Beautiful

Lots of leaves behind the house

A few days ago we were able to spend some time at the new house in the morning.  It was essentially the first time we wandered around the property in the daylight. It was simply stunning to see the views with the sun having just come up. 

Picnic table 

View of property and outlying fields from the top of the hill

Remains of the old barn

The original tree-lined driveway

I can't wait to live here.  The country is calling.

The 'Before' - Part 2

Master Bedroom

Upstairs Hallway

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

Bedroom 4

Upstairs Bathroom

Upstairs Family Room

Bedroom 5

Overgrown Front Door

Lamposts at the road

Tomorrow?  Some beautiful shots of the stunning countryside.  

The 'Before'

Kitchen work space

Eating area and wood stove

Living Room

Dining Room

Front Door

Beautiful floors...yikes

Main Floor Bathroom

Bathtub/Shower

Laundry Room

Indoor pool....just kidding!  That thing has got to go.

Kids Playroom

Kids Playroom - opposite wall

Front Staircase

The countdown to demolition day is on!  In 5 days a huge dumpster will arrive and the gutting will begin. 

Tomorrow?  Upstairs 'before' photos and some of the beautiful country.

Stew-pendous

I was not a fan of sweet potato and had never tried kale.  Why would I try Pork, Sweet Potato & Kale stew?  The recipe seemed easy enough and that is really the only thing that counts.  And it was delicious. 

Let's get started.

Collect all your ingredients.

Cut pork into bite size chunks.

Place pork in slow cooker.  Top with garlic, onions, dry mustard, cumin, chili powder, thyme, salt and pepper.

Top with sweet potato cut into large chunks.

Stir together strained tomatoes, molasses, vinegar, and water.

Pour liquid mixture over sweet potatoes.  Cover slow cooker and cook on low 6 hours.

Stem and chop 4 cups of kale.

Stir flour into the liquid of slow cooker (push aside the pork and sweet potato to make it a

little easier).

Top with kale, cover and cook for 30 minutes more (until kale is wilted).

Serve with a thick slice of crust bread.  Enjoy!

This stew was hearty and flavourful.  Country Boy had three large servings.  That generally means success!  What I learned?  It's good to try new things....kale is amazing and I actually enjoyed the sweet potatoes.

P.S. I'll post the full recipe once I find where I put it.  :(

Tomorrow?  Day 1 of 'Before' pictures of the renovation.

Boo!

Big Farmer, Baby Farmer and Little Farmer ready for the big night.

Transformers, tigers and superheroes....oh my!  If you can get past the horrendous lighting in this photo you are wondeful.  My mothers living room does not make for the best photography.  Normally, I am not a fan of store bought costumes but decided, with the craziness of my life right now, it would probably be okay to cut myself a little slack. 

Halloween was extra fun this year with my biggest farmers having realized that this was the night they would get candy.  Baby Farmer garnered lots of attention running around shrieking like a wild banshee...possibly because that is what he saw the teenage girls doing.  Little Farmer developed an obsession with zombies which, at first, I was not too pleased about.  However, the obsession culminated last night in him asking if I have zombies in my bum.  Perhaps he doesn't know quite what they are after all....

Tomorrow?  The results of my stew.   Remember my stew?  Let's just pretend that the recipe called for 6 days of cooking on low.

Baby Farmer striking a pose with his signature frown.

Eating My Words

We have been living at my parents house for the past 4 weeks while we sell our house.  Why?  You try cleaning a house top to bottom on a 30 minute time constraint with three small boys following you around undoing everything you do.  My mom keeps saying she loves having us here...but I'm a mom too and I know that sometimes we say things to our kids we don't totally mean.  In all seriousness, my mama deserves an award for how long we've been intruding on her turf. 

Anyhow, I try to make the time everyday to remind my mother about all the crap, dust traps, er, wonderful collector items that are piling themselves in her basement. I know, I know, you're wishing you were so lucky as to be my mother right now.  I'm telling you: an award is deseved here!

