Life Is Good

Yesterday was my birthday. Not a big deal really. Just another day. Yesterday was a big deal to methough. I think it was one of THE best days I've ever had.

My son, Alex, loves when I make him a big stack of pancakes before school. He's almost 13 and while he will hug me back hen I hug him and say he loves me when I say I love him, he doesn't usually initiate. Yesterday morning I was in the kitchen when my son came up to me with a huge hug and said "Happy Birthday Mommacita" I smile and thanked...and then he puckered up and gave me a big kiss. I had tears in my eyes because I know it's one of the few times this may ever happen again.

After he left for school, my husband went out into the back yard. Unusual because he's usually left for work before Alex leaves. I waited for him to come in so I can kiss him "See-ya Pally". He doesn't come in. Hmmm... So I go out and see what keeping him. He informs me then that he's not going to work but staying home to put in the pond I've wanted for MANY years!!! Not just a pond but a cascading waterfall into a small pond that rolls into a large pond where the Love of my Life informs that I get to plant some plants for around the pond AND I can get fish, turtles and even frogs for all year living in the pond, if I choose. If??? I CHOOSE!!! LoL So it was a nice change of pace. We don't give gifts for birthdays but do labors of love and this is one labor the Love of my Life hit out of the ballpark.

Now to find some fishies and turtles that are looking for a loving, spoiled home...oh yeah, a froggie too...no pond is complete without a chain-frog!

Life Is Good...

I made this tonight and it was SO GOOD! My family loved it. I loved it but also loved the fact that it's low carb. I got it off the web some time ago and just now tried it. I don't remember where I got it. Sorry. I made some revisions and write them in.

CAULI-FRIED RICE

1/8 cup each butter and olive oil
3 TBS olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, chopped
1 pepper, chopped
Medium to large head cauliflower, grated (I used food processor)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp seasoning salt
3 eggs, fork beaten
2 B/S chicken breast, cubed into bite size pieces

In a large skillet, add 3 TBS olive oil. Cook chicken breast until white. Let cook about 2 minutes more and then drain. Set aside.

Melt butter/oil. Add garlic, onion, pepper. Cook about 2 minutes. Add grated cauliflower and cook 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in soy sauce and sprinkle seasoning salt overall. Cook for 3 more minutes; push aside. Add eggs and scramble in side of pan. Stir for another minute, or until tender. Add chicken and mix well. Serve.

This is QBert. He came to me as a rescue. The upper mandible of his beak was torn off. He had a problem with his wing and he was missing more than a few feathers. He came to me in this condition and how it happened didn't matter. What mattered was he wanted and deserved a loving place to call home. I couldn't resist bringing this handsome little guy home.
When we got home, I expected a little bird with a big grudge. What I received was a little bird with a big attitude to carry all the love in his heart. He couldn't fly but he loved to sit on my shoulder and whisper in my ear. If I didn't have him on my shoulder as often as he'd like, the attitude would come out and he would "scold" me with his chirps. If he didn't want to step up, he's put his head down and nibble on my fingers. Not hard, even though he could have. Such a happy, handsome little guy.
This morning he was happier than usual to see me. He kept putting his head down for me to pet him and chirping as if to say "You're finally awake! Where ya been?". I spent a good amount of time obliging his request for some serious loving, and then he was given his special food and water.
Three hours later I went to get him from his cage to put him on my shoulder and found my little QB at the bottom of his cage, dead. My heart is broken. I had him such a short time but am Blessed to have had him in my life at all. My beautiful Freyja must know as she hasn't left my side and is trying to inch her way up on my lap.
I have learned a lot from QB. I have learned that while life isn't always fair, it's good. Find joy in life where you can and seize it.
My Pooka now has a playmate in Heaven. I know she'll enjoy QB's company. I know the God and Goddess are happy to have them home. I'm thankful to them both for blessing me with QB's love, even if for just a short time.

Just had to post this recipe while I'm thinking about it. My family raved about it and have been asking for me to make it again for awhile now. This time I omitted the Irish Cream cuz I don't have any on hand and am not going out just for that. It's a simple, easy to make recipe and takes little time! You've got to try it! It makes six small ramekins. There's five of us and my boys were fighting over the last one! LoL Sorry, I do not remember where I got this recipe.

