Not so frozen broccoli

Very very late in the summer I planted a bunch of broccoli just hopping it would mature..it's getting there. But if it goes directly to bolt I'll laugh. What a 'winter' we've been having!

Not-so-frozen broccoli.

Normally anything in the garden would be dead and it would be totally frozen out there. But today it's going to be about 60*. I don't mind telling you that this whole mild winter is working out for me.

This decorative cabbage is stunning. 

One of the things I'm especially excited about is that we have barely used any heating oil or firewood. It may not sound like much but it's nice to have the savings.

The celery is still hanging in there. 

And I'm still able to work outside so I'm perfectly OK with this whole global warming thing.

Happy Friday everyone! Do you still have veg in the garden? How's your mild winter going?

These two...... I got you, Little Brother

This happened yesterday - our biggest cat, Nicholas, snuggled up and put a protective paw around his favorite buddy, Little Mo. Little Mo had a hard day on Sunday so he needed some extra lovin's.

I got you, Little Brother.

Technically they are not really brothers - they are not litter mates. But we are all one big happy family here.  Nicholas and Little Mo are best pals and basically inseparable. They couldn't be more different. Nicholas is our best inside hunter and our most expressive cat... and Little Mo was The World's Worst Barncat who always looks a little sad and a little surprised.

You can see that Nicholas's huge mousestomper paws are bigger than Little Mo's back feet entirely. Mo's tiny little Mickey Mouse paws are no threat to anyone - instead of Daggers of Doom they are pretty much Doom Spoons. Nicholas charges into adventure while Little Mo slinks into the shadows. Nicholas slays the dangers in life while Little Mo has virtually no tools to handle life's adversities. Mo's only superpower is the suck all the adorableness out of a room with his wide eyes.

Sunday we had a full scale freak out over Little Mo. He didn't eat breakfast. For a cat who has never missed a meal it was pretty surprising. Of course, we had somewhere to go that day because there is never a convenient crisis. We didn't know if we'd end up at the after hours vet..... or if Little Mo just ate a bunch of popcorn that we left out from movie nite.

After a lot of futzing we determined that Mo was not in crisis. Later we learned that he was just fine and ate dinner like normal. What's the big deal? Cats - especially shy ones like Little Mo - hide their symptoms. Sometime you have no idea anything is wrong before it is too late.

When she was young one of my old lady cats was on the brink of total kidney failure and the only clue was that she sat someone else at night. That was it. I took her to the vet and the only symptom to report was that she wasn't watching TV with me. After some scoffing by the office staff the blood work revealed a crisis. We got her fixed up and she went on to live 18 good long years. So we take changes in behavior seriously.

So now Little Mo is back to rights after a hard day of us hovering over him. Nicholas gave him some extra snuggles and all is right with the world.

I'm also using this picture of Nicholas to catch OneVikingGirl's attention.... I used your spice suggestion on roasted turnips and they were terrific! Thanks so much.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

It worked!

Remember when I planted my fall cover crops - entirely too late? Well, it worked! This is a little over a month's worth of growth.

Sprouts!

I can't tell if it is due to the winter hardiness of the seeds or if we've just had  nice mild weater but wow I've got sprouts!

The mix contained buckwheat, Autrian winter pea, hairy vetch, and daikon radish. I think most of these have come up. If I'm lucky enough to have them grow a little more I can let the geese in to graze these sections. They still have plenty to eat but this would be a nice forage for them.

Happy Tuesday everyone! Are your winter cover crops covering?

ps. Thanks to everyone for your purchases from my Cyber Monday 20 for $20 list! I really appreciate it!

The cake double flip. Or how to stack a layer cake.

Just a quick follow up to my cake post the other day. Does everyone know this trick? You'd think that stacking a layer cake would be easy peasy but if I don't do it this way the top cake ends up cracked or all over the counter. Apologies in advance for bad food pix.... I did this at night.

You'll need two plates. 

Let your cakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes when you take your layer cakes out of the oven. Then turn them out onto a cooling rack. You might have to tap the pans to get the cakes to come out. Then let the cakes cook completely. I think it works best if you use two separate cooling racks - one for each layer.

