SPINACH, ROASTED RED BELL PEPPER, MUSHROOM & IBERICO CHEESE OMELET

So, it was Sunday, and Sunday is a day that I take some time to do things for myself, my 'day off' if you will (not that there are any real days off for a photographer/farmer). I also like to think of it as a day I can eat a little bit differently.  More like a person that doesn't need to eat well, ya know what I mean?  Well, anywho… I don't like breakfast.  Breakfast is a difficult thing for me because it usually contains items that I can't/won't eat like bread type items - pancakes, bagels, muffins, french toast, biscuits, heavy with sugar-laden syrups and served with sides of fat filled, artery-clogging sausages.  Yes, every now and then they are good, I mean I treated myself to a bagel for Christmas morn', but for the most part I've never really liked breakfast.  I would ordered steak and eggs when we went out for breakfast as a child, just because I didn't like anything else to eat on the menu.

So Sunday comes now and I start thinking about eggs.  Now, everyone knows how well I eat on a regular basis and technically I do, but I recently had a check up form the Doc and found that my cholesterol was a tad bit on the high side.  I freaked out!  I mean, ME??  how could that be?  But then when I really thought about it, a lot of the foods I enjoy, although mostly good for you, some of the stuff I like too much is cholesterol ridden.  I.E. meat. I.E. cheese.  My two favorite things in the world.  There isn't a charcuterie plate in the world I haven't met and didn't like (ok, maybe the headcheese one - that's a little too much for me).  And cheese?  OMG!  CHEESE is the next coming of the lord to me!  I mean I bought a goat just so I could make cheese!  I find a cheese store and spend $100 just on cheese alone! Now, granted my cholesterol was a tad bit high but my good cholesterol was hitting the roof!  Way over the average number so I think that might balance it out.  I wish I could blame genes, but my parents passed away rather young and I don't know if they had cholesterol problems or not.

Soooooo, with the cholesterol monster screaming at me, I try to avoid eggs now.  Not that I ever really ate a lot of eggs, but I am more conscious of them.  So Sunday I decided to make an omelet, not just any omelet, but a:

SPINACH, ROASTED RED BELL PEPPER, MUSHROOM & IBERICO CHEESE OMELET

The cast of characters:

1/4 cup each chopped:  mushrooms, roasted red bell pepper, onion and spinach
4 eggs (I know the pic only has 3 - I had to add another egg later cuz I had too many veggies)
1/8 cup milk
S&P to taste (that's salt & pepper)
1/2 cup Iberico cheese

Chop veggies. Make 'em look all purty.

Add a little oil to the pan and cook the veggies (all but the spinach) until onions are tender - about 5 minutes.

Add the spinach and cook until wilted - about 1-2 minutes.  Wilted spinach…sounds sad.

Whisk together the eggs and milk.

Pour egg mixture into the pan.

Using a spoon or spatula, pull the cooked sides from the pan and allow the uncooked egg mixture to bleed into the area.  (this takes some getting use to, tipping the pan helps).  And it isn't easy to do with a camera in one hand and a spoon in the other.  Gonna have to figure this out.  May have to get out the ol' tripod.

Add the cheese.

Tempt the pig with the cheese rind.

Flip half of the omelet over the cheese.




Turn off the heat and let the cheeses melt.

Enjoy!  and don't forget to add the artery-clogging sausages on the side.











SPINACH, ROASTED RED BELL PEPPER, MUSHROOM & IBERICO CHEESE OMELET

1/4 cup each chopped:  mushrooms, roasted red bell pepper, onion and spinach

4 eggs (I know the pic only has 3 - I had to add another egg later cuz I had too many veggies)

1/8 cup milk

S&P to taste (that's salt & pepper)

1/2 cup Iberico cheese

1. Chop veggies.

2. Add a little oil to the pan and cook the veggies (all but the spinach) until onions are tender - about 5 minutes.

3. Add the spinach and cook until wilted - about 1-2 minutes

4. Whisk together the eggs and milk.

5. Pour egg mixture into the pan.

6. Using a spoon or spatula, pull the cooked sides from the pan and allow the uncooked egg mixture to bleed into the area.  (this takes some getting use to, tipping the pan helps).

7. Add the cheese.

8. Flip half of the omelet over the cheese.

9. Turn off the heat and let the cheeses melt.

IT'S A SAD DAY

Yes, the time has come.  Ezzy is slowing down in her milk production and I feel it is time to stop milking her and dry her off.  So sad!  I'm not sure I will breed again, as I am a really bad farmer and refuse to get rid of any of my kids so I do have too many. My goat milk customer is not gonna be happy! And I think for now, the break will be nice.  Not having to milk twice a day will afford us some time away from the farm too.  Most helpers don't mind the tossing of hay out for the animals, but the milking thing gets them a little freaked out sometimes.  I don't know why, it's just a little teat.

