Gingerbread House: 2010

Every year, we make a gingerbread house. Last year, we made a house AND a santa sleigh with reindeer that we bought on clearance the spring before. This year, I got a gingerbread house from Bountiful Baskets. The only drawback (I think) was that it didn't come with any candy for decorating, which negated the inexpensive cost of the house because we still had to buy a ton of candy. Anyway, it was fun. It went together fairly well, although a wall by the front door was broken when we opened the box. Once it was assembled, we had to wait 24 hours before decorating.



I was worried the house would collapse in the night (the walls are quite thick), so I put an extra layer of icing all the way around the bottom. I'll let you know after Christmas how my bamboo cutting board survives this ordeal...


So, day two, we decorated. We had m&m's, hershey's kisses, sourpatch kids, sweet tarts, mini candy canes, sprinkles and more! It was a blast. H-Bomb discovered that if you twist the sourpatch kids, they make GREAT icicles!


When we decorate a gingerbread house, there are absolutely no rules, we all just have at it. There is no stifling of creativity in this house! Candy is eaten, and some is even put on the house! Everyone sort of decorates the space in front of him/her. Even Sawed Off had a turn with the icing bag! (below)


I decorated the chimney myself! Brown, red and orange "brick" m&m's, with H-Bomb's twisted sour patch kids for smoke!

(notice H-Bomb's icicles under the eave!)

Sawed Off and I decorated the roof on this side.

Sawed Off with the sparkly green gel.

The back of the house, complete with marshmallow snowmen and m&m's wreath!

The front of the house. We had some issues with the sparkly red and green gel icings, but H-Bomb declared that they were "blood and guts" and explained "they forgot to take down their Halloween decorations!" Perfect.

the aftermath.
(and Number One's side of the house!)

Happy Christmas!!!

Ranch Cookin'

I've been making food most of the week for the cowboys and crew, Tuesday was Shipping Day, and for lunch I made my Rustic Chili, several loaves of Artisan Bread, and the traditional Chocolate Sheet Cake to rave reviews all around.

Thursday and Friday, ABEG was here branding and sorting and preg-checking cows. On Thursday, I served lunch in the corral: Beef Brisket Sandwiches with our family's Famous Barbecue Sauce, chips, and Neiman Marcus Cookies. On Friday, I served another corral lunch of Cashew Chicken Sandwiches, chips, and Classic Peanut Butter Cookies. Friday was a very long day, so I also ended up serving everyone dinner: Sue's Pesto, pasta, a salad, wine, and some leftover cookies.

Last night, one of our old cowboys showed up with his son and a friend, and we also had another three cowboys show up to help move the cattle, which along with our regular crew and families adds up to 14 people. Now that the cattle are all branded, we have to move three large groups of them to three separate winter ranges. I'm not sure how we ended up with so much help this year, but that's the way it happened.

So this morning, CG asked me if I wouldn't mind making dinner for everyone--all 14 of us! I told her I'd think of something...

Stay Tuned!

Thanksgiving.

homemade chandelier

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I wanted to have it at our house this year, where the only space we have for 10 or more people is in our unfinished addition...no insulation, only exterior walls, roof and windows. When we started clearing it out, it was full of sawdust, nails and extra wood. There is no electricity out there and thus are no light fixtures, so I decided I would haul out our Christmas lights. I strung them around the perimeter of the room.

I collected every clear glass jar I could find, washed them and made candle holders. I wrapped them with steel wire, and suspended them from the rafters with steel chain from the mercantile. I think they turned out beautifully. I am in love with them. A few strategically-placed space heaters and our room was transformed...a hint of what's to come when this dining room is finally completed!

before we lit the candles

the wine bar

We raided the bunk house and our barn loft storage for dining room tables and chairs, as well as a lovely antique dresser to serve as our wine bar. I drug Number One's homemade wine bottle holder (above, left) out of the garage, dusted off the cobwebs and loaded it with several bottles of wine.

I borrowed clear glasses from CG for water glasses for the table, and raided my unused canning jars for our centerpiece. A gorgeous last-minute table runner (thank you,amazon, for free two-day shipping!) and our table was complete.

