So it’s winter. Snow, bitter cold, yada yada yada. But little boys seem to be pretty good at making lemonade out of lemons…
tunnels out of snow drifts…
fortress walls out of snow blocks…
camouflage out of Christmas tree branches…
1 year ago:
“There’s a point where you can give up on winter–when temptation can enter your soul, prying its way in like cold air through the cracks in your cabin–around January sixteenth or so, and this can make you realize that February’s coming, and beyond February, March.
See, I don’t yet realize that March will be the hardest month. Early February’s the coldest, and often the snowiest, but March, strange, silent March, will be the hardest.
The danger in yielding to thoughts of spring–green grass, hikes, bare feet, lakes, fly-fishing, rivers, and sun, hot sun–is that once these thoughts enter your mind, you cant get them out.
Love the winter. Don’t betray it. Be loyal.
When the spring gets here, love it too–and then the summer.
But be loyal to the winter, all the way through–all the way, and with sincerity–or you’ll find yourself high and dry, longing for a spring that’s a long way off, and winter will have abandoned you, and in her place you’ll have cabin fever, the worst.
The colder it gets, the more you’ve got to love it.”
Rick Bass, “Winter – Notes from Montana”
1 year ago:
Yummm, pork chops!
The January order cycle has opened for the Iowa Food Coop! You can place orders until 11 p.m. January 16th, and delivery will be on Thursday January 21st.
Our most popular offerings at the Coop seem to be our Stock Pot Bundle and our chickens. I’d also recommend our Roaster Bundle – it’s similar to the Stock Pot Bundle but includes pork & chicken in addition to beef! We have these bundles plus several others available locally as well. Contact us for pricing and availability.
We’ve also set our dates for this month’s deliveries to Charles City and Mason City – they’re coming up next Monday & Tuesday. If you aren’t on our email list, go to our Google group page. Over on the right click “Join this group”. Once you’re a member you’ll see the details on this month’s deliveries under “Discussions” and the cuts & bundles pricing & availability under “Pages”.
To contact us just shoot an email to sugarcreekfarm (at) osage (dot) net.
I think that’s all the bidness for tonight. Hope everyone is staying warm! Sounds like we’re in for more snow tomorrow…
1 year ago:
The view to our west has changed lately. It now sports a brand new wind turbine.
The turbine belongs to Osage Municial Utilities, which Matt works for as a lineman. His part in this was to hook the turbine into their system, and he & the rest of the crew put in a lot of hours to get it online. I know it involved a lot of digging, and cabling, and that’s about all I know about it.
With the cold weather setting in, they had to put up a tent and run a space heater to warm up the cable enough to work with. That tent stood up to some pretty rough winter weather. What I want to know is, why don’t they make tents like that for farmers market?!?
1 year ago:
Hot chocolate on the stove has become a daily ritual over Christmas break. I think it needs to continue. Preferably with salty, buttery popcorn right before bedtime.
Apparently I lack some sort of tidiness gene.
But the pizzas were really good.
Happy New Year! I’m glad you all made it safely into 2010 🙂
Rafe and I joined my grandma for the nursing home New Year’s Eve party yesterday afternoon. With the Meitner Brothers band providing the music, Rafe took his great-grandma for a wheelchair spin around the dance floor. She loved it and was pumping her hands in the air like a teenager at a Hannah Montanna concert.
And then I was forced to do the chicken dance with the nurses.
No matter how you celebrated yesterday, I hope there was much laughter and fun and hope for the new year.
And chicken dancing.
1 year ago:
Roast chicken in wine & broth
I’d forgotten how I’d drooled over my sister-in-law’s Le Creuset roasting pan when we visited last Christmas…until I opened their gift to me this Christmas morning.
Somehow, cooking it in a beautiful, fancypants pan makes even plain roast chicken highbrow. (Thank you, Rick & Sandy!)
scooping out from the Christmas storm
So here we are, in that in-between time. Still ruminating in the blessings of Christmas, and looking forward to flipping the calendar to a new January.
It seems an appropriate time to say Thank You to our farm customers. Some of you are new to us this year, others of you have been with us, loyally, since about 2003. And while we do appreciate your purchases, what we especially value is your friendship, your advice, your words of support and encouragement. So…thank you.
As it always is, this in-between time is a time of planning, of trying to predict the future and make decisions about it. We will run numbers, make our best guesses, and come up with a plan for the farm in 2010. Though I won’t say it out loud, I think I already know what that plan is going to be. But I’ll keep an open mind and run the numbers anyway. And when we think we’ve got it figured out, you’ll be the first to know.
Blessings and good fortune to you all in 2010.
I really can’t believe, out of all the recipe posts I’ve done, that I’ve never done pizza! It’s an almost-weekly meal at our house during the fall, winter & spring months. (And I’m working on mastering pizza on the grill in the summer.)
When the girls were littler and had fewer activities, every week we had “Friday Night Pizza Night”. It was the one night of the week we let the kids drink pop for supper and eat in the living room. These days I just try to make it on any night of the week that we’re all home together, and we still drink pop and eat in the living room 🙂
Assembled pizza’s, ready to go in the oven
First, the crust! This is a nice, soft, slightly chewy crust. You can make it in a bread machine, stand mixer, or by hand. Prebake for 5 to 10 minutes, then top with your favorite pizza sauce.
Next, the toppings. We have lots of good things to choose from at the farm. Italian sausage comes already seasoned, just brown it before topping your pizza. And our Italian sausage is MSG-free! Ground pork can be seasoned to your own taste (but here are some ideas to get you started!). Our cottage bacon has a Candian bacon taste, wonderful for pizza! Or how about bacon cheeseburger pizza with regular bacon and ground beef?
Finish it all off with cheese of your choice and bake for 13 to 18 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is baked through.
The finished product!
Homemade Pizza
1 cup warm water
2 T. oil
1 T. yeast
1 T. sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. salt
2 t. parmesan cheese
1/2 t. Italian seasoning
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix water, oil, yeast and sugar together. Mix in flour & seasonings. Knead dough until smooth & elastic. If dough is too wet, knead in a little extra flour. If it’s too dry, add water 1 teaspoon at a time.
Place dough on baking stone and let rest 10 minutes. Roll out and let rest another 10 minutes (or more, for a thicker crust.) Bake 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, add toppings, and return to oven. Bake an additional 13 to 18 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is baked through.
