FenceRow to FenceRow

Mexican 3-Bean Soup

2013-09-11T13:40:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my mess! My blog has been undergoing an overhaul and it is taking MUCH longer than I ever anticipated. If you are visiting for the first time, please be patient as the blog will look great in a month!

Last week was a bit of a rough week. Tragedy hit some people around me. I spent the good part of a week sitting in a meeting, which wasn't rough. Just tiring!! Friday had me running in a few directions trying to educate people about agriculture, both young and old. Overall, just a tiring week! So while I could have slept on Saturday, I decided to recharge my batteries and meet up with my bloggy (and real life) friends from The Real Farmwives of America to do some freezer cooking!

Freezer cooking involves cooking in large quantities and sharing those meals. I've done this type of cooking on numerous occasions and really appreciate the meals during the busy crop harvest days ahead!

Our friends at Gooseberry Patch offered me their new cookbook, Freezer Friendly Recipes, for some cooking ideas. I chose Mexican 3-Bean Soup as my item to make. The recipe is truly a dump, stir and heat type of meal. Perfect for my crazy week and inability to grocery shop, plan or really do much ahead of time.

Start by browning your hamburger. My dear friend, Heather at 3 Kids and Lots of Pigs saved me with her fancy Pampered Chef steamer. Stick a pound of frozen hamburger in this thing, microwave for 8 minutes, and it's brown! I was having a horrible time getting my meat defrosted and was so grateful for this little device! Although I did have 11 pounds of hamburger to defrost. It took awhile!

In a soup pot, stir together the hamburger, a chopped up onion, kidney beans, pinto beans, navy beans, corn, stewed tomatoes, tomatoes with chilies, a package of taco seasoning, and a package of ranch salad dressing mix. Simmer and serve. That's it!! How much easier can it be?

Mexican 3-Bean Soup
1 lb ground beef
1 diced onion
2 - 15 1/2 oz cans kidney beans
2 - 16 oz cans pinto beans
2 - 15 1/2 oz cans navy beans
15-oz can corn
14 1/2 oz can stewed tomatoes
14 1/2 oz can tomatoes with chilies
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 package ranch salad dressing mix

Brown beef and onion over medium heat. Drain. And undrained beans, corn, tomatoes and seasoning mixes. Simmer, covered, over low heat for an hour.

This picture only shows half of what I made! This made 11 gallon size freezer bags of soup. I had just enough left over to take some home for our Sunday after church lunch. I served it with sour cream and cheddar cheese. It was a big hit in my house!

And just how much did we cook? This picture should tell the story! There were a lot of meals to take home! I can't wait to dig in to them and share them with my family.

I encourage you to grab a group of friends and try some mass cooking. It is such a great time! I got to catch up with my favorite people and take home food as well. And I've stirred up interest with another group of friends who want to try this as well! So I may be making this recipe for a whole new group of people later this fall.

Procastination, Craziness, Tears and Overwhelming Pride

2013-06-23T21:52:00.002-04:00

I have never felt as busy as I have in the past few weeks. I'm finally sitting down to write this blog on the even of the opening of our county 4H fair. We have a small county fair that is focused on 4H and youth. Our midway isn't much to talk about and I'm fine with that. Our focus in on the hard work these kids to get ready for the fair.

And hard work it is. I've figured out this year what my Mom and Dad must have felt like in those last moments of fair preparation. I imagine they wanted to smack me a few times thanks to my procrastination in getting projects done!

When this week is over, I'll sit down and write how all of the projects have done. But for now we know this much. Panda took 15 projects. Yep. 15. Yes, I know it's crazy, I'm a nutty Mom, blah, blah. I've heard it all. I like to think I challenged her to get those projects completed as best as she could. And she has.

But there were some tears, just once. While we were sewing her skirt. It took about 30 minutes before she was mad and crying. But I quickly adjusted my attitude and she did hers. And that was it. The rest of this experience has been fantastic. It has allowed her and I to spend some great time together.

So far she has had 10 projects judged in prefair judging. She has received Champion ribbons (the best project in her division) in Foods, Bake with a Mix, Sewing Non-wearable (the picture below is of her making her pillow for that project) and Genealogy. Everything but Bake with a Mix will go to State Fair!

She has a Reserve Champion in Sewing Wearable. She has also received blue stars (considered for champion) on Food Preservation, Collections and Gift Wrapping. And a blue on Cake Decorating. We won't know Champion on Collections until Monday. Food Preservation only picks a Grand Champion and I highly doubt she'll get that. Consumer Clothing has been judged but we won't know those results until Tuesday night. She still has to turn in corn, soybeans, wheat, rabbits and show her hogs. The crops projects worry me since everyone had such a late planting date and our fair is so early. I'm hoping the judge keeps that in mind when he sees the really small soybean plants she has!

Can I brag for just a minute? 4 Champions and 1 Reserve Champion so far? In her first year of 4H!! I am so proud of her I could burst. All of this accomplished while playing baseball too. This upcoming week is baseball championships. It's a lot of running and craziness, but has been worth every second.

And not to forget my Monkey. This is her 1st year of Mini 4H That is when you take a maximum of three projects as a sort of practice for "real" 4H. The projects don't get judged. Everyone gets a ribbon and they get in the habit of doing the projects. And hopefully they get excited for 4H!

