What's for Dinner? It's Stew-pendous

If I didn't have an Insta-Pot cooker, which is also a slow cooker, I think our family would either have frozen pizzas or quesadillas even more regularly than they already do. So, tonight I dumped a pile of hearty vittles into the slow-cooker, hit the button for it to cook for eight and a half hours, and crossed my fingers. Actually, I used this recipe before, quite often, and especially since we woke up to snow on the mountains, it feels like a 'stew'-pendous day for a pot of hearty stew. I'm not a chef, by any means, a rustic cook at best, but I do a lot of home cooking for our crew. Here's how I quickly made this right before I dashed out the door this morning. I have a passel of hungry kids who come home from football practice ready for a good meal, so I always amp up the meat.

'Stew'-pendous Stew

3 lbs stew meat-beef, elk or deer

16 oz frozen mixed vegetables

1 large yellow onion-quartered

4 large potatoes-russet or yellow-peeled and cubed

2 packets of brown gravy

2 packets brown gravy

1 small can tomato paste

1 tsp cornstarch

4 cups water

1 tsp garlic

1/2 tsp celery seed

3 sprigs of basil-from my garden

2 bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

4 cups water

Directions:

Dump everything in the slow-cooker, and it'll do it's thing.

Ha...ha! I'm kidding....here's a bit more directions.

Add onion as the base layer, next the meat, veggies and potatoes.  Now...I used frozen meat as well. The water will cook out and still makes it soft, however, always, always use safe methods of meat preparation. This works for me, since nine times out of ten I forget to pull the meat out the night before to get it thawed. I then add the water, top with gravy mix, add garlic, celery seed, sprigs of basil, bay leaves, salt and pepper. I then let it cook all day. I typically leave at 7:15 am and am not home until at least 5pm, and if I set it to 8 1/2 hours or 9 this still lets it cook, then the Insta-Pot automatically turns it to a 'warm' setting.  I'd love to say I can check on it and stir it, but I can't...we're 30 minutes from town, but once I get home I stir everything together, taste to see if I need to add anything. I also reset my Insta-Pot to the pressure cooker controls, and if I feel like it needs a little more of something, I set the buttons on meat/stew for a quick 15-20 minutes before everyone gets home. The stew gets nice and hot, and gives me an opportunity to add anything in that may just send the dinner over the top...from good to great, or I'd like to think that :). Once it's complete, remove the sprigs/twigs of basil and the bay leaves. Let it cool and serve with biscuits or homemade bread. Enjoy!

In a Pickle with Pickles

At 5,500 feet in elevation, our summer growing season is very limited, and this year proved to be a bit more challenging due to scattered snow and hail through June and a couple times in July to get my planted and started. But...once they were warm and cozy beneath the soil, we had a few warm days and the combination of my lamb manure mixed with a few good soakings, boy did they sprout! I just love to go out to my garden, lift the oversized leaves and find flowering blooms beginning that soon transform into a bountiful harvest.   

This year I've had a bumper crop of cucumbers! We've made bread and butter pickles, kosher dills, and sliced them super thin to add to salads and water.  I used to be very intimidated to can, but it really is vey simple and a great way to preserve these bumper crops when they surprisingly, somehow magically appear even with mother nature tries its best to challenge its growth. An easy way to ease the pickle you're in, if you begin plucking an abundance of potential pickles, is to use Mrs. Wages pre-mixed canning seasoning.  I really like the seasoning mixes, and included are easy directions for the canning processes.  Make sure the jars you're using have no cracks, and in my opinion, starting with fresh lids and seals is the way I like to begin.  I use old lids for Christmas ornaments, another crafty blog coming soon...have fun with your bountiful harvests this Fall and don't get caught in a pickle with your pickles, there's plenty of easy ways to preserve those veggies!

One of the many blessings of living on a small farm are images to wake up to just like this....horses, purple-pink sunrises and endless Montana pastures.  Even though summer is supposed to be simple, relaxing, and filled with lazy days, most often in our busy family life we catch ourselves rolling one day into the next packed with summer's 'must get dones', and all the myriad of various jobs that come with the summer without school. We luckily do make the time fill many days full of soaking up the sun and lazily relaxing next to a campfire, and even includes these quiet morning moments of taking in the sweet dew scents of morning. But getting up on this cool summer morning, I took it all in...every scent, between the soft summer breeze, sweet clover and horse dander...I relished in the quiet of filling my soul from the top of my head to the tips of my toes with time and cherishing to the blessing of the summer new day.