I also realized we needed some wine glasses, so I used an amazon coupon for this lovely set. (of 12, but we only needed 8 for dinner) It's difficult to see in the picture, but I also used some memory wire and beads that Marlow had given me to fashion wine glass markers. The table runner on the wine bar is one my grandma gave me several years ago.

This is our scrumptious spread of appetizers.
For our complete Thanksgiving menu (pictures and recipes!) please follow this link.
We had contributions from everyone, and everyone was so helpful! (especially my two friends--you know who you are!) Honestly, I couldn't have done it without you both.

Doesn't this look lovely when the candles are lit and the cranberry sauce is illuminated?
Everyone was so busy eating and drinking wine and raving over the food that I neglected to get a picture of all of us eating...let's just say dinner was a success!
(and besides, I don't post many pictures of people here anyway)
Everything was delicious and was finished on time.
It's always nice when it all comes together.

The whole effect was truly magical.

After we had finished our dinner,
three of the kids found out there would be pie,
and came back to finish their turkey!

And I just couldn't stop taking pictures.
I let the candles burn well after everyone had left.
I am still so thankful for our good friends and family
who were able to be with us and share our lovely meal.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Shipping Day

Number One and the rest have been gathering cattle for weeks, bringing them all down from the mountain, getting ready for shipping day. This year, my mom and dad were here for shipping day, for the first time ever. My mom took H-Bomb and Sawed Off to school, while my dad and I stayed to help with shipping.

This year, since my mom was helping with the boys, I got to go watch the early morning roundup. I'm sure Number One would have let me ride and help round up the cattle, but honestly it was before dawn and I was exhausted. So I just ran around taking pictures.


They loaded up the truck with hay in an effort to lure the cows into the corrals. Sometimes it works. My dad drove the hay truck through the fields, and there were four or five cowboys pushing the cows toward the hay truck. My dad drove the truck right into the corrals, cows bellowing and following behind him. With this many cattle, it takes more than one pass with the hay truck, and some fast riding to round up the stragglers who by now are trying to escape.


Essentially, one shipping day is the same as the last. You have the buyer, the broker, the ranch hands, moving and sorting all the cattle. You have the semi truck drivers. You have the folks working the scale and keeping records of weights and numbers. You have the dust and the dirt and the fussy cattle.

The cattle are sorted into separate corrals, heifers (girls) and steers (boys) and then the buyer and the broker go through them all and decide which ones they want. My job, again this year, was to keep the cattle from busting back through the gates, and to help my dad fill the alley and the waiting corrals with cattle. It moves pretty quickly when the cows cooperate. The cattle the buyer wants are sent to the scales to be weighed, then to a corral to await loading into the trucks.


The cattle the buyer doesn't want are sent to a separate corral and ultimately released back into the fields.

After the trucks are loaded, three semi truck loads today, the cows that are left need to be let out into the fields and then they all need to be fed.

And at the end of the day, whenever that may be, you have lunch. Whether it be 2:00pm or 8:00pm, it is still called Shipping Day Lunch. This year, I prepared a huge pot of my Rustic Chili, a humongous salad, and the now-traditional Chocolate Sheet Cake. Because I volunteered to be in charge of lunch, I got to leave the corrals about an hour early so I missed the loading of the trucks and the feeding. I had made the chili and the cake the day and night before, and tossed the salad while the chili was reheating. Everyone loved it, it was the perfect end to a hard day's work.

I was chased by a bull or two, and/or some cows in the past week, but I will post those stories another day because I honestly can't remember if any of it happened on shipping day or not...

Unexpected Harvest

On Sunday morning, CG informed us that she had ice on her trees, from where she had her sprinkler running all night long, and that her weather station said it had gotten down to 30 degrees during the night. She asked about our tomatoes. Our weather station, 1/10th mile away, said 36 degrees. And our tomatoes were fine. Peppers too. So honestly I didn't think much about it, and since Sunday was already scheduled as Salsa Day, I spent the morning making eight batches of salsa with all of our ripe tomatoes. I left the green tomatoes on the vines.