Monkey has taken three projects. Sewing, in which she made a bear head from felt; mini livestock, where she'll show a little pig this weekend in the Mini 4H livestock show; and Foods, where she had to make a popcorn snack.

She made my Great-Grandma's Caramel Corn. This stuff is fantastic. Honestly, you won't find a better caramel corn in stores or in a bag. This beats it all hands down. And it is a family recipe that I won't share. I don't have many of those, but this is one. She had a blast making it!

Would I recommend 4H to anyone? You bet. The Farmer and I were 10 year 4Hers and think this is hands down the best learning experience for kids during the summer. You don't have to live on a farm to be in 4H. That seems to be a common misperception. There are plenty of projects that don't require farm animals or shoveling manure. My Panda has plans for more projects next year. And I think it might be easier next year, now that we got our feet wet this first year. But I can't promise she'll have another year like this one with the purple ribbons!

Whatever happens with the rest of the projects, this year has been a blast. And the fair hasn't even officially started!! Thank goodness for 4H. Friendships, life skills and speaking skills tossed with a bit of procrastination will probably round out this first experience!

I Scream, You Scream

2013-06-14T10:07:00.003-04:00

My love of ice cream comes from my Grandpa and my Dad. My Grandpa used to do parts runs for the farm. Something would break on a tractor and Grandpa would volunteer to go fetch the part. Grandma would joke it took him an hour to do a 20 minute task. Grandpa normally came back with ice cream evidence on his bib overalls or a dirty container in his truck. He would visit ice cream places wherever they travelled. And I think every small town ice cream palace within an hour drive of the farm knew his name!

My Dad used to take my sister and I for ice cream. When we were doing chores as kids, we'd ride in the truck with him from farm to farm. Sometimes we got to take a detour for an ice cream cone. And on Sunday nights, my Mom didn't cook supper. So we often had ice cream for supper. And I still think that is a perfectly fine meal!

I now take my kids out for ice cream alot. They have metabolisms like hummingbirds and hollow legs. I do use it as a treat, and not a meal replacement. My Panda has found my love of ice cream and would eat it for breakfast if I let her!

I have two favorite ice cream spots. East End in Peru, Indiana is one of those spots that is only open during the summer. In addition to their ice cream they also make pizzas. Their pizza is also my favorite. Thin crust with lots of fresh toppings and just the right amount of red sauce make this something I long for in the middle of winter when they are closed.

But back to the ice cream. I have two favorites. Lemon and Moose Tracks. Citrus tends to be one of my favorite flavors and their lemon ice cream is outstanding. It's the perfect treat on a super hot Indiana day. Moose Tracks has lots of yummy flavors and tastes great on a cone!

My other favorite ice cream place is open year round. Ivanhoe's is in Upland, Indiana near Taylor University.

Ivanhoe's was a place I started visiting in High School. My church youth group used to make random Sunday night trips to this well loved establishment. And now anytime I am in the area, I will stop in. Ivanhoe's is known for their 100 Club. They have a menu featuring 100 shakes and 100 sundae flavors. If you try all 100, you get your name on their wall and a t-shirt. Since it's in a college town, I'm guessing that is interesting to some of their guests.

Two of my favorite on their menu fall in the shake category. Almond Joy and Coffee. Their coffee ice cream makes me hungry thinking about it. And the Almond Joy shake has just the right amount of coconut and almonds to make it a real treat.

Have I made you hungry yet? I'm wishing for some ice cream now. Or a road trip to discover a new ice cream spot. Indiana is also home to some major ice cream manufactures. So don't be afraid to enjoy ice cream. Indiana is home to many dairy farms and ranks 2nd in the nation in ice cream production.

June is Dairy Month in Indiana and July is Ice Cream Month!! I intend to celebrate both months with a nice ice cream treat. Maybe the kids and I need a road trip soon to find another favorite ice cream spot.

Indiana's Family of Farmers is compensating me for this post about June Dairy Month. Although my love of ice cream is my own. I mean, really, who doesn't love ice cream?!

Planting Delays of Nearly Biblical Proportions

2013-04-30T12:49:00.001-04:00

Last year, by May 1st, my Farmer had corn and soybean fields planted. This year is a completely different story.

It's rained, and rained, and rained some more. Enough rain to more than make me forget about the drought we had last year and wonder if the water would ever stop.

Just like Noah and his Ark, the rains came down and the floods went up. Way up.

In this picture, the water should stop at the treeline. Instead, it was nearly to the road.

This picture is taken from a bridge on my favorite running trail. Under all of that water is a field.

This is a local creek. But the sound of the water was deafening. The water was moving so fast it was roaring. And this little creek was way over its banks, flooding the neighboring fields.

I don't know when we will start planting our corn and soybean fields. In order to get our seed in the ground, we need some warm and sunny weather to dry out these wet fields! We're are never given more than we can handle. Although there are days we wonder exactly how much more we need thrown our way!

A Run To Remember

2013-04-16T15:09:00.003-04:00

I ran today. That in itself is not different than every other day. I've run every day in April. But today my run moved me to tears. I'm travelling this week for a national wine marketing conference. This is my view on my run today.

