Where’s the Beef?
Like most endeavors that I undertake, this one didn’t turn out as planned. Also like most of my endeavors, this one is comical. Which is good, because when something goes the route of the unexpected, it’s always best when it’s funny too.
This year Derek and I bought in on a cow. Yes a cow. This isn’t new territory for me. I grew up eating farm fresh animals. Either from our own family stock or from friends who raised bigger things {like cows and pigs.} So, yes, I’m familiar with buying part of a cow. I’ve just never been the one to do it. That was always a mom and dad kind of ordeal.
But up here in PraCan cattle ranches abound. So it seemed pretty silly not to buy in with four other friends on a North Dakota original, grass-fed, cold-weather-tested cow. So we put our money down, expecting to get some ground beef, T-bones, roasts…the like. My wonderful friend Jessi and her husband, Craig were kind enough to organize the whole thing. So when the butcher had done his job, I got a call that the meat was in.
Jessi said that we got a little more than expected…and asked if I had any extra coolers. I didn’t. But I headed over to pick up my share.
Now, I was under the impression this would be a quick in and out kind of thing. Which explains why I wore my jim-jams. You see it was about 7pm on a Saturday night and Derek was out of town. Obviously I was in the middle of a crafting and eating marathon at my Minot bestie’s apartment. {No need to be fancy.}
But again. Unexpected. When I got there I found out just how much extra we had received. See, there is no way to tell exactly how much meat your cow will provide…until it’s hanging. Yes, hanging. Like on a hook in some butchery somewhere. Ours turned out to be a real fatty…putting out 700 pounds of meat more than we anticipated. All in all we were looking at nearly 2000 pounds of beef. Which meant that Jessi and Craig’s garage was turned into a temporary meat packing plant.
We put out tarps and divvied everything up. Each share included 57 lbs of ground beef. That’s the only number that sticks in my mind. Fifty-seven. That’s a lot of beef. Everyone also got a vast array of steaks, roasts, soup bones, stew meat, you name it. So much that one friend’s freezer looked like this once she got it all jammed inside.
And my freezer looks like this.
Which is fine. We just won’t be buying meat for a while. Probably not until we move.
On a different note, it is delicious. And you can totally tell that it was grass fed. It’s weird, because I didn’t think I’d notice. But it’s so good and has virtually no fat on it.
But I’ve learned a lesson from all of this. Next time you want to split a cow, split it 6 or 7 ways. I also learned that a dead, packaged cow can still take up a lot of space {like 10 coolers.} And that butchers make good money {I saw that butcher fee.} And that even thought it was a lot of meat, and I spent quite a bit of time in my jim-jams sorting it out, and it was pretty comical, and we may have to try really hard to eat it all in the next 12 months…I’m glad we did it. Even if only for the funny story we can tell later…
“Remember when we bought that cow and it was an obscene amount of meat?…”
Amy
So, You Feel Like A Loser
It’s snowing.
That fact alone is leaving me feeling a bit overwhelmed. When did it get to be practically-2014? I bet some of you are feeling the same way. Then I get overwhelmed by all the things I wanted to do and didn’t do, and should do, and could do, but don’t do…
Ever feel that way?
The problem for me is that when I start to get in that rut I begin to feel enormously inadequate. I look around and see people who have it together and are making strides. And I feel like a hot mess on an August afternoon.
So this afternoon while I was feeling a little blah, I began re-reading 1 Corinthians. It’s what the high school Sunday school class is studying now, but I’ve only taught on chapters 7 and 8. I hadn’t gone back to the start of the book until today. In chapter 1 I’ve got a whole paragraph highlighted. It’s verses 26-31.
“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
What a passage for those of us feeling overwhelmed or not up to par today.
When God called us into a life devoted to Him we probably weren’t super stars. And we probably still aren’t. This is His design. His plan, His work has always used the weak to lead the strong. It has always used the lowly to shame the mighty, and used the small to do His biggest work. Most of the Bible’s most iconic players were average, below average, and riddled with imperfection. So if you are feeling that way today, take heart. You are in the perfect place, the perfect state of mind, the perfect position to be used for greatness. You only have to submit to His plan and the possibility He has for your life.
For further reading check out James 1. Especially verses 9-11. It’s another reminder that God uses those who are not an image of wealth and perfection from a mortal view.
Amy
Fall
Tonight Practically Canada is expected to get mixed precipitation. As in rain…mixed with snow. It’s only a matter of time now and winter will be upon us again.
