Braxton's Antics

Braxton has had quite the week of injuries! Last Thursday he was working on his motorcycle. He was pulling hard on a zip tie and it broke and he hit himself in the face. He hit his eye so hard it sliced the membrane and was bleeding. Luckily Alisa was home and she rushed him to the eye doctor. The doctor gave him some antibiotics to put in his eye and told him it will heal just fine.

Then today he was out shooting at the sand dunes and a bullet fragment ricocheted off a rock and hit him in the forehead! He said it felt like he was hit in the head with a bat. When he felt his forehead he could feel something hard under the skin. He was able to grab it with his fingernails but couldn't get it out. He decided it was time to head home for the day and when he got home he was able to pull the fragment out with some tweezers. It was quite the chunk! Amazing that he wasn't injured further!

LA Beach

Dallin drove to California with a friend to spend a few days. He took this photo of LA Beach. It's beautiful!

Kids in the House

After going to bed at 2 am, I set my alarm for 4:30 am to check on the new babies, but I was so exhausted I slept right through it. Steve heard it though and went out and checked on them and said they were fine. So this morning we went out about 7:30 am to check on them and still weren't able to get them to nurse very well. The little girl was up and around and doing great, but now the little boy was too cold. I brought him in the house and wrapped him up in a towel with the heating pad to try and warm him up. I milked Buttercup while we were out there and tried to get him to take a bottle but he was too weak. We tube fed him some milk, but he just couldn't get warm even on the heating pad. He ended up dying this afternoon. And since we didn't want the little girl to be next, we brought her in the house too. She warmed up quickly and took a bottle just fine. But when we took her back out later tonight, she still wouldn't nurse. I think since Buttercup was from a dairy they probably took her babies away from her right away and bottle fed them so they could milk her. She just doesn't know how to be a mother to them. She didn't cuddle them and keep them warm. She didn't even care when I took them into the house. She was just ambivalent. So sad. I wish we had realized sooner that she wasn't taking care of them and the third little boy wouldn't have died. I'm feeding her every few hours since she doesn't drink much at a time. It's going to be another long night :)

Feeding the little girl some electrolytes

New Kids on the Block!

Buttercup had her babies finally! She had triplets! This morning when I went out to check on her I could see that she was in labor, so I kept checking on her every 30 minutes all afternoon and evening. I came in for dinner and was inside cooking and eating for about 30-40 minutes. Steve went out to check on her and came back telling me she had a baby. I didn't believe him of course :) But I went out to the barn with him and she had already delivered a little girl and was trying to deliver a second baby! The second baby was stuck and it's head was still covered in the sac so it wasn't breathing. I think it had been that way for too long and it had suffocated. I tried to help her by pulling on it, but it was just too big. When she finally got it out, it ended up being twice as big as the first one so that was why she was having so much trouble. It was a boy. Then an hour or so later she had another boy and it was about the same size as the first little girl.

The girl is on the left and the boy is on the right

The girl was shivering and having trouble getting warm so I spent the evening holding her wrapped up in a towel trying to get her warm enough. I even put her inside my jacket. Dad came out and brought out his shop propane heater and got the barn warm. The third little boy was up and active and doing great. Buttercup was exhausted and kept having more contractions as her body was trying to get rid of all the afterbirth so she wasn't really paying much attention to her babies. I tried to get them to nurse, and they both sucked a little but weren't real successful. About 2 am I wrapped them both up together in a blanket, and went in the house to go to bed because I was exhausted too!

Chicken Fajitas

I'm almost finished with my Professional Cook Certification course! Only 1 week to go! Today Vanessa came over and we made chicken fajitas, Mexican rice, and roasted poblano & red bell peppers with onions in a cream sauce. Then we had the missionaries over for dinner to eat it all :) I even sent them home with the leftovers!

Another Birthday Lunch :)

Monday was also my friend Season's birthday. And of course we had to have another birthday lunch to celebrate :) So Vanessa, Season and her son, and I went to Panera today. I had Baked Potato Soup in a bread bowl. Yum!