'Spr-inter' Steps

The sun is shining, the sand hill cranes are calling and a hint of green tints our winter weathered ground.  With the hopeful arrival of 'some' spring (it will snow again and that's okay), I have to say this winter has been one of reflection, perspective and a walk in faithfulness.  For a couple months, I felt like I was looking up through the eye of a tornado-the wind whirling around me and yet I could see the beauty high above in the promise of the blue sky just beyond my reach.  In reflection all I had to do is look up and the whirling stopped when I focused on the sky above.  I'd try to quiet my noisy mind and heart of the whirlwind stirring around me in these moments, and I tried to keep my eye on an eternal perspective while still making action steps toward the many avenues the good Lord has blessedly lit the path toward.  The light is bright, always present and boldly leading but it's so easy to get quickly distracted by what's whirling around.  As I look back and see those moments, now in this season of 'Spr-inter', they are small but mighty steps on this lit path he's revealing. Sometimes these moments only presented for me to see two steps in front of me, and sometimes my view of the moment was able to see across to the horizon and its miles of perspective abounding beyond. What seemed like a moment of quick texts, a casual conversation, a routine glance, sick days, a blinking cursor on a white page, or those moments where I knew I was standing out of my moment, and looking in at it with different glasses, are the reflections that captured my heart, were answered prayers, miracles unbeknownst in the moment, discernment, and the good Lord revealing his presence in all things, at all time, and in all places-in small but mighty ways.  These blessings of reflections I'm grateful for, and most of all I'm grateful for the whirling moments as hard as, and as stuck as I felt in the whirlwind of those temporary times.  Because without them, how would I focus my attention toward the richness of the above, which was always within my reach, or be able to see with different eyes that these moments, while small and many, were mighty steps in the path of my growing relationship with the good Lord.

God may reveal moments as small steps to us, but when you reflect on your trail, they are part of a mighty path to Him.

Gifts

The sparking ember toward the end of 2016 lit a rolling fire beneath me in 2017, launching several amazing writing projects. While each of these projects were independent of the other, they became  the catalysts to multiple  opportunities in 2017...and available on store shelves in 2018!  I'd love it if you'd come along with me on this journey... http://www.jeanpetersen.com/

"I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received," Eph. 4:1, the apostle Paul...

I look at this scripture and it reminds me of how committed to writing I felt at the beginning of 2017.  I was more than determined, and began seriously treating my goals as a job but it was an even deeper sense stirring in me, it was something I had to do as a part of one the gifts the Good Lord has given me. If I did not move forward, I would not regret it in a year or two, or ten, but by the next week.  I felt it with a serious need to respond, active action, and deep conviction to write, craft, edit and pitch some of these books I have had on the slow burner.  They were ready to serve, but I had been hesitant in sharing and putting myself out there again.  A confidence and peace came over me as I worked towards my goals, steadily, accepting many rejections, but gaining a faster pace as I trusted, believed and had Faith the fruits of my labor would be rewarded.  The good Lord is always Faithful!

In May, I was awarded another book contract with Arcadia Publishing and The History Press to feature a Montana themed cookbook teamed with a local, esteemed chef's recipes also filled with Montana history and unique, gourmet dishes from the natural resources that abound our landscapes along with locally sourced ingredients. It was an amazing journey!  Since I am a very 'rustic' gourmet, I learned how to make these fabulous recipes-successfully, and even skinned rattlesnakes four more times than I thought I would ever have attempted, to make rattlesnake cakes covered with a red pepper remoulade, took hundreds of photos, and most of all came much closer to my walk with God. It has been so much fun and amazing to work with the publishing team, my fabulous Editor and Chef.  I can't wait to share this cookbook, The Big Sky Bounty Cookbook-Local Ingredients and Rustic Recipes, with all of you when it is released this spring!

As many of you know my heart has a true love for children's books, and I met a dear friend at a conference, She Speaks-Proverbs 31 Ministries, of which I was truly blessed to attend in July of 2016.  The seeds of this friendship led to a notice she shared on Facebook about a Twitter pitch, called #FaithPitch.  I took a leap of Faith, and for a month I whittled, worked and revised a children's story I wrote months earlier, and pitched it for this hopeful opportunity. With sincere gratitude, the fruits of taking that leap of Faith awarded me  book contract with Little Lamb Books.  I am over the moon, excited to share Kind Soup with everyone, and am just whole-heartedly truly blessed to have the opportunity to work with the team at Little Lamb Books.  Kind Soup is made with the ingredients of the Fruits of the Spirit throughout the story, and teaches more than just a cooking lesson but what it means to serve and be filled with these gifts from Jesus.  I'm thrilled  to share that Kind Soup is scheduled to be released in November 2018, and I can't wait to share this children's picture book with each of you.

I've placed a call-out description of each of the books on the base of the newsletter, and a link off their logos.  If you'd like to see more about these publishing houses and all the wonderful books they offer, please jump on the link, and check them out!