I love fall and I hate to see it come to a close. I’m a fan of sweater weather and the smell of dry leaves. I like the eerie feeling in the air as things begin to close up, grow dark and quiet for a long winter season. I like cemetaries and the way they look with deer peeking out from behind grave stones and crow circling overhead. I love the colors and the flavors and the spooky side of this time of year.
So I thought I’d take this opportunity to put together a little image essay. These are a few things that caught my eye as I walked around my block. The beautiful thing about photographs is that you can savor a moment forever. This way, even if snow falls tonight, we’ll still have the color of the leaves, the smell or fresh apples, and the sound of crunchy leaves lingering in our minds.
Hannah: Class of 2014
This is Hannah. She’s a senior and she is especially dear to me. Last year she approached me and asked if I could begin mentoring her. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of encouraging this fine gal along her spiritual walk. I’m so blessed to call her a friend.
Hannah is incredibly, musically talented. She plays the violin and the piano, and sings. She plays in the youth worship band at church. And she is a hot tea connoisseur. Which I totally dig, because I love chatting over a good, hot drink.
Hannah has ambitions of traveling far and wide. Dreams of seeing Norway and Ireland and all kinds of other places. I know this one is going to grow some major wings. I know this girl will {indeed} go places and do great things.
Perfectly Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Historically speaking, I’m a terrible pumpkin carver. You can ask anyone in my family. They’ll relay stories of many pumpkin-induced rage quits. So this year when some friends asked Derek and me to participate in a friendly carving contest I was pretty nervous. The raging is now a thing of the past, but the terrible carving skills are still fully intact.
But I gave it my best shot. I obviously spent a little time on my phone Googling pumpkin carving images before beginning. Then I started. Now, maybe it was the pressure of the competition, or maybe I didn’t want to look a fool in front of new friends…whatever it was, this year I carved my best ever pumpkin.
Here are the Smith pumpkins in all their glory.
And here is the full line up from our get-together. Pretty impressive, right?
Here in PraCan, it’s almost too windy every night to actually light our pumpkins and have them stay lit. But that’s not why I really like to carve anyway. I’m mostly in it for the seeds. If they are done right, they kind of make wading through all that pumpkin goo worth the nasty.
If you’ve already carved and thrown your seeds away, don’t fret. You can use this recipe on squash seeds too. So when you hack open that butternut, put the seeds aside for later.
It’s really easy. The recipe below is good for about 2 cups of seeds. If you have more, you’ll just need to add a little more oil to get them all coated.
First, degoop all your seeds. Some stringy stuff is okay, but separate your seeds from the big chunks of pumpkin guts.
Next, I rinse mine off just a bit in a collander. Nothing too thourough. Then I shake them off and pour them into a bowl.
Add about 2 Tbsp of olive oil and stir it around. Then spread them out on a cookie sheet or pizza pan. I have a pizza pan with holes in the bottom that I like to use because it lets heat up underneath the seeds, but I’ve done it on a cookie sheet and they turn out fine too.
Once they are evenly spread, sprinkle them with some salt. Then sprinkle them again with a grill seasoning. Yep, that’s my big secret. I use a premixed seasoning. I really like this smokehouse maple from McCormick Grill Mates.
Finally put the pan in the oven and turn it on to 250 degrees. The key here is letting the seeds dry out completely. That’s the difference between a good seed and a soggy seed. So you’ll need to let them bake for 45-60 minutes. Take them out and give them a quick stir every 15 minutes or so. You’ll know they are done when they are dry and making a crackling sound.
Happy October
Amy
Look at all the fun mail I got yesterday. It made my day. There is no other way to put it. I wasn’t expecting any of it. But there is was in the mail box. There was a bill and a piece of junk too, but they’re not in the photo, because this is an image of my fun mail only.
We all know that electronic mail is easier to send, easier to put together. But we also know how great it feels to get some “real” mail. The kind that you have to open. The kind delivered to your house by someone in uniform. It’s special and it’s always exciting.
In the big scheme of things real mail doesn’t take that long to create and send. And a letter is only a few cents to mail. Maybe we should just store up a few texts that we’d send to a friend…and instead of sending them immediately, write them down on paper. Or, we could just take a second and write something out just for the fun of it.
I’m determined to send a letter in the coming days. This made my day. Let’s pay it forward. Slap a stamp on it and get that mail flag up.
