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The summer getaways are a wrap.  I have had a total of 4 separate outings varying from 2 to 4 days at a shot.  As mentioned in the past, this is no small feat when you run a farm of any size.  Thanks to great help from family and friends, there were minimal amounts of crisis-moments ranging from cats consuming pies and cakes meant for market to waterbirth-chick-hatch-coaching via telephone instruction.

I am, sadly, on the eve of the “Last Day” of the college kids being home. Tonight I have been busy dreaming up the menu for the last family dinner of the summer, trying to include all of their favorite dishes.  Tomorrow will be busy for all of the regular reasons, and a little more so with packing two different vehicles for two different directions.

I planted three fruit trees late this afternoon, one for each child.  A peach and two plums.  I dug deep holes with a broken shovel, filled them with worm-wriggling manure from the pile out back, ran the hose into the pit and placed the pot-bound, discounted saplings into their new homes.

What kind of advice can I give myself when I’m feeling this low?  I have certainly learned great lessons from the past and can apply them.  I have some wisdom.  But in the end, right now, it is still not my favorite place to be.

No worries, truly, it’s just a tedious process which I have to sort out.

And look!  I discovered this, for me, and my school-bound kiddoes:

Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.
David M. Burns

Rock on, Mr. Burns.

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Teach a man to fish…

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Lake Trout that Jody caught in Lake Champlain in May while casting for bass

Once every couple of years, my son brings home a fish to cook.  He catches hundreds  because he is a tournament bass angler, but every one of them goes back into the water to swim away after he gets a look at it or weighs it in.

One day, soon after he was home on his summer break and fishing out of Lake Champlain, he brought me a nice Lake Trout to prepare.  As it was enough to serve several more than our family of five, we put it in the freezer for a special occasion.

For a belated birthday gathering, I’d invited my mom, sister and her family for a celebration.  I thought it would be a great time to share the frozen bounty and so I used a Baked Lump Crab Cakes recipe but substituted the Lake Trout. I also used my deep fryer, please don’t faint.  It was the most delicious fish preparation that I have had in a long time.  I will definitely remember it for the next fresh catch to hit the table.  Also, it was part of a memorable menu.  For all of the following dishes, just click on the emboldened name for the link to the original recipe.

Appetizers:

Bang Bang Shrimp
(photo credit  and thanks to Amanda at fakeginger.com)

Bang Bang Shrimp These were scrumptious -exploding with flavor.  They took some time to prepare, with the breading and all, but once you get into the groove of it, it certainly moves along.  Just make sure to give yourself enough time to start this project, get a leg up on the preparation, then work on other parts of your meal before you throw them in the fryer.  They’re perfect as a meal on their own, or as an appetizer.

Bocconcini making party!

Fried Bocconcini with Spicy Tomato Sauce - oh golly, these were a hit.  Yes, more advance prep makes things easier and of course, if you have two willing helpers, that expedites things as well!  Soft, fresh mozzarella is what we used, cut into smaller pieces and shaped into balls.  The recipe does call for Bocconcini, small balls of mozz, but I didn’t have any.  If you bread these ahead of time and refrigerate them, they will keep overnight and then are easily cooked just before serving.

Dinner:

Avocado Mango Salad, Oven Roasted Corn in Chile Coconut Milk, Lake Trout Cakes with Red Pepper Chipotle Lime Sauce

Baked Lake Trout Cakes with Red Pepper Chipotle Lime Sauce - Gina over at Skinnytaste.com uses Lump Crab Meat, but you’ll see from my photo gallery how I baked the Lake Trout, de-boned and skinned it, and used the moist and flaky meat as a substitute for crab.  I then fried the combination in my deep fryer using Canola Oil.

Mango Avocado Salad -worth it to purchase the Black Sesame Seeds if you don’t already have them – delicious and so pretty!  This was the perfect side to our Trout Cakes.

