Food and more Food

No wonder I can't loose any weight... : ) Our good friend John "chef gone wine dude" came to visit for a few days it was just super to see him and we had a pretty freggin amazing meal in Portland at Park Kitchen ... thanks David! the an AMAZING chef there and good friend of John's who treated us like royalty .... this was followed by some wood splitting to burn off some calories




and then a great meal cooked by a Brian and John collaboration in the kitchen thus putting the calories right back on... Brian whipped up a indoor grill insert (you know the usual...went to his shop did a quick design build and weld job!) and thus made the pork chops on the wood stove (which was filled with fruit wood) pretty darn tasty!





and John made us lentils with chanterelles ummm thanks guys!!...

This very nice visit was followed up with a wonderful Big Table dinner a few nights later.



















The Ham Brian brined and smoked was from the most recent "late girls" and lived up to expectations... the lentils from John's visit where re-purposed into a lentil soup.. yum with a last minute genius garnish by matt.. I love foodie friends...















Thanks to all that came and shared... and I'm sorry about the pounding heads on Saturday morning... at least you all ended up with all your fingers especially after the 2 am fireworks and 3 am gator rides... good times as Rob would say ... : )




(I don't think this is how you're supposed to light it)






these three are TROUBLE!!!

Thanks to Matt the next morning we soaked our hangovers in maple syrup on some killer french toast made from the beautiful bread he brought... I learned french toast is called Pain Perdu ... : ) in france and is really a left over peasant meal... I'll take a peasant meal any time like this... : )



we later then got to go visit the newest baby horse in the canyon at only 6 hours old!!! congrats Monique

the little filly "red"

as promised I took some photos of the new filly here she is -- isn't she a cutie!

she's been a lot of fun to have around she likes to play and chase with me and with the dog and she comes running when I call her...

rolling around and trying to scratch off all that winter fur

Chasing Clementine

Coming up when I called her

horsey post...

So Chief went from being a very spoiled only child Saturday to his first day at boarding school... he went to the new barn where Courtney (his boot camp mistress) will be working with him.. Mr. Chief was pretty up set when we put him the stall - he kind of pitched a bit of a fit.. and I was worried about him - as any mother with a slightly spoiled child would be : ) but after some hay from home he settled right in... I'm really happy he's there I know having more training on him will really help me to find the **perfect home** for him... Courtney's work will be good for him, me, and the person who is lucky to love him next : ) I think her work will set everyone up for success (learned that lesson the hard way)... so I was there at 7am Saturday morning to feed him and tell him I hadn't just dropped him off and left : ) .. he was doing just fine.. we had a long groom and then I took him into the big arena and left him "at liberty" (no halter no lead rope, no whip etc.)... I thought he would just run around a bit which he did a little of - but then came right over to stand next to me so I started to play with him he was free lounging, side passing giving his forequarters and disengaging... backing .. and then just playing trotting along side of me stopping right with me.. it was heaven... just he and I on his terms (i have to admit I kind of get choked up thinking about it)... I know he was sticking to me like glue because he was a little out of sorts and needed security but it was just heaven...so Miss Courtney came a few hours later and lounged him and said she was impressed with his ground work so that was nice of her and encouraging - I KNOW after watching her work with Chief she's just the right person to work with him. This whole process has been such a gift I'm learning so much.. So Courtney left me with her little filly (just a temporary swap) so I don't have an empty stall to look at a and so I have a horse to play with and so "red" as Brian named her can also learn some of stuff. Red and I are working on all kinds of new (to her things) it's very fun and she's a great little baby horse and I'm really enjoying working with her... I'll get some photos of her up tomorrow : )

My Empathic Horse

Mr. Chief has never tried to get out of any pasture stall etc that he's ever been in and honestly with the way I keep him he indefinitely could with very little effort. So the night before last Mr. Chief decided he wanted out. Brian and I where woken up at 6am by our neighbor because chief was running up and down the road! Now he has never gone to the road even when I leave him to run around our place free which I did almost daily during the summer he never went to the road... and why now in the wee hours of the morning and in the dark! ... I went down to the road and caught him with out any fuss and put him away but he was pretty worked up.

It was very strange. I thought as I went back to my warm bed.. "hum I wonder if one of my neighbors mares is having a foal" (she was due any day) so the next morning I went down to check on my neighbor and her horse and honestly to no great surprise her mare had given birth about an hour before I got here and about 2 hours after chief started to sound the alarm.. it's amazing to me that he knew! it will be interesting to see if he has the same connection with the other mare in the canyon as there are a whole bunch due here in the next little while... well here's baby she's the cutes little filly and is a "silver" in color which makes her mom's 1-Dominique and 2-M0nique very happy
!

new addition to the farm and the pigs last day

A shot of our place form my neighbors place.. : )



I knew eventually we'd get a cat.. I'm not a big cat person but cat's are nice in there way. We have lots of rodents that I'd love for a cat to introduce him self to. I didn't go out looking for a cat as I figured If I waited long enough a cat would come to us.. and he/she has this cat has been around for a few weeks but had started venturing in closer. so We decided to give it some crunchies and ask it to stay and live at our place and take care of the critters.. so I think we have a cat now.. no name yet but I'm sure that will come... : ) welcome to Big Table "Blackie" (name for now) I'm not sure how the "principessa" feels about the new cat but I think she may know she's pretty much the queen around here... and the cat is not a house cat so her dominion is safe.



So I wanted to see how our eggs stood up to the competition .. I bought the top of the line $4.50 per dozen "free-range" organic omega 3 eggs and affirmed what I knew... free range in a big production I don't think will ever be able to match a set up with true rotational grazing and grass fed birds.. note not only the color of the yoke but the way the whites on our egg (on the right) stay together in a firm "pile" and the flavor well it's defiantly better... so there you have it if I can find a way to test the omega 3's in my eggs I'm sure I will : ) want to know morehere's is a great article..

http://www.motherearthnews.com/eggs.aspx



(a quote from the Mother Earth article...)

Most of the eggs currently sold in supermarkets are nutritionally inferior to eggs produced by hens raised on pasture. That’s the conclusion we have reached following completion of the 2007 Mother Earth News egg testing project. Our testing has found that, compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:

• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

The Pigs rolled off in this truck on Saturday.

I can't tell you how pleased I was and am with how well it went. It really made me feel super good about having the slaughter here at the farm. Both pigs had VERY clean fast kills neither of them saw it coming at all - and it was while eating eggs in their stall. I hope I go like that but I think I'd like to be eating chocolate... : ) anyway the mobile slaughter guy was super good and
efficient about the rest of the process post kill as well. The pigs where halved here and went off to Frontier meats on Saturday.



Brian made Boudin noir fresh from the slaughter (if you don't know what this is you may not want to)