A Rainy Day in the Ozarks

Finally a forecast came true.  It was raining lightly when I got up at 3:30 AM and has steadily increased until I can see it coming off the porch roof.  I  have barely stuck my head out...except for a  dash to the  meat freezer in the garage to get meat for lunch.

We had smothered round steak with mashed potatoes, steamed  broccoli and peach cobbler for dessert. I flour and brown the steak pieces in butter and olive  oil until they are nicely browned on both sides and then spread a can of cream of mushroom soup and cover and  cook slowly for an hour.  Very tasty.

I thawed two packages of peaches in the maslin pan.  I took out enough for a small cobbler with a frozen pie crust just over the top.  The leftover peaches were to be  cooked down into preserves.............I set right in the kitchen and let  them burn.....should have put that pan on the simmer burner and didn't.  I won't make that mistake again.  What a waste.  Shame on me and I wasn't even on the computer which is how I usually burn things.

I found another large bag of frozen  cheese peppers in the outside (garage) freezer which made me happy.  I just had a couple of tiny ones left in the kitchen freezer.

Our son came down this weekend and got his share of meat so that helped some with the space issue.  He couldn't take it  all because his freezer was too full to handle it.  He may have inherited my hoarding  instincts.

The  neighbor came  down to get his share of a small  fencing project we shared.....I hope that is the last.  Max says it is!  He always stays and has coffee and visits so that took care of a couple of afternoon hours.

The day is over for me.....no cooking evening meals....we each just get something on our own.  I figure two meals a day is enough cooking.

I will use some of the leftover steak for gravy to go with biscuits in the morning, a favorite of ours.

Note:  I give credit to a guest photographer for the new header picture.  It struck my fancy and I used it.

Guest Photographer

 I began this  a week or so ago.....should have dated it.

I am disappointed to report our warm weekend slightly evaporated. It was l7° this morning and very windy. Our 59 morphed into 35!

We are doing a bit of household chores this morning....long overdue. I have a different (for me) chicken pot pie in the small oven. I made this one with pie crust instead of biscuits like usual.

This afternoon is reserved for a visit to MIL. She needs another grab bar in the house. We will be testing the new drill/driver I bought.

I spent more time texting yesterday afternoon and evening than I thought possible. Daughter's daughter a few times and the older one granddaughter lots of times. She was visiting her boyfriend and they were cooking dinner. First she wanted to know how to mash potatoes.....then make dinner rolls. When I told her how long that took I suggested biscuits so emailed her both recipes.

She texted this AM; potatoes were great. They decided to get a “crappy mix “ for the bread. This child has not been reared in the kitchen. Her mother is not a cook. Her Dad is but their schedules don't mesh. While she is in school, he is at work. I need her down her for a week or so. I may try to teach her a crash course via texting (I hate) and the telephone on her days off, Fridays. I am happy she wants to cook and will help her in any way I can.

Well, a week has passed and nothing of great significance got done. Just routine things.

We did pick up the bull (yes, I said bull) we had processed. Long story, short: My helpmate sold all the calves without checking with me....that won't be happening again!. Anyway, the good news is the meat so far is delicious. There is zero fat which means some of the cuts will need to be tenderized to be easy to eat. The roasts and round steaks are fine because I cook them long and very low in the crock pot. I have already done round steak and it cooked very tender in less than three hours on high.

The hamburger is delicious. I am happy because we were completely out of beef.

We will be sharing with both sets of kids.

Today I am going to thoroughly re-organize and clean the back porch. My plant light shelving has to be cleared off because I will be planting seeds soon. Anything left vacant on the porch becomes instant shelving for “stuff”. Now that stuff has to go. My shelving project isn't going as well as I thought it would but I will still finish it and use it. Nothing is ever as simple or as easy as you think!

We will have company beginning Thursday for a long weekend. Granddaughter is coming down. Her BF will be home that weekend also so she won't be here that much.

The following photos are courtesy of DH. I told him no cows this time. He was trying to show me the new fence we had repaired last fall. You should have heard us! He is not good describing locations and ,just possibly, I am not good at understanding.  We might have got a little loud..

.I really liked this one of the Oak tree,

We had some north property line fence repaired last fall because of a neighboring bull that kept coming back and forth. The neighbors shared the cost (thank goodness).



The details of the fencing.  We are very happy with the finished product and we should be; it wasn't cheap.

I hope this is a Sycamore because we  had to cut the huge one we had in the West boundary line and I love how they look in fall and winter.  I asked DH if he could find it again.......he thought he could.  I see a new house being built back in the woods behind us so I am thinking that young tree is on them; not us.