Oven Roasted Corn in Chile Coconut Milk -this could stand on its own as a meal for me, but it also accompanied the Lake Trout beautifully and everyone thought the sweet and the spicy were a happy new way to celebrate Corn-on-the-Cob!

Dessert:

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake -sadly I did not have a springform pan to prepare this in, but Megan at Delicious Dishings has a great adaptation of the Cook’s Illustrated recipe for this Pièce de résistance of a Dessert!  The side story, here, is that because I’d committed myself to this recipe creation the evening before, I had to forego an opportunity to see Bonnie Raitt in concert -boo hoo hoo.  As a consolation, I blasted my collection of her c.d.’s for background music whilst in the kitchen.  So, hereafter, I will call this my “Bonnie Raitt Cake” recipe!

Cheesecake filled strawberries

and, last, but not least, Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries -by now you may all have seen, sampled or prepared your own version of this recipe and know that they are scrumptious.  I had to make two batches(translate: 4 quarts!) because the kids ate the first batch the night before.  They were just SO good!

A couple more nice looking recipes to try with Lake Trout:
Economy, Legacy, Real Estate, Seasons, Uncategorized, Vermont

Green Glass

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Chubby toddler hands clasped in my own, I strolled the rocky beaches of Lake Champlain looking for “green glass” in the morning dawn. As our toddlers became taller, the morning ritual of treasure hunting continued; the glass and rocks still collected to be admired for old and new inspirations. The rhythm of stooping and selecting, the sharing of finds, the careful steps chosen, had been a part of mine and my children’s lives for the past 20 years.

The Whites have been coming together on Lake Champlain going back to my kid’s great, great grandfather, T.A. Unsworth. His daughter, Jim’s gramma Arlene, then bought her “little” place down the shore from T.A. when it became available from the late Tiffany family. Arlene was a modern-gal, the first woman underwriter for New York Life Insurance, divorced and raised her 3 kids on her own, passed out subscriptions to “Ms.” magazine when she met her future grandaughters-in-law, and constructed an updated home in the place of the Tiffany’s three-story Victorian.

Since we started bringing our own babes and now grown kids to the lake, we arrived with our vehicles chock-full of bicycles, boats, sewing machines, dogs, cats, the bunny, and yes, even our ducks came one year. For the past couple of years we’ve been able to borrow space at a kind neighbor’s barn so that we could also bring our horses with us. Family reunions, weddings, funerals, birthday parties and holidays have been shared for as long as my husband can remember. Cousins, uncles and aunts have come together for support to scatter parents’ and grandparents’ ashes from the boat.

We have to sell the place. We can’t afford the taxes, even though we split the property three ways with Jim’s brothers. It is one of those classic “the locals can’t afford to live here anymore” situations.

Our neighbors, deeper pockets to our left and right, have bought us out. They want this property which has possibly the best natural shoreline on Lake Champlain. They are going to level our house at the end of this month and divvy amongst themselves.

Here’s where you get my “anger” stage of grief:  The new owners will probably throw a nice party to celebrate the White Trash that is leaving the neighborhood(that is the running family joke.) Then they’ll commence to build multimillion dollar stone retaining walls, manicured pathways with trendy lighting and employ the best landscape architects that money can buy so that they can recreate Shangrila. Then, for a finishing touch, they’ll install some tasteful fencing.

It’s too sad when you have to sell out. No matter what. I initially wanted to be the pillar and declared “There’s no crying in second homes.”

But I sat on the shores this morning, and well, I cried.

strolls, saved on the mantel

So, sad as it is, I recognize that lessons develop character. You swallow hard and stay positive. March on and figure out how you can give to someone in more need. Gain perspective.

After all, our lives are embedded and blessed with those soul-soothing walks from seasons past. The physical world can change all it wants; we’ve got our memories, we’ve got our faith.

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Playlist

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I’m preparing to head south in a few days to visit my son for his birthday.

