Thanksgiving blessings

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It's a beautiful Thanksgiving morning, frost on the ground, sun shinning, and the smell of fresh apple cake lingering in the air from the oven. I sit here this morning counting my blessings one by one. I have a roof over my head, food in the pantry, clean clothes, two beautiful children and a very loving husband. We may not have much of the fancy stuff but we are rich with love and friendship.

  From my family to yours 

~*~ Happy Thanksgiving ~*~  

Have a blessed day

~ Farm Girl ~ 

Opening day of deer season

Pin It Pin It Around here deer season is a holiday. My husband takes all of his vacation during this time and we hunt as a family. This year is the first year we have let both of our kids go on the first day. I've always been afraid of too many hunters in the woods and someone getting hurt. But, this year I allowed our 14 year old daughter go and sit by me.

Happy tears!

As we were walking to our spot she counted every gun shot that we heard. Sixteen was her final count by the time we sat down. I don't think she thought there were any deer left in the woods if everyone of those shots connected with its target. We weren't in our spot 10 minutes and her daddy came across the radio and said he got one. Now, she's really starting to look sad. She's not a very patient person. Five minutes go by and we hear another shot closer to us and Cousin Re-Re as we call him, gets on the radio and says he's got one down too. Oh the look on her face.

Not twenty minutes later, Jordan and I see our first deer of the day. She says she saw two but I never saw another one. I shot and missed as I had to pull all the way across my body which was near impossible for me to do. The deer came closer and closer to us. So I'm whispering to her Shoot!... ShOoT!...SHOOT!  and finally she did. What a perfect shot she gave considering her gun gave us no pattern when we were trying to sight it in the day before. When she realized what she did the tears came a flowing by the buckets. She then called for her daddy on the radio to tell him. Everyone that was listening told her congratulations and daddy broke the news to her that she had to drag it out to the point as he couldn't reach us by four wheeler to help her. She wasn't like that but she did it. Way to go Jordan!

Jordan and her first deer ever. Shot using a .410

Here are other pictures from the first day.

Daddy doing the dirty work. 

5 point

Cousin Re-Re's spike

I didn't get a picture but my father in law got a 3 point also.

~ Farm Girl

New Life

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We were on baby watch all day yesterday. It didn't happen. But, when we got up this morning we found momma and baby bull were doing fine. Amazing how they can do it all alone and everything turns out perfect.

Hamburger Stroganoff

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One of the things that makes me super happy is finding base recipes that I can play around with. So this is the second recipe using the SOS mix. You can find the original recipe in the booklet Soup or Sauce SOS Mix put out by the Utah State University extension office which is located here.

Knowing my families tastes there is no way I could of put this on the table without tweaking it. My goal was for a creamier sauce with a little more flavor. I thought it was great without the extras added in the sauce but I'm just one of those people that has a hard time not tweaking. 

1 pound lean ground beef or turkey
3 cups water
1/3 cup SOS Mix
2-4 shakes Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 small onion, diced
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
12 oz bag wheat egg noodles (or any you prefer)
1/2 cup low-fat sour cream
8 oz low-fat cream cheese, softened (optional)

Directions:
In a skillet, brown meat, when nearly done add onion, mushrooms and minced garlic. Continue cooking til onions are translucent.

In the meantime, boil egg noodles according to package directions. Drain and have ready.

In a small sauce pan, whisk together SOS mix and 3 cups of water. Cook until desired thickness. You may need to adjust SOS mix to achieve desired thickness. Whisk in paprika, Worcestershire sauce, softened cream cheese (optional) and sour cream.

Mix meat mixture, cooked noodles and SOS mixture together. Spread into 9x13x2 in baking dish. Cover with foil and cook in preheated 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Yeilds: 6 servings

~ Farm Girl

Au Gratin Potatoes

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Ingredients:
1/2 cup SOS Mix
1 3/4 cups water
1 cup lowfat sour cream
4 medium potatoes
1/4 cup chopped green onions (optional)
1/2 cup chopped fresh mushrooms (optional)
1/2 cup cheese, grated (optional)

Directions:
Combine SOS Mix (you can find the recipe for the mix here) and water in a small sauce pan and cook and stir until thick. (Optional - 1 cup lowfat sour cream can be stirred into the sauce before it is added to the potatoes.) Thinly slice the potatoes and layer half in a 2 quart oven safe baking dish. Pour half of the sauce over the potatoes, half of the green onions, mushrooms and cheese. Layer the rest of the potatoes on top. Add the remaining of the sauce, onion, mushrooms, and cheese.

Cover and baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for an additional 55 minutes or until potatoes are soft.

Yield: 8 Servings

Finally, I got those scalloped potatoes I have been craving for so long and they were so yummy. I'm very thankful for the internet and for the other bloggers out there to help people just like me.