Fettuccine Alfredo

The unit I am currently working on in my cooking class is on plating food. We have to submit four plated dishes. So for my first one, I pan-fried some chicken breast to go with the leftover Fettuccine Alfredo from Sunday. For proper plating, the starch should be plated at 10:00, the vegetable should be plated at 2:00, and the protein should be plated at 6:00. Pretty particular! I garnished the fettuccine with a sprig of parsley and the sliced chicken breast with some sauteed mushrooms. I definitely enjoyed my lunch today, even though the broccoli was just for show since I don't like it :)

Birthday Lunch

Since today is Leila's birthday and tomorrow is Lanna's birthday, we met for lunch at Chuy's to celebrate. Chuy's has the best creamy jalapeno dip ever! I hadn't seen Leila for awhile and we all had a great time catching up on each other and our missionaries - all four of us have boys on a mission right now :)

Left to Right - Lanna, Marsha, Leila, & Kimber

Happy Birthday Lanna!

Victor had a surprise party for Lanna tonight at their house. I made rolls and alfredo sauce and Marsha & Eric made the pasta and grilled chicken. It was so yummy! It was fun to see some friends we hadn't seen for awhile too. Sid & Marilyn Mann were there and so was Chad & Mari Waddell.

Oil Bottles

One of my photography assignments this week is to take photos of Rhythm in Alternation (which means something that repeats itself somewhat randomly.) So I took a photo of some of my various oil bottles. This is only part of them - I have amassed quite the collection of them since I started my cooking class! I had them sitting on the table with the window behind them. I used a large f/stop to blur the background and I think it turned out cool. I did add a vignetting to darken the edges of the photo.

Singing in the Rain

It wasn't actually raining, but it was sprinkling off and on today while I was watching Catrina's kids. They wanted to play outside anyways. In between having fun with sidewalk chalk, they had to continually check to see if the chickens had laid any more eggs yet :)

Later when they were inside watching a movie, they wanted me to take pictures of them making silly faces. Apparently the youngest still had hot chocolate remnants on his face :)

I Do Not Like Them, Sam I Am

Cooking day once again and today on the menu was pan-fried fish. I don't like fish. At all. Nope. Nada. But since it was an assignment and I had to make it, I decided I would at least try it. I had planned on making "Tilapia with Pink Peppercorn Beurre Blanc." I figured that anything is better with a butter sauce :) But as Vanessa and I were watching the cooking videos today, my stomach was bothering me from eating too much junk lately and I knew that a butter sauce would only make it worse. So I chose a different fish recipe to try instead - "Almond Sole," except I used tilapia since that was what I had purchased for the other recipe. It was good! I actually enjoyed eating it! It didn't have that fishy taste to it at all and the almond and parsley garnish on it was delicious. I also made some Coconut Infused Jasmine Rice and it was the perfect complement to the fish. So, I guess I do like some fish after all :)

Working on Cabinets

Tonight Steve worked on one of the last face plates for my kitchen cabinet section that will hold the oven and microwave. The other face plates for these cabinets are all stained and ready to be sprayed with General Finishes EnduroVar. He says it's the best water born finish! And at a mere $88 a gallon, tax not included :) But I agree it's worth it since his finished cabinets are every bit as good as professional custom cabinets!

He recently bought some new noise cancelling headphones so that he can listen to his audio books while he works. He says they work great!

Planting Potatoes

I planted my red potatoes today. Tomorrow I plan on planting a few more reds down the other side of the bed and some Yukon Golds as well. My spring gardening has begun!

Velouté Sauce

So I learned a new term from my cooking class today -  sauce. A velouté sauce is a smooth and silky sauce consisting of a roux and stock. It is basically a gravy just like the turkey gravy I make every Thanksgiving. Now I just know a fancier name for it :) For dinner tonight I made the "velouté sauce" with some turkey I had cooked and frozen previously, some mushroom and onion stuffing, and some asparagus.

Up, Down, and Around the Farm

I had to finish up my photography assignment this afternoon by taking photos of different composition elements. Then I made it into a slide show in Adobe Lightroom.

Egg Basket - Diagonal Lines

Router Bit - "S" Curve

Propane Heater in Steve's Shop - Circular Shapes

Bale of Hay - Strong Textures

Black Kitty - Rule of Thirds

Brussels Sprouts Plant - Interesting Camera Angle

Love Is . . .

. . . a loaded chopped baker with lean brisket and all the trimmings :) Instead of fighting the Valentine's crowds tonight, we picked up some lean brisket and came home and made some yummy chopped bakers. We even used green onions from our own garden. It was just like Rudy's since we had some Rudy's sauce in the fridge!

Sidewalk Chalk & Bubble Guns

I watched Catrina's kids today and they played outside with sidewalk chalk and bubble guns. The weather was perfect and we all had a great time!

Pasta Boscaiola

Today was cooking day and we made Pasta Boscaiola. It was absolutely delicious! It was made using sauteed mushrooms, garlic, prosciutto, sun-dried tomatoes, cream, fresh thyme, fresh parsley, and Parmesan cheese. It was just as good as any restaurant :) I will definitely make it again, but I think next time I'll use ground sausage instead of prosciutto.

Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as good when we rewarmed it for dinner. I guess it's one of those dishes that is best when freshly made.

Pasta Boscaiola

1 lb. button mushrooms
4 cloves garlic
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley
4 oz. prosciutto, thinly sliced (or 8 oz. ground Italian sausage, cooked and drained)
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes (packed in oil)
1/4 cup chicken stock or white wine vinegar
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon red chili flakes
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 Tablespoon grapeseed oil
2 Tablespoons butter
8 oz. dried pasta (rigatoni, penne, bow tie or fusilli)
sea salt, to taste

Brush the dirt off the mushrooms and slice - do not rinse them. Peel the garlic and thinly slice. Remove the leaves from the thyme and roughly chop. Do the same for the parsley. Cut the prosciutto into bite-size pieces. Drain and squeeze the excess oil from the sun-dried tomatoes and measure 1/3 cup. Cut into thin strips.

Heat a large, stainless-steel fry pan over high heat. Once hot, add the grapeseed oil, immediately followed by the mushrooms. Season with salt to taste. Saute the mushrooms until they start to turn golden and then add 1 tablespoon of the butter.

Meanwhile, place a large pot of water on the stove top and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, season with salt. Note: Season the water with approximately 1 tsp per quart of water.

Once the mushrooms are golden brown, reduce the heat to medium-high and add the prosciutto. Once the prosciutto is heated through, add the chili flakes and garlic. Let cook until the garlic is fragrant, about a minute or so. If the mixture looks a bit dry, add in the other tablespoon of butter. Next, add the sun-dried tomatoes and deglaze with the chicken stock. Stir, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the chicken stock reduce almost completely before adding the cream and thyme. Reduce the heat. Let the cream simmer and reduce slightly.

In the meantime, check the pasta for doneness. Once the pasta is done, drain, reserving approximately 1 cup of the cooking water. Transfer the drained pasta to the sauce and toss gently to coat. Use some of the reserved pasta water to thin the sauce down, if necessary. The sauce should just coat the pasta. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese and chopped parsley over top and toss gently to combine. Taste for seasoning.

Serve in warmed bowls. Top with additional parmesan cheese, chili flakes and a splash of extra-virgin olive oil, if desired.

This pasta dish is not extremely "saucy". The pasta is just lightly coated with the delicious sauce. Increase the quantity of the sauce if you prefer a saucier dish. It is great served with some nice, crusty bread and a light salad.

Serves 4

Rouxbe.com

Tired Car

I think my car was tired and worn out (and dirty) today. The back end made a bad grinding noise yesterday, so I asked Steve to drive it to work today so he could drive it long enough to hear the noise and figure out what the problem is. Well, he called me when he got to work and told me to come trade him cars - that it was pretty bad and he couldn't drive it downtown where he needed to go. I was just walking into my photography class at the time, so I told my professor I would be back (it's a 3 hour class) and left to trade cars. On my way back to class, the grinding noise continued to get worse and I debated whether I should go straight home. I did go back to class since it was only a few miles out of the way so I didn't think it would make much of a difference. I made it home and since we had already scheduled an appointment to take it in on Thursday morning to have the air conditioner looked at, we decided we would have the mechanic look at this problem instead. Steve thinks either the rear differential is going out or one of the rear axel bearings need to be replaced. And my air conditioning still doesn't work and summer is on its way. Maybe it's time for a new car. It is 12 years old :) It's been a great car though and I still like it today.

*Update: It was the rear axel bearings and the mechanic said I was ready to lose a wheel! It also needs lots of minor maintenance along with the air conditioning, so we ended up just fixing the axel bearings so we'll be able to take our time looking for just the right car.

Quilting Fabric

I stopped by the quilt shop today to pick up the block of the month for the quilt I am making. While I was there I asked the owner if it would be ok if I took a photo of a row of fabric for my photography assignment. She was very accommodating. She suggested I take a photo of the batiks - which I did! The assignment was to take some photos of long rows of something to show depth of field. So here is my row of fabric :)

Quade in Downtown London

We heard from Quade today and he is feeling a little better. He has a Plantar wart on his foot that the doctor is treating with acid and he has been in quite a bit of pain lately.  Quade is currently in London and they went to some of the local sites recently. Here are a few photos he took on his recent excursions.

They went to Wimbledon! I'm not sure if they went in and saw a match or not - but he told me that our friend, Kristie, would be jealous :) She's an avid tennis player.

I saw this Ferris wheel on TV on New Year's Eve when we were watching the celebration countdown in London. I thought it was just a prop they had built for the fireworks :)

Quade and some of the other missionaries in the area rode on the Ferris wheel. This is the glass enclosure you ride in. That would definitely be out of my comfort zone!

Quade and his companion

Quade

This is one of the views from the Ferris wheel. Quade said they can see the Big Ben clock tower from his "flat" in London.

Love is in the Air

So now that we are a week into February, I decided it's finally time to take down the remaining snowman decorations and move on to Valentine's Day. I just remembered that for Christmas, Steve's mom gave me a really cute Valentine's Day wall quilt, so down comes the snowman wall quilt and up goes the Valentine's Day one :) Thanks mom! And thanks Aunt Lois for the machine embroidery on it!

Mushroom Plant

I went to get another load of mushroom compost today and took my camera with me. It is a huge plant operation and I don't understand the process but it looks cool :)

The compost piles were interspersed with large square bales of hay and the compost piles were steaming.

Next to the compost piles was a pond where muddy water was being sprayed and then churned. I wish someone would have been around that I could have asked questions to! The man that loaded the trailer didn't speak much English.

Buttercup

My Nubian dairy goat, Buttercup, is getting quite large and appears to be ready to deliver her kids soon! I'm so excited!! She had two kids last February, but we were out of town, it was freezing rain, and neither one made it. So this time I'm not going anywhere anytime soon!

Mushroom Compost

Today after school I met some friends, Amber and Laura, for lunch and then I drove to Madisonville to pick up a load of mushroom compost. It's more than an hour's drive, but I've been told by numerous people that it is excellent in your garden! Also, it's extremely inexpensive - only $10 for 5 yards (compared to $35 a yard at the soil yard where I bought it last time.) Unfortunately the trailer we borrowed from Victor only holds about a yard before it's too heavy for the tires, and they don't prorate it if you get less than the full amount, but it's still a great deal. And Steve was so nice to unload it for me into the beds as soon as he got home from work. He does so much to keep me happy :) I plan on getting a couple more loads to top off all of my garden beds so I can get started on planting my spring garden.

Potatoes, Onions, and Asparagus

I'm excited to start planting my spring garden! Yesterday when I stopped at Tractor Supply for feed, they had seed potatoes, onion sets, and asparagus. It's already time to plant the asparagus so hopefully it will be nice weather this weekend and I'll get it into the garden.

Today I went to the temple with my friend, Leila. I took some family names and we were able to finish up their initiatories and endowments. What a great feeling! And I remembered to take my temple recommend this time :)

Just now as I was working on this post, I heard Sabre whining outside. I opened the door to let her in, but she wasn't there. I called her and heard her whining from the barn. Apparently she snuck into the barn while I was feeding the animals and got locked in when I left! She's happy to be back inside where it's warm and dry, especially since it's cold and rainy outside.

Vichyssoise

Today for my online cooking class assignment, I made Vichyssoise (also know as Leek and Potato Soup.) It turned out quite well. It is a cream soup, but doesn't need cream, or a thickener to make it creamy. The starch from the cooked potatoes does the job very nicely. To finish the soup it is blended in a blender.

Steve is not a soup person, especially soup that doesn't have any chunks of food in it or meat! So he opted to have toast and peanut butter for dinner and then cake for dessert :)

My friend, Catrina, had a hard day so I invited her to come for dinner. Her husband was busy so she and the kids came over. We had a good visit and the soup didn't go to waste like it probably would have!

Walk Around the Farm

I worked on my photography class assignment some more this afternoon and walked around the farm taking photos.

This is a photo of the water in the ditch next to the driveway. We have LOTS of tadpoles in the water but they all hid when I got close. I thought it was interesting to see the ripples show up on this slow exposure.

Of course I just had to include a photo of Steve's shooting target! This is one of three targets that line the back driveway so he can take a few steps out the door and do some shooting anytime he feels the urge :)

It was an overcast day and the sky really added to the scene. This is our back driveway that leads to the shooting range at the back of our property.

And to finish out the photos, this is Steve's car. It's a Nissan Altima. He misses his Nissan Maxima but the Altima gets such better gas mileage he just couldn't justify it.