This week’s farming update from BEN.
Man, it feels like it was a tough week. The emotions are all over the place. We know a person who is a Sergeant in the Minneapolis police force. That person cares so much for the men under their watch; making sure they get rest, and standing up for them when admin says they’re not responding to 911 calls fast enough. Thankfully things didn’t get too crazy for them, shifts returned to normal after a few days, and everyone got some time off. Still, it stresses us out and I have a hard time staying focused and we find ourselves grumpy all day.
As has been said, this is supposed to be our escape, our safe place, our happy place.
So here’s some chicken pictures!
I’ve been doing a lot of bookwork. And I got a new desk lamp that’s really nice. I have been using a farming specific software called ‘PCMars’ since getting our first computer in 1994. Getting it all entered in the computer is one thing. The other half of the job, after I pile the receipts on top of the second desk drawer, (and throwing away anything not farm / business related) is sorting them out and putting them in the tote that I’ll put downstairs for the next 23 years. I couldn’t get the drawer shut anymore, so I sorted out what I had. Then I can enter some more into the computer. I don’t save as many receipts as I used to, because so much is available online.
I haven’t decided if it’s easier or harder having electronic receipts. Those receipts I move to a file that’s either farm or home related. Then I go through them and enter them into the program. And some still need to be saved, so they go to another E-file. We talked about paper checks on here one day. Kelly wrote four checks out of her home checkbook in 2025. And three were for the bathroom remodeling.
Which, by the way, we’ve finally signed a contract and written another check, to redo the basement bathroom from 1968. So long pink wallpaper.
I know this will be an affront to Renee and some of you, but I picked up two cans of Chef Boyardee Beef Ravoli. Haven’t had it since I was a kid. When I’m out shopping, saving big money, I’m tending to buy more and more groceries there. I bought soup, Spam, and the ravioli. I made soup for supper that night and Kelly asked me how my discount soup was. It was brand name chicken and dumpling, but, it wasn’t that great. Too many carrots and not enough dumplings. The broth was good. With the cold weather predicted this weekend, I may have to make a can of ravioli as comfort food.
One day out in the shop, I made a storage place for my really large sockets. These are 3/4” drive sockets. I got tired of them being all in a jumble in the drawer. Sockets can be 1/4” drive, 3/8”, 1/2”, 3/4” or even 1” drive. I use 3/8” and 1/2” most often. The 3/4” drive stuff is for the big serious stuff. The square hole of these is the 3/4″ I was referring too, and the related ratchet or handles have a corrresponding drive on them. The largest I have are 1&7/8” and 46mm. I have a whole set of standard and metric 1/2″ drive sockets in a different tool box.
Monday is a holiday for some of us. The college is closed. I wonder what I can find to get into.
ANY COMFORT FOODS PLANNED THIS WEEKEND?
Trail Baboon 
No “comfort food”, at least, not the kind that comes with a label and a brand name, but I fully understand your having yielded to the temptation.
The “save big money” place hereabouts is about a mile from my house. I used to go there regularly, but the music drove me out. My son, who regularly patronizes “save big” near his home in Chicago, has reminded me of the billionaire founder/owner’s troglodytic politics, so I’ve generally stopped. (He hasn’t yet, but he has little kids, so doesn’t have time to go elsewhere when he’s in need.)
Madge looks more like a Mabel to me. I’ve no idea why.
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“Large Marge” was my first impression.
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Marge in charge.
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My thought was, “Madge.”
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I can’t, personally, think of any comfort foods that would come out of a can. At best that would be a compromise and an unnecessary one.
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I think the two photographic computer-generated chickens need Grant Wood’s American Gothic background.
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Yesterday I started a very large pot of brodo, an Italian broth made from 9 lbs of turkey wings and 3 lbs of beef shanks, with onions, celeriac, carrots, and celery. It simmers for 14 hours, then you strain it. It makes two to three gallons of broth which I freeze and cook with for months. The smell of it simmering is very comforting. The broth is good just by itself, especially if you have a cold. The meat cooks so long that every bit of flavor is gone from it, but we take the meat off the bones and freeze it and supplement the dog’s kibble with it.
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It wasn’t done simmering until 1:00 am this morning. Now I get to strain it.
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We have had blowing snow and very strong winds since yesterday. It is comforting to just stay home and cook and listen to music with a snuggly pup curled in my lap.
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Husband just informed me he is going to make a beef pot roast today, which is also comfort food.
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Mashed potatoes, made from scratch, with made from scratch gravy—pork or turkey, turkey preferred.
My mother’s chicken noodle soup, made from an old (all chickens above cover your eyes) stewing hen with homemade noodles or dumplings, noodles preferred.