I've run four marathons, a dozen half marathons and lots of smaller races. What I saw in news coverage from Boston makes me physically ill. Two weeks ago I made the decision to run another marathon. I'll never be fast enough to run Boston, but I want to run a big race. And now a group of cowards has made me nervous to run a big race. But I am still a runner. And I will continue down the path that has been set out for me.

Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Hebrews 12:1

But those that hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isiah 40:31

I'll keep running. Even if I don't understand.

Wine Wednesday: V. Sattui Dry Rosato

2013-04-10T12:24:00.001-04:00

I believe I've talked before that I love dry rose' wines! I drink them year-round and love them as a wine or as a sparkling wine!

With the warmer weather in my home state the past week, I've been throwing out the long tights and boots for short Spanx and my peeptoes! Out goes the cube steak and mashed potato comfort food and in comes the grilled steak and asparagus. And out goes my Cabernets and Zinfandels and in with some great summer wines!

A few years ago I had the chance to visit V. Sattui Winery in Napa Valley. I was with The Farmer and some good friends. The Farmer loves wine as well and we had a blast at this winery. I was meeting with the President of V. Sattui to give them a trophy they had won in the INDY International Wine Competition, a competition we run at Purdue University, and one of the largest wine competitions in the country. V. Sattui had won our Winery of the Year trophy and I had it packed in a box to give them!

After making a presentation of the trophy to the entire winery and the guests, we got a tour of the facility, let by Tom Davies, winery president. For this gentleman to take time out of his very busy schedule and give us a tour was incredible! We were given special treatment. My thanks to them was in the amount of The Farmer's money I spent at the winery and the continued amount of wine I continue to buy!

This Dry Rosato is one of my favorite wines. The wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Carignane and made in the style of rose' wines in Provence. When I smelled and tasted this wine noticed cherry, raspberry and strawberry flavors. It is exceptional!

And it's not cheap, although not expensive either. At $21.75 a bottle, you can enjoy this bottle by yourself, as I did, or share with friends. I hate sharing this wine! And if I'm not careful, I can drink this bottle by myself in one night!

If you get a chance to visit V. Sattui, I highly recommend you try this wine! Plan to spend the afternoon there. When we visited, we were able to purchase lunch at the winery and sit on their lawn while listening to music. It was a lovely day I'm able to relive when enjoying this wine.

Wine Wednesday: Holman Ranch Chardonnay

2013-03-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm often asked if I only drink Indiana wine. Since I promote Indiana's wine industry, I think it's a a valid question. And the answer is "no", I don't just drink Indiana wines. Although I do love what my home state produces!!

Recently Holman Ranch provided me some wines for review. Periodically over the next few months I will review each bottle and tell you about the winery. This is a winery I was not familiar with prior to receiving the wines. But I am blown away by the beauty of their Carmel Valley, California location! One look at their website and you will see beautiful vineyards, wedding facilities and even olive groves. I'm going to have to order some olive oil!

The first wine I want to review is their 2010 estate grown Chardonnay. Everyone who reads this blog knows I love Chardonnay. Some wine snobs roll their eyes are Chardonnay. Saying it's a basic wine, the wine only newbies drink, and so on. I say bologna to all of that! Chardonnay can be a great wine, if made well. And this one seems to fit that description.

I was very impressed with the information Holman Ranch. Their media kit was well done.

Each wine had a nice piece of information about the wine, winery and vineyard.

But on to the wine. Holman Ranch has 19 acres of vineyards, just under 2 acres are dedicate to Chardonnay grapes. The vineyards were planted in 2008.

The wine is a straw yellow in the glass. When I smelled and tasted the wine I did get a hint of toasted oak, but no overwhelming. Many people who don't like Chardonnay say it's because winemakers turned their Chards into butter, oaken, heavy wines. This wine is not like that. It has just enough oak to give it a toasted nose, but not so much that you feel like you are drinking wood chips!

The wine is quite acidic. Acidity in wine is what makes your mouth water. The minute I tasted this I felt my mouth start to water! Wine acidity is great, if it's balanced. I thought this was well-balanced and enjoyed my glass very much!

This wine is full of citrus and honey flavors. And at $28/bottle I think it would be a great wine to enjoy with friends and a good meal!

Holman Ranch provided me this bottle of wine for review. Although my love of wine and my opinions are my own. No one can pay me to like their wine!

Hop on the Hershey Bunny Trail this Easter!

2013-03-25T17:04:00.002-04:00

As I sit down to write about Easter, I'm having a hard time imagining our best Sunday dresses, egg hunts and other springtime activities since I'm looking at 8 inches of snow out of my farmhouse window!

But Easter bring a season of renewal. And is the holiday that offers the most promise. Easter is more about egg hunts and candy, although I enjoy that part very much! To me, Easter is about the promise Jesus gave us by dying on a cross. The promise of hope eternal and a life in Heaven, just for accepting His gift!

So Easter morning will involve a joy-filled church service. But we won't leave out the egg hunts and the candy! As a kid, my parents would dress us in our fanciest dresses for church. After church we'd hunt plastic eggs filled with candy and money. My Mom always had a few special eggs filled with dollar bills! Those were the ones I always sought hardest!