Sunday night, however, it FROZE for real. I awoke to our weather station registering a low of 26 degrees. Wilted tomato plants and pepper plants. I knew, after we got home from school today, we'd have to harvest every single vegetable in the garden.

We have yet to turn on the heaters in our house. We're just not ready for this kind of weather. I think I'm in denial.

Today, when we got home to school, I got to work. Wifey said all of her tomatoes, every last one, froze. She tried to bring some in the house, and they were just mush. She pulled up all her tomato plants and fed them, tomatoes and all, to the goats.

I harvested all the tomatoes that weren't mushy, and some that were. I am going to experiment with roasting them tonight into a batch or two of salsa. Roasting and salsifying tomatoes makes them mushy anyway, so I'm hopeful. We'll see. And I'll let you know.

I harvested all the peppers, even the teeny tiny ones that just didn't have enough of a chance to grow, and all the tomatillos. It seems like this is a very early freeze--it seems like I usually don't have to harvest EVERYTHING until at least the end of October, sometimes later.

We lost about half of our beautiful basil. I fed the blackened, wilted, frozen basil, stalks and all, to the goats. Another experiment: I moved the EarthBox of herbs (basil, Italian parsley, sage) in front of the windows in the addition. We'll see if they will last just a bit longer until I can at least make some pesto or dry some of the parsley. I don't see why they wouldn't last, as long as I write a note to myself about keeping the box watered.

Now I will need to monitor my bowls of tomatoes, gathering the ripest ones for salsa every couple of days. Did you know you can pick green tomatoes and they will ripen on the counter or in a bowl? I was happy to learn that several years ago--it really works!

So anyway. The salsa will continue until we are out of tomatoes...

Busy Morning on the Ranch

The power came on before 6:am this morning. Despite the fact that I REALLY need a shower, I decided to get up and do yoga before the boys woke up. I got through a whole hour with no interruptions! Amazing. And Number One isn't even home; he's still in the Basin. I was also greeted by the discovery that my recipe blog, The Bad Girl's Kitchen, had a record 70 visits yesterday! Excellent.

Sawed Off woke up first, as usual, and ate two bowls of Cheerios, followed by Cheddar Jalapeño Cheetos. He loves both of those.

Wifey offered to get some things from town for me, and brought her computer over for a quick fix because she couldn't close her browser window. Did I ever tell you I'm the resident computer expert?

H-Bomb woke up a little later, but wasn't ready to eat breakfast. He just wanted Garlic Pistachios. Which I had to shell for him.

I decided to get on the ball and make a double batch of Annaley's Prairie Fire Beans so I can freeze them and have them ready to take to my 20 year high school reunion in July. (I realize I just gave you an opportunity to do the math and figure out my age, but I still look young enough to get carded for beer, so I could deny deny deny if I really wanted to!)

The boys decided to play outside, naked, in the little kiddie pool, and then on the swing set, and then with their trucks. They've been busy too.

I never thought I could find a way to improve Annaley's classic recipe, but to be honest, I have. I start off frying onions in lard, the Mexican way, and then continue on with the recipe. They have such a great, smoky flavor! And I know I've said this before, but there is no better smell, except maybe coffee brewing in the morning, than onions fryin' up in lard. Trust me on this.

Once the beans and ham hocks went in the pot, I went out, still in my pajamas/yoga attire, greasy hair and all, to stake out the little goats.

But those little goats, Woody and Jessie, were not being cooperative. They were happy to see me, but then on the way to the stake they got distracted by some fresh little elm tree whips.


Then, they were about to jump on their favorite rock, but got distracted by the flowers Wifey planted around the base. Whoops! I pushed them onto the rock, then missed catching video of their usual morning bucking/kicking/leaping acrobatics to get off the other side.


