BASSET EVIL

The other day I was enjoying my leftover spareribs (recipe not posted yet) when the dogs had surrounded me in the usual beggin' position. Now, mind you.  In spite of their powerful pleading,  that is the basset specialty, I knew that I would not and could not give them the tasty, succulent treat they desired, spare rib bones are not safe to give dogs.  However in the basset world the mere idea of a bone, the concept of a bone, the Aristotelian  model of a bone can lead to madness and chaos, the fogging of the basset brain.  Louie's eyes glazed over, with spare rib bone lust, the drool slowly hung from her jowl in a long stream of glistening siliva. Before I knew it - she snapped!  Literally and figuratively.  A tussle broke out and the fur was flying.  Heroically, Bob ran from the other room and grabbed the rump of Louie and I had the back end of Percy and we pulled them apart.  We knew little of the extent of the damages until later in the evening, at bedtime, when the dogs joined us as we snuggled under the covers, that the true damage was exposed.  Percy was perforated in the face!

Evil, Louie, bad Louie.  Poor Percy!  How can just the notion of food turn an otherwise pleasant and passive, stinky smelling hound into a crazed, blood thirsty, psychopathic killer?

No worries, Percy is healing well and is on the road to recovery.  I spent several times cleaning it with peroxide and putting iodine on it.  She's looking better every today.

Louie says she's innocent.  She can't take blame for when food takes over her psyche.

LOST IN SPACE

Had to send in my Mac for repairs this weekend and now I really feel lost; no computer, no pictures, no way I can get stuff done.  Like the 365 project I am working on or the Dark Days Challenge or this blug.  How is one to keep up?  Use the gash darn PC and Picasa???? No!  I will just have to wait until the fixed Mac comes back. WWWWAAAAHHHHHH!

So here's an old one for good times sake. It's of Madison (age 9). Percy and Louie on our first Halloween here.  I scanned it from (gulp!) a print from film!  Yikes!  How old school. : )

Gosh!  Look at those ugly kitchen colors we had!

#5, #6… OR WAS THERE MORE?

I really did loose track.  And if i go back a few months what appears to be #5 and #6 are really #1 and #2 and set off this whole tumultuous cycle of tragic events, but they don't need numbers, let's just all recognize that they sucked, big time.

Prior to the fall out with the well pump, I went out to the garage one day to find that our chest freezer was dead.  Crap!  there wasn't too much in it but enough to make me think , "PARTY!"  So we could share all the food.  No there wasn't that much; some old bread, a few chunks of meat and some ice cream.  And it appeared it hadn't been out too long as things were still cold, just defrosted.

Oh, wait!  i think a few weeks before that the fridge in the garage went out too, but we just put the old dorm-size fridge out there and all was well.  Usually all we use it for is eggs.

But when i checked on that fridge after noticing the freezer was dead, it was dead too.  Ok, so things are not going well.  i plugged them into other outlets thinking that maybe the power-strip had died, but that wasn't the case.

So no fridge or freezer, and when you have a farm and lots of harvested crops - you need these things.  Need is the operative word here, not want but NEED.

So i salvaged what I could and moved it into the Barn Bar's fridge, which makes for less room for beer and really disappoints those who drink such swill.

THENNNNNN…… when they were diggin' up all the ground to put the new water line in, the fridge in the guest house died.  Yes, we were now down to just two fridges and one freezer.  Not good.

So really, did it start with the chest freezer weeks ago?  Does it really happen in 3's and how long does the actual time line of events count? Is it three times in a month?  Three times in a year?  Or is it, in our case, one after the other?  Or do you only count three at a time?  These are very important factors that have to be figured out in order to determine our own fate in this world.  I need to know, I don't want to know, I NEED to know.

And with all this death, decay and turmoil, it leads us to the ultimate pressing question of the day:  DOES IT MEAN THAT SUPER NATURAL FORCES ARE AGAINST US?

I don't know, ask Louie.

IT ALL HAPPENS IN 3'S, JUST NOT ON THIS FARM

So this is what I mean….

See the end of last month we had the whole disaster with the new water pump blowing up the old water line, right?  well, they came out two days later to dig up a trench to run the new line in.  It rained the day before and the 'locators' were suppose to come out and check for gas lines and anything else under the ground before someone is to dig, it's the law.  But no one showed up to mark the lawn with the big, fat, orange, spray paint X.


So the following day, they showed up with their big, fat, noisy back hoe and started diggin'.

Louie was very upset and started her, "we're all gonna die!" routine.  This is not something one should ignore when a basset states such things, you should be warned and act accordingly, like her, go hide in the bathroom or under the bed.

And pant endlessly, while whining incessantly.  It's the only thing that works, the only thing that will save your life.