Soccer-moms have got nothing on me, but I’ll report more about this upcoming trip on another day. 

this kid is gonna be 21

Tickled to be able to share a special time together,  I am readying the wagons for the journey, thinking of what baked goods I’ll be spoiling his Virginia Tech Bass Fishing Team with, organizing the farm/family for my absence, and of course, deciding on my music for the road trip.

I came upon this old draft from when I’d last hit the highways, obviously from a previous visit to son-one, and instead of dread at being on the road for 13 hours one way next week, I am inspired and rejuvenated to hit the highways.

 I’ll appreciate your travellers’ blessings, but in the meantime, enjoy my  past tale:

I started the day driving in the dark, pouring rain of Tropical Storm Lee in Blacksburg, VA.  Captain & Tenielle, Chicago, Carmina Burana’s “Il Trutina”, Copeland’s “Fanfare for a Common Man”…just some of the “C’s”, mind you, of my road trip soundtrack.  It is about 11 hours of driving and I decided to just go for it.  I stopped twice for gas and coffee, but with two hands on the wheel, mostly, and my eyes on the watery windshield, I forged ahead to get home again, home again, jiggety jig.

Now when you are headed up Highway 81 in the midst of the Blue Ridge ranges, you have got to listen to Bluegrass.  I didn’t turn off my favorite  XM radio station until I got to Pennsylvania.  I’m crazy about Balsam Range and Nickel Creek.  There is something very energizing about the tempo, the rhythms and those strings. Yes, I know there are other instruments that play their part and I enjoy them all, but, oh my, a banjo is what I dream of learning.  And I’m not sure which, whether it is that the speed limit is 70mph through Virginia or that the music has your head and your heart racing, you can really cover some miles.  Even with the windshield wipers flying across the glass and a deluged roadway.

Pennsylvania-driving is my least favorite part of the journey.  It tends to drag on for me.  But that is when I tuned into my own playlists and decided I would take a trip through my entire library, shuffling the genres to make it interesting.  Here is where I inadvertently photographed myself while trying to keep my eyes on the road and make an adjustment to my phone/iPod at the same time:

Happy Travelling!

at the top of her lungs!

I have to laugh at myself and recognize that I’m one of “those” people that you’ve seen driving past, oblivious that they are publicizing their private concerts!  Well, no harm was done, I arrived home safely, and the next time I have one of these solo-rides, I’m sure I’ll sing through my miles as eclectically.

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I’m thinking about snow globes

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Patty: Try to catch snowflakes on your tongue. It’s fun.

Linus: Mmm. Needs sugar.

Lucy: It’s too early. I never eat December snowflakes. I always wait until January.

-Charlie Brown Christmas, 1965, Charles Schulz

It doesn’t get much more whimsical, does it, when you behold a snowglobe featuring the Eiffel Tower, the Bennington Monument or some little cherub caroling, surrounded by swirling flakes of glittery, feathery snow?

We’re having a bit of a snow drought this winter.  A lot of rain, but where I live it is bare ground and this past week because of the above-freezing temps, mud. My road turned into a real quagmire.  It makes for much easier farm chores, though, and the animals can get out so much more easily.  But when we do get a covering of white stuff, it’s brighter, prettier, and if you’re a summer gal, like myself, it helps you to enjoy the fact that it’s winter.

I remember when the snowbanks were up to my Shetland!

When I was a little girl, I was confounded as to how the scenes were made in a snowglobe.  I remember thinking that it was real snow, too, that was trapped in the “Hail to the Sunrise” souvenirs that lined the shelves of the Whitcomb Summit gift shop.  And I was amazed.One year my children and I made snowglobes as gifts by hot gluing dioramas in place on the lid of baby food jars.  Of course, the whole magic of the trinket was debunked for my kids when we filled the jar with water, a bit of glycerin, and glitter.  We then glued the jar lid on and prettied it up with a bit of fabric tied round to cover the “works.”  An array of plastic moose, Thomas the Tank Engine choo choos, and Lego creations were forever entombed in fantastic swirling snowfall ever after and my kids thought they were treasures to behold.  Gifts of the heart, for sure.

more than just a jar and glitter...