I will miss my goat milk, but I was smart this time and planned ahead, knowing the inevitable.  I froze a whole bunch!  This way when I get a craving for some chevre - I'll just whip out a bag of frozen and make it!

Sometimes my mind works….sometimes it don't.

This here is Ezzy when we first got her:

 

This here is Ezzy when we had her horns removed, (I'm sure the vet thought we were nuts, but we wanted to show her at the fair and you can't show a goat with horns and besides he probably knew better: you don't mess with a 4H mom!).  She had to wear this babooshka looking bandage for a week. And read the paper on the latest events in town (she's a socialite, what can I say?)

This here is Ezzy when we took her with us in the parade with the horses:

This here is Ezzy lounging with me in the hammock, I love my goat!

This here is Ezzy and me after she gave birth to her first set of kids:

And here is Ezzy and me after her second set of kids:

This is Maddie with Hermes and Athena

and this here is Percy enjoying milk - straight from the teat.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE SANBORN SANCTUARY!

New ideas and a new weekly flow chart this coming year will get me back on track on this blog.  I have many new ideas and things in the works with my photography and just not enough time to do it right now, so things will be changing - again!

But in the meantime....  enjoy this cute little video, guaranteed to make you smile!

APHRODITE ? - 12/21/11

"The other day this goat showed up in our horse pasture. Not sure what we are gonna do with it, my dad thinks we should find it a home.  Can't catch her though."  "Really?" I said,  "I'll take her!"

Of course I said that.  I'll take any unwanted animal or stray.  She was very difficult to catch but eventually we cornered her and got her by the horns. She was a beautiful Boer goat.  How she came to be no one knows, she just appeared in that friend's horse pasture that day, just like Aphrodite, the Greek goddess that rises from the sea foam. And as she enchanted anyone who saw her, just like Aphrodite, we named her such.  It was befitting of such a lovely young goat.  My dream is that she escaped from the meat truck on the way to the butcher.  I could see the other goats yelling yelling from the back of the truck, "Go, go!  You did it!  Be free!!!"

 She was a perky, spunky little goat and was very difficult to catch.  We finally did and brought her home.  this was over five years ago.  It took her a little while to become accustomed to the love around here.  Within a few months she became our friendliest goat and to the day, she would be the first one to greet you when you entered the goat pasture.  She loved to have her head scratched, right between her horns, because obviously, she couldn't do it herself.

The other day as I was out to do chores, I realized that the few days before when she had difficulty getting up, that things were for the worse now.  She couldn't stand at all.  She must've suffered a back injury as she was totally paralyzed down the back.  She couldn't get up and if I touched her she would wince in pain.  And I couldn't even scratch her between her horns, she would toss my hand away.

I called my friend and asked her to come over and put her down.  I am really not a true farmer as this is something I cannot possibly do, I can't kill an animal.  I've had times when you have to do what you have to do, but I can't shoot an animal, and I can't watch an animal suffer.  So I called in the one person I know that could do it, a hunter.  She came and we dug a hole over by where we buried my horse Annie a few years ago.  We put her in the back of the tractor trailer and I held onto her the whole way over to her final resting place, petting her and letting her know how much she was loved.

We placed her in the hole and I walked away, not being able to watch such a thing.  I tried not to think about it, but the tears came.  I don't care what anyone thinks, I love all my animals as if they are my own children.  It's never easy to see them go.

Life on the farm is never easy, but this is the worst part by far.

Rest in Peace, Aphrodite.  You will truly be missed.

APPLE ALERT!

Yes, these are apples.  And yes this is the year for apples. I say this year because apple trees produce ALOT every other year, and it's the every other year, year. We have four apple trees and each year i say to myself, "I must get out there and get all those apples and make apple sauce and apple chutney and apple butter and apple pies and..."  but what do ya know? by the time the apples are ready i am SO done with canning tomatoes that i have no energy or gumption to even think of picking apples and making something out of them.  So again i get that "Blah!"  look on  my face and ignore the apples.  But i do give as many as i can to the horses, and the goats, and the deer don't have a problem coming around and eating them at night when were not looking. Deer are sneaky like that.

If anyone is interested in apple pickin' this year, call me!  I will be happy to share.

This is Ellisium, she is a happy goat.

JUNE 12TH - ANOTHER SMALL CONCERT IN THE BARN BAR: GOING AWAY PARTY FOR SCOTT HOAG

Our friends Dianna and Kevin asked if they could use the Barn Bar for their friend Scott Hoag's going away party and final concert, and of course we said yes! He is moving to Denmark, poor guy. It was a fun night with lots of musicians joining in and sharing their talents.  We had a LOT of food and a lot of fun.  Especially watching the kids running around playing with the goats and petting the horses.  A friend that came out said she had to drag her son out here, he's 10, and "Now look at him! I don't think i will be able to get him to leave!"  I love that!  That's what this place is about: living, loving, animals and fun.