For Easter this year, we will have lunch with my parents. The past few years have involved giving all the grandkids a chance to break a pinata. It's always filled with great Hershey's candy, money and other treats. And I think it's funny to watch the kids as they dive for the candy or money. My Monkey tends to go after the money! My Panda likes the candy :)

To help fill our pinata, Hershey's send me an Easter basket filled with some of my favorite treats. I'm not a big chocolate eater, but I do love these little treats around Easter! The basket was filled with York Dark Peppermint Egg shaped Patties, Resse's Peanut Butter filled bunnies, Hershey's Cookie and Creme eggs, Hershey Kisses and Hershey Candy Coated eggs.

Hershey wants you to hop down the Hershey’s Bunny Trail! Visit CelebrateWithHersheys.com, to celebrate the fun part of Easter! They have a lot of fun stuff like basket ideas, crafts, and recipes. And share your favorite Easter memory! It's a season of promise!

Hershey's provided me the Easter basket and the treats inside. And while I will have to run miles and miles to work off all the calories of these little treats, Hershey's did not influence my opinion of their chocolate or the company. My love of Easter candy is all mine!

Wine Wednesday: Chilean Sauvnignon Blanc

2013-03-06T16:54:00.001-05:00

The Farmer and I recently had the chance to visit Panama. Not the beach or Florida city. But the country! And what a beautiful land Panama is.

I may be swayed, but I didn't have any bad wine while on this trip. Although, I was right next to the ocean and in vacation mode. So maybe it all just tasted good to me!

We were able to have dinner at a very nice restaurant in our hotel the last night of our trip. The wines served in this restaurant were different than they were serving in the bars. I love Sauvignon Blanc and quickly decided to try the Santa Helena Sauvignon Blanc.

This wine was produced in the Central Valley of Chile. Having just visited Chile last March, I was excited to see another wine from this region. The region makes some fantastic wines and nearly every winery I visited while in Chile was outstanding.

I'm not sure I'd call this wine outstanding. It was good, but nothing special. My first problem is shown below.

The wine was served much too cold. I'm not sure if you can tell, but I can almost see how cold the glass is when I look at this picture! White wine should be served much closer to room temperature than it normally is. My rule of thumb is white wine goes in the fridge 20 minutes before you want to serve it. This was living in a very cold refrigerator!

The wine was pale in color. The taste had a bit of straw and green grass, which is common in Sauvignon Blanc's. I also noticed some gooseberry, albeit a bit unripe. It was a fine wine for the resort. We were staying in an all-inclusive, so I have no idea how much this wine really cost.

While the wine isn't probably something I would buy, I did enjoy it at the moment. We were dining with great friends, laughing and enjoy a lovely meal. In the end, that's how I think wine should be enjoyed!

Fitness Friday: Watching the Watch

2013-03-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

My Fitness Friday attempts seriously fell off the cliff when I decided it was easier to succumb to stress and eat whatever I wanted rather than to plan healthy meals and make time to workout. Lesson learned, the scale showed my mistake.

So back on track I go. I am signed up to run the Indy Mini-Marathon the first weekend of May. This year will mark the 9th time I've run this race, and my 12th half marathon overall, I think? I've lost track. The only years in recent memory I haven't run it was when I was pregnant with Monkey and Lion Cub. I was way too pregnant to waddle 13.1 miles. I did run it when I was pregnant with my Panda. At the time I was ONLY 8 weeks pregnant. So I could still wear spandex and not look like I was ready to give birth to a whale.

I love to run. Getting back into my running habit this week has felt great. I am also super competitive. While I won't ever beat a Kenyan in a marathon, I always aim to better myself on each run.

For many years I never had any idea how far or fast I was running. It was always a guess. I'd go run, then get in my car and drive my run route to see how far it was! Recently, an abandoned railroad somewhat near my house was paved. So I've been running there. And yet again I don't have any idea how far I've been running. Until I started using this:

It is a Garmin Forerunner 10. Mine is lime green/white, one of my favorite colors, but it comes in black/red and pink/white as well. It cost me $130. While a bit expensive for a watch, I feel this is some of the best money I have spent on anything involving running!

This watch has GPS so I can track how far I am running. If my training calls for a 4 mile run, I run until I see I've done 2 miles and then turnaround and run home.

It also has some great simple programming features. I can program this watch to let me run in run/walk intervals. Run/walk is how I've always run long distances. So I can set one timer to beep after I've been running for 5 minutes. Then the second timer will count for a minute, allowing me a walk break, then beep again, signaling that I need to run. And on it will go until I am done with the run. I love that feature!

When my run is done, it will tell me how far I ran, how many calories I burned and what my average pace per mile was. Then I can simply plug it into my computer with the device below.

This allows me to upload all of my runs and then analyze speed, elevation (I live in a flat cornfield, we don't have elevation), and compare it to other runs.

The watch also keeps track of my best mile, 5K and 10K times. So it sets a goal for me to run with the intent of beating my previous best.

So I'm back on the road. Running as fast as my cellulited thighs will allow me. And watching the clock, always trying to beat a personal best. And normally watching my watch.

Maple Syrup, Tree, Leaf and all other nicknames

2013-02-15T16:27:00.003-05:00

My maiden name is Maple. So growing up I heard a ton of crazy nicknames that involved Maple Tree, Maple Syrup, Maple Leaf and all other variations of the term. I never bothered me. I could have been called worse!

My name may come in handy at the 2013 National Maple Syrup Festival, taking place in Medora, Indiana. The weekends of March 2nd & 3rd and March 9th & 10th will be your chance to learn about all things maple trees and syrups, minus giving me new nicknames.