This makes it easy to flip the first layer out onto the serving plate. Having the bottom of the cake rest of the plate gives it a more stable base.

First layer done. Top layer ready to flip.

Now add your fillings. In this cake I used lemon curd and lemon-cream-cheese frosting. 

Now for the double flip.

Flip one.... The cake off the rack and onto the second plate.

Turn the top layer out onto your extra plate. This makes it so the top of this layer is face up. But you want the bottom of this layer to be the top of the cake - clear as mud?  This way the top of the cake will be mostly flat. You can also just cut the round, curved part of the cake off so that it's flat but come on, that is a waste of cake!

Here comes the double flip........

From the plate, flip the top layer onto the frosted top of the bottom layer.....

Now the bottom is the top! If you'd just done one flip the top of the cake would be face up.

Voila!  The bottom of the top layer is now the top of the cake! Easy peasy!

Done! Now the bottom of the second layer is the very top. Nice and easy to frost.

This always seems like magic to me. Cake magic is the best kind.

I made this cake for someone's birthday and they were very appreciative. The cake is super duper lemony.... a nice pick-me-up from traditional holiday tastes.

Happy Monday everyone! Do you do the double cake flip?

Big turnips

Big turnips... I got 'em.

That's one big turnip. 

Even tho I didn't do a great job of thinning them - this project has still worked out.

The turnips situation has been working out very well. Remember that I planted them late in the summer for several reasons. First, I knew I wanted to improve the soil - turnips do a great job of that. Next, I could use them for fodder for the pigz. Last, I just love turnips! They are particularly good after a frost.

The last several mornings the dogs and I have gone and picked a bucket of huge turnips and then thrown them at the pigz. Everyone is happy.

Happy Saturday, everyone, are you still picking turnips?

Any minute now.... And butcher days.

We got a little snow last nite... it actually stuck to the ground. Kai was over joyed and went completely snow crazy. There rest of us glared at it.

There is is. The White Death.

However....

While I don't mind a mild winter at all.... there are no freezing nights or days in the foreseeable future. This creates a problem. A pig problem. We need to get those pigz in the freezer. Soon. They are nice and delicious and I am tired of feeding them. They should be feeding me.

My kale has been hanging in there...now snowed on.

But I need two frozen nights and days. We like to butcher at about 20*. This ensures the ground is nice and frozen and it also allows us to cool the pork halves quickly by hanging them outside or in the garage. Then it gives me two days to get the meat cut up, portioned, and into the freezer. A 50* day is just not going to cut it.

So any day now we can have a little bit of winter. Otherwise my dreams of a bacon filled Christmas will be over.

Just in case you'd like to see how things go around here for butcher day... you can check out these links. Obviously these are posts ABOUT BUTCHERING so they are detailed accounts of what happens. If you don't want to know then for crying out loud don't click on them. Otherwise... I think the whole thing is pretty interesting.

The best step by step hog butchering post.

How to prepare for butcher day - and the worst thing that could happen. 

Hog Harvest 2014

Hog Harvest 2013

My favorite self portrait. Ever. No really, it's glorious.

That one time we had to butcher not-in-winter and it sucked.

Hog Harvest 2011

That should give you plenty of information. But folks always have questions so I'll be happy to answer them or just give a cheer if you need some encouragement.

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Walnut Caramel Filling - Deconstructing the Best Cake Ever.

Sometimes I make recipes up as I go. Usually I'll pull together different pieces from other recipes and hope it works out. This one worked out and it was a winner. I have got to get these details down so I don't forget what I did to make the Best Cake Ever.

 Here it is. The cake the changed my life. Thank you for the dryer, Cake!

Normally I won't eat cake unless it's chocolate. Sure I love gingerbread pudding cake sometimes. Or strawberry. Or Lemon. Sometimes. But I just don't care unless it's chocolate. But my husband doesn't love chocolate the way I do so I decided to make him the perfect cake. Just for him.

