BLOG DESIGN STRUGGLES

For the past few days, I have been trying to add music and edit the results of the posts, and I must say the end results are laughable. Must keep on trying though, until I get it right..........

MAKING IRISH CREAM LIQUEUR

I've been wanting to bottle homemade liqueurs for some time and fortunately the first attempt was a resounding success, due to an excellent recipe. After searching the net and finding many versions, it was the one with real chocolate that was chosen.

Sister Carol was here when all the ingredients were put together and she was the first to sample the end product. Now we all know that Carol is not shy about her opinions. If she doesn't like something, she will flatly and bluntly say she hates it and might even spit it out. That is why her reaction to this concoction was so delightful. She loooved it. After an innitial wary sip, she announced, " Ohhhh, this is so good. It's like having a chocoate bar!"

One of my contributions to Fischer's Super Bowl Party last Sunday was a bottle of Irish Cream Liqueur, which I gave to Carol. She enjoyed and cherished this gift , mixed with coffee so much that she announced today, (six days later) that the bottle was about polished off and added, "I might have to make a batch."

It's also a great gift. Daughter Stephany is requesting the recipe to make as a gift for friends.

So, for Steph and Carol and others who would like to try it, here are the instructions:

IRISH CREAM LIQUEUR

This is better than the commercial Irish Cream liqueurs, and is very popular with family and friends.

will store for several weeks in refrigerator, just serve over ice, or for us (Brockamp/Hardcastle/Anderson/Fischers

serve with hot coffee.

1 (750 milliliter) bottle good Irish whiskey. (We used Jamisons)

8 3/4 oz. milk chocolate, (or up to 11 ounces)

2 (14 oz) cans sweetened condensed milk

2 (12 fluid ounce) cans of evaporated milk

2 1/2 cups cream

Recipe calls for 1/4 tsp instant coffee granules, but I used a 1/2 cup of fresh brewed strong organic coffee. If you have a shot or two

of expresso, and would like to substitute, that would also be good.

1. Pour a small amount of whiskey into a large bowl. In the top of a double boiler. Carefully melt the chocolate and whiskey together, adding whiskey until the mixture is a nice smooth consistency. Gradually add the condensed milk and sweetened condensed milk and remainder of whiskey. Stir in cream and your choice of 1 tsp pure vanilla and 1 tsp pure almond, or 1 tsp vanilla without the almond. Some people don't like the almond flavor. I used both. There is also an option to use 1 tsp mint extract

2. All ingredients can be combined in a blender if you have one, and blended at high speed for about 20 seconds.

3. Transfer to three clean (750 ml) bottles with tight fitting lids. Seal and store in refridgerator. Let rest a day or two so flavors can meld.

4. Best if kept at least one month before using.

Note: When you use a full (750) ml bottle of whiskey and a full pint of cream, you will have enough to serve a group of people, 32 servings. Shake bottle well and serve in small glasses over crushed ice or as creamer in hot coffee. * This also is very good in a Mendelssohn, recipe follows.

* Mendelssohn

A delicious and refreshing cocktail made with Irish Cream liqueur.

For 1 serving:

Ice cubes in a highball glass. Add 1 (1.5 fluid ounce jigger) Irish Cream liqueur with a few splashes of club soda.

Fill highball glass with ice cubes. pour in Irish Cream Liqueur, and top off with a few splashes of club soda.

Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday

I love Super Bowl Sunday and all the festivities that go with it. For the past 25 years we celebrated this occasion with the same group of people, joyfully and decadently.

It stated in 1985 when I worked as book-keeper in a obstetrics and gynecology office in the Chinn Building, next to Valley Medical Center in Renton, WA. There were four of us in the office, Kay Sullivan, R.N., Gerry Myers, M.D. , Lori Bonifant, receptionist, and me, book-keeper/office manager, Mary Cat. We got along very well. Kay and I were the same age, and Lori was just out of Adventist (boarding) High School. And we became friends.

Kay hosted a Super Bowl party every year in February and that's how it started. She is an intensely loyal friend and her friends are the same with her, so she kept the same group year after year.

When she invited Jim and I to join them way back in the day, most of us had young children, but the party was for adults only, so the kids had super bowl parties of their own with friends and relatives. We all contributed the best appetizers and entrees we could muster, and I must say it was grand.

We would gather at Kay and Denny's beautifully kept, sparkling home before game time and set out our food and get on the game board before settling into a cozy spot in front of their big screen T.V. The other guests were very exuberant and animated and we drank wine and beer, basked in the candle lit surroundings, and enjoyed the day.