Irish Cream Crème Brûlée

* 2 cups heavy cream
* 1/3 cup white sugar
* 6 egg yolks
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 tablespoons Irish cream liqueur
* superfine sugar as needed

Preheat oven to 300°. Place 6 ramekins on a towel set in a roasting pan at least 3 inches deep.

Stir together cream and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, and cook until very hot, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Whisk together egg yolks, vanilla, and Irish cream until combined. Slowly the hot cream 2 tablespoons at a time, whisking it in until incorporated. Once you have incorporated 1/3 of the cream, you can stir in the remaining hot cream without fear of the mixture curdling.

Pour custard into the ramekins, then fill roasting pan with boiling hot water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake in preheated oven until set, 50 to 60 minutes.

Once the custard has set, place ramekins on a wire rack, and allow cooling to room temperature, about 1 hour. Cover, and refrigerate until cold, about 4 hours. Custards may remain refrigerated until ready to serve. When it's done, it looks like this:

My daughter prefers to eat it at this stags. She doesn't like the caramelized sugar on top. For the rest of us, I sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of superfine sugar onto each. Gently shake the custards so the sugar coats the entire top surface, then tip the custards to a 45 degree angle and shake off excess sugar.

Now you're suppose to use a small hand torch, melt the sugar by making short passes over top of the custards with the flame not quite touching. If you're like me, you're too cheap to buy one of those torches for about $20.00 so I used my broiler. Worked great! Just melt the sugar until it turns deep brown. Once the sugar has melted and turned to caramel, the cold custard underneath will harden the sugar into a crispy crust. Serve immediately. This is what that yummy goodness looks like completely done:

mmmmmmm...life's good.

It's been awhile since I last blogged. A lot has happened in the time I've been away. One major event that I struggle with is I was given a little kitten. She was so tiny. I took her as a favor, not really being a cat person. Well, she quickly found her way into my heart like no other animal. Unbelievable! Sleeping on my pillow, following me around the house. I even bought her a fancy feast cat dish, although she was much too tiny to reach it. At 6 months of age, she weighed just over 3 lbs. She could sit in the palm of my hand. On Dec 16, 2011, we got up that morning and Pooka followed me to the stairs. She always waited for me to go down and then followed me. On that morning, for whatever reason, she decided to race me. Our stairs go down 4, then a landing, then the final 10 stairs. When I went to step on the landing, Pooka was under my foot. By the time I realized it, it was too late. I stepped on her and as I tried to lighten my foot, we slid. She rolled under my foot and I fell. When I got up, she was gone. I called her but she didn't come. My husband said she was ok and that he saw her run. I continued downstairs and after he left (about 5 minutes) I called Pooka again. My 12 y/o son, Alex went looking for her for me. He found my sweet, loving baby dead under a table in my room. My heart hasn't been the same. I still cry for her today. I think of her almost daily and wish I could go back. To think I killed my baby is more than I can bare at times. The love of my life, being the sweet, loving man he is, knew how badly I loved my little girl. He knew putting her in the ground was too much for me. He made her a little pine box to rest in (Thank you, my Love!). She was wrapped in her favorite blanket and she's buried under out peach tree, with beautiful hyacinths growing for her. I thought if I got another kitten like her, it wouldn't replace her but slow my tears. I scoured craigslist for a little baby to no avail. I did, however, see this precious puppy (I'm not a dog person either! I'm a bird lady. LoL) that caught my eye. I had to have her. Well, after calling a couple times and getting no response, I all but gave up. A Afghan hound came up and I thought that would be cool but after calling to come see her, knew in my heart that she wouldn't be for me. We went to see her anyway because I think my husband knew how badly I hurt inside and he was desperate to help ease my pain. When we got there, I could care less about the puppy but the God and Goddess had their own surprise for me! There in the corner was a St Bernard and her 10 pups...the exact pup I had longed for but received no response. So on Feb 3, 2012, my beautiful Freyja came home with me. She is a love. I have a connection with er...although nothing like with my Pooka. I so love and enjoy Freyja's company. She's so loving and comical! Here's a photo of Freyja, sitting in a water bucket waiting to be watered. The bottom photo is how she sleeps most of the time with her toy moose. I so love this little girl! LoL

While I still hurt and miss my Pooka, my Freyja makes up for most of it. Once again, Life's good! I have not blogged in awhile but I plan to start. My hope is to blog at least 3-4 times a week. I'm very excited about spring coming(not quite here in Barffalo, NY!) and my new found interest in canning and pressure cooking. Maybe I can share some stuff and get you interested in it as well. LoL Stay tuned...who knows what'll come next! Blessed Be!

