Friday Night Dinner!

This Friday we had an exceptional dinner that included fried potatoes, ratatouille, and dupe steak. Mom and I worked together to get it put together - I helped with the Ratatouille and Steak.

Steak

To start with, we had two kinds of steak. Yak and beef. Last night everybody seemed to think the beef was a lot better. The beef was real tender (most of it).

Recipe:

1/4 a cup soy sauce

3/4 a cup of oil

1Garlic Powder

2 Tbsp honey

1 1/2 tsp ginger (ground up).

2 scallions, chopped (green onions)

......

Flank Steak

Mix the sauce together. Defrost the steak sliced diagonally. Place steak in a container or bag and pour sauce over it. Shake the bag so that the steak is well covered in the sauce. Place in the fridge and soak all day. (Put the bag in another container so it does not get all over!)

Grill until done to your liking.

Roast Potatoes

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees F.

Recipe:

7 potatoes, cut into 1/8

Salt

Pepper

Oil

1 1/2 tsp. Rosemary

1 1/2 tsp. Basil

3/4 tsp. Garlic Powder

Directions:

Mix salt, pepper, oil, and other ingredients into a bowl with potatoes. Pour into a large glass baking dish and bake till your liking.

Ratatouille

(I did not take this photo)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

(We got this recipe from Allrecipes.com)

Recipe:

3 Tbsp olive oil

4 1/2 cloves of garlic

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1-2 eggplants (cut into 1/2 inch cubes and salt to your taste)

1- 1/2 cups o

3-5 zucchini, sliced

1-1/2 large onions, sliced into rings

3 cups of fresh, sliced mushrooms

1-1/2red or green bell peppers, sliced

3 large tomatoes, chooped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat bottom and sides of a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish with 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic until lightly browned. Mix in parsley and eggplant. Saute until eggplant is soft, about 10 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

Spread eggplant mixture evenly across bottom of prepared casserole dish.

Sprinkle with a few tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. Spread zucchini in an even layer over top. Lightly salt and sprinkle with a little more cheese. Continue layering in this fashion, with onion, mushrooms, bell pepper, and tomatoes, covering each layer with a sprinkling of salt and cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes

.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Homemade Style)

Working as a volunteer TnT Girls Leader for AWANA can have a couple weird things.... Like Pie Night. And when you really do not want to get a pie of whipped cream in your face, you can always try bribing. I did. And I succeeded... with one girl (I still got a pie, though, from her older sister) And so I ended up making a bunch of cookies for all the girls anyways, as it is towards the end of the year.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes over 30 cookies.

Supplies:

Blender

Mixer

Cookie Sheet

Butter, Choc. Chips (or Carob Chips), Sugar (Brown and White), Eggs, Oats, Salt, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, White Flour, and Vanilla.

Thanks Denimcowgirl... for the reminder. Preheat the oven to 375 and cook for 6-7 minutes. It normally takes mine about 10 though, but that might be altitude.

2 Cups of Butter. (About one whole package and defrosted.)

2 Cups of White Sugar

2 Cups of Brown Sugar

.......Mix

4 Eggs

2 Tsp. of Vanilla

3 Cups of Ground Oats

.....Mix

5 Cups of Flour

1 Tsp. Salt

2 Teasp. of Baking Powder

2 Teasp. of Baking Soda

.....Mix

If wanted, add as many Choc. Chips (or Carob Chips) as preferred.

Whats Been Going On :)

WE have been moderately busy with our lives on this end of the Rockies!

To start with, we sold our house up here and are planning (LORD WILLING) on moving towards the foothills (East) to a rental. I plan, LORD willing, to post some pictures of the home and its remodeling... which we plan to get done!