The upside of less snowfall means that hopefully when our days are longer and warmer in late April & May, the earth will be happy to be tilled into gardens and the chickens will be able to run around foraging for yummy grubs and worms all the sooner.  Since my kids are half Hobbit, they’ll be delighted to ditch their shoes and go back to being barefoot out-of-doors.  But in the meantime, we’ll make do without snowmen and enjoy our skating pond, sans weekly shoveling.  If the flakes do fall, and accumulate, I’ll be the first to test their ripeness!

"Black" ice on the pond means we can peer into the frozen depths

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My Italian Wedding Soup

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On a bitter cold January day in Vermont, I made a pot of soup.

It started with a good stock.  I mean a GOOD stock in which I’d simmered the remnants of our last evening’s roaster with all manner of antioxidants and then strained it to make about 24 cups of absolute nectar.  Into the stock went more goodness such as the above ingredients of shallots, celery, ginger root, rosemary, parsley and garlic cloves and simmered it some more. Meanwhile, I considered what would be tasty and special with the broth and vegetables and I remembered that I had some sweet pork sausage defrosted from a recipe I considered making the night before.  I got very excited to put together a chicken and sausage soup, including the leftover chicken and finishing a bag of spinach that needed to be cooked.  I was then inspired to replicate the Italian Wedding Soups that my kids and I love so much.

sourdough croutons, shallots, parsley, apple, and pork sausage

The sausage got combined with some delicious ingredients in the food processor and after properly pulverizing it all, I made dozens of mini-meatballs.  ”Meatball-ettes” that I baked in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees F..  Everyone came out of the woodwork, out of their easy chairs, so that they could taste these delicious little gems because they smelled so heavenly.  Jody pleaded that I not use them all in the soup because he wanted some for simply snacking.

the little guys out of the oven

So I put about a dozen aside for snacking or an impromptu mini-meatball lunch, and reserved the rest alongside the saved chicken pieces.  I peeled and diced carrots to add to the stock, simmered further and tasted for salt, and started a pot of water to boil some starch.  I chose a bag of homemade egg noodle ribbons to prepare and keep in a covered casserole on the side.  If I added the starch to the pot of soup, it’s would go the way of mush, I just knew it.

Italian Wedding Soup for dinner

When it was close to serving time, I added the sausage and chicken to the hot broth and vegetables.  Everyone was invited to fill their bowls with noodles and ladle the soup over top, dive in and de-frost!  Rave reviews from around the table meant that I’d better make this recipe again.

*Note:  Do not give this nice hot soup to your child for their lunch the next day in a thermos that refuses to be opened during their lunchtime, leaving them sad and staring at the unyielding bottle and therefore hungry. :-(

"No soup for you!" or "Failed lunch in which Charlotte is taunted by the plump cherub."

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Survival of the Fittest

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a good nap helps with coping skills

Around here, we have a saying when things are not going right.  ”It’s the recession” is our response to the hens not laying, the car breaking, the fence needing mending, the dog’s limping, the carrots burning, the puzzle piece missing.  We have a good time with it because it almost always provides the comic relief that helps during stressful situations while one regains perspective.  I’m happy that we use it in jest, because lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the recession in how it has and will play out in our days.  It helps me to  contrast how society views its importance and what I’ve learned from my farm animals about quality of life.  

For example, Pony Jac, our nickname for Nite Nite, cares not one iota about the strength of the dollar.  She will continue to look for greener grass everyday of the year whether there is a sufficient amount of grazing in her pasture or not.  It is her way to look for daily challenges.  I had to chase her out of the chicken grain bin this morning for the second time this week and pop her into the safehold of the roundpen to keep her from looking for new ways to colic.  She’s not nearly starving and has the most “winter weight” of our entire herd. She is a junk-food-junkie and doesn’t care about playing it safe.  But mainly it is just her nature to investigate new adventures and find herself in situations that she deems profitable.