Image courtesy of http://nationalmaplesyrupfestival.com/

Also from the website:

Be sure to enter the Sweet Victory Challenge! The competition is open to both adults (…18 and over) and youths (17 and under) with original recipes in one of three categories: Savory (Main Dish), Dessert, and Breakfast. Each recipe must include both King Arthur Flour and 100% pure maple syrup.

A panel of judges will select five finalists in each division/category based on creativity, appetizing description, ease of preparation, and appropriate use of the required products. On the competition days, local volunteers and culinary school students will prepare each dish for final judging. Finalists need not be present to win. The grand prize for each category in the adult division is $200; second prize is $100. In the youth division, first prize in each category is a $100; second prize is $50. Each finalist will also receive a gift basket from King Arthur Flour.

All entries must be received by February 22, 2013. Finalists will be notified the following week. Complete rules and an online entry form are available at sweetvictorychallenge.com.

If you want to attend, I am giving away two tickets! All I need you to do is to comment and like my Facebook page,FenceRow to FenceRow or follow me on twitter at Indianawinebabe. And since I'm running really behind in getting this contest done, you only have until February 20th to respond! I'll notify the winner and send the tickets. Good Luck!!

Wine Wednesday: What I'll drink for the Super Bowl

2013-01-30T21:46:00.000-05:00

It's not secret I like, or love, white wines. While I'm always thrilled to pair that perfect red wine with a great medium grilled steak, I don't always enjoy sitting down at night, back on my laptop finishing up work stuff, sipping a big red wine. I'd rather enjoy a crisp, chilled white wine while I finish answering emails!

I also think wine is a great drink to enjoy during the Super Bowl! You don't have to drink beer with your food choices. Plenty of white cheese dips, appetizers and main dishes go well with wine!

While at my industry's fall board meeting, held at Bloomington's Oliver Winery, I had a chance to try a new wine they had recently released. I was hooked about bought 3 bottles immediately! I just drank the last of those three bottles and need to go buy more.

III is a blend of Vignoles, Vidal Blanc and Chardonel. I love all three of these grapes as a standalone wine. Blended they are nearly perfect!

According to the Oliver Winery website:

This wine is the result of the winemaking team drinking too much coffee and brainstorming about the possibilities of a white blend from Creekbend. Various white varieties were barrel fermented on an experimental basis in hopes that a nice blend would develop. The final wine from those trials is a blend of barrel fermented Vignoles and Vidal Blanc, along with a fraction of stainless steel fermented Chardonel. All three portions underwent complete malolactic fermentation.

This wine has delightful aromas of pineapple and tropical flowers. Its flavors of pear and apple resemble those of a good Viognier. III has a rich mouthfeel and delightful lasting finish.

Because this wine carries the Creekbend label, that signifies these grapes are grown in Oliver's Creekbend vineyards, just a few miles from the winery.

This wine retails for $22/bottle. It is more than worth it to buy a bottle, or two, or in my case...maybe six bottles! It won't take me long to enjoy this wine! I'll encourage you to buy some to, but not until I get mine purchased!

Random Monday Randomness

2013-01-28T22:18:00.000-05:00

It's been one of those days. Since I spent last week at my industry's annual meeting and was out of the office, today I tried to do the last weeks worth of work in a 12 hour work day. I left the office with stacks of papers piled high, phone calls to return and unanswered email. The emails, by the way, are being answered now, long after I left the office.

My brain drifted to a ton of random thoughts today. So bear with me as I jot a few of the random things that popped through my mind at any given point during this crazy day.

My cat snores. Loudly. She is 16 years old. I suppose she is allowed.

Trying to eat healthy makes me hungry.

I am a neat freak, and yet my office never looks very organized.

I managed to feed three kids supper, pack their lunches and forget to eat something for my supper. So I had wine for dinner.

I may have the world's only 6 year old who eats frog legs like most kid eat chicken nuggets.

My 9 year old daughter told me she weighed herself tonight. I nearly threw up. She is an athlete with the metabolism of a hummingbird. And she's already worrying about stuff she doesn't need to think about.

I am blessed beyond measure.

I love my Mom!! We don't talk everyday, but at least a few times a week.

And finally, I have had the words "Hear I am, Lord Send Me" stuck in my head for weeks. I assume I'm being prepared for something. I don't know what. But I want God to do with me whatever He wants! Maybe someday I'll get a small tattoo that says this verse! I've never wanted a tattoo, but maybe I'd reconsider if it was a Bible verse!

Wine Wednesday: Heading to Michigan!

2013-01-24T10:17:00.002-05:00

This week my industry's annual meeting is taking place. It's why this Wine Wednesday piece is actually getting posted on Thursday!

One great part of our annual meeting is the chance to hear from other wineries around the Midwest. This year the winemaker was from Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay, Michigan. And he brought some great wines for us to taste!

The first flight we tasted was a selection of Rieslings. These are 2006, 2008 and 2011 dry Rieslings.

This tasting of three wines took place at 9am! Don't I have the best job?

Only the 2011 vintage is still available for sale. Riesling does not have to be sugary sweet, as some may be familiar with. This is a dry wine, meaning its residual sugar level is very low. When you smell this wine you will notice citrus and stone fruits aromas followed by very subtle minerality. When you taste it you should find fresh apple, orange and apricot fruit flavors combine with a hint of spice for a crisp and refreshing finish.