But today I will eat my words.  I took and deep breath and wandered onto 'her side' of the basement and returned surprisingly unscathed...and with a nice little collection of goodies!  My favourite item was this picnic basket.  I immediately pictured myself wearing a long denim skirt and some sort of bandana on my head, walking through a field swinging this basket on my arm delivering lunch to the farmers working in the back fields of my country home.  (It was a rather frightening picture, one that I will store forever in my mind as what I will NOT become.)  So upstairs I went, threw the basket over my arm and sashayed into the kitchen where County Lovin' Boy was trying to enjoy a conversation with my dad and said in my best Blanche Deveraux accent, "Well hi darlin'.  I brought you some fried chicken an' dumplin's and some ice cold lemonade for your lunch.  Are ya hungry?"

He asked me if I needed meds. 

In my defence, it's been quite a while that I have been living in a rather uprooted and unenviable state and I will admit that my sanity my be slipping. 

Tomorrow? I attempt to make a Pork, Sweet Potato & Kale Stew.  Stew seems like a good country food.  Now to go find out what kale is...

Give Cooking A Chance

I truly believe that, even after 7 years of marriage, the words "Honey, I made dinner!" coming from my mouth still strike fear into my Country Boy's heart.  Let's be honest here, not everyone is cut out for this cooking stuff.  I think 'burnt' should be one of the major food groups.  We'd definately be getting all our servings of that group each day!

Up until now, city life has always solved the problem of cooking meals.  The typical question posed by my husband of "What's for dinner?" received the standard answer of "Whatever you're bringing home!"

Enter country life.  If I want take out, it's going to be a 40 minute round trip.  (See, there were some things that I did not think through before buying the new house!).  This is why I've decided it's probably time for me to learn how to make at least a few things.  Let's start with breakfast and today the feature is Molasses Sticky Buns! Oh, I should also mention that I try to only make recipes where I know what all the ingredients are.  Ground cardamom?  Pass.  Cinnamon? Yes!

One more gripe before I begin.  I do not conform to the idea that food has to look delicious to be delicious.  Case in point?  Oysters rockefeller.  They could not look more vile but pop one of those suckers in your mouth and suddenly you're enjoying a little bit of heaven.  Anyhow, I also don't like getting to step 4 of a recipe and having no idea what it means and no picture to consult.  So I have broken it down here into a series of step by step instructions with a photo for each step simply because I refuse to believe that I am the only one who feels this way.  Enjoy!

Begin with two 16 oz balls of refrigerated bread (or pizza) dough.

Roll each ball into a 10 inch square piece.  Spread with butter to about 1/2" from the edges then sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar.  (Isn't white sugar so beautiful?)

Roll them up jelly roll style and pinch the edges to seal.  This part was harder than you would think!

Cut each roll into six slices.  Trust me, they're going to get squished down when you're cutting. If you're a type A personality you're going to have to just get over it!  They'll taste just as good squished.

To make the molasses sauce mix together brown sugar, butter, water and molasses and bring it to a boil.  

Pour the sauce into a greased 9x13 baking dish then place your slices on top of the sauce.  At this point, I was amazed to see that they actually did look like cinnamon buns.

Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.  Again, I was amazed that they actually did rise!  Oh me of little faith.

Bake for 30 minutes then take it out and invert onto a serving tray...or another ugly silver baking dish, whatever ya got.  Look at that sticky goodness!

I am happy to report that they were delicious!!  And I'm sure the next time I make them it will only take the reported prep of 20 min.  It took me an hour this morning.  Here is the full ingredient list:

Easy Molasses Sticky Buns
2 packages of refrigerated dough (16 oz each)
1/3 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Molasses Sauce:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup molasses

Follow the steps above then bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool for 5 minutes then invert onto serving platter

Tomorrow?  I venture into my mom's basement to find decor for the country home.