Eventually we moved from Seattle to Puyallup, WA. and for the 10 years we lived there we continued to commute in to Burien for these parties.

We grew accustomed to wonderful Arabic food contributed by Kay and Denny's friends and neighbors, Sam and Nadia, whose country of Nativity was Israel. Sam's loud cheering and lamenting paired with his wife, Nadia's kind nurturing nature was a precious part of the mix.

Another couple in our eclectic little group was Vickie and David. Vickie worked as book-keeper in another office with Kay, and she is a gentle loving soul, except during game time. During the game she is a force to be reckoned with. Although Vickie has a grown daughter, she and David have no children of their own. Still, she calls him "Daddy".

They do have a very well loved and pampered Old English Sheep Dog, named Stuart who is the light of their lives. "Daddy" David has to make a run home during the occasional commercial to check on Stuart's well being, much to my delight. I love observing "gentle oddities" in others.

Years ago, when we lived in Sea-Tac, WA., my elderly neighbor, Belle stopped in for a visit at our home, and casually commented, "We have a new neighbor down the street, Dear. You'd like her. She's as peculiar as we are." I remember replying, "Ohhh, yes, I'm sure I would."

More about Belle and her delightful quips later. She deserves a blog of her own as do Kay and Denny. But enough of the past, and on to here and now..

This is our first winter in South Dakota since high school days, and our first Super Bowl here. Not wanting to give up the gala affair, I asked my sister, Carol to host the party, since she just acquired a big screen Flat screen, HD television, and she agreed to do it.

We had a very enjoyable day, very special food and drink and an exciting game to watch. I took Cocktail Meatballs in a sauce, a rice, broccoli casserole, strawberry pretzel salad, artisan bread and my home made Bailey's Irish Cream. Carol had a relish tray, (crudites and dip), cocktail wienies, red beers w/ celery, chicken drummies. We had so much that she opted to save the pizza and egg rolls for another occasion. All in all we had a very good time.

Since it was cold and icy outside, Mother decided not to come to the party, so I delivered some of all the things I prepared over to her house on the way to the game, and she planned to watch it on her home television.

Brother Bill Hardcastle came, as did Jessie Fischer with his baby daughter, Alaya, and a young man who is a friend of Jess. Then there was Jim and I and Carol and Dennis.

I must confess that both Carol and I fell asleep a few times, much to our disgust, and missed parts of the game and some good commercials. When I spoke with my Mom later on she said she had slept through the entire game. My observance was it was a good thing she didn't come over as there would have been three of us crashed in front of the tv. Undoubtedly, there was the occasional snore heard over the din of the sports event.

We'll strive to be better rested next year so we can be as animated as the memorable game days

in Seattle. Well,-----we can try. That's a tall order.

ARTISAN BREAD

Here is a recipe for Artisan Bread that I e-mailed to my three children, Stephany, Jamie and Alexa. I learned this from Kristine Farley in Sumner, Washington. Her blog is the Herbal Momma, and she shares wonderful techniques for preparing and preserving food from "scratch". Since we are unable to buy this type of bread here in South Dakota, it is especially appreciated by all who partake. I made seven loaves for my birthday dinner two days ago, and all that was left was 1/2 loaf. We will be taking more to the Super Bowl party tomorrow.

Refrigerator Artisan Bread Makes 8 1 pound loaves Preheat oven to 450 degrees

This recipe is adapted from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons salt

3 packages Red Star Yeast

6 cups warm (NOT HOT) water

13 cups whole wheat flour ( unbleached white flour will work with this recipe too)

1. Add yeast and salt to water in (9 to 10 quart) large plastic container with lid. Mix.

2. Add all 13 cups of flour.

3. With a wooden spoon mix thoroughly. No kneading is necessary.

4. Allow to rise at room temperature for 3 to 5 hours.

5. Prepare pan or pizza peel by sprinkling generously with corn meal.

6. Sprinkle counter with flour. (I use white flour for this part).

7. Take about 1-pound piece of dough (grapefruit size) It's important to make correct size so it gets done. Then cut off with knife.

8. Gently add just enough flour so the dough won't stick to your hands.

9. Shape dough into desired shape.

10. *As your shaping the loaf, knead in your choice of the fillings listed below, or let each family member choose his or own favorite fillings for individual loaves.

11. Place the dough onto coarsely ground corn meal on prepared pan or pizza peel.

13. Allow to rest and rise about 20 minutes at room temperature.

14. Place oven rack in the middle of the oven. (Leave room for a rack below to hold water.)

15. Preheat oven to 450 degrees with baking stone, if desired.This will take about 20 minutes. (I greased my stone with Criscoe).