Thanks to everyone who made yesterday so wonderful. You know who you are and you rock.
Amy
Restoration
Good news everyone. The guest room floor was done in time for our latest house guest. And it’s ready for the next batch, and then the holiday batch after that. I’m so happy with the results {especially the lack of old-carpet-smell.}
And I apologize for these hideous B&A photos. I know. It’s so cheap to show the before with the room looking like a wreck. The truth is, I was just so eager to rip that carpet up and drag it to the curb that I nearly forgot to take any before photos at all. I had the bed stripped and the mattress prepped to be moved out when I remembered. So, sorry. It is, what it is.
This room was so easy to work on. {Especially compared to the office.} It rolled right up. No glue. Only a few staples on the carpet pad and a tack strip to rip up. {See how it came up here.}
I scraped up some old paint splatter of yester-projects and sanded out some rough spots. Then I cleaned the whole thing with Krud Kutter {that stuff rocks} and let it dry.
Then it was two coats of Fast-Drying Polyurethane from Minwax applied with lambswool. Same stuff I used in the bedroom. In there I used a natural bristle brush. I think I like that technique better. Especially since I neglected to wear gloves and I had polyurethane all over my hands…and no mineral spirits in the garage to get it off.
Yuck.
Pretty isn’t it?
I talked to some folks earlier who called this type of flooring “porch floor.” They claim it’s an old school type of sub-flooring, meant to be covered. I claim that it’s rustically perfect and full of character. I like the nails. I like that they aren’t in perfect rows. I even like the little bits of paint that are left behind. And I like the price. This redo didn’t cost me a penny.
To protect cold toes from icy hard floors we put down this braided rug that was rolled up in the basement. That’s a win-win, because it serves a purpose and frees up shelf space in the basement. It’s from the Shabby Chic collection at Target, but I {of course} bought it second hand. Whatever. Pretty is pretty, right? And I love a good bargain.
Amy
Dollar Store Hack {fall centerpiece}
I’m in love with Glade candles. So I was super excited when I came up with this easy, cheap and quick way to dress them up for fall.
I just made one for an end table, but a group of three would be hefty enough to stand alone as a Thanksgiving centerpiece.
{Photos via Glade.com, DollarTree.com, and OhNuts.com}
I bought quite a few nuts, but for just this project you’ll only need a couple to keep things extra cheap. Looking for another cute way to use up those nuts? How about revisiting this centerpiece I created for last Thanksgiving. If I remember right…I think this one also featured a Glade candle. I’m telling you, they are the best.
Amy
Something Delicious {Pumkin Coffee Cake}
I love this recipe. It’s one that I wrote a few years ago for Thanksgiving. This year, I busted it out early. Because it’s really that easy and that good. And the batter tastes amazing, so the bowl is totally worth licking. Here’s the recipe.
You have a couple options for glaze. Super easy route:
Buy a can of cream cheese frosting from the store. Heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds at a time, until it’s liquidy and smooth. Drizzle it over the cake.
Make it yourself:
Put 1/2 block of cream cheese in a bowl. Microwave it until it’s soft. Mix in 1/2-3/4 cup powdered sugar {depending on how sweet you like it.} Add a Tbsp of milk to get a glaze consistency. Keep adding milk little by little until you have a drizzle-able consistency.
Then eat it. Or share it. Or both. But be sure to pair it with a good, hot drink. That’s the best.
Amy
Savanna {Class of 2014}
Savanna lives in the country. Shade dapples the property. Classic cars peek out from behind the barn…projects to be done. The grass is green, bunnies hop through tall weeds, the sun makes the color of the world vibrant.
In this rustically idyllic setting, Savanna fits in perfectly. She’s fun and tough, and the kind of girl who walks around outside without shoes.
Like all the seniors I’ve book so far this year, I know Savanna through the youth group I volunteer with at church. So I offered her the same discount that Gretchen took advantage of. Throughout the rest of the post you’ll find the verses she chose to memorize and recite at her session.
“They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved–you and your household.” Acts 16:31
She and her dad restored this 1960’s truck together. I’m simply crazy about the color. She calls it the “Turtle” because it’s green and slow.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
“In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Hebrews 9:22
“For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” Luke 19:10
Be on the lookout for more from this session on the Facebook page later this week. And don’t forget to come over to the Facebook page every night for a new costume idea throughout the month of October.
Amy