Fresh made white bread (only time I would want white anymore) with fresh churned butter on it.
Thick pancakes with fried eggs with runny yolks on the top. 2 please. Nothing with them. Only that.
Potato cakes made from leftover mashed potatoes fried in a cast iron skillet on a wood stove.
My mother’s canned beef served over toasted day old bread with gravy over it.
Cornish pasty.
Rooster is Chanticleer. What was his fair love’s name?
Clyde
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Pinte
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?
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Old French fable. Chanticleer means clear singer. Well chosen name for a rooster, no?
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Yes!
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Enjoy!
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I plan to make a very basic chicken soup with a rotisserie chicken, onions, garlic, celery, carrots, potatoes and herbs. Maggie has a tech appointment for her booster vaccinations at noon, then I’m going to swing by the grocery store and pick up some bread, crackers, oat milk, and one of those yummy chickens.
I have a big box “save big” store right here in little Dundas. It’s hard to avoid. I do try. Many of these big box stores have similar politics. I really hope the current political trends start turning around soon. I’m so tired of all of this.
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Rise and Cook for Sanity, Baboons,
Tonight it is roast chicken with a lemon in the cavity, a la France. The real comfort is in the mashed potatoes and gravy that come with it. I need something like this. Yesterday we had ICE helicopters intermittently over our house which is unnerving. They are not looking for us, but rather they are harassing an apartment building about 1/2 mile away where a number of POC live. The helicopters use the park below us as a place to turn around without trees. There has been one helicopter over our house already this morning. Ugh. I am increasingly suspicious that I have a sinus infection, as well. The symptoms are piling up, and I get irritable, too. Not what I need when I am attempting to tolerate hostile political decisions and husband’s care issues.
I love the chicken pictures, Ben. They are just right. Yesterday I found a pattern for a knitted, stuffed chicken that I may make. I have been knitting a lot to soothe myself while listening to audiobooks or music. It works! It especially helps that Elizabeth George’s latest Thomas Lynley/Barbara Havers book popped up in my Libby cue. Yippee. This is my equivalent series to VS’s Three Pines series. Also, the snowplow guy I hired was here to clear the driveway at about 4:30am. He has been very reliable. Counting my blessings today.
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We will head to Sioux Falls to the biggest “save big while buying in huge quantities” store there. We only go every 3 months or so.
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On Tuesday. Not today.
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I’ll be trying a new Italian minestrone recipe tonight. Might turn out to be comfort food–if we like it. Tomorrow is Pierre Franey’s fabulous “Cassoulet a la Minute,” which I’ve made at least 30 times over the years. It makes a huge batch, so we usually get 3-4 meals total.
Chris in Owatonna
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I looked up this recipe. Do you use duck?
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Yes, but I roast it whole first. Then let it cool and take the meat off the bones. Got tired of spitting out little pieces of bone and cartilage, and also it’s a pain eating the meat off the bones in a big “stew” like that.
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Wow. Impressive and Renee-like
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Best friend who is moving in with us makes traditional cassoulet once a year. It takes her three days from start to finish. I get her the traditional beans from Rancho Gordo.
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I’ve been reading Nick Offerman’s book, ‘Where the deer and the antelope play’. I’m enjoying that, and he often explains why the way we’re doing things really isn’t the best, but then says, “But, the money.”
Ah yes. The money.
Which is what I feel about shopping at the save big money store. Yeah, I know his political views would not match mine, and yet, there’s not always a lot of options anymore. Do I give my money to him, or to the mail order place?
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I like David’s suggestion of Mabel for the hen. She’s very pretty and her feathers have a sort-of marbled look to them, so Mabel fits.
Grandson made me a “fairy garden” (with gnomes instead of fairies) for Christmas that includes a rooster, hen and chicks.
I started a loaf of 24-hour “no-knead” bread yesterday and will make beef stew for dinner. Lots of opportunities for warming comfort food in the forecast for the coming week.
We shop at the “save big” store occasionally. It’s hard to find a big chain store that isn’t a moral compromise. The solution is shop local when you can and be frugal about spending elsewhere. Luckily, we’re at a stage in life where we don’t need much.
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Have to read the rest later – making turkey chili and (probably) cornbread tonight, but what I consider comfort foods.
Yes, love the chickens, Ben.
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It amazes me how much meat is on these turkey wings. The ones we got from the local butcher were huge. He ordered a case for me, and that is enough for 4 batches of brodo I wouldn’t want to meet these turkeys in a dark alley. We decided the meat tasted just fine and not overcooked, and we will freeze it and cook with it.
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