16. Dust loaf with additional flour, if desired or brush with glaze and top with salt or seeds.

17. Slash 1/4 inch deep in the desired way using a serrated knife, just before going in the oven. A diagonal cut on top is good.

18. Place onto stone or pan..

19. Just before putting the stone with loaves in oven, Put a pan of warm water in the bottom rack of the oven. This is the key to successful artisan bread making. It creates steam which makes the outside of the loaf crunchy and the inside soft and chewy.

20. Quickly close the oven door and bake for about 30 minutes or until crust is nicely browned and firm. I baked several loaves at a time and baked a little longer until crusts were golden brown.

21. Store the remaining dough in the covered container in the refrigerator and use over the next two weeks.

22. Don't clean the container in between batches, (per Herbal Mama). Just scrape down sides and add new.

Variations and Options:

As your shaping loaf, knead in any of the following, separately or in combinations;

pesto, coarsely chopped or whole olives, cheese, nuts, freshly chopped herbs,

raisins, dried tomatoes, seeds, roasted garlic, caramelized onions, dried cranberries, etc.

Shape into a variety of ways; baguette, rounds, oblongs, rolls, pizza, calazone, focaccia, etc.

I used Costco's Napa Valley Bistro, Italian Olive Antipasto, marinated with fresh garlic, herbs and Napa Valley Chardonnay. Lexi loves the Pesto loaves. That's why it's cool to let everyone create their own masterpiece.

I can send you another page of options for this dough if you would like it.

Hope you try this and like it.

It is sent to you with love from,

Your Mother,

Mary Cat.

Bringing In The Equipment For Winter And Grumblings from Mary Cat

Today Jim and I went out to the field to bring in the equipment with the plan of towing in the baler, rake and mower to Quinn's.

The work is done for the season, and the equipment will be stored by Jim's cousin, Frank at his farm. Unfortunately, we ended up only getting the baler and rake in for the winter, because as usual we had a time consuming, frustrating break down.

In my opinion my husband has the patience of a saint for dealing with old equipment.

I, on the other hand am so glad that we managed to get the two biggest, most cumbersome, antiquated, loathsome, wretched, ratty, vile, pieces ever known to man in from the field and deposited at Quinn's farm with only a small tear in my back muscle. This was accomplished by our extremely hard work, and Jim's ingenuity. Bless his big golden heart. So, never mind my rant. As you can see, I am not made of the same strong stuff as him.

Jim feels set backs are all in the game. I mildly asked him if we might be replacing the rake next year, the one with a large crack in the bushing above the trailing wheel which would not turn to allow the angle to set the pin in the socket so it would trail correctly behind the truck. Mmm-mm, No, Probably not. He thought all of that was small stuff as we strained and struggled and jacked the damned thing up and struggled more to no avail.

Finally, as I was holding the monstrosity forward as Jim battered away at it with a hammer, I felt a tearing sensation in my back. Jim had to stop hammering from time to time to catch his breath, but the socket was inching toward the pin. Finally the pin was in the socket, and we were able to tow the monster rake. This time with back aches and head aches, we decided to take the rake in to Quinn's farm and then head for Mobridge.

There we were, two old fogies looking out the truck window admiring the scenery and thanking the Good Lord for another perfect day, as we once again viewed the harvests and the huge waters of the Oahe. I would save my grumbling and whining for this blog.

Tomorrow the plan is to go back out with a lunch and coffee. First we will pick wild plums. Next is our days work, which will be picking sheep bones and rocks from the land. There is a lot of bones and a lot of acreage so it may take more than a day. In fact, I can't really estimate how long it will take to clean it all up.

We do know that we do not want sheep bones baled in our hay again.

Later, we may get together with our neighbor at the Elk Rank to see if he would like some of our rocks for a culvert on their land.

The last thing on our to do list is to bring our mower in to Frank's. That leaves only our tractor and we will leave that out there for any work left to do before we leave for the winter.

Pray for strength and patience, Mary Cat. We are making progress.

Update: We did pick wild plums that day, enough to can wonderful sweet plum jam. Not sure if I'll do that again because pitting the small plums was time consuming, but at least I know how to do it. Maybe someone can teach me some pitting shortcuts along the way.

SOUP FOR MOTHER

The day after we had the sleep-over for Baby Alaya, which was, for the most part, sleepless; Carol and I were tired.

