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Boy, Chef-

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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!

This is a Phoenix chicken we got from a friend several years ago. They’re really nice chickens.
This is Marge. I just made up that name. Go ahead and suggest names for her.
Hello girls. And boy.
I asked the computer to generate two chickens in a photographic style. They sure look grumpy. Next time I’ll ask for happier chickens.
I asked the computer to generate a cartoon chicken..

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.

I need better labels than the sharpie that was going dry.

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?

86 thoughts on “Boy, Chef-”

  1. 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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  4. 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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  5. 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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  7. 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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  9. 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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    1. it maybe a time that a blue big box could thrive. buy from companies that we support. aim to market to tree huggers and make lists of companies
      . tarriff schmarriff…buy from good folks dont buy from slimeball companies. wonder who’s who? ill bet the websight could be helpful. it would certainly create an interesting platform for trying to be the best vs who are ones we should boycott.

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  10. 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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    1. My knitting teacher sent a pattern for a very easy stuffed 47 doll – kind of like a dammit doll (if you’ve ever seen one of those). It’s made from scrap fabric or felt, and it looks very simple. Cut out the human shape from blue fabric, sew or glue on a white shirt collar, a red tie, and orange hair. Embroider an angry face on the front of the doll’s face. Cut out the same shape for the back. Sew the seams together until there’s just a small space on the side, then stuff the doll with some old fabric, yarn scraps, or poly-fill and sew up the remaining space. Stick pins in it to your heart’s content!

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      1. Kelly bought several dammit dolls a few years ago and shared them with people she works with. I believe the local nun’s made some of them, and if you bought from certain places, the proceeds went back to the nuns. I’ve known a handful of nuns and they are more fun than one would think.
        NEW QUESTION: ANY STORIES OF NUNS ? (besides from school teachers?)

        The first one I got to know a bit did some theater and she knew the dirtiest jokes!
        Another worked at the college and was in charge of keys and reservations. She was a farm girl from Missouri.
        Another was in charge of the chapel at the nunnery, Assisi Heights. She had the nicest smile and was always fun to talk with.

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  12. 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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      1. 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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        2. 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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        3. I used to make “traditional” cassoulet that took days. (I remember one from the Time-Life cookbook series). But after making Chef Pierre’s recipe, I realized it was just as delicious and much quicker to make.

          An interesting fact I learned when we were in southern France near Castelnaudary, where cassoulet originated, is that there are many regional variations. Sort of like hot dish here in MN or stews in other places. So I guess “traditional” would imply the original recipe before the variations took hold in different areas. That contains white beans, pork, duck confit, and sausages.

          Chris

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  13. 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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  14. 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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  16. 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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  17. I’m confused about the ‘save big money” reference today. Is that one particular store that’s owned (or started) by a billionaire who is easy to hate because of his politics? Or are there multiple businesses?

    Chris

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      1. Okay, I get it now. That’s what I thought at first, but I didn’t know they sold ravioli there. Our nearest Menards is the Dundas location, so we don’t go there often. Also didn’t know the founder of the biz was a political radical.

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  19. I haven’t technically done or are going to do any traditional comfort foods over the weekend. However, YA has been out of town for a week and I have reverted to my “don’t buy any groceries, just eat what’s in the house” model. What that means is that almost every meal feels like a comfort meal to me because I’m either eating the last of something and cleaning the serving dish or the pot or throwing away the package. I ate the last serving of frozen french fries a couple of days ago. I had a can of veggie lentil soup that was in the cabinet. I’ve opened the last container of applesauce that I made this fall. It was in the freezer. I finished off the enchiladas that I made before YA left. And tomorrow morning, I am slated to eat the last chunk of chili cheese bread from Stella‘s Bakery in Wisconsin. So so comforting to me when I have these weeks.

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  23. the hen is madeline. if i get time ill do a potato pancake tomorrow.
    i find i cant eat leftovers forever because i cook in large volume and no one else eats it.
    potatoes onions beans and olives are regular contributors, tomatoes fill it out and pasta sneaks in and gives it a little organazation . salad never calls out to me but it gets eaten and enjoyed when i throw stuff in a bowl. seasoned garlic breading croutons , cheese, onions, mushrooms, cheese tortolini, gnocci with pesto black and green olives tofu in a terriaki marinade some balsamic vinegar, ginger, whatever nuts are hanging around and maybe a variation on a dressing direction to make make tomorrows different from todays.
    love the socket organization. i need that. one of my guitar buddies gave me the tour and use of his woodshop in the basement that a couple of guitars and a couple of violins have been made. i would love to do that and hope to when my life turns a corner and has some me time to distribute, not there yet. but within a year or so
    daughter is running the underground railroad getting food, doctors, rides to school and elsewhere and creating networks for brown people stuck in their homes out of fear. its all encompassing. the world got redirected to minnesota by whacko in chief.
    jan 6 epstien tax returns selling favors and collecting % on deals.
    when is enough,
    my architecture course started wednesday and im going to spend 20 hours a weeks with now 5 year old autistic non verbal grandson to give mom a chance to come up for air
    life is busy indeed. one foot in front of the other.
    no hip replacement it turns out . good news bad news.
    so it goes

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      1. Actually, I didn’t have any problem with that “can’t“ because that’s my boat. When I make something that YA doesn’t cotton into it, then I’m stuck eating the same dish for several days in a row, which isn’t something I enjoy that much. A few years ago now she bought me one of those suck the air out of it freezer dohickeys. (That’s the official name.) So I do freeze things before I get sick of them.

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    3. I declared a moratorium yesterday on cooking new entrees after I discovered 9 containers of various leftovers in the freezers as I was finding room for all the brodo. We get so excited by new recipes that we prepare them before we have eaten what we cooked the day before. Husband put the beef chuck in the freezer and will make pot roast later in the month. We comforted ourselves with leftover white bean and fennel stew and beef/red bean tacos. Once those containers are finished we will move on to lemon chicken soup and chili made with red beans and farro.

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  24. My daughter had to stay with me Friday night. Friday she and her husband made chicken breasts and left me with two large ones. I will be eating left overs for a while.
    Clyde

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  25. Privileged

    Staying home today
    Hot soup and tea
    Books and warm wool
    A fire in the hearth and a puppy on my lap
    There is a dark ICE-y wind
    And a chill in
    this warm-hearted State
    Gratitude to those warriors
    Who brave the cold and ice
    Who go back day after day
    Filming shouting marching yelling singing sobbing
    For the good of us all
    For the good of us all
    For peace for us all

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  26. Today I will be baking 6 loaves of Amish Friendship Bread. I’m beginning to get tired of this process, but I do enjoy it once I get going. (with my music on and special drink nearby. The drink varies; might be Baileys, might be grape pop, might be couple fingers of whiskey. I better count out the 6 cups of flour first…) I think this is “only” about the 6th baking this season, so 36 loaves, but I have a handful of people and offices that would like bread yet, so there’s a few to go.

    I have some bacon ends that I’ll fry and then put in a crock pot for supper. Add some form of pasta, and … some other stuff.
    I’m thinking the ravioli will be tomorrow’s lunch.

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  27. Well, here is a comfort. The Luverne Street Music, a local music school, just engaged a cello teacher. Husband played cello in elementary and high school, and has kept playing, but wanted formal lessons. He can start right away. He really likes his guitar teacher at Luverne Street Music and will continue with him. Maybe now he won’t need to cook so much!

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