And then there was the question about how they were gonna go ahead and start digging without the X marking the spot, they said, "Oh well, we'll dig anyway."  Now, in my lesser knowledge of such things and lack of comprehension of construction matters, I still thought this was not a good idea.  But Bob was desperate for the water to be hooked back up properly and that we no longer had to have a hose running into our house for water. And what do I really know anyway?

So they dug...

and they dug….

and they dug….

and they dug….

and they dug….





















and they hit a gas line!

Yes, a gas line, not the gas line to the main house but to the guest house.

With my limited knowledge again, I am thinking well, this is not cool.  But at least they did it, didn't get permission to dig, so they will be responsible for getting it fixed, right?  Wrong, according to the water line diggers.  "They would have never found that secondary line.  Things like this happen all the time.  You are responsible for fixing it."  Really?

So Bob calls the company that did the work and they would have nothing to do with it, unless we dug a whole new line to the guest house and pay an additional $2k.  Yeah, right.

Now, not only are we playing this game of repairing the water pump, repairing the water line and now we have to repair the gas line.  I don't like games like this, or any games for that matter, Ok, except maybe some board games like Scrabble or Monopoly.

Luckily we have great friends and they helped us out getting it  fixed and working properly for WAY less then $2k.

Now look at this:

Now my yard is a complete mess. We are even more broke and no one is responsible.  Not even the insurance company will help. Louie thinks we are all gonna die and Bob's coming close to loosing his mind, and me too - watching him almost loosing his mind.
But at least it's all over we have experienced the 3's, there will be no more!


But then…. came #4…….

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF.....ME!

Lotsa milk means lots of cheese and other dairy products.  So here we go - this is my morning:

decided to make more butter

also decided to make mozzarella!








So i heated the milk up, added the starter and rennet, let it set and then cut the curds into 1" cubes.

decided it was taking too long to set the butter, so i thought i would try a different method: the blender!

But i didn't like the way it was coming along, didn't look right.

so i put it back into the jar and started shakin' again.

back to the mozzarella:

heated the curds back up slowly to 108 degrees by putting it in a pan of hot water.

while that is heating, back to the butter:
That looks better!

 

Rinse the butter,












then add sea salt and blend:

Then i got hungry:

Avocado - my fav lately!










then its back to the butter:

YAY!








then its back to the motz!

Heat the curds in the microwave, stretch them with a spoon;











form into a ball:

place in a bowl of cold water,

Notice that you have this really cute dog and you must take an image of her again:

Then take advantage of the whey and make ricotta cheese.  Heating up the whey until its 185 degrees then pour a quart of milk in.  When it heats up this high, the pan makes these large , bubbles that explode and sound like a "kerplunk!"  Scares Louie:

Poor Louie.






When the whey and milk start to farm little specks: its ready!

Pour into cheesecloth lines strainer, tie it up and hang for a couple hours to drain.  Instant ricotta!

now with all this mozzarella and ricotta - what should i make??????

WHEN THE FRIDGE IS LOW - CREATIVITY ABOUNDS!

I find that when the fridge is low, i get more creative with my food making, after all food is art! Plus i still need practice in the art of one hand cooking (one hand on camera - which would be easier if the camera's shutter button was on the left hand side - i never really thought about that before - how do lefties feel about that?).

First - dig in the fridge, look around, find some things and pull them out:

Think casserole or in MN - hot dish.  Crumble home made whole wheat bread into a bowl.

Add some seasoning of choice

Take an egg and add a little milk and whisk together:

Then slice eggplant






Rant: "who ever was the jerk that created those little stickers they put on produce now should be shot!"

place eggplant slices in milk/egg mixture, then into breadcrumbs

Fry in a pan with some E.V.O.O. (extra virgin olive oil)

Tempt the hound with the butt end of the eggplant

take the fried eggplant and place in a baking dish

slice some fresh mozzarella you made from your fresh goat's milk and put on top of each slice

pour some leftover pasta sauce on top

bake in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes.

Take some broccoli and chop it up

tempt basset with stem peelings
(notice hound has not left her spot)















Place broccoli in steamer

tempt fire roasted pig with stem peelings

Next take some scallops

and a little butter, garlic and some chopped bacon, 

fry it up in a pan....and never ever let you forget your a maaaaannnnn, cuz i'm a woman, Ajolie! (ok, if you don't remember that commercial you won't notice that i spelled Ajolie wrong either)

Transfer scallops to a dish

take a half cup of balsamic vinegar and pour into pan

bring to a boil while looking at how cool the reflection of the clock looks in the balsamic vinegar

Stir constantly, then reduce balsamic until it becomes thick

add a tablespoon of butter to balsamic reduction

(look at that action shot!)

Return scallops to pan and heat

Enjoy a scrumptious, nutritious meal all prepared from a refrigerator filled with leftovers!  Tadah!