The house is a, I think, 1970's home that just needs a little updating. It is a nice four bed room home, with a dining room, family room, and living room (3 baths.) I would like, we hope, to get my room done cowboy fashion with my sisters and I's bunkbeds (My sister plans to get married and move out this spring). If she comes back to stay it might be fun to share rooms again for a couple of weeks. My saddle, saddle rack, bridle rack, and cowboy hat (not including my riding gloves or new boots) should make a nice cowboy look to the room... I also have some stencils, Breyer Horse Models, and some pictures of my horses with me. My sister and I would like LORD willing, to go shopping Thursday a pick out some stuff.

The house will still need some work. Cupboards in the kitchen are not very nice will have to work for the moment. The kitchen over all has a very classy floor, and a great stove!!!!! The backyard has about a half an acre ( a lot for town). It has some neat rock formations on it and is fenced. The front yard is classically nice! The remaining bedrooms need some touch ups and new curtains and drapes. Me and my sister like it a lot!

Well... I plan, if possible, to take some pictures and post them (of the house._

Enjoy!

~Western Belle

Tiny Update!

I know I have been terrible about posting. Without Spirit around, I don't have a lot of farm stuff to post about.

To start with, we have not sold Tu yet. He is beginning to shed out and is huge! Hopefully, we can find a home for him shortly!

As some of you may or may not know, we are planning, LORD willing, to move back to the big town I was born in. You can all pray we make the right decisions. We may or may not take the chickens with us and are planning, LORD willing, on taking all three dogs and selling Tu.

My older sister has finished my bridesmaid dress for her wedding, in which, LORD willing, I will take place in as maid of honor! She has worked most of wedding dress out and Mom finished the men's vests.

You can read about Elsie under the new puppy tab. She has plenty of updates!

~Western Belle

Photos!

We had a pretty visitor a couple mornings ago. A pretty little (big) hawk.

I did not take the photos, my brothers did. But, I decided to post them anyways, as I was running across them while up loading photos of our new puppy, Elsie.

You can also view some of her new photos here: Photos Album.

Have fun!

~Western Belle

Changes!

Well, if you have not been following my new blog, about a little addition, you might not know that we have made many changes.

To start with, we sold Spirit on July 6th. Yes it was sad. I enjoy the little break from work, but sometimes, I almost wanna do it again. I also miss Spirit. But I am glad she went. WE had a lot of experience riding and she went to a GREAT home!

Our other change was the buying of our Border Collie/Lab puppy, Elsie. She is about 8 weeks old and a lot of fun. I posted her to my links were you can read about her. WE have had her for a little over a week, and she is a blast (as long as you feel well, hehe). Enjoy reading about Elsie!

~Western Belle

A Lil' Bit of News

Sun, clouds, and wind. This week has been unusually warm and it is nice. It is normally almost a clear sky in the morning and partly to mostly cloudy in the afternoon. Along with that, it has been in the 40's - 50's this week, so it has been a GREAT week. Mom, my little brother, and I all went for a ride on Tuesday. I learned that if I hold Spirit to a walk, she is more likely to comply to my wishes. And it discourages geldings from flirting with her, unless she trots. On Wednesday we got a good amount of work done. After school we cleaned out the two water troughs (which were filthy) and got them full of clean water. YAY!!! Mom also cleaned up our Nissan. Lil' Bro and I cleaned out Tu and Spirit's pen, so now it looks all right. As Dad was home early on Wednesday, Spirit and I accompanied him on a walk with the "All Stubborn" Tu. After which I gave her her oats and flushed her eyes. (She still has a little bit of infection which I continue to treat once a day with 1/4 a cup of Hydrogen Peroxide to 1 cup of water). For some reason, she detests being away from Tu for a minute. And as soon as she was mostly done with her oats, she had a little runaway to find Tu. Thankfully, he was on the other side of their shed and I was able to lead (more like she was leading me) Spirit to their pen. Crazy. She went from being scared of him to adoring him. As soon as she found him and greeted him, she went back to being a good-natured, laid back mare, and went ahead and munched on her tasty Alfalfa/Hay mix.

Ah, now I need to get the Thursday chores done.

~Western Belle