Ha! Bet ya thought I was dead, didn't ya? Sorry to disappoint but I'm still here. Time goes by so fast plus I really haven't had much to say. With the rains, I only left the ranch once, maybe twice in a month.
One of my favorite places to eat is Macaroni Grill which we don't have within a million miles from here. My all time favorite meal there is Penne Rustica. I found a copy cat recipe here : http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/04/copycat-macaroni-grills-penne-rustica.html
The recipe is so intimidating, I'd never made it......until today, that is.
Does this not look heavenly? Living in Country Bumpkin land, my local Walmart (60 miles away) had no idea what pancetta is so I had to substitute with prosciutto. Heck, never having cooked with it or eaten it except at Macaroni Grill, I had no idea either but I think the pancetta has more flavor that explodes in your mouth when you eat it. This recipe calls for 4 cups of heavy cream!!!! and that's just half the recipe!!!! Did you know that you can substitute heavy cream with 3/4 cup of milk and 1/3 cup of melted butter? I didn't have to because I planned ahead and had the cream. It also calls for Marsalla wine which we couldn't find at Walmart either. But once again, thanks to Google, I discovered you could substitute dry white wine mixed with brandy and get the same thing. I know, I know, you are thinking this dish is going to turn out to be a disaster. The intimidating thing about this recipe is : first, all the ingredients and second, you have to cook two sauces down to half of their original size before putting everything together and popping it into the oven.
When we go out to eat at an Italian restaurant, being the adventurous person he is, Pa ALWAYS orders spaghetti. I can never get him to try something else. You can imagine my hesitation in serving him this exotic dish. Well, I'll be darned! He really liked it! (Knock me over with a feather!) He had two helpings!!!!
Here are some pictures of the garden before the monsoon rains. Can you believe we got 4000 gallons of rain water stored in the month of July? Our 3000 gallon tank is full and so were all the tanks at the corner of the house, plus the two tanks at the garden. We ran out of places to store rain water. Pa hooked up a pump to each of the corner tanks and we have been watering out of them so they will be empty for the next big rain.
Here are the strawberries. They are standing about 12 inches high. We didn't get many but they should produce a lot next year. They've put out lots of runners.
This is a new kind of broccoli I tried this year. It's called Di Ciccio or something like that. It's a great producer and we've eaten some already.
This box has a conglomeration of broccoli, dill, lettuce and ever bearing strawberries.
Green beans are kind of spotty but I got enough to can two pints today!
Bell peppers and a different kind of broccoli.
This is a new grape we planted this year since the other two died.
Sweet potatoes which have doubled in size since the rains.
These tomatoes are now chin high to me. Lots of foliage but not a lot of tomatoes. Don't know if I will get enough to can or not.
Cantelope....there are 7 or 8 growing on the vines.
Early girl tomatoes which are now twice as tall
Yellow squash which we like better than zucchini. For the two of us we only need two of each plant.
Grape tomatoes. Tons of tomatoes on these vines.
My first pickings.
During one of our monsoon rains, it hailed and damaged the garden. You could see bruises on the tomato vines and it tore holes in the leaves of the other plants.They all survived tho
That white stuff is hail.
I found this tiny horned toad in the yard. I let him go after taking his picture.
Wow, isn't this beautiful?
After being stuck at the ranch for a month, I was feeling like I needed to get out and see the world so I told Pa that I was having a girl's day out and was spending the day in Flagstaff. This was on the 14th of August. Just as I pulled out of the ranch, I glanced down and spotted a purse lying along the side of the road. I thought it might belong to the rancher's daughter since that is where they wait for the bus. It looked like a kids purse to me because it was small. My purse is like a saddle bag. I need room to stick my head in there to see where things are. I examined the contents of the purse and discovered that it belonged to an adult and they were in the process of moving because I found a receipt from Uhaul. I stopped in St Johns at the police station only to discover they didn't open till 8 a.m. Call me naive but I thought police stations were open 24 hours a day. Not in Saint Johns! There were no phone numbers in the purse except one for Uhaul. (There were lots of credit cards and $280.00 in cash. ) I called them but they weren't open either. I was in a quandry, wait two hours for something to open or go to Flagstaff and get on with my day. I opted for Flagstaff. Even tho I was by myself, I had such a great time hitting all the thirft stores and craft stores. By the time I was done with the craft stores, I was ready to come home but I still had to stop by Sam's Club. And Tuesday Morning. I had the energy of a snail by that time. As I was leaving Tuesday Morning, I called Uhaul again and told them I found the purse and could they call the owner and have her call me so we could make arraignments to get her purse back to her. I ended up driving from Flagstaff to Springerville and met the lady at McDonalds to give her the purse. Turns out they broke down and were staying at a cousins in Alpine before continuing on their journey. The day ended up being 7 hours of driving and 7 hours of shopping. When I finally dragged myself into the house, I told Pa I was only bringing in the food and the rest could wait till the next morning. I didn't spend much money but did find some crafty things at the thrift stores. I'll show you my big project when I get it glued together. I did feel a bit guilty not taking Pa with me but he is not a shopper and even tho he doesn't mean to, I always feel like I need to rush around because he is bored and not a happy camper waiting around for me. I was flabbergasted at the prices in Sam's Club. $35.00 for two Flank Steak! ! The watermelons were more expensive there than they were at Safeway. I was going to buy some mini bell peppers but they were almost $6.00 a bag. I ended up buying two bags at Basha's for $2.00 each. Am I so out of touch? I couldn't believe the prices. Guess it will be mostly Walmart and the sale things at Safeway and Basha's from now on. We've heard rumors that Costco is coming to Show Low. We sure hope so.
Pa fixed up this watering barrel for his cotton wood tree. I bought him the tree a couple years ago for Father's Day. When it gets big, it will shade his shop.
With all our rains, everything is so green and beautiful .I know, hard to tell here but the grass all over the ranch is tall and very green.
My Spiderworts are doing really great. I transplanted an Indian Paint brush last year and thought it had died but this year , it came up and is blooming!!! They are so pretty. You see them all along the road going to Show Low.
I made this to put in my kitchen. It's all out of cardstock.
One of our snakes was out the other day. It is about 5 feet long. It's not doing a very good job at keeping the pack rats down. Pa found a huge pack rat nest under the hood of my truck. It filled up a plastic grocery bag. He also found a cooked pack rat, serves the little sucker right! That's what happens when you don't go to town very often. Things take up residence where they can.
I made this card the other day....just because.
My dear friend, Katie came over last Thursday to play in my craft room. I love her so much! We had a great time catching up since we hadn't seen each other in a few months.
So far, I've made 8 jars of kosher dill pickles. This time I used Mrs. Wages Kosher dill pickle mix. I'm still throwing away the pickles I made a couple years ago. They taste like pure salt!!! I canned two pints of green beans today plus 4 jars of pickles. I bought a huge bag of baking soda to use as a cleaning agent. I found a couple of recipes for making my own fabric softener and laundry soap and a general purpose cleaner. I need a couple more things before I put it together.
Yesterday I went to the card making class in Joseph City. Katie teaches the class. On my way out of the ranch I saw 12 elk!!!!!! 6 cows and 6 yearlings. They were so pretty. I was wishing I had a rifle but it would be just my luck, I'd get caught hunting out of season.
Guess that catches us up for now. I'll take some picts of my mile high tomato plants and post them next time.