This year marks the 10th Anniversary of Life on the Ranch with Banjo published by the Western Ag Reporter-Yay!  It has been true gift being able to write and share the antics of Banjo and his ranch crew every week for ten years.  I absolutely love these characters and writing these stories.  They are family to me, and it is so much fun!  I'm extraordinarily thankful to my Editor for all she does and let's me keep creating adventures for children to read on the Agri-Kids page.  You can see excerpts here https://westernagreporter.com/articles.php

Also, have you picked up Raised in the West magazine?  If you're in our region, definitely grab yourself a copy or two or three in 2018!  This publication is filled with great stories about agriculture and western interest topics surrounding Montana.  It's beautifully produced and features real, timely, and useful articles...you may even recognize a previous contributor in a couple issues last year.  I am truly thankful to be have had the opportunity to be a part of this superior publication and work with their editorial team.

Well, that's a lot of news to share, but I want to especially let you know I will be hosting events and giveaways for my upcoming book launches, contests and creative products to accompany them as well via my web-site, and I'll post information on social media.  I promise my newsletters won't be this lengthy, but want to catch everyone up and invite you along on my writing adventures!

All the very best to each of you, and wishing you many blessing in this New Year!

Super Bowl Sunday, Original post March 4th 2016

As this years Super Bowl half-time show concluded, I chuckled out loud at the ending. Fireworks, celebrities and music thumped through our home as it did millions of others.  The ending said "Believe in Love".  I said to everyone,"The irony...they just told everyone to 'Believe in God'. Awesome, I thought!  I'm presuming the producers and directors were trying to have a politically correct 'universal message', and unintendingly made a truly amazing 'universal declaration' with their message.  When love is talked about God always shines.  No matter how the world tries to take him out of it to plug in a different word, it's simple...he can not be taken out because God is Love. 
Check it out
"Whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is Love."
Back it Up
1 John 4:8
1 John 4:9-12
Points to Ponder: Love-everyone feels love for someone?  So everyone feels God...right? Whether they know Him or not?  He is ingrained and intertwined in each of our beings that he so meticulously knitted together in our mothers wombs. How can you resonate His love within you and others this week? After all isn't the best way to find God is to find Love? 

This week's life on our farm...

Well, apparently one week old baby chicks can't get a wee lil' bit wet...AT ALL. Even with a heat lamp directly above them. This was yet another note to self moment. I should know this by now...but I'm always on a learning curve. This is also a horrible way to start one of my childrens' day out-bad! 

 

 SO round two of chicks I went to three different stores to find yesterday.  Bought fifteen chicks and was given two extras by the sweet lady who helped me at the farm and feed store after I told her what happened.  So now seventeen chicks later, as of an hour ago-they're all still alive.  But I am hoping for no fried chicks because the heat lamp feels really warm to me. But they seem to like it...so far. I guess if they go off to the big chicken coop in the sky...they'll be warm this time and not frozen stiff.

We got bum lambs last week from a friend.  My oldest son wants to try to have one ready for 4-H Fair.  We're pushing it, but we'll see.  In the past some of our bum lambs have turned out to be 180 pounds.  Granted that's too heavy, but if we can get to 120-130 pounds (should be more, but we'll call it good if we get there)-perfect.  However with bum lambs, there's always one.   One that needs the exta babying, feeding and a little more love because 'something' is wrong with them.  One hour they're fine, the next-ah, not so good.  Which I gladly give and try to show to my children. Unfortunately one of my son's named our 'punky' one, Lucky.  I posted on Facebook earlier this week my top two reasons not to name an animal Lucky.  Those were: 1.  There's never anything 'Lucky' about an animal named Lucky, and 2.  Refer to #1.  But he's been drinking his bottle, and I've been giving him a supplement along with plenty of medicine, actually probably enought to fuel a team of horses.  So, 'Lucky' the lamb is still vertical and on all four legs, and even sporting a stylish sweater I made for him-above.  By the way, it was super easy to make.

 

It's a joy to watch ours kids hold the pop bottles filled with milk-replacer and feed these little friends. And soon enough our ewes will have some of their own lambs, so we'll have a barnyard nursery of new critters.  Maybe I'll even try for some more little chicks if these manage to live long enough to flitter and fluff their feathers around here.  You may have noticed, I'm not a 'great' chicken steward.

And on the home front, while doing laundry today I had another apparent 'Rockstar' mom moment when I caught the washer on fire. Yep...lots of smoke, and I do truly mean ALOT of smoke...it was that 'one' last sweatshirt I threw in. NO one tell my husband yet, he hasn't noticed the smog in here and the burnt rubber smell.  But then again, he didn't notice the seventeen new chicks chirping in his office either.  He's got a cold so the smell is understandable, but I'm not sure how to explain the 'invisible chicks'.  Oh well! 

 

Stay tuned...the day is yet young, and there's always something happening when you live on a small farm.

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