Since this wine isn't sweet, it can be stored away for a few years in a cellar to age. Any wine that has a sweetness factor cannot be stored for years! The sweeter the wine the faster it should be drank. The winemaker said this could be cellared for five to ten years. Personally, I always try to cellar wines but get too thirsty and drink them instead!

This wine is $18 a bottle and pairs well with Asian fare, curries, and seafoods!

If you find this wine near you, I'd recommend picking up a few bottles. One to drink, and one to save! If you don't get thirsty in a few months!

Butchering a Freezer Full of Meat

2013-01-19T09:00:00.000-05:00

One of my most favorite memories from my younger days involved butchering. When I was little, my grandparents, parents, uncle, sister and a few cousins would take at least two days to butcher hogs.

If you have a weak stomach, this probably isn't for you. But animals are raised for food in our world. And I was always raised to understand that the pigs we raise are feeding the world, except for the one we butchered for ourselves every year.

When I was young, the process started with my Dad and Grandpa taking care of the killing and skinning of the pig. They would then take all the insides out and hang the meat to cool. It would have to hang until it was cold! And you could only butcher when it was freezing cold outside, so the meat didn't warm up and create bacteria.

Today, this is what the process looks like. We butchered a few weeks ago. We selected pigs from the farm that weren't going to our normal markets we sell to. My husband loaded up 10 hogs and they were processed quickly. And, like old times, they were hung in my Grandpa's barn to cool.

After they had hung for a few days, it was time to start "working up the meat." To me, "working up the meat" means deciding how you are going to cut up the hog. Do you want pork chops, hams, pork loins, shoulders, bacon (who doesn't want bacon?) and sausage? Some people don't want all of the individual cuts of meat, so whatever cut they don't want we just grind into sausage.

I typically want all of the cuts mentioned above. The only pork product I don't really need are the ribs. I might be the only hog farmer who doesn't eat ribs. They just don't like me very much!

Below, my Grandpa is cutting the pork chops out of the hunk of meat. Yummy!!

All of this works takes place in my grandparent's garage. They have meat saws, big knives, a meat grinder and enough freezer paper to wrap a house.

When I was little, around five years old, one of my first memory is helping my Mom and Grandma wrap the meat. Dad and Grandpa would make roughly one pound lumps of sausage and hand them to the women. We'd wrap it in freezer paper, tape it and write on the package what it was. I did alot of wrapping and taping, and not so much writing until I learned to write a spell a bit better!

As I've gotten older, I've been allowed to work the meat saws and grinders, but I still end up wrapping and labeling a lot of meat! My Grandma is shown below, showing our very simple process to get the meat wrapped.

We don't waste much of the hog. The skin is fried to make cracklins. Sounds disgusting, but oh so tasty! We make lard from the fat as well. And I can say from years of experience, the secret to making an exceptionally flaky pie crust is lard. Forget butter. Uses real lard! I don't use lard often, but sometimes you have to fry an egg in it too! Normally after I've run 5 miles.

We can't sell the meat we butcher for ourselves. Laws don't allow it. So we butcher only for our family's consumption. And my freezer is full. So full, in fact, that we had to buy another chest freezer for the cellar! We butchered a few head of cattle over Christmas too. So now I have two chest freezers full of hamburgers, steaks, sausage and bacon! And it is so easy to go to the freezer to find some sort of meat for supper. I don't buy meat at the grocery store! But the majority of my hogs that we raise end up on the grocery store shelves. And I can ensure the quality of those animals are exactly the same as the animals we butcher for our family meat needs. And they taste just as good!

Fitness Friday: Fraud

2013-01-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

I have lied. I am a fraud. I was supposed to write bout a new piece of technology that I was using on my runs, but since I haven't run all week, and I've been eating poorly to add to my misery, I felt like a fraud even considering that post.

I was doing great in the healthy eating and exercise lifestyle that for so long has been my struggle. And then life hit, HARD. It has been two solid weeks of stress, insane work deadlines and projects, extra cold mornings and sadness. I feel like I have fallen down and can't find my feet right now.

I am not a failure. Except I feel like I am. I don't understand how I can be surrounded by skinny chicks, who appear to only workout and never eat and must have it all figured out. They don't look stress or gain 10 pounds just by eating 1...or 2....or maybe 3 cookies.

I don't care if I run fast. I'll never break any land speed records or beat a Kenyan in a mini-marathon. But running is my time. And by the empty feeling I have inside, I need to run because I need some quiet time.

The past two weeks have put enough pressure on me to change me from a lump of coal to a diamond. I am desperately trying to do more listening and less talking. It is a nearly impossible feat for someone who spent her first career as a radio, TV and print journalist. I like to talk. But I'm trying to be still and listen. Really listen. Not just do lip service in asking how someone is and not really caring. And I'm trying to listen to God. And here's what I keep hearing...

Oh boy. I think God is talking to me. I wish He would just send me running three miles down the road and back. The other bible verse that keeps reoccurring in my head the past week is one I memorized along time ago.

I don't know what race is marked out for me, but I pray God is beside me as I figure it out.

And I think I should start praying to God that He help me get back on a straight path. That I'm more energetic in the early morning, cold hours, to run.

There is a goal I should be training for. It's the same goal I have every year and the same race I've done at least 12 times, missing only once when I was 6 months pregnant. I'm not one of those cuties who can run fast while pregnant. I don't run fast when I'm not pregnant. So there was no way I was doing 13.1 miles while pregnant.

So for this week, I just need a goal to run and eat better. And not be a fraud.

And Then Our Circle Got Smaller

2013-01-16T21:10:00.000-05:00

I count some of my dearest friends among my fellow Real Farmwives of America blogging buddies. These women share my daily struggles, many as full-time working moms. We manage jobs, kids, farms, houses, countless scratches and tears, and now...we manage the loss of one.

Leontien was a beautiful person. She made me laugh when we were all together and she started telling stories about her attempt to get married to the same guy three different times!

After a long battle with cancer, she left this life for the next. And today, on what would have been her 34th birthday, she was laid to rest. In honor of her birthday, we were asked to do a random act of kindness. Mine seems almost too simple to even mention. In my normal rush through the grocery store I did something I don't really like to do. I talked to people in the store. Sounds dumb, right? And yet, my 45 minutes doing my grocery shopping is my quiet time. I don't take the kids, if I can help it. I want to zone out and shop. Yet today, I talked and smiled at people. Some I knew, since I do live in a small town. Others I didn't. And I even talked at some length to the cashier. I even pointed out she undercharged me for my leaf lettuce. And I enjoyed a quick visit with the girl packing my groceries. The store hires a few girls with special needs to load the groceries. They are sweet and enjoy conversation.

So Leontien, It just doesn't seem fair that on the day we should be celebrating your birthday, you are instead being laid to rest. At least not fair for those left behind. But we have the hope that you are celebrating a new birthday with no pain and no tears. And for that simple promise, we rejoice. I know you will be met with the words "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Verizon Review: Samsung IIIS

2013-01-14T13:54:00.004-05:00

I am in search of a new phone. I am very tired of my Droid and it is nearly two years old, ancient in phone life. I've had my mind set on switching to an Iphone and yet I find myself wavering on what I really want. Verizon Wireless is helping me figure out what phone I want.

This time I played with a Samsung Galaxy IIIS. The first thing I noticed is how lightweight is it!

And if I might take a second to sound a tad bit girly, I like the rounded edges and sleek design. I was fairly impressed with the speed in which I could search the internet. Compared to my Droid, this phone moved faster, even in the same wireless networks.

I did seem to struggle with the battery life. You can see below the phone is plugged in. I had it plugged in alot. I finally realized I never powered down the phone when I was done using it. I simply turned the screen off. So whenever I went to use it, the battery was dead. That was my own fault and I should have read the directions. But who reads directions?

Overall, I liked this phone. It had many features I liked. The App store was easy to use. The widget screens were a lot of fun and kept all of my important information in one place. Maybe I am getting a step closer to finding the phone I really want!

Verizone Wireless provided me with this phone to use. All thoughts, opinions and pictures are mine. Because no one can tell me what my opinion is!

Fitness Friday: The feet beneath me

2013-01-11T13:31:00.002-05:00

Last week I showed you where I run. This week I'll show you what I run in.

I'm addicted to Brook's Adrenaline shoes. I've run in these since I started running. If my shoes could talk, they would tell you they've been to beaches, islands, running paths, farm fields, vineyards, bridges, foreign countries and countless county roads. I have worn every version of these shoes for the past 16 years. I've tried other brands but I always come back to these.

These medals show just a glimpse of my efforts of my shoes. In a future post I will get every medal I have from all of my races and take a group picture. There are a lot! I like to have a goal in my training. Marathons and half marathons make great goals!

If you are new to running or exercise, I can not stress enough the importance of getting good shoes. It is vital to have the support when working out! Get to a running store. Have them watch you run. It is embarrassing but they can assess your foot placement when you step and find the correct shoe for you. Otherwise you'll fight injury and want to give up!

Next week I'm going to feature a cool piece of technology I just recently started using on my runs. And it is motivating me to run further and attempt to run faster!

Until then, what kind of shoes do you run in? Are you loyal or do you like pretty colored shoes!! I like both!

Just keep moving!

Wine Wednesday: There are Sheep in this Indiana Vineyard!

2013-01-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

I am sharing another Indiana wine with you, but I can almost guarantee you've never tried this one!

French Lick Winery is well known for their award winning wines. The winery opened in 1995 and since that time they have established themselves as outstanding winemakers, winning numerous medals in wine competitions for their outstanding wines.

French Lick also grows grapes in their Heaven’s View Vineyard, which was planted in the spring of 1998 on Hoosier Homestead Farm overlooking the White River Valley in Martin County. Located approximately 20 miles west of the winery, the vineyard’s eight acres are comprised of the first planting of Norton grapes in Indiana, as well as Chambourcin, Traminette, Vidal, and Vincent varietals. These varietals are new to many wine drinkers but they thrive in Indiana where traditional varieties often struggle due to harsh weather.

The winemakers raise sheep as well. They look pretty cool in the vineyard!

The winery is housed in the old Kimball Piano Factory in West Baden Springs, Indiana.

The inside features a long tasting bar and an exceptional restaurant!

But you've come for the wine. And this is a good one. Crema Dolce is a sweet wine that is a perfect drink with your after dinner desserts or cheese plate.

But I don't eat cheese after dinner, unless I'm at a fancy work meal. And I prefer to drink my calories instead of having dessert! So I think this is a perfect "just-because" drink! It's great right before bed!! By a roaring fire. Or while reading a book. Or yelling at the TV during a football game.

This wine is creamy. In the glass is it almost amber in color. When you smell and taste it you'll find flavors of caramel, butterscotch, and a lot of nutty undertones. It is decadent!

And it's only $19 a bottle. This isn't meant to be guzzled, rather sipped and enjoyed.

Have you been to French Lick Winery? Any favorite wines from your visit?

Shiny packaging not necessary

2013-01-07T19:00:00.000-05:00

Lots of Christmas presents come with shiny packaging and pretty bows. This year, my favorite present was void of shiny bows. And it may not look that pretty to you.

This is a steam engine. Made for me by my Uncle Dayman when I was just 5 years old. It is, quite simply, some wood, complete with rolling wood tires and a steam pipe.

I remember how excited I was when he made this for me. And for years it sat in my parents living room. But this year Mom gave it to me. And I can't explain how excited I was!

As I get older, I know I want for less stuff. But I long for the things that make me happy. Stuff that my memories are made of. This steam engine is one of those things. Some day, my Lion Cub will get this. I hope he understands just how much this hunk of wood meant to his Momma!

Fitness Friday: My View

2013-01-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

In trying to determine a new direction for my blog this year, an idea popped into my head while I was doing one of my favorite activities, running. More specifically, running in 3 degree temperatures through snow and on ice.

It occurred to me that I should be posting about my fitness adventure. I've been following my friend Cris at Goodeness Gracious and all the success she is having in her exercise and healthy eating lifestyle. She rocks! And has been transparent with her loss. She's even brave enough to post pictures. I'm not that brave!

But what I think I'd like to do is to provide a snapshot of what it looks like when a crazy busy, overworked, mom of three kids who also have their own sports/school/church activities to manage, who also has a 3 hour commute everyday, a farm to help hubby tend to, dozens of work meetings that often throw a wrench in my healthy eating plan,tries to fit in workouts and healthy eating! Whew!!

I want people to realize, especially in this new year time of making goals, that diets suck and don't work. I've been on all of them. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Seattle Sutton, Slimfast, and others are great plans for the short term. But the mentality of going on a diet indicates you'll be going off that diet at some point. And that's where I have always messed up. I lose weight, go back to eating junk and not working out, and gain weight. So this time has been a lifestyle change!! And I'm going to take every Friday and tell you about it! I hope you'll be able to relate to the change I've been making.

For my first post, I want to share where I run. Living in the rural countryside doesn't provide an easy way to get to the gym to run on a treadmill. And I should note I hate running inside!! I used to own a treadmill and sold it because it bored me. A few years ago a local group took an abandoned railway and turned it into a paved trail. I opposed the idea at the onset because the group took farmland that wasn't theirs to take for part of this trail. It's a long story that I can't explain well but the ag community was set against this. Turns out it was going to happen no matter what the farm community wanted.

And while I wasn't happy to have the trail cutting through farm ground, now that it is built it is where I run.

This was how it looked on my most recent run. Ice covered in snow with only a few paths of clear pavement every now and then.

The bridges don't clear as fast as the path through the woods. This was tough to run through. Felt like running on the beach through sand!

However the view from the bridge is beautiful! The river is partly frozen and huge chunks of ice were flowing.

It's a much better view than what I have to watch on a treadmill! So I put on a few layers of clothes, throw on my headwrap and gloves and trudge outside. This trail is beautiful in all seasons and every step I take down it's path provide much needed stress relief. Even if it's through a few inches of snow and ice!

Wine Wednesday: Local Dry Wines

2013-01-02T19:00:00.000-05:00

Because I've had a huge outcry (or just a few nice people tell me) for posts about what I drink, I'm starting a weekly (I hope) Wine Wednesday feature. In full disclosure, I work for Indiana's fabulous wineries! So quite a few posts will likely focus on Indiana wines. However, I don't just drink Indiana wine. So I'll share my other favorite vino's too!

The problem starts with which wine to chose. This is how my office looks right now. It's a mess. I have dozens of wine bottles that need put away in my storage but I haven't had the time to get them stored.

Then there is this exceptionally large wine barrel that is taking up a bit of floor space. It is empty. My Department Head/boss just came in to ask me if it had wine in it!! It's part of my State Fair exhibit and needs a little TLC.

So now for the wine. Oliver Winery is Indiana's largest and oldest winery. Opened in 1972, the Bloomington-based winery sets the standard for how wine should be made. Bill Oliver and his crew turn out nationally award-winning wines year after year.

This 2010 Chambourcin is a dry red wine that could fool even the snootiest Cabernet or Zinfandel drinker. This wine is outstanding! Chambourcin is a red grape that we grow a lot in Indiana. The vines can withstand the harsh cold winters we have and the fruit quality is fantastic.

From Oliver's website.

Chambourcin ripens beautifully in the hot Indiana sun, resulting in plump, bright purple clusters. While the growing season of 2010 was full of heartbreak due to the late frost that claimed most of our Catawba, Traminette, