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This is a great time of year to make fried green tomatoes since tomato plants are still producing tomatoes that probably won't ripen before the end of the season. They should be available in the farmer's market as well. This is my own secret recipe that I've created from combining different elements of many different recipes I've tried, though using ranch dressing is a twist of my own that was probably a sub for buttermilk somewhere along the way.
This is one of the heirloom varieties that I grew this year. It's actually a purple tomato, if it had been allowed to live life to it's fullest.
Slice the tomato and season with salt. Sometimes I sprinkle a little sugar on them too, but I love sugar on my tomatoes, I'm just weird that way. Trust me, it's good.
In one bowl put equal amounts of flour, corn meal and bread crumbs. I used Panko breadcrumbs here, but I think I really prefer just plain old dry breadcrumbs. I just like their texture and taste better for this.
In another bowl put ranch dressing and a couple splashes of hot sauce and mix.
Dredge the tomato slices in the dressing and then coat with the breadcrumb mixture.
Fry in 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat until they are golden brown, about 3-4 minutes per side.
Introducing the star of this movie...take a bow fried green tomatoes! 2 thumbs up! 5 stars!
Sorry, no more corny movie quotes, I promise!
Fall is my favorite time of year and is the perfect time to hit the trail. We got brave and decided to go on the first ever attempted Hiser family trail ride last weekend (I can safely say brave and not stupid since we did actually survive to live another day).
We drove to a place we like to ride that is on the Little River near the town of Lillington, NC.
We actually have 5 horses, but only have a 3 horse trailer so the kids had to take turns riding double with Jason. JW went first. They rode our horse Walker. We've had Walker for 11 years. His full name is Walker Texas Ranger since he looks like the horse Walker used to ride on that show. We bought Walker as soon as we got back from our honeymoon from a rodeo stock contractor who had used him as a bucking horse and who knows what else. He was extremely thin when we got him which is amazing since he gets fat on air with us. I have no idea how to even make this horse thin. Through the years we have done a little barrel racing, competitive trail riding and polocrosse with Walker, and he is now excelling as a lesson horse. We love to tell his little students after they ride him that he is an ex-bucking horse. That just never gets old.
Casey is riding LuLu, who we call our million dollar pony. We couldn't ask for a better pony for the kids. She is 27-28 years old and still going strong. Casey does pee-wee barrel racing with her. I bet you can't guess what Casey's favorite color is(her saddle seat is actually pink too).
I thought this was a good shot of Walker. He is what is called a Medicine Hat paint. Native Americans liked to have these horses for battles because they have a war bonnet (the brown color around the ears and down around neck) and a shield, brown color on his chest. They were supposed to give the warriors courage and luck in battle. He also has one blue eye and one brown eye.
We ran into these cool chickens along the way. Around the corner from the chickens was a pasture with horses that we had to pass by. The horses came to the fence to greet us. I told Casey to stay away from the fence and she immediately said "Why, is it on?" It just made me realize how ingrained farm life is into our kids, that she would immediately know that a fence can be "on" (i.e. electric).
Half way through we swapped horses. The black horse's ears here are the closest we got to a picture of me on this ride. This is the horse I was riding, Missy. She is a 19 year old off the track quarter horse who is realizing a new career of barrel racing in her twilight years and is doing really well!
The scenery and the weather was perfect.
Here's a little better shot of me. Well almost. Not really. It's just Missy. Actually I'm kind of glad there were no pictures of me...I had my camera bag over my shoulder and the only bag we could find at the last minute to carry drinks, Casey's ladybug backpack. I looked really good..I mean really good. Luckily we only ran into 2 other people along the way.
We had no idea how long the kids would last on their first off the farm trail ride. They made it all the way around the 2 hour loop with no whining. We even got lost once with no meltdowns. Overall, it was an extremely successful trip!
This is one of my favorite ways to grill chicken. There are many variations to this recipe that I've tried and liked, but this is my favorite.
I should probably stop here to mention that I am the griller in our family, not necessarily by choice....mostly due to the fact that I failed to discover the total lack of my husband's grilling skills until after the rings were exchanged. Not that it would have been a deal breaker, but it would have been nice to know what I was getting myself into, ya know? We've somehow managed to muddle through the past 11 years with my grilling learning curve but I think I am finally getting there.