It was, as I said, a 'Goldilocks Day" here in Mobridge S.D., except for a little blustery September wind. The temperature was in the high seventies, not as hot as in previous days.

Jim was concerned that I had not taken any of my medicine since the day before, so he decided we should leave Carol's house around noon, and head for home.

As we started out I suggested we stop off in Mother's garden. It was a fine day for gardens, so off we went to harvest. We very quickly gleaned all we could carry and came out with arm loads and bags of produce to preserve and share with the family. The corn was ready, and tomatoes, green beans, apples and cucumbers.

My plan was to freeze the tomatoes for soup as outlined in the recipe blog, but would deal with them later. For now they would wait on the kitchen counter while I wandered drowsily in for a nap.

My bedroom here is a very comforting place to be both in the daytime and at night. On

this September day, and every day summer day there are choruses of birds singing in the trees

and bathing in the bird bath in the back yard. Our neighbor, Gary, lovingly tends to the needs

of these joyful winged beings and the bird bath alone draws many species splashing together

and sitting along the round exterior.I have counted up to 10 to 12 at a time on hot summer days.

I might add that when that when the Gladers, Gary and C.J., are traveling or at their cabin, I have stepped up to be the keeper of the birds. I took on this role one day when the neighbors on both sides were gone on vacation and I looked out and saw the bird bath dry, and the birdies sitting there with that wtf? look on their faces. So, I rushed out and cleaned the bath and filled it, and have not let it dry out in their absence since that time.

But now back to my nap,----.

On this day, I asked Jim only to wake me if one of the children should call, and and gazed out

the window in a contented state at the beautiful early fall day, and at the trees, some heavily fruited, and fell asleep to the comforting sounds of the birds.

Some time later, Jim woke me for a call from our daughter, Stephany. We talked awhile. I was glad to hear from her as I had been worrying about her.

When I got up it was close to 7:00 P.M. The day was gone, and I hadn't called Mother yet, so I gave her a little ringy dingy. As usual she saw the call ID and quiped: "Is this Brockamp James?"

"Yes, Mother, your kinda close, How are you tonight?"

It was then that my Mother told me that she had had a bag of pork rinds for dinner.

PORK RINDS

JUNK FOOD PORK RINDS??

"Yes, pork rinds, thats what I had."

I replied, "I'll be right over to make you some Home Made Tomato Soup".

She thought that sounded very good. I actually made it at my house quite quickly and

took it over and we both enjoyed it quite a lot.

It was Eight O'Clock when I arrived with the soup and we ate and chatted for about an hour and a half and had quite a nice visit.

It was what my dear departed neighbor from Sea-Tac Wa. Belle Swaffield would call " a lovely impromptu dinner party."

SWEET BABY ALAYA

Last night Carol and I baby sat for Jessie and Joni Rae's baby, Alaya Ryan, and although the

experience was sweet and the baby was as good as any baby could be, we slept very little.

We took turns holding Alaya and feeding her and burping her and rocking her, and just enjoying cuddling the newborn in general.

Joni and Jessie, (A.K.A. Bubba) were celebrating Joni's 21st birthday with a night on the town. They planned to stay out all night and sleep in the next morning.

So the evening began with a birthday dinner party at Carol and Dennis' home with Jesse as barbeque chef grilling terriaki shishkababs, then presents and cards from all of us, followed by ice cream cake.

Finally the friends arrived for the cocktail part of the party and that's where Grandma Carol and I came in for the babysitting. Carol asked me to spend the night because she is still on crutches recovering from her surgery and would be unable to carry baby Alaya.

We had a sleep-over party of our own, just Carol, Cathy, and Baby Alaya. We got very little sleep, but we had a pleasant night. Alaya's parents werent there at noon the next day when Jim picked me up and took me home to take my medicine. Carol told me later they came for the baby at 2:30 P.M feeling a bit green at the gills.

On the way home from Carol's house, Jim and I stopped at Mother's garden and picked a lot of tomatoes and apples, bush beans and corn, planning to freeze and preserve most of it.

Today was a perfect Goldilocks Day for sept 13th, not too hot, not too cold, not too windy, just right. After we got home, I walked at the river, and talked with Steph on the phone but was a bit tired for much else.

Tired that is until I spoke with Mother and found that she had only eaten junk food for dinner.

Then like Super Turtle Woman (LOL), I made her some dinner out of the garden produce and took it over. That will be the stuff of my next blog entitled : Soup For Mother or maybe it should be called Hog Rinds are not good for dinner for my Mommy.

Anyway read all about it in the next entry.