Household Truce and Happy Heifers

Why, hello again friends. I hope my long absence hasn’t upset you. As always, I appreciate the encouragement to blog from my good friends — especially you, Chris. I truly needed it.

So what type of monkey-business have I been up to you ask?

Well, the norm.

Brandon and I have come to a household truce. I have continued the use of strategic note placement to encourage good housekeeping. Brandon has continued to make fun of me.

Certain things have come along in the last month that I have found to be very amusing. Like everything else, you can find most of them on Pinterest.

In an effort simplify your life; I decided to make a list here.

Chickasaw Country- A sassy new travel site designed by my friend, Brooke. Don’t forget to check out her super cool blog too.

Dirt Road Daughters Magazine- A new fashion and lifestyle publication for today’s daring generation of country girls. It’s got some great cowgirl attire and sassy home decorating tips.

The Food Effect-  An interactive site designed by my friends at the North Carolina Pork Producers Council to encourage people to give their voice, money or time to help feed a kid in need. Isn’t that cool?

Whew, that got a little deep. Back to the fun stuff.

A new addition to our little family are a few heifers we’re keeping north of town. I continue to learn more about these 4 legged bovine creatures. They make me giggle. Caring for them also makes me do two times the laundry every week because I’m covered with dirt and dust after chores. Not fun, but we must take the good with the bad.

Below is a video from the pens earlier this week.

So what do you think about my amateur video work? How about that cute little cowboy? And who thinks we should enter that one heifer into the Kentucky Derby?

Everyday Food Thoughts

On Tuesday I’ll be packing my bags and heading out of MHK.

Why? I’ll be attending The Center of Food Integrity‘s 2011 Food Summit for work.  I’ve attended this meeting for 3 years now and I always enjoy it.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund. I’ve never heard him speak in person and I’m very interested in what he has to say. The World Wildlife Fund’s website describes itself as, “the world’s leading conservation organization, combining global reach with a foundation in science, involving action at every level from local to global, and ensuring delivery of innovative solutions for both people and nature.”

To me, this meeting is about much more than work. This is about my life. My life includes food. I want to know the food I cook everyday is healthy for us all- people, planet and the environment.

There’s a lot to think about when it comes to food and our food choices. I want to make the best one I can.

In the below video, CFI does an interesting job summarizing food-globally and locally. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Low Budget Girl Seeks Yummy Recipes for Hungry Man

In September or October of 2009, I made a life changing decision.

I purchased my first Taste of Home magazine.

I can’t remember how the purchase happened. It was probably an impulse buy to cook for friends. I never used a recipe, the magazine was stashed in a drawer, and somehow {miraculously} the magazine survived and it’s living in my kitchen.

By chance, I found the magazine last weekend when I was looking for a good Fall recipe for BEO.

Little did I know this magazine was going to save my newlywed life- one low budget recipe at a time.

The article: Shop Once…Eat All Week!

You can find the 5 recipes on the page linked to above. They are to the right hand side in the box that says “related recipes.” They include ham & sundried tomato alfredo, savory onion chicken, ham & broccoli frittata, onion-dijon pork chops and southwest beef pie.

Yes, it’s online. Yes, that’s cool.

The link above will provide you and your family 5 weeknight recipes, prepped and cooked in 30 minutes, UNDER $1.50 per serving. It even tells you what day to cook them.

Organization, budgeting and time management at it’s best folks. What’s not to love?

I went to the store immediately, purchased the items on the already prepared grocery list and started cooking.

I made the ham & sun-dried tomato alfredo recipe on Monday.

The bad news: He wouldn’t have wanted me to share this picture.

The good news: He liked it.

I did add a few extra ingredients for flavor- like salt, pepper and random Italian seasoning I had on hand.

I never got to the rest of the recipes. Oh well, that’s what the weekend is for.

I’m on a mission. I want more of these pre-planned, budget friendly recipes. Do you or any of your blogger friends do this type of thing?

If so, leave me a link. I could use it.

WBG’s and Other Acronyms I Don’t Understand

My love for the outdoors and BEO’s natural tendency to be a cowboy have come together lately for an exciting new adventure.

We decided to buy a few head of calves and we’re keep them a few miles north of town.

Cute right?

The new little adventure comes with lots learning on my end and I’ve taken quite a bit of interest in helping out.

Here’s what I see when I go out to the pasture.

Yep, they want something to eat.

Since BEO does this everyday -and is a pro at this cowboy stuff- he suggested we feed them wet brewers grain (WBG) from a local brewery. This peaked my interest because- well, it just does.

So I looked up a bit about using WBG’s as cattle feed and found out that BEO’s not only super good looking- he also knows a bit about feeding calves.

Here is what the the WBG’s look like.

As you can see, we tote them up to the pasture in clean trash cans. More on that later.

Here is what WBG’s look like up close.

If you read the article that I linked to above about WBG’s it states “ A well-balanced mineral supplement should be supplied when using WBG in cattle diets to avoid the negative effects of decreased growth performance experienced when this ratio is not properly balanced.” So we also feed this pelleted supplement to make sure the calves get the right amount of vitamins and minerals.

It seems to be a hit. I think it’s pretty cool we can make use of the WBG’s and help out our local brewery.

Remember those trash cans from above? BEO named me the “CEO of Trash Can Cleaning.” It’s an honor I take very seriously. This is my realm.

It’s a tough job but somebody has to do it.

As mentioned, I’m not the expert in all this cattle stuff. If you find yourself interested in or looking for some fine folks that post stuff about feeding cattle or cattle in general, check out these blogs.

http://feedyardfoodie.wordpress.com/

http://crystalcattle.blogspot.com/

http://kansascattleranch.blogspot.com/

http://thesouthdakotacowgirl.com/

For the record, I am an expert trash can cleaner.