OK back to the recipe. In a bowl, mix 4 oz cream cheese, a handful of shredded cheese and a couple spoonfuls (depending on how much heat you can handle) of bottled diced jalapenos (I buy mine already diced) into a gloppy mess. Did I just say gloppy? Well you know what I mean.
Now this is the most critical part. Make a pocket like this in a boneless chicken breast. It's best to start on the fattest side. Use a short sharp knife and make a slice parallel to your cutting board, making sure you don't cut all the way through.
Stuff the pocket with your cream cheese mixture. For the kids I just use cheese.
I've also used horseradish and cheese. It's all good!
Wrap up each chicken breast with bacon, use 2 pieces if you have to (have to, shoot, who wouldn't want to?) but make sure you cover up your pocket well. You can use toothpicks to secure, but if you have any young children in the house like we do, toothpicks last about 24 hours max in the house before they are hijacked for science experiments, newly invented mouse traps or 'interesting' works of art. So I didn't have any here and managed to pull it off without them. Oh and make sure you warn your family if you do use toothpicks because biting into a chargrilled toothpick is no fun at all.
Throw those beauties on the grill. I prefer to grill my chicken on about a medium heat so that it can have a chance to cook before it gets charred beyond recognition. It usually takes about 7-8 minutes per side at this temperature. Be patient. One tip, if you can't easily flip the chicken, it is not ready to flip. It will eventually let go of it's hold on the grill. Encourage it to "just let go" but don't nag it and definitely don't force it.
Now brush on your favorite barbeque sauce...no comments on my brush please. It works. Form follows function, right?
The final product. Let them cool for 4-5 minutes before you serve because the insides are just short of molten lava temps hot off the grill.
Here JW demonstrates how to tame his wild garden that got out of hand as we hibernated from the heat and bugs in the AC for the month of August.
Step 1. Insert Garden Weasel Step 2. Start twisting
Step 3. Pull, pull, pull!
Step 4. Success!
There are much easier ways to do this I'm sure, but this is how a 6 year old and his non power tool using mama do it.
(Note: these pictures were taken with my old so-out-of-date non-HD camera before it crossed the rainbow bridge)
"When the wells dry, we know the worth of water" - Ben Franklin
I was thinking along the lines of Ben Franklin this morning as I stood shivering in the shower with shampoo in one eye and no water flowing out of my shower head. For those of you who have what us country folk call "city water", count your blessings every night that you don't ever have to worry about water flowing through your pipes and please say a little water prayer for your country friends. We need it.
Like most people out in the country we get our water from a well. We live most days without any water issues, but we know in the back of our minds at all times that water is a precious commodity that must be nurtured and praised and constantly worried about in order to coax it from the ground and into our showers.
We worry about things like power outages. We run to fill the bathtubs with water at the first threat of foul weather so we will be able to flush the toilets.
We teach our 6 year old sons to reach in the crawl space under the house to whack the water pressure regulator valve when it gets stuck.
We worry during droughts that today will be the last drop. We evil eye our neighbors when they water their garden in a drought and steal our underground water. (not really....well, maybe...but you can't prove anything)
Sometimes, like where Jason grew up, folks drive to a local community spring to fill large water tanks when the water dries up every summer.
We coax and prod and lay hands on to pray over our well pumps so they last another day. We wrap them in electric blankets so they don't catch a chill in the winter.
With all this, it's no wonder we build shrines to our wells like this one:
Come to think of it, our well is looking kind of shabby and neglected, no wonder our water kharma has been off lately. Please don't forget us in your prayers tonight. Thank you.
p.s. you should see a great improvement in my photo quality...I got a new HD digital camera today. Sweet!