Nite Nite keeps things interesting

The hens and roosters are having to stay confined these days because of a few reasons.  Their outlook, though, teaches very strong lessons about finding the good in any situation.  I’m so terribly sorry for their winter accommodations and do my best to improve their conditions by bringing them hay for bedding and their confined yard, making sure their hopper is always full of the tasty grain they love, and daily providing them with buckets full of delicious house scraps.  By the way, chickens will eat anything!  They are carb-pigs and love leftover holiday cookies.  I also padded their nesting boxes with leftover belly wool from last September’s shearing.  At any rate, they teach me that they will not stop producing in this world because they are not in their beloved woods and fields, scratching and roaming free.  They’ll deliver their daily eggs, restructure their free time and make the best of the confinement.  I guess they complain somewhat, but they’ve got my ear and my love and I have to hope that is the best we all can do, in their interest, to help them through the colder, sparser days of January.

Productive January hens

And the lessons continue….if it’s not one flock, it’s another herd that shows me how the important things in life are not things and if we practice going beyond that, economic conditions, boon or bust, will not rule our days.  Make do with what you have, adjust as quickly as you can, believe that what matters is not attached to material goods.  Adopt the mentality that if life hands you lemons, make lemonade.  How sad it would be to look back at one’s life and see that you’d defined it incorrectly the whole time and didn’t properly savor the millions of daily blessings.  I’m really not part of any “Occupy” camp, one way or another, but I do say “there’s no crying over second homes!”

Don’t mourn the pond if a bucket will do

So this year, if the recession has you down, try not to let it steal too much of your life away before you shake it off, realign your plumage, and resume your strut.

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12 Months of “To Do” for 2012

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Pond girls - January 2010

1.  I will skate more in January.  I’ve got a great pair of speed skates that need to be sharpened so that I can get back on the short track.  I’ve also got some knock-abouts from my teen years for the pond.   And I will jump in Lake Paran in North Bennington at the end of the month for a fundraiser with my Youth Group for Vermont Special Olympics.  We are “Team Healing Waters” and this will be our 3rd year jumping in.  We wear masks and capes and we are crazy.  I thought about doing Yoga or some sort of exercise program, but I’m not going to get hung up if I don’t follow through.  I figure jumping into a frozen lake at the end of the month in Vermont in January sort of overrides other ambitions.  And I will ride Izzy if it’s not too icy.

Dedicated kids bringing the song and the cake to mum!

2.  I will blow out 47 Candles in February to the strains of my family’s singing, no matter how we can arrange their voices together…and, sing to Jody for his 21st birthday while he is fishing a tournament far, far from Vermont, and make and send Valentines (my inner child comes out!) and skate on the pond with my Youth Group for our annual Superbowl Party after we’ve sold a zillion subs for a fundraiser.  And  I will ride Izzy…

Spring does eventually return!

3.  I will force forsythia and repot seedlings in March.  Hurray for seed catalogs in December!  And I will put on a Talent Show/Boiled Supper Fundraiser with my Youth Group on St. Patrick’s Day, and put on my brogue for St. Patrick’s day(this drives my kids CRAZY!), and have a sugar-on-snow-party with 2012 Maple Syrup.  And ride Izzy…

Nite Nite with her trainer, Char, during the end of Mud Season

4.  We will put a cart on that pony in April!  And I will sing for Easter, and bowl with my Youth Group for Big Brother/Big Sister Bowl for Kids’ Sake, and find some time to celebrate Sarah Jane’s 19th birthday -I already know what she wants for her birthday dinner, but sadly she won’t be home :-(   And if she does get a chance to come home, go for a ride together….

Char cuddles the lambs: Maggie with Iglesias & Buttercup, Ruva with Daisy & Obaamaa

5. I will lose sleep when we lamb in May, this time hopefully with 5 ewes due! And I will attend end-of-year concerts, and welcome home college kids for their summer vacations, and get turkey poults started and maybe more chicks…haven’t decided yet.  And if there is any time, which there will not really be much of, I’ll ride Izzy.