I started with my favorite Pumpkin Spice Cake. The secret really is the applesauce. But instead of making a sheet cake I used two round cake pans. This recipe fit perfectly.

The base cake was a pumpkin spice. It is very moist. Yes I cooked down the pumpkin for it.

Next, I needed a filling. I do not like nuts in cake. But my husband does so I thought a caramel-nut filling would be perfect. You probably remember that I'm not great with caramel - it's dangerous and I almost always am this close to burning the house down. However, this sauce one was very easy. It bubbled up but nothing like "real" caramel. This sauce also did not seize up like all my other failed caramel sauces. You can easily eat the rest of it right out of the jar from the fridge. For breakfast.

Then, I really wanted a special frosting. I do love cream cheese frosting. This recipe was a nice basic one. The only thing I don't like about cream cheese frosting is the cream cheese. I think the store cream cheese tastes like plastic. I know it's a little pretentious... but I made the cream cheese. Yes I did.

Making cream cheese is actually really easy. I used this recipe for mascarpone. Made this way it's basically the same as cream cheese. Pretty much you just heat cream to about 190*, stir in lemon juice, let it set up, then strain in the fridge for a day or so. Totally easy and it doesn't taste like plastic. I did, however, have to plan this so that the cream cheese was ready when the cake making day was here.

Brush the cake with booze? Sure!

I also made the butter - which is also super easy. Why? Why not. I always think it's weird when people recoil in horror at the thought of me doing work when I can just go and buy that thing. I just kinda like doing my own thing. Plus, homemade butter is a far superior product. It just is.

Making and assembling the cake was easy. It looks like a lot of steps but not really:

* I made sure I had plenty of butter- and that the mascarpone was ready.
* I cooked down a pumpkin a couple days before and then went the extra mile to re-cook it in a pan on the stove to make sure I got most of the liquid out of it.
* I made sure the oven was preheated and I prepared the pans.
* Making the batter for the cake was very simple - however, I did not have applesauce so I used apple butter and that was just fine.
* I let the cakes cool for about 15 or 20 minutes in the pans before I inverted them on a rack.
* The caramel-walnut sauce was very quick and easy. But I needed to let it cool so it would firm up before I could put the cake together. I put the sauce in the fridge for about 10 minutes - and I stirred it every couple of minutes. This worked out perfectly.
* One of the pumpkin layer cake recipies I found suggested brushing rum on the cake and letting it soak in. You know I love cooking with bourbon so hey - sure! Why not? However, I only brushed one half of the bottom layer with bourbon. It turned out to be unnecessary and almost was distracting from the caramel. Note to self: just drink the bourbon from now on.
* I piled on a generous layer of the filling on the bottom layer - but not all the way out to the edges as I knew it would kind of squish out. 
* Then, I double flipped the top layer of the cake onto the filling - do you know this trick? You want the bottom of the second cake to be the top of the whole thing. Flip the cake from the cooling rack onto a plate it will be right side up, then flip the cake onto the bottom layer and now the bottom is the top. I'll have to take pix next time. If I don't do it this way the cake ends up on the floor or cracked.
* Last, I made the frosting and really laid it on thick.

Pretty much we had the cake for dinner. Even I was surprised that it was so good. I love it when stuff works out - I'm always kind of shocked. This was definitely a winner so I'll be making it again.

In fact, it was so good my husband basically pushed the plate back, put his fork down, and then ran right down to his computer, and ordered me a new dryer. I knew the cake was good but I did not know it would be life changing.

Now everyone is happy. The cake was a big success and my new dryer is whisper quiet. I once again have fluffy soft clothes and we have proven, as always, that cake is in fact a breakfast food.

Happy Tuesday everybody! Do you need your life changed? Quick! Make this cake!


Note: sometimes people ask me why I don't just put the recipes in these posts. The answer is that they aren't mine unless I actually make them up. I usually don't so I just link to the actual recipes to avoid any kind of intellectual property disputes. Plus, other bloggers make money from their sites so it isn't fair to take that away from them. So that is why I don't copy recipes and post them here. Give a click, say hey to the other bloggers, and cut n paste them into your files. Yay!