One of my favorite comfort foods is Chicken Pot Pie. Today Jason asked me to "whip something up" to take to a good friend who had had a death in the family. So I decided to make my Chicken Pot Pie with Sweet Potato crust and chocolate chip cookies. What can be better than that? (I made the same for us too)
First get a chicken in a pot. I like to cook a chicken in my crockpot, but you could boil one in a pot on a stovetop as well. When cooking a chicken in a crockpot (electric gadget #1), I put balls of aluminum foil underneath to keep it up off the bottom so it cooks evenly. I season with salt and pepper. This crockpot here cooks way too hot, so a chicken is done on high in about 2-4 hours. A normal crockpot would probably cook a chicken in 4-6 hours on high. If you want to, get a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store and skip this step.
Next peel and chop a sweet potato into even chunks. If you don't have a steamer (electric gadget #2) like this, go and get you one. It's worth it believe me. Let me know when you get back.
OK, now that you have your steamer, turn it on for about 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes are very soft and easily mashable.
Take the potatoes out and mash the heck out of them. Then let them chill out and cool completely.
Now chop some carrots and throw them in the steamer. We just want to cook them slightly, for about 5-10 minutes to soften them up.
Now in a food processor (electric gadget #3) mix 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Take a stick of butter out of the fridge, make sure it's nice and cold. Cut 1/4 cup of butter into little chunks and pulse it into the flour mixture until it has a grainy texture.
Add 1 cup of the sweet potato mixture.
Turn the dough out of the bowl (it will be sticky). Add flour and work it just enough so it looks like this. (don't over work it) I usually put it in the refrigerator for an hour or so to make it easier to roll out later.
When the chicken gets done, take it out and tear it apart. I love my chicken shredded.
Now make a white sauce. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add 2 tablespoons of flour.
Whisk it together.
Whisk in 2 cups of warm milk. The warm milk is crucial to keep the butter in liquid form. Microwave for 1 minute intervals, whisking in between until the sauce thickens. If you can't get it to thicken, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Mix the chicken, carrots and some corn together. I don't like anything green in my pot pie because it always gets overcooked and turns that greenish grey color. Ewww.
Mix the white sauce in and put the mixture into a deep dish pie pan.
Roll out the dough to the size of your pie plate. Add flour if it gets too sticky. I hate rolling out dough so I do it between some Saran wrap, but flour is key, unless you like Saran wrap in your pot pie.
Finally put the crust on top and form the crust around the edges.
Bake for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.
These are so good it distracted me so much I didn't take any final pictures of it after it was done. Jason whisked the one away to take to his friend and we ate the other before I thought of it. So picture the picture above but a darker, richer orange color. I don't even like sweet potatoes and I love this pie. Give it a try.
I recently spent a week traveling across the UK on a business trip and was lucky enough to be able to go the "north" of England where I got to spend some time in the English countryside. I stayed in a nice old English farmhouse, complete with a herd of the cutest mini horses and other farm animals. I took a few pictures with my camera on my phone after my camera bit the dust on the train. So I apologize for the poor quality.
Here is the hotel, it is called The Jersey Farm Hotel.
The driveway into the hotel leads through here, past these beautiful flowers.
Here are some of the herd of horses. The brown and white baby was the cutest. He could hardly stand still for a picture.
I took this picture to primarily show you what my hair looks like while I am in the UK without my normal hair products and without my diffuser on my hair dryer. This little guy and I have a very similar style.
They had 3 llamas also. I took a picture of their big pile of nasty poop so I could remember why we will NEVER again get another llama at TripleCreek farm (long story that I will tell you one day). Count yourself lucky that I did not include that photo here.
Chess anyone?
This is in the entryway to the hotel. I thought it was cool. Don't look for too long, staring directly into the sun is not good for the eyes.
This was the bathroom area next to the restaurant. Love the coat hooks. A little western touch.
And here is my room.
I never would ever think about choosing dark grey and black wallpaper, but I really liked it. Not sure what it would do to my general mood long term though.
This picture is not too good, but the lamp matched the wallpaper.
The bathroom. It had this giant jacuzzi tub but a tiny shower. Do you know that there are no electrical plugs allowed in bathrooms in the UK? Another useless tip for the day. You're welcome.
The bathroom had tile that matched the wallpaper in the room. Loved it!
And finally, here is the view out the window where I was conducting my training class for work. The class was in a renovated old Manor House and these were the barns.