Late day walks in hay fields

6.  We will make it, finally,  to Mel’s Solstice Party in June…and hay, of course, and plant and weed the garden, and soak up summer, and ride Izzy!

Jody with a bass on Gale Meadow

7.  I will go fishin’ with the family in July.  Actually, SJ, Char & I like to read & take photos while we accompany the fishermen.  And  we’ll celebrate Jim’s & Char’s birthdays -55 and 17, and we’ll garden and tend the flocks of sheep and poultry and kid goats, and ride Izzy.

a lane of hives

8.  We will harvest honey in August.  Last year, our bees didn’t have a productive enough year to share with us, so I am hoping that this will be a better year for them for their sake, and for ours.  I sure did miss having my own honey!  And in August, spend time at Lake Champlain with the family for our annual vacation, and hopefully bring the horses again so that I can ride Izzy.

wooly friends

9.  We will shear the sheep in September. And, sadly, say goodbye to Jody & Sarah Jane as they start their senior & second years in college, as well as see Char through college applications!  Oh let’s not start thinking about that now…Char & I will have to ride in September.

little Cooper with the 2011 entries

10.  We will host the Myers Road Pumpkin Party in October, and harvest the garden, and attend the Mount Holyoke Fall Concert, and hopefully have a long weekend with Jody, and watch the Red Sox in the World Series, and ride Izzy in the fall foliage.

Porch Turkeys

11.  I will harvest Thanksgiving Turkeys in November, but this year there will be a no fly zone declared on the front and back porches…I just can’t devote two hours a day to cleaning the porch off!  And probably rehearse Christmas music for December singing, and we will be enjoying my kids’ visit home for Thanksgiving break, and preparing the barn for wintertime tuck-ins for goatsies, sheep and horses, and get out on my Iz whenever I can.

Bennington Children's Chorus members line up to process at the Old First Church in Bennington, VT

12.  Finally, in December, attending the last Candlelit Service at the Old First Church in Old Bennington in which one of my daughters will be singing with the Bennington Children’s Chorus.  Ah, magical evenings they are.  I’ll hopefully be doing some singing myself in this month, and attending Mount Holyoke’s Vespers Service, and not being ready for Christmastime, and shovelling snow(hopefully?), and welcoming home college kids for winter break, and tucking in Shetland flocks that are successfully bred, and collecting eggs a-plenty for December baking, and be as healthy, grateful and blessed as I have been these past 47 years!  I’m not sure I’ll be riding Izzy in December ;-)

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Happy Christmas Tales

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Fireside chat on Christmas Eve?

When I delegated the tucking in of the animals on Christmas Eve to my husband and son,  I was grateful to have their assistance but sorry to miss out on my  little Christmas Eve chat with everyone.  Typically I give everyone extra carrots, hay, grain, apples, even peppermints sometimes.  I sing carols to them and tell them that tonight is the night that Santa comes and brings treats to good little ponies, and the like.  I also ask them if they wouldn’t mind letting me in on their midnight conversations and send me some sort of sign so I know it’s time.  I refer to the old legend about how Christmas Eve is the night that the animals talk…  Silly, you might think, because they talk all of the time!  From what I can only trace to early European superstitions, at midnight they are all able to speak the same language, the language of humans.

Indeed Jim  had actually remembered to give them the word!  He reminded them that it was a special night and I was relieved and delighted.

What would they be saying?

We decided the goats would be full of toddler chat and enthusiasm for Santa and the reindeer. I happen to think that the Sheep would speak with a Scottish accent and comment largely on the sparseness of the grazing material and the quality of the hay they’ve been getting and who looks good in what color and such.  There are a dozen of them now, and they have been spending time together 24/7 since Balrog went buh-bye.  (He was the ram I’d used for 2 breeding seasons.)  The wethers and ewe lambs and pregnant ewes have been dining and sleeping pretty peacefully and it sure does simplify things around here for me.  So they might also discuss their new togetherness and whether it is agreeable to them or not.