We ran, the goats and I, between our house and the commissary, past the gas tanks, and it was going pretty well: I could see the darn stake, over there between the bath house and the little log cabin, nicely shaded. Unfortunately for me, all the goats could see was fresh alfalfa growing in the sunny yard behind the bunk house. I got their water ready, untangled their ropes. After 20 minutes of cajoling and bribery, I gave up. I went and pulled up their stake, and tied them out where they stood and moved their water. They don't have any shade right now, but it's only 10:30am so they'll be okay for a while. Perhaps once they eat all the alfalfa, they'll be ready to move.

The good news is, I finally found the darn sledgehammer that's been missing for at least a week. And the ground in the yard was fairly soft, especially with a good sledgehammer to pound in the stake instead of the lame rock I'd been using!

Back at the house, the beans are bubbling away on the stove, the boys (still naked) are eating fresh cherries (which I, of course, had to pit by hand for Sawed Off b/c my cherry pitter thingie is packed away in the cabin somewhere, and if I didn't he would just crunch up or swallow the pits), and I am finishing this blog. All before 11:am.

I already feel like I accomplished a lot today, but there is always more to do. I got more jalapeños the other day, and I need to get another batch of Bacon Wrapped Jalapeños in the freezer! (you can never have too many!) And then there's the Steak Fajitas I need to prepare and freeze because I don't know if the meat will last until Number One gets home from the Basin! And I still would really like to take a shower! If I feel like it later today, I'll do another post to let you know what I've been up to.

That Ain't Fish.

So Wifey came home with some fish recently. A huge slab of fish. She was gonna cook it up for Ranch Hand and Farmer. It was really inexpensive--only $2.00! She had it up on the counter, thawing, when Ranch Hand came home and asked her not to cook it, "please don't make me eat that!"

Wifey said something like "it's some kind of fish, called Tripe."

I offered to give her a recipe for menudo, but she said no...

Life in a Small Town

I just think this is funny. I realize that resources from the outside world are limited in the small town in which we live. Here's what happened:

H-Bomb is going to preschool. It's a preschool run by a very nice lady, out of her home. He attends twice per week, for two hours per day. This week, the theme was "Foreign Friends."

On Tuesday, I went to pick up H-Bomb, and the teacher was mixing up some Hawaiian hot chocolate. Exotic, perhaps, but foreign? It had bananas in it. It was delicious, but I'm quite sure that one of these United States is not foreign.

Today, H-Bomb was the leader, which meant he got to bring snack. He requested muffins with pine nuts, so I rounded up a recipe on the Internet. Orange Marmie Muffins with Cardamom Pine Nut Streusel. These are excellent muffins, and cardamom just happens to be from India. (although our jar is actually Guatemalan...primarily from India, then)

After school, I asked him what else he had learned about. He had taken toys for Show and Tell from France, a Lucky Luke figurine that was a gift from our friend Jean-Claude; and from Mexico, a colorfully painted wooden fish we acquired on our trip to Zihuatanejo, Mexico. (P.S. Ukko, H-Bomb is wondering when we can go back to Mexico to the ocean. Just so you're aware.) For crafts, they had made little Mexican lanterns out of construction paper, and had glued sparkly streamers to sticks. I asked H-Bomb what country the streamers were from.

"Tallahassee, Florida," he replied.

"Oh really?" I said, "Tallahassee, Florida is in the United States."

"But the United States is a country," H-Bomb said.

"Yes, but it's not foreign. It's our country!"

He went on to tell me that they had also had crackers with "spicy white stuff" that he tried and loved. I asked him what country that was from, and he responded, "It's not from a country. It's from Tallahassee, Florida too."

Hmmm. Exotic. I'll have to ask the teacher about this Tallahassee, Florida business next week.

Sushi in Santa Barbara!! (and shopping too)

While we were in Santa Barbara, Number One, H-Bomb, Sawed Off and I went out for sushi with Number One's cousin Eric & wife Ashlie, and aunt Maraley. We ate at a restaurant called Pirahna, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the front and I can't find a website. The sushi and sashimi were excellent! We had a very nice dinner and visit with our relatives, who we don't see often enough.

