I planned to milk this morning; first I noticed Willow was bellowing....she absoutely would not let her milk down. For the uninitiated, a milk cow can come into the barn with a flat, deflated udder sometimes, but when you wash her udder and massage it and strip out some milk usually her udder will fill up and become very engorged. Well Willow has always tried to hold back her milk, I think for her calves, but generally lets down after a couple of minutes prepping her. This morning, nada! So I turned her in with the calves, udder filled right up and they nurses happily. She also could have been in heat. I am marking the calendar for 21 days ahead to check.
Now I had absolutely no excuse to not tackle that bottom freezer compartment of the trio fridge. How I hate that job. To make it more fun, I decided to make Flower Lady's Oatmeal Bread that she recently blogged about. I reasoned it would be something to look forward to after the awful cleaning job and it was.
She makes hers in a bread machine but I am happy to report I made it the traditional way and it turned out beautifully. I didn't have all the herbs so made some substitutions. I used fennel seed instead of caraway, no marjoram-used rosemary. We liked it very much. I was afraid the herbs and spices would be too strong, but they are not. I am looking forward to trying some as toast or with soup.
She has a link to the recipe on her Blog
I was able to bake it in the counter-top oven which was a plus. I did have to cover the top with foil and I almost waited too late!
I followed Granny's Place method of listing all the things in the drawer and will put it on a spread sheet soon. I couldn't believe how much I had crammed in there. I found lunch which was a plus. We had spaghettil cheese bake and a slice of Oatmeal bread and a small cupcake for dessert. I had frozen three in a ziploc bag; found a container of cream cheese icing. They were banana so that worked out well.
I also put all frozen bread in the bottom of the drawer and moved heavy things to the upright freezer on the back porch. The hardest part of the whole ordeal is taking out the drawer and getting it back on the tracks again. You have to do that in order to wash the bottom of the freezer which always is a mess. Actually defrosting the upright is much easier. I want to do it soon and make a listing of the items.
It was 100° today, a good day to be working inside.
I always find enough frozen odds and ends to put together a couple of meals when I clean out our freezer.
ReplyDeleteThe oatmeal bread sounds like it would go well with beef stew or vegetable soup in the winter time.
When we had milk cows it used to make dad mad when a cow wouldn't let it's milk down. It was my job to wash the udders and he'd swear I hadn't down a good job.
I need to do this very thing and today is as good as any! I do like the idea of making a list of what's in there, it's such a jumble of this and that. Have been trying to clear out all but meat in the upright freezer in the garage. Meat is going to make a jump this winter, there is a glut in the market right now according to my live in expert so I'm buying meat in bulk. Ben the dog sure doesn't want to face a meatless day...
ReplyDeleteI need to be cleaning the basement but I keep putting it off. It's still just too humid even downstairs. I just finished watering the flowers outside a little bit ago and I can see it's going to be a hot one today. Will this MO heat ever end? Your oatmeal bread looks good. Have a good day!
ReplyDeleteI cleaned my refrigerator-freezer out just the other day. For now, I know what all my bits and tads are, because there are not many left! I made meals out of the freezer for three or four days. Finished off half a jar of blueberry jam by putting a tablespoon in my oatmeal every day till it was gone... And in the refrigerator, used up the last jar of sauerkraut I made early this summer, since there were only two jars I had just put them in the fridge instead of canning them. We had smoked sausage and I sliced the last of the small Yukon Golds into the skillet and fried them. It makes me feel good to make good use of things some people might just throw away.
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