Springville Auction

Today we went to the Springville Auction. It was awesome! So many deals to be had. I so wish we lived on a farm.Even just a small one. They had a large flea market type thing that started early this morning. About noon that broke up and the live animal auction began. They had all kinds of animals from button quail, chickens, bunnies, turkeys, to sheep, goats, cows, horses, pigs. They also had things like feed and bedding, potatoes and such. We bought three Flemish Giant does and a New Zealand buck. They will be bred for babies and meat. Their droppings will be used to feed worms and make manure for our garden. Some worms will be sold to the fishermen down by the lake.
Other than the buns, we bought 100 lbs of potatoes (50lbs white and 50lbs red) for $10.00, two huge heads of cauliflower for $8.00, two large spaghetti squash for $4.00, 10 sweet potato for $3.00, four lbs carrots for $2.00 (for the buns), a huge case of bananas for $9.00. The bananas were 4lbs/$ but I wanted the whole case. Ron weighed the bananas when we got home and it came out to 55 lbs and we ate a few bananas on the way home! So it came out to roughly .16¢ a lb. Works for me! My kids are ape over them and then if you add in baking, I couldn't resist! Bananas are .49¢/lb on sale here so this is quite a savings. We also bought some things to eat there like fresh cheese curd and pepperoni. It was a real treat and a nice light lunch for Ron and I. It was a nice, sunny, warm day to enjoy the auction too. I thoroughly enjoyed it and all the bargains we found.

I hope ya'll had a wonderful day, wherever you are.

Take care,
Pam

I forgot what it was like

I forgot what it was like to be a stay at home mom! I forgot how much I enjoyed it. My youngest son is loving his mom staying home because that means he gets to have a hot breakfast before school. He usually pick French toast. I enjoy the quiet mornings with him. He's my love-bug.

I don't know if I told anyone but we have a new kitten in the house. My daughter had a kitten she was attached to and I disliked it very much. It was on we adopted from the SPCA and I think she was feral. This cat couldn't be touched for much and would not go IN the litter box but next to it. We tried EVERYTHING. I never got rid of her because my daughter loved her. After she died, I vowed NEVER would I EVER get another cat. Besides, I have seven birds. Well, my daughter was begging and I was holding my ground. Then my love-bug asked for this kitten for his birthday. I caved. We brought this kitten him and I said since I caved, I got to name him. I said I wanted nothing more to do with this cat. I said I disliked this cat. Well, that lasted about a day. Now I'm loving this cute little kitten I named Pepe Le Mew. Mew for short. We've had him a few weeks now and he's made himself at home! He's attacking our knot-head boxer. You have to see this kitten as the the boxer (Duke) lays on the floor and the kitten attacks his cheeks. He whines as the kitten pokes and nibbles on his cheeks! How crazy is that??? This moose could easily get up and walk away but does he??? Nooooo, he lays there and cries. Mew is climbing up the birdcages and taunting the birds. Of course he's playing and the birds nibble on his tail or paw,whichever he leaves inside the cage.It's very amusing to watch.

Here's Mew swatting at nothing in particular on top of an empty cage. Lately he's been waking me up around four am. I hear a loud purring and look up to his sitting on my shoulder, purring away as happy as can be. He's pushing this cute kitty thing WAY too far.LoL
Tomorrow we go to the Springville auction! I can't wait! We are going to buy some bunnies too to raise and breed for meat. Alex will have a worm farm from all the bunny raisins. We live near the lake and have fishermen all year round. Alex has been wanting a job since he was about 8 years old. He found out he could get a paper route when he turned 11 but now that he is 11, they tell him he has to wait for a route to open up. For the past year all I heard about was all the money he was going to make and all the things he was going to buy me. He is such a sweet little man. So we gave up on the paper route for now and decided worms were the way to go. He's very excited about it and I'm excited for him!
Well, it's late evening and I'm going to go snuggle with my husband for a bit. I hope ya'll had a wonderful day, wherever you may be.

Take care,
Pam