~ Farm Girl

SOS Mix - Soup or Sauce

Pin It Pin It Have you ever had the hankering for something and the only reason you can't make it is because you didn't have a can of cream of mushroom soup? Well, let me tell you, that has been me for the last week in half or so. All I wanted was some scalloped potatoes. Scalloped potatoes how hard could that be to make, right? Well let me tell you this, the last time this happened, I tried to improvise and it didn't work out so well.

Night before last I was looking through my pinterest pins and ran across the SOS mix. I got very excited for a few moments, then realized I don't keep minced onion on hand, my excitement turned into disappointment. Then a light bulb popped on, hmm... there must be a substitution for it, right? Ah ha, I googled for it and low and behold I found my answer! I'm back in business now! Yeah Me! So off I go getting everything together, and what do you know, this girl is also out of italian seasoning. I'm thinking that this recipe may just turn out to be a disaster. Should I or shouldn't I do this? So, here I go again, I googled and now we are back on track.

Finally all the ingredients

SOS MIX - Soup or Sauce

2 cups powdered non-fat dry milk

3/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup instant chicken bouillon (regular or low sodium)

2 Tablespoon dried minced onion OR 2 teaspoon onion powder

2 tsp italian seasoning (optional)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a recloseable plastic bag, mixing well.

Yield: 

Equal to 9 (10.5 oz.) cans of cream soup.

Store in chinese take-out container works perfect.

To substitute for 1 can of cream soup

1. Combine 1/3 cup of dry mix with 1 and 1/4 cups of cold water. Whisk until well blended.

2. Cook and stir on stove until thickened. 

3. Add thickened mixture to casseroles as you would a can of soup.

Storage:

Store in a closed plastic bag or air-tight container until ready to use. It does not have to be refrigerated.

Things you may want to know about the SOS Mix.

1. Gluten FREE!! 

2. Can be used in many recipes such as gravies, soups, creamed veggies, casseroles and skillet meals.

3. Saves money and time!

If you would like to know more about this SOS mix please feel free to visit here and here for more info.

This post was to be about those scalloped potatoes I've had a hankering for lately. So I'm going to continue this on another post so it will be easily found later.

Check out this Mix, I think you will be very happy that you did!

~ Farm Girl

I thought I nice to add recipes that I made with the SOS mix to this post as they will be easily found.

Au Gratin Potatoes
Hamburger Stroganoff

Chicken Taco Soup

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2 cups cooked chicken (I used leftover baked whole chicken), shredded
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 pint whole kernel corn, undrained
2 quarts pinto beans, undrained
1 quart tomato juice
1/2 small onion chopped
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
shredded cheese
crushed tortilla chips
sour cream and chive (optional)

In a dutch oven, saute onion till tender and translucent. Add remaining ingredients in the dutch oven. Bring to a boil, reduce heat cover and let simmer for 30 minute or until heated through, stirring occasionally. Place small amount of crushed tortillas in bottom of bowl, ladle in soup and top with cheese, sour cream and chives  as desired.

Can be made in Crock-pot. Saute onion in small skillet till tender and translucent. Add all ingredients in warm crock pot. Heat on high for 2 hours or low for 3-4 hours. Serve as directed above.

Yields 8-10 servings

This is one of those meals that I make after having baked chicken, when I pick the bones and have a bowl full of leftover meat. What makes this even better is when I can go to my pantry and with very little thought I have a soup by just grabbing a few jars off the shelf.

Enjoy!

~ Farm Girl

Beautiful November Day

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Moist Ham Loaf

Pin It Pin It Today's recipe is my son, Alex's favorite. My family are big meatloaf fans. I try to make a different meatloaf at least once a month sometimes twice depending on what I can find. This is one that I have been making for quite a few years now and no matter what changes I make its always turns out great.

Moist Ham Loaf

Moist Ham Loaf

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup dry bread crumbs

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 pound ground fully cooked ham (I take ham chunks and put them in the food processor to grind)

1/2 pound ground turkey

Cranberry Sauce:

1/2 cup whole cranberry sauce (homemade or out of a can)

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

In a bowl, combine first five ingredients. Crumble ham and turkey over mixture and mix well. Press into a greased 9 in x 5 in x 3 in loaf pan. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees for 50 -55 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 160 degrees.

In a sauce pan, combine sauce ingredients. Cooke and stir over medium heat for 5 minutes or until heated through. Serve with ham loaf. 

Yields 6 servings

Give it a try and let me know how you like it. 

~ Farm Girl

Tangy Sweet And Sour Pork

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It's been rather busy around here and I haven't been feeling well. So I haven't made time to post anything that I've done lately. I did some recipe searching and whipped up this pork steak dish. 

It's another one of those recipes from my favorite site food.com. If you are looking for something different check out Tangy Sweet and Sour Pork. My family found this to be delicious. Your basic pantry ingredients are used to make the tangy sauce. 

~ Farm Girl