H-Bomb was excited to try the sushi, and tells everyone now that he ate "RAW FISH!!!" He also loved the eel and kept asking for more seaweed. The rolls were delicious. Sawed Off liked the sashimi best, and both boys were on their best behavior for this culinary experience.

Earlier that day, my friend Nira had come to visit us at the hotel, and we all went to the beach. She had noticed on her way that a high end consignment store was having a sidewalk sale. We left the boys with Number One that afternoon and went to the sale.

At the consignment store, everything on the sidewalk was 75% off! We were excited, and went through all the racks. I even picked out a pair of sandals. The store had a little screen set up on the sidewalk, for trying things on. I tried not to think about the exposure as I tried on some clothes. While I was behind the screen, in my underwear, the owner of the store came out with a box of plastic bags. She said, "Take a bag, whatever you can fit in there, you can have for $20. If the bag breaks, it will cost double."

Nira came over, and we looked at all our stuff. We decided we could combine everything we had, including my shoes, to fit it into one bag. We both had seen jackets we liked, so we grabbed those and threw them in the bag too. We gingerly carried the bag up to the register, threw a couple scarves on top, and handed the girl $20! It was such a score! Designer labels, Marc Jacobs, Ann Taylor, Lotta Stensson, BCBGMAXAZRIA, so many clothes! We each ended up with about 10 items: capris, skirts, jackets, tops. Every piece ended up costing us a dollar each! So exciting!

And then, walking to sushi wearing my new Ann Taylor capris, my new sandals and my new little denim coat, holding Sawyer's hand, some random guy said "that's a lucky kid, he's got good taste!" And normally that would be kind of creepy on the sidewalk, but I was looking fabulous after all so I said "Thanks!"

I added up the prices on the tags, from the consignment store mind you, and my clothes alone were almost $300! On consignment! At 75% off, they still would have been close to $75! And I got them all for $10!!! (and my Marc Jacobs capris still had an original Marc Jacobs tag!) I still can't believe we got so lucky!

Mmmmm. Lamb Chops.

Here is our little herd of sheep, about a month ago. We started out the Spring with four ewes and four lambs. Two of the lambs were ewes, and two were rams. Aren't they pretty?
Our plan was to keep the ewes to increase the herd, and slaughter the rams. We lost one of our big ewes to bloat (if I remember), and then one of the little rams keeled over. So in the end, we only slaughtered one little ram for meat. [Wait. What did she just say??]

You heard right, little lamb chop.

Little, if you call about 40 lbs. of meat "little."

So, tonight, this is what's for dinner:

Mmmmm. Lamb chops.

More specifically, Grilled Lamb Chops with Garlic and Thyme.

A Quiet Little Christmas

As it turned out this year, #1 and I spent a very quiet Christmas with the boys. Well, as quiet as a Christmas can be with two boys aged 4-1/2 and almost 2. What I mean is, our family was alone on the ranch. There was no one else around for miles and miles.

C.G. had gone to her oldest son's house, and stayed an extra night or so. She wasn't around on Christmas Eve, and didn't arrive until about 2:PM on Christmas day.

RH and Wifey were up in the Big City, with their kids and grandkids. They've been gone over a week now.

So the ranch was nice and quiet. As far as adults go. Just me and #1. It was nice not to have commitments or big plans or tons of impending guests the way it happens other years. Sure, C.G. came home, and a friend of ours came down for dinner in the afternoon, but there wasn't the pressure of other years. The "need" to shuttle the boys back and forth between houses for one thing after another.

We just had our quiet little Christmas Eve hike/picnic; tracked Santa's progress on the Internet; ate dinner; then read The Night Before Christmas; set out cookies; a gift; and a bottle of water for Santa (we're running out of milk, not going to town until the 26th at the earliest. Santa got water); filled stockings with dog treats for all the dogs (seven, at last count) and baby kitty; put the boys to bed on time. (after I promised H-Bomb he could eat cookies for breakfast because it was too late to eat cookies and he already had his teeth brushed. I know.)

