell that he is 84 years old.  This past July, he traveled with my Aunt and her three boys to Ligonier and met me and my kids at Idlewild for the day.  After a day of riding rides and swimming at Splash Lagoon, I was dragging.  As we were headed out of the park to our vehicles and as he pushed Whitaker's stroller, I thought "here I am in my 30's and I don't have nearly the stamina or good posture that he does."

Papa was born to first generation Italian Americans and spoke only Italian until he started elementary school.  He has a rich and amazing past that is the ultimate illustration of the American dream.  His father started a business in 1927 and my Papa works there to this day with his two sons and his nephew. 

His work ethic is phenomenal.  Not only does he work at the company, he comes home at night and plays with my young cousins and works on the farm, tends his garden and takes his grandkids on tractor rides.   

It is rare that I am at a loss for words, but when it comes to describing my relationship with my Papa, words are hard to find.  I love him in a way that I love no other.  His generosity, love and support has allowed me to place him on a pedestal as any fabulous grandparent should be.  On the rational, adult side of me, I know he is not perfect.  He can get grumpy (and that has nothing to do with age), he isn't the most politically correct guy on the planet, and he can be  impatient - but that's not the man I've ever experienced.  The man I know would do anything for one of his grandchildren.  For the first 16 years of my life, my sisters and I were the ONLY grandchildren in the picture.  For 16 years, I basically had he and my Grammie to myself.  And they did ANYTHING for us.

When my Papa bought a farm, he stocked it with animals for us to have.  In fact, if I remember correctly, he bought us a little pony before his new house was even finished and he kept the pony in his garage until they moved up to the farm.  Edna was a little black and white pony and we adored her.  Did we get her because we asked for her?  Nope - we got her because my Papa thought  "the girls" as we were known, would get a kick out of it.  Most of everything he did was because he thought we'd get a kick out of it.  And he is still doing it to this day.  At his age, no one would blame him if he sat back, relaxed and let others do for him.  Because of a variety of circumstances, the majority of my cousins are actually my kids ages.  In the last 8 years, my Papa has restocked the pond on his property, takes the kids fishing, turned the horse stalls into an aviary for pheasants for my cousin who is fascinated by birds, and a variety of other projects, "because the kids will get a kick out of it."  When I bring the kids in for a visit, he never fails to pile as many grandkids as he can in the truck or on the golf cart wherever they want to go.  A frequent request is, "Papa, can we go see the cows?" and the trip to see the cows turns into a trip to see the cows, then down to the pond to feed the fish and then to see whatever other surprises he has for them.

It thrills me that my kids get to have a small taste of what I experienced as a child when we go back to my hometown to visit.  Every good and pure memory I have has something to do with my Papa.

Whether it was him planting strawberries and raspberries for my sister and taking us to go pick them, gathering us up and taking him with us to the office on a Sunday evening, or taking us to the toy store at the mall in Hershey while our mom and Grammie shopped, everytime I think of him it brings such joy to my life.  He taught us to play Rummy 500 and it's a game we are all still addicted to.  We always take the opportunity to play over holidays when we are all together with him.  Our fondest memories of Rummy are playing in Florida.  One year, he had returned home to take care of some business while we were there on vacation.  He faxed us his "hand" to keep the game going.   It was awesome!

We had Whitaker baptized this past weekend and he drove the two hours to our house to celebrate with us.  He gave up a quiet afternoon at home alone where he could watch the Steeler's game in peace, to visit with us because his family is that important to him.  It is such an honor to be loved that much.

I could go on and on about the memories I have . . . he bought my sister and I Jordache dolls

 took us to Disney multiple times

and gave us everything we could have wanted (and most of things we didn't really even need).  Without his help, I would not be where I am today.

I fear that he does not know how much I appreciate everything he has done for me.  Not a day goes by that I do not offer a prayer of thanks to God for the gift that is my Papa.  And I pray every day that my Papa knows I do not take for granted his hard work and generosity.  I hope that he is as proud to my Papa as I am that he is my Papa.

For there is no greater Papa in the world!   And I think all of these kids would agree!

Please pass the jelly!

Devil in Disguise

Devil In Disguise

Dear Nissan,

I demand some compensation for the creative inspiration my child has provided you for the "Devil In Disguise" commercial.  Clearly someone must have installed secret squirrel hidden cameras in our house and woods.  How else would you have been inspired to make this commercial?  Trashing cars in the mud?  Throwing one to a dog to chew on?  Flushing objects down the toilet??  The only thing missing was a scene of running one through the manure pile out behind the barn.  Obviously you could not include that scene or I would have concrete evidence that you were secret squirrel taping my child's every move.  I can only imagine the footage you obtained in the second hour of film!

What?  How dare you imply that all almost three year old boys act like this!  My son is unique and individual and certainly no other parents allow their children to behave as mine does.

I mean wait a  minute . . .  you mean it's actually true?  ALL three year old boys do this?  And it is just a phase?  

Oh, thank goodness.

Please disregard my above demand for compensation.  Perhaps you could instead just indicate that inspiration for the commercial was not derived in any way from observations of one Will Schwalm.  That really would get my family off my back about the child we have labeled "Candy Man Dr. Destruction."

Sincerely,

Mother of Candy Man Dr. Destruction

Watch me now!