Friday December 17, 2010
I must give credit where credit is due. And, today my sister, Jennifer Murko Gower gets all the credit. Jen is the consummate concoctor and she has truly developed some of the best recipes/guides for certain dishes that I often cook. Several years ago she made a pork stew out of a leftover pork roast. I asked her for the recipe and what she gave me were some basic instructions such as: "I used cumin to taste, lots of pepper, cannellini beans, onions, garlic, carrots - whatever -WHITE WINE, of course - chicken stock and finish it off with some spinach."
And I have concocted this recipe with those instructions. But I have taken it one step further - I wrote down exactly how I did it and the amounts. So, here it is but PLEASE feel free to substitute and play - it's where all the creative fun happens!!
Thursday December 16, 2010
Of course the snow and the cold just couldn't hold off until the sheep were
settled for the winter, so I've been bundling up and just trudging ahead
with everything that needs to be done. The water freezes in the barn
nightly, so I added a heat tape. This doesn't mean the pipe doesn't freeze
anymore, it just takes a few minutes for the heat tape to work and the water
to run. I have the water pipe heavily insulated as well. Once the sheep are
in the barn, there will be enough body heat to keep the pipe from freezing.
I have to turn off the power to the barn at night when I leave for safety,
but when the lambs come, if we need it, the power can be on. Considering the
hayloft is above where the sheep live, it is a good idea not to tempt the
fates with a potential barn fire.
I'm closer to being completely ready for the pregnant ewes to move into the
barn. I've built some pens and filled in the gutters so the sheep don't fall
and trip. The girls have finished their hay aftermath grazing and they are
ready to move in. Tomorrow I will finish setting things up and bring inside
the ewes that will lamb in February/March. The "open" ewes, the ones who
aren't pregnant are out in the pasture with llamas, horse and donkey. We'll
add Happy the ram to the ewe flock this weekend and leave him in to breed
for 20 days.
Speaking of breeding, Nancy the Ultrasound lady was here Monday and we
scanned all 123 ewes to check for pregnancy and to see how many lambs they
were carrying. My Mom did the recordkeeping, Harvey spray painted the
shoulders of the pregnant ewes so we could tell them apart from the non
pregnant ewes, Kevin ran the gate letting sheep in and out, Nancy scanned
and I caught sheep. Boy did I sleep well that night! It took us about 3 1/2
hours to scan everyone. Ultrasound scanning isn't an exact science, but the
numbers we came up with are pretty good all the same. 68 ewes are bred. Of
those 36 are carrying singles and 32 are carrying twins. So about 100 lambs
total. These lambs will be born February through March 2011.
The next group of ewes (that will begin breeding this weekend) will lamb
sometime in May. Whoever doesn't get bred out of that group will be kept
with the ram and will form our fourth breeding group to lamb in July.
Wednesday December 15, 2010
Elizabeth Bard is an American journalist who happened to fall in love with a frenchman and his cuisine. In her memoir, Lunch in Paris, A Love Story with Recipes, Elizabeth shares her love and culinary journey by interspersing recipes among and as her memories. What more can I ask for - another posterchild for Heirloom Meals. She is the essence of my tagline: Savoring Yesterday's Traditions Today where she holds onto a key link to her past with her Mom's, Dad's, grandmother's, and Aunt's recipes with a nod to the future as she becomes immersed in french cooking and culture. And in particular through her french husband's concotions and his family's recipes. An absolute treasure of a book and fantastic interview!! Thank you Elizabeth.
Wednesday December 15, 2010
Author of One Big Table will be dishing out some stories on 12/29 from 1-2 pm EST. Not to be missed!!
Tuesday December 14, 2010
The winter landscape often offers that perfect hint of color for your flower arrangements. Here, I added winterberry and inkberry to a store-bought bouquet. Just looking at it makes me happy!
Monday December 13, 2010
Life speeds by. I am guilty of moving from one important task/client/responsibility to another. While I am thankful, I rarely get to savor anymore. But my mind savors and my thoughts wander and create the "Nice Things To Do List." On that list, I want to thank Rick Iemolini for recommending my interior decorating services to Nancy Fernandez Mills last winter. In the serendipity category, it turns out that Nancy is a TV producer, had produced a show on PBS, and is now interested in health counseling, nutrition and food. And she writes the blog content for Liberty Medical which offers products for people with diabetes. And the next thing you know, Nancy asks me if I'd be interested in developing some recipes and shooting some videos for Liberty Medical.
How cool is that!! We've shot 16 videos. But the topic of diabetes and its epidemic proportions is not lost on me. My grandmother had diabetes. My dear friend John Kaiser had diabetes, my new friend, Alex Elman had diabetes (she had a pancreas and kidney transplant it was so severe), and countless others are suffering. And through Nancy, I have developed recipes that are diabetes-friendly. WOW!
Here's a photo of Nancy and Me from the video shoot last week. A big thank you to you Nancy. xxoo