In the morning, the boys slept in until almost 7:AM (trust me, it's late for our boys) and then #1 went out to turn on the generator so we could power the Christmas tree lights. Oh, who am I kidding, we needed coffee! I wrestled with the boys, trying to keep Sawed Off in bed until #1 returned so we could see their excited little faces light up when they saw their presents.

#1 got back, we took the boys out to the living room and spent the morning opening gifts. It took all morning because H-Bomb oohs and aahs over every little thing: "LOOK!! Santa gave me dinosaur stickers! Wow! Socks!!! That was good of Santa to give me socks." (I'm not kidding here). And also, Sawed Off seemed to have, until almost 11:AM, some kind of aversion to opening gifts. So we were all finished and he had most of his presents still stacked up in front of him. Somehow H-Bomb convinced Sawed Off that it would be, I don't know, FUN, to open his presents, and then he got on it, wrapping paper scraps a-flyin'.

Then there were the cookies for breakfast, and some chocolate candy (also slowed down the gift unwrapping) and candy canes. Later we tried to force the boys to eat oatmeal, but it didn't really work.

I guess I'm just trying to describe our leisurely Christmas morning, which was kind of nice as a change. Usually Christmas down here is full of visitors and meals and traveling up to Grammy's and back each and every day. And while it's nice to have people around and things to do and places to go, sometimes it makes me tired. And I just feel like curling up in our own little house, snuggling our own little family.

So I'm happy that this year, we got to do that.

Then, in the afternoon, after we had watched a movie or two and the boys played with toys and I made Coconut Sugar Snowflake Cookies, we packed up and cooked dinner at Grammy's. And that was nice too. We tried a new recipe for Venison Roast with Blueberry-Maple Sauce, with saffron rice on the side. It was delicious. Everyone raved about it; even Sawed Off said "MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM." We drank wine, listened to Christmas music, opened more presents.

H-Bomb and #1 played some kind of game where I couldn't look at them, they were hiding behind the couch cushions, but I would sneak up on them. H-Bomb and Sawed Off gave me some new perfume this year, and at one point, from behind the cushions, H-Bomb whispered to Daddy, "I can smell Mommy coming!" And it was just about the cutest thing ever.

Sawed Off collapsed into sleep, and later we loaded everything up and drove home. It was a perfect Christmas.

I hope yours was, too.

H-Bomb's Gingerbread House

H-Bomb loves making gingerbread houses. He was so excited this year. Could hardly wait. He wanted to make this one the day we bought it, back in November, but I told him it was for Christmas. I told him to go change his shirt and wash his hands, and he did both!


Here are #1 and H-Bomb, kneading the ready-made icing. I love these kits! Perhaps one day, when we have a real kitchen in a bigger house, we'll be ambitious enough to bake our own gingerbread for houses and men and women and trains and castles (H-Bomb said that last one). But for this year, it's a kit.

And so construction begins.

Sawed Off still hasn't figured out what's going on.

He does not yet know there is Candy Over There.

Candy. Just sitting about, in bowls. For The Taking.

Ah. Here he has figured it out.

#1 convinced him it wasn't for eating.

Let's just see how long this lasts!

There's some.
Let me just put some on this walkway.


Or maybe on the roof. That looks nice.


There's a lot going on right now. Hard to get in there for a picture.

And then. Then. Wait a minute!
Those brightly colored things...maybe I'll just Taste One.
Hey! And these are...these are Cookies!!!


MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

H-Bomb is so dedicated.
So thoughtful and considerate and detail-oriented, decorating faithfully and creatively.

And Sawed Off is so...hungry!

What??
Why should Sawed Off have all the fun?
Besides, There was Frosting On My Finger.

Darn ole Frosting.

See? I made a Snowman!

And Sawed Off decided that Daddy needed a bit of help with the icing.
So helpful, he is.

Ummmm.
I'm not reaching for Anything.
Honestly. Would these eyes lie?

But, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It sure tastes good...

As you can see, Sawed Off left enough candy uneaten so H-Bomb and Daddy could decorate a fine Gingerbread House, and a Snowman, and a Christmas Tree, and a Gingerbread Santa! There was even candy left over. For eating, of course.

Happy Christmas, Everyone!