In This Space Between: August 2015

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Fried Green Tomatoes

And no, I'm not talking about the movie...which left me traumatized as a child with reoccurring nightmares of trains.

Every year as the tomato plants start dying off I ponder over the last few green tomatoes hanging on and wonder if I should finally try making fried green tomatoes. In my 33 years of life I had never tried them. The thought of eating a green tomato is not that appetizing, but add "fried" to anything's name and I develop a craving for it.

People seem to either love or despise fried green tomatoes, given the opinions I've heard. Curiouser and curiouser. Yesterday I finally decided to satisfy my curiosity.

Following the directions given in this youtube video (click for link), I picked several of the best looking green tomatoes and doubled the recipe for breading them. If it turned out to be a success I couldn't risk not having enough, you know....

They were so pretty!

The breading process included flouring, then dunking in an egg and milk mixture, and finally coating with a cornmeal, crumb, and seasoning mixture.

Breaded and waiting for the oil to heat up...

Ooo this is going to be so good!

The verdict: as much as I wanted to love fried green tomatoes, they are definitely an acquired taste. I don't hate them, but they're too much work for a flavor I'm not in love with. I can see why people love them...and if I had grown up eating them I'd probably love them too. The tomato offers an acidic, slightly sweet and sour punch that was reminiscent of the ground cherry (tomatilla) jelly my Grandpa used to make. We found the flavor was best if countered with ranch dip or hot sauce, and when they were left to fry till dark brown. I thought maybe a thinner tomato slice would have been better in balancing the flavor between it and the breading as well. The breading was great, and I used the excess to fry up some zucchini...a much more familiar flavor to our taste buds.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Rhubarb Streusel Bread

My boys love breads for breakfast, and it can't get much easier for this mama! This is one of our new favorites that solved a rhubarb overload issue this past spring.

Rhubarb Streusel Bread

Prep time: 20-30 minutes, 1 hour to bake
Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk (make your own by adding 1 Tbsp. of lemon juice or white vinegar to one cup of milk and letting it sit at room temp for 5-10 minutes)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1-1/2 cups chopped fresh or frozen rhubarb
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional-we didn't use any)

Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. room temp butter

In a large bowl combine brown sugar and oil. Beat in egg, and then buttermilk and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; stir into brown sugar mixture until just combined. Fold in rhubarb (and nuts if you're a nutty person). Pour into two greased loaf pans.

For topping, combine sugar, butter and cinnamon in a small bowl until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter.

Bake at 350° for 60-65 minutes until a toothpick inserted near the center of loaves comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pans before transferring to wire racks to cool. Loaves will crumble if you skip this step! (See first photo above of mangled loaf!)

Cut with a serrated knife and enjoy!

Friday, August 28, 2015

A Moo Roo Field Trip

While most kids have gone back to school, we've been enjoying the last little bit of summer freedom. We usually start school the first Monday after Labor Day, but since it's late this year we'll be starting September 8th. I can see the effects of the summer laziness taking their toll on these guys, and I'm looking forward to much more structured days when school starts.

Yesterday we went on our first field trip of the school year. A friend of mine who also homeschools mentioned touring a local dairy farm together, and I was all on board for that. My grandparents had a dairy farm until I was about 10 years old, and then a couple of my uncles had dairy farms after that. My own Dad is a hobby farmer, and we had milk cows on and off while I was growing up. I realized recently with a shock that I take the country life I grew up with for granted, and my boys are growing up without knowing what a cow's tongue feels like or what silage is or why you don't step in mysterious piles of stuff on the ground. I'm raising a batch of townies.

The tour center

We met at Hansen Dairy Farm's tour center for their hands-on tour. Since Eli is still laid off from work, he was able to keep Ian home with him and free up one of my arms. We boarded the "trolley" which took us from the tour center to the farm. The tour guide was able to get a few explanations in between my oldest two sharing their words of wisdom...how they love eating all kinds of corn, but have apparently never eaten the cornbread muffins we have with our chili (temporary amnesia??), how the trolley sounded like it was going to fall apart, that the tractor was a diesel engine, and how Dad got "kicked off his last job so he isn't working anymore". I tried pretending they weren't mine, but I don't think I fooled anyone.