GOAT MILKING 101

Always have a cat present at milking.

My goats - are awesome!  and funny at the same time.  Ezzy has been a consistent milker ever since we got her.  I milked her through and she gave me copious amounts of milk for 4 years straight!  This is her second breeding and i am hoping she will last another four years.

So I thought i was really clever for this one:  since i clean the teats by wiping them off with a baby wipe, I have to keep these particular items handy.  Well, in -20 degree weather of the beautiful winter of Minny-sota, when cannot possible keep them from freezing without a little creativity.  That's where that old heated doggie bowl comes in handy, ya know the one i had to have because i thought the dogs might need it someday.  But honestly, NEVER, NEVER throw anything out when you have a farm, because at some point you will find a use for it.  So here it is, and it keeps the wipes at the perfect temperature not to freeze and warm enough so the goats don't kick you in the head when you rub an ice cold cloth over their personal area.

Another handy thing to have is tape, medical tape.  I wrap it on the teat when it is time to wean the babies off their mama.  They then, of course, cannot drink from the teat, and they subsequently will stop nursing.  This normally would be an effective way and has in the past, however, this year Ezzy gave birth to two very intelligent, resourceful kids that have figured out that if you pull with just the right amount of force and in the right direction, the tape will be removed and you can drink heartily.  So these little buggers have been doing this lately, which is ticking me off since i am down to one milking doe right now after letting Demeter off the hook a few weeks ago, not even to mention the fact that they are 9 months old now and shouldn't be wanting to drink any milk or the fact that their mother shouldn't be even wanting them near her to do so!  Does will usually kick their offspring away at some point when they try to nurse.  I guess Ezzy is still feeling very motherly.

They are also stealing about a quart of milk a day from me, thieves!

So Ezzy is and probably always be my best milker. I share this image of Ezzy being milked so you can compare it to Demeter:

Now look at Demeter, oh Demi as we call her sometimes. This made me crack up even every time I milked her.  She squats down over the bucket!  I've never had a goat do this!  Its hilarious!  Why?  Who knows but i had to take a picture of it.

No directions on how to milk a goat, that has to be done in person.  many people have come here and experienced such a thing. As i think all people should.  Like I think all people should have pets and goats, and horses.  It would be a better world if they did.

SO this is milking from my barn.

IT WAS A TOTAL OF 46!

Yes, it was time to clean the goat stall.  I take full advantage of the winter and allow the goat stall to fill for three months, this allows the heat from the pile of hay, bedding and goat dung to become a furnace for the goats.  The only disadvantage to such things is at some point you have to clean it out.  Well, actually relocate is the way to describe it.  I relocate the piles of hay, bedding and goat dung - let's call it crap from this point forward - to the outside of the barn where the horses can turn this beautiful stuff into the best darn black dirt that you've ever seen!  You see because horses are naturally heavy creatures they sink into the dirt and crap and compost it all into some wonderful dirt.  Each spring at this time, i empty the goat stall, put it in the dry lot, allow the spring thaw to make it muddy, the horses trample the dirt and crap and when it dries out - we get out the skid loader and relocate this bounty to the other pile - the dirt pile.  Where it lies until i haul it over to the garden for filling up the raised beds.  See? it all makes perfect sense and all the animals work together to make life simpler.

So before we left for vacation I put on my muck boots, traipsed out to the goat barn and began the cleaning.
The Goats always get a little curious as to why i show up in the middle of the day in the winter:

I started out thinking that after 12 wheel barrow loads full, that it would be about 30 maybe to totally clean it out.





















But barrel load...

after barrow load...

and my back now really tired, i quit at 24 and waited til the next day to begin again.




















It didn't even look like i made a dent in it.

So maybe my calculations were off.  We will wait until the next day to find out the total. Right now the dry lot is getting full.

Edy came out to help and so did Woody

Isn't she just so cute!

And so did Aphrodite (Aphie).

Always wanting to step on the shovel.  Gosh i remember when we first got her you couldn't even get close to her she was so afraid of people, but not anymore! She loves everyone.  See what a good farm life can do to a person... i mean an animal.

Noon was there too, of course!

Then i started seeing the light of day!

No not the light from the door, but the end of the crap!















and i was at a total of about 35 wheel barrows full at this point. But i made many more trips to the dry lot with more crap.
When I finally got done with the wheel barrow hauling, i sprinkled the floor with barn lime,

Added some bedding,

Aphie again being a good helper!

 Admired the beautiful job i did:

And then went out to tell the goats their stall was ready.

They love the sun!

All, in total:  46, count 'em, 46 wheel barrows full of crap!  Who needs a gym when you have this work to do?

Now get to work ponies and turn this into compost!