The sights and sounds of the country

One of the best things about living out in the country is being able to see so many stars at night and pick out constellations.   My personal favorite is Orion because whenever it is in the sky, I can always find it.  That is thanks to an astronomy class in college taught by the famous scientist, James Van Allen (any astronomy geeks reading this will know who he is) and many trips to the planetarium as child.  

Another favorite is all the animals I get to see.  We have rabbits and a fox.  I have seen an armadillo and a skunk (my almost least favorite), frogs, toads and snakes (my absolute least favorite!!) cardinals, wrens and black tufted titmice and lots of deer.  My favorite however is our Roadrunners.  At first we only had 2 Acme and Wilcox and then one day we discovered they had a nest.  Did you know that roadrunners mate for life?  Also did you know that Roadrunners eat scorpions, snakes and other small creatures that I'm not crazy about like grasshoppers and crickets?  Anyway about a month after we found that they had a nest we saw 3 little roadrunners.  Of course I had to name them.  Now we can tell Acme and Wilcox apart because of their size but I can't tell the babies apart so never really sure which one I am seeing.  No matter I still named them and their names are Zippy, Speedy and Flash.  The other day Jay got some amazing shots of two of them.  I love to sit out on the porch to watch and listen to them all.

Using that Incredible Kitchen

I've been having a great time using my Kitchen.  I love the oven and stove, but the warming oven has been the greatest invention ever.  When we are having people over for dinner or breakfast I don't have to try and co-ordinate so that everything is done at the exact same time.  I just finish a dish and place it in the warming oven, then when it's all ready- Voila everything is hot and delicious! The other very cool thing about the warming oven is that we can use it when we make BBQ.  Jay has a great smoker and he makes some of the best ribs, brisket, pulled pork and chicken.  BUT to get that slow and steady heat and flavor he has to be out at the smoker most all day tending the fire.  We have discovered that if he smokes the meat for 2 hours (brisket a bit longer) and then we bring it in and wrap it tight in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil and put it in the warmer for 2-6 more hours (depending on the meat we are cooking pork takes the longest) it comes out perfect and we can go about our business while the oven does it's thing.

 

Now that's a serious smoker

My next two favorite items in my kitchen are my pot filler over the stove and my flat top grill.  Since I love to make jelly, soup and pasta I boil a lot of water.  Carrying the heavy pot to the stove is now a thing of the past.  Put the pot on the burner, slide over the filler and filler up!  When I need a little more water for the soup or whatever- slide the faucet over and done!!  The flat top is great for pancakes, toasting tortillas, grilling buns for burgers (which by the way, the next thing I am going to make is a grilled burger) and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Jelly season is upon us and I have added a new Texas treat.  Wild Mustang Grape Jelly- It is really good.  Our neighbor, Darvin took us to a couple of places where we could pick all the grapes we wanted.  I got enough grapes for 4 batches of Jelly.  So far the reviews have been great!  Almost time to harvest the Mesquite beans!

Still working on the label- any comments welcome!