Our first stop was to feed the bottle calves. I realized at this point that we paid the farm handsomely for us to do their work for them. Hehe... The boys loved it, of course, as they've only bottle-fed lambs and babies up until now. And I got to take a trip down memory lane. Baby calves are simply adorable. We looked at some of the bigger Holstein cows (with names like Applebees, Easton, and Aura) and then filed into the milking parlor to watch the milking process. The boys got to milk a cow by hand there, and one of the owners even held Liam up to try. We looped around the on-site creamery where they make their own butter, cheese, curds and ice cream, and then headed over to feed the kangaroos.

Liam feeding "Ether"

Aidan was the least thrilled with this situation

Gavin feeding "Silage"

The milking parlor

Liam being shown by Blake how to milk

These kangaroos (the "Roo" part of their business logo) were actually full-sized kangaroos, but not yet fully grown. We fed them little pieces of bread and got to pet them. It was amazing to know that a baby kangaroo when born is only the size of a bumblebee!

The male kangaroo, Larry, was trained to "hop away" from tourists so he doesn't get violent. Boxing match, anyone?

After we left the kangaroo pen we headed back up to the calf pens where the trolley was waiting. Wobbling around on brand new legs by the tractor was a calf that was just born that afternoon.

The brand new baby calf, born at 3:30 that afternoon.

Ages 6, 7 , & 8...sitting normally is just not an option!

We climbed back onto the trolley (with my boys calling "ALL ABOARD!") and rode back to the tour center. Everyone washed their hands and were given little jars of milk/cream. The instructions were to shake them until butter separated from the buttermilk. It took a several minutes, but it was well worth it. They set out plates of crackers and curds and the kids all but inhaled the butter. They then offered us little tubs of ice cream in different flavors (I chose raspberry, the two big boys got mint chip, and Liam peanut butter). We enjoyed the ice cream while they played a video on how certain things work around the farm. Like birthing calves. Not super appetizing, but most people were done eating by then!

Mmm...butter

Liam enjoying his ice cream. Hansen's ice cream has less air pockets in it, making it denser than other ice cream...and takes longer to eat!

This was one of the Hansen's first wallabies that was bought wild from New Zealand...escaped, got hit on the road, and taxidermied.

The tour was over at this point, but we had to buy a bag of pepper flake cheese curds (oh so good!) before we left. They had a variety of other dairy products for sale there in the tour center that we may have to try at a later date. While still pasteurized, their milk is non-homogenized (a process that breaks down the molecules of milk, destroying it's natural state). For this reason people with dairy intolerance are often able to drink their milk while unable to enjoy other store-bought milk. This may be something to try for Ian, who at this point is only able to keep down the goat milk we get from my parents. And of course the kids had to get soaking wet and sandy on the pond beach before heading home.

With our first field trip of the year already under our belt, I should probably finish lesson planning!

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf - What's For Lunch

It's been a while since I've shared a food post, but trust me, I've continued snapping away photos of our culinary creations. The past couple days with the fallish temps have had me drooling over the mere thought of mashed potatoes and gravy, cornbread and chili, sweet potato fries and fresh baked bread with melted butter.... I could go on. Once we have the heels from about four or five loaves of bread piling up in the bread box, it's time for either meatballs or meatloaf, and it's been a while since I've made meatloaf. I decided to whip one up for dinner.

I didn't use a recipe, so all measurements are "to taste". We are garlic lovers around here, and my recipe is heavy on garlic, so it may need to be toned down for the more sensitive palates! For smaller families you may want to cut the recipe in half, since this is meant to feed four ravenous boys, with leftovers!

Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf

4 lbs. ground meat (I used 2 lbs. venison & 2 lbs. beef
4 eggs
2-3 cups bread crumbs
2 Tbsp. onion powder (normally I'd use a packet of Lipton onion soup mix and less salt, but we were out)
2 Tbsp. garlic powder
4 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. basil
2 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. thyme
4 cups shredded cojack and/or cheddar cheese
Ketchup
Foil to line pan!

Mix all ingredients except cheese well in a large bowl. The best tool for this is your hands.

Once mixed, divide meat mixture in half. On a foil-lined baking sheet, spread meat mixture out in an oval bowl shape, keeping it at least 1/2" thick.

Sprinkle cheese evenly over the oval.

Place remaining meat over the cheese, pressing the sides together and firmly forming it so no cheese leaks out.

Squirt a generous amount of ketchup over the loaf.

Bake at 350° for about 45 minutes.

It won the approval even of my pickiest eater!

