WHAT IS A PROCESSED CHEESE FOOD PRODUCT? AND WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO EAT IT?

Just a question I put out there on Facebook and this is some of the answers I got:

• Tracy van Eijl I know it is NOT cheese.

  53 minutes ago ·  ·  1
• 

  Lindsey Danger Hobbs it is a synthetic product that has the main qualities of cheese : mouthfeel, meltableness, spreadableness, taste with an increased shelf life. depending on how you view food, this can be a good or a bad thing. :-/

  45 minutes ago ·  ·  1
• 

  Taylor Huston A waste of time and brain space. Just say no

  42 minutes ago ·  ·  1
• 

  Dawn Sanborn My cat Cheeto - is named after a processed cheese food product!

  38 minutes ago · 
• 

  Becca Stiles-Nogosek What's cheeto made of?

  11 minutes ago · 

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Now this is what more people should be concerned about!  What really is their food made out of?  Why can't you just buy FOOD?  Food is grown not made. 

  
  

  
  

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE

more info here

I've been kinda ignoring my Dark Days Challenge with being gone so much and all this work coming my way, I decided last Thursday night would be the challenge for me, but the problem was: I was running low on items and because I missed the last market due to my birthday celebration and the "day after the night before syndrome" caused by one thing: sake bombs! (I don't want to talk about it!) I failed to get up and get some more items from market to sustain us through these dark days of winter. So needless to say, there wasn't much in the freezer/cupboard to choose from.

I dug through the freezer anyway looking for some type of local meat, and ransacked the pantry to find what ever I had left for veggies.  Luckily I did find some leeks in the bottom of the crisper drawer that I had picked up a long time ago that were still good (see? you buy locally and the food doesn't go bad in two weeks - I think I bought these back in December!)

I also had some beets I found buried under some potatoes in the basket and found some pork chops in the bottom of the chest freezer in the garage.  I decided to fire up the grill (nice weather this winter) and get them cookin'.

Not only do pork chops taste better in the winter when you grill them, but they look good too!

GRILLED PORK CHOPS WITH 

SAUTEED LEEKS AND BEETS SEASONED WITH ROSEMARY

 Nummy, nummy, nummy! (and all grown within 20 miles of my house!) 

THESE CHICKS ARE HOT! *update*

Time lapse of nearly 2 months and how fast a chicken grows!

Dec 15, 2011

Dec 15, 2011

Jan 15, 2012

Feb 8, 2011

Yes, they grow REALLY fast! Now my trouble is - when to put them out side with the other chickens?  

They don't have quite enough feathers on them just yet, and they are not making too much of a mess down there in the basement of the granary.  I am planning on turning off the heat lamp soon - soon after this 10 degree cold front moves on!  It's been such an amazing mild winter with temps sometimes reaching the 40's - 50's that I could've moved them out doors a while ago, but they were just too small.

As much as I love this winter - I am afraid we will be paying for it this summer in hay prices and dryness, low water tables and so on.  Maybe we'll get a huge downfall of rain in the spring to make up for the lack of precipitation this winter.  I'm ok with that. I like not having to dress up like an eskimo to do chores.

But for now, my new baby chicks will have to stay warm under their heat lamp.  Next week it's supposed to get back up into the 30's, plus of course they will have more feathers by then too. 

: )

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE

More info here.

Work has been plentiful this month and I am really enjoying it! So needless to say, bloggin' gets put on the back burner.  Honestly - I think I could post 4 times a day with all the things that happen here, but I'm lazy sometimes. Ha!

So here's the Dark Days challenge I missed a couple weeks ago.  Since I was gone to Illinois that week and the challenge of the month was Valentines Day Treats (and if any one knows me - I shy away from cookies, cakes, pies, etc as much as possible - my thighs jiggle enough)  - I passed on that challenge.

We had a couple of good friends over for dinner that night, Kari & Ryan, and in exchange for me taking an image for my Ryan's next play poster, he made me dinner! Ryan is a very talented writer and actor and I am always willing to help out a friend, and yes, ya know I am a sucker for food, you can pay me in food anytime!

This is what we produced out in the studio!
 of course with some help from a great graphic artist.

We made a fine dinner of grilled local pork chops, with a sweet potato mash made by Kari with local carrots and raisins, and served with a colorful salad of spinach, local tomatoes and cucumbers.  Nummy, nummy!

The pork chops were from Hidden Stream Farms - Elgin, MN.

Sweet potato mash made from local sweet potatoes from Whitewater Gardens and included local apples from Seekap Orchards, Rochester.

Spinach salad with cucumbers and tomatoes from Whitewater Gardens as well.

We had a fine Chilian Carmenere, although not locally made - locally bought and from an organic winery.  Does that count?

We were having a good time with locally grown, excellent food and fun, wonderful friends, what more could anyone ask for?

She loves him, really she does!

GET YOURS NOW! KITTY IN A BOX FOR ONLY $19.95!

All my cats are crazy, have very different personalities and they are are very entertaining. At least they think they are.  And this is what makes me wonder about cats:  what is this obsession with containment? Why would one want to be contained?  I personally think that that is a character flaw in humans.  But for cats, I guess not because….

This is what happens when I leave a box laying around the house:

Cheeto

Oaky Dokey

Theodore Thing

Tiki

Noon

This is what happens when the cat shakes her head:

and this is what happens when I don't have a box laying around:

Containment or just plain sneaky?  You see one can hide easier when contained and not be detected when it's time to pounce!




Except for maybe in the sink.

MAKIN' APPLE JUICE

Every year, since we moved here 8 1/2 years ago - I dreamed of doing something with all those apples we get every year from our four apple trees.  Well, of course, when apples are ready in August/September, I am knee deep into everything else in life and don't have time to do something with all those apples.  So this year I took several 5 gallon buckets and collected some apples, placed them in the basement of the granary and hoped the temperature out there would keep them for a few months so I could try something new with them during the cold, harsh, boring winter months..  I searched and searched for a juicer that didn't cost $400 and finally found one - this December.

 It was perfectly priced at under $30 and I snatched it up!  So the other week I took out the juicer, went out to the granary and took one of the 5 gallon buckets and decided to make some juice!  Yay!
Well here's the thing - when apples sit in a temp higher then 45 degrees - they go bad.  Well, not totally bad but softer and some go really bad (brown).

So I got about 12 apples that were actually somewhat good, at least usable, out of that full 5 gallon bucket.  And what I found out about that juicer is that apples should be really fresh.  Because these apples, although still in good shape, were a little soft and this caused a very thick juice, too thick.

not draining

 And I also found out that, although it was thick - it was incredible!  Sweet, incredibly tasty and nothing like you buy at the store (no surprise there). I tried to strain the juice with the milk strainer, that didn't work so I took some cheese cloth that I use for making cheese and let gravity take over.

 Ya know how you see jugs of juice at the store and the label states: not 100 percent juice or made from concentrate or (what is the worse) contains no fruit juice.  HELLO??!?!? How can you actually label it JUICE if it doesn't contain JUICE!

But I digress - my goal to make apple juice is to create (yes - create - (my curse)) hard cider.  I still have to go get the yeast to make hard cider but I wanted to get the juicer working and understand it's potential.  12 apples actually made about 3 cups of juice.

 Wow!  But I figure that if they were fresher, they might produce more, I will find out next year - when I get out there, collect the apples at the perfect harvest time and get out the juicer!  This winter I am gonna go out and get the yeast and try to make the hard cider with what I have left of the apples in the granary.  Ahhh… the life of a farmer… always trying to make the most of what the farm produces….

WHETHER OR NOT TO WEATHER THE WEATHER

This has been the most fabulous winter ever here in MN and rightfully so when you get days like this in January!

Remember last year at this time when it was like this out side:

and in order to be able to functionally do chores outside, I had to dress like this:

and this last week I got to do this instead:

and the ducks got to do this:

and the sun was shining like this:

But alas… it was never meant to last and now I have to dress like this:

and the snow is coming down like this:

and within a few weeks from now, I'll be dying for it to be like this:

So I can get back to doing things like this:

and this:

Which produce things like this:

and this:

and I can go to places like this:

and watch smelly, bassets run like this:

and grow pretty flowers like this:

but for now…. I will be living like this:

the end.