The horses would probably be engrossed in a gossip-session as they are the few animals on the farm that have gotten out and about.  They’ve gone swimming in Lake Champlain,  know the neighbors, the neighbors’ horses, pets and the geography of the area far better than the sheep.  I would guess they enjoy the night sky, also, and are on lookout for eight tiny reindeer and a jolly little elf.  I mean, really, there would be a wonderful opportunity for an exchange with the reindeer to find out what is going on in the world so it would be worthwhile to be alert.

Bean-the-bunny is in her own stall on the far end of the barn, but if the barn kitties, Wasabi & Niska, cared to stroll by, they could have a catch-up.  Seeing as Wasabi and Niska spend time in the woods and fields, hunting rodents of all sizes, including rabbits, Bean might not enjoy that they are her only companions to share with.  She’s been shorted, I realize, and so next year we’ll have to make sure she is situated near the goatsies or sheep so that she can have a less-threatening convo.

The poultry, except for the peafowl, are all of the same species so they don’t have a language barrier anyway.  Perhaps the peafowl speak a dialect, of sorts, but I’m betting the Araucanas could interpret for them.  The turkeys are now in folks’ ovens or freezers and so they’re not part of the equation.  The Indian Runner ducks are in a separate yard and have each other to communicate with also.  No need for the special gift that Christmas Eve brings for them under those circumstances.

I used to lie awake listening for, not Santa, but my dogs and cats to talk.  Now that I am an adult, I still have a smidgen of hope that I would catch them in the act!

Yes, there is room for silliness this Christmastide.  The celebration of holidays is always special and with the ups and downs, an opportunity for finding deeper meaning in life.  But you just can’t knock a holiday that has a legend associated with it as being a night the animals talk.

the lion and the lamb

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Seeing the Forest for the Yule Logs

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Adding the butter a tablespoon at a time…

That is my son, Jody.  He’s home from college and I am thrilled to share the kitchen with him.  I had a big week of cooking for a couple of parties and to prepare for the Walloomsac Farmers’ Market Holiday Market in Bennington this weekend.  There was a LOT of buttercream to prepare and it meant incorporating butter into 24 egg whites & sugar, one tablespoon at a time.  I really enjoyed having company and he was able to listen to his pod-casts while assisting.  It was a win-win situation as well as he admitted that the job was quite delicious.

Quality Control

I got the notion that in addition to the 25 fruit pies I was selling at the market, Buche de Noels would be festive to offer.  I get a kick out of making them once a year and they are also a feast for my eyes:  they are as whimsical as they are decadent.  I tuned in my Holiday Playlist and then pulled out the old “Joy of Cooking.”  I found my favorite recipe, tied on an apron and baked dark chocolate genoise layers, cooked simple syrup and assembled amazing ingredients into sinful buttercream.  I had a great time arranging and decorating lovely little logs to fill my kitchen and then my table at the market.

soaking the Genoise with a Vanilla Simple Syrup

6 pounds of butter later...

spreading the buttercream on the Genoise layer

roll 'em up, wrap 'em up, refrigerate 'em...

adding the melted chocolate to the buttercream

Turns out the tricky part was finding the proper containers for their transport.  They want to be handled quite carefully so as not to disturb the “bark” and little merengue mushrooms.  (By the way, making merengue mushrooms is equally enchanting.)  I decided that inserting a wax sheet of paper into the re-cycled spinach containers would make it easier for the customers to lift their desserts out with the least amount of destruction.  The customers’ reactions were positive, and so as I type, I hope that they are bringing as much joy and satisfaction to the tables in Bennington County as they brought to my kitchen this Advent Season.  

Que c'est délicieux!

a small forest of Buche de Noels

And, a final note is that this wonderful endeavor would not have happened had it not been for my hard-working flock of layer hens who, I am happy to report, are back at work after a 3.5 month vacation.  Salut aux poules!

The recession is over! Hard working hens back to work.

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