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Tick Tock House Clock

Next spring we'll have lived in this house for five years. We have officially broken our previous record in staying at the same place for this long. When we moved, we knew this house was only going to be temporary, but resolved the next time we moved it was going to be to buy. No more renting, we've put our time in. We never planned on being here this long!

At barely 1000 square feet, our current home can be described as cozy. It's like a well worn shoe that knows the contours of your foot, but the foot has kept growing and the shoe is getting uncomfortably snug. The original part of the house, built in the early 1900's, is only about 600 square feet. More recently, a back porch was remodeled to add an extra 400 square feet of living space. This space is currently our dining room. The layout is very convenient and open, making the house feel bigger than what it is. But with only two smallish bedrooms for six people, this calls for some creativity in arranging things. There are two dressers squeezed into each room, and the standard-sized closets are literally stacked to the ceiling with stuff. Bunk beds are essential, and if we aren't able to buy a bigger house soon we're going to have to consider upgrading the top twin-sized bunk to a double. Rearranging furniture is out of the question, unless it's a "six inches to the left" kind of move. I have given away kitchen supplies for lack of space to store them. It works...though not ideal. And no, we do not have an upstairs or a finished basement (we get these questions often).

The side yard, which is essentially our back yard, garden behind the garage, and front door (which faces north). Corner double lot.

The street side of the house and back door. There's a rock walkway between the house and garage that serves as a path to the garden and yard (and composter).

This is why it feels like our clock is ticking. It seems as though we're on the precipice of change. It's time to move on. No more flushing away rent money with nothing to show for it. We've been searching for a house to buy for two years now. Up until the last few months we were only considering acreages, as this is where our hearts are. However, we've discovered all the acreages in our price range need updates to their septic systems per state law, or other major repairs, and most owners selling acreages that "reasonably" cannot afford those kinds of changes. Stepping into a large reno project right away is not our ideal. And since septic updates have to be taken care of before a property changes ownership, we would have to assume those costs (estimates we received were $6,900-$10,000), with our own money, before closing. If closing fell through, those pricey updates would literally be our gift to the seller. We cannot take on that kind of risk. We promised ourselves never again to get in over our heads with a house. We had to consider that maybe God had other plans for us. We conceded that we may have to settle for a home in town for now.

And we did. In June we found the "big old farmhouse" that I've always wanted, just without the farm. With four bedrooms and one and a half baths, there was room for us all. Two of the three bedrooms upstairs had walk-in closets. Walk-in closets! What a luxury! Although panicking at first because it was in town, and a lot farther away than I've ever moved in my life, I soon had plans for decorating and fixing it up. There was a place for everything. I consoled myself with the fact that the town was small, a third of the size of the town we currently live in, and close to friends. The house was a (small town) block from the edge of town and rolling fields. The alley running behind the house opened up onto a field driveway. It even had a front porch! The streets around the house were gravel, and there were no houses facing or behind it. It was up on a hill and also had a spectacular view of train tracks, something Gavin was so excited about. We currently live pretty close to tracks, so we're already used to train noise. If we have to be in town, this is a good place to be.

Almost twice the size of the house we're in now!

The view from the end of the alley behind the house.

As already recounted here, we were on the homestretch of purchasing it when the mortgage was denied due to Eli being laid off from work. Our current realtor has to be one of the nicest people we've worked with in our house hunt, and she is now working on another plan to get us the house. Unfortunately, the house is wrapped up in a state recovery program, and they can force the sale of the house. It has gone back on the market and is being offered at $15,000 less than what they were originally asking. It is now being shown several times a week, and it's obviously first come first served, so our chances of owning it are growing slimmer by the week. It's only a matter of time before it sells. And our hands are tied until Eli goes back to work. If we have to walk away for good we'll be out $875 in non-refundable inspection, appraisal, and mortgage application fees. It really could be worse...this could have been an acreage that we sunk nearly $10K into! And it's not!

I am not wallowing in sorrows! Good things come to those who wait, right?

Until I'm able to share the good news that we finally own our own little piece of America again, I'll give you a tour of our cozy little bungalow.

Disclaimer: these photos were taken right after I hosted a shower, so the house was in "company condition" not the "lived in condition" of everyday life. While I aspire to always have things this tidy it's simple not possible with four little boys under a roof. My goal for this blog is to "keep it real", and since I also plan on sharing "real life" photos of the house in the future I need these nice photos to keep it all balanced...and proof that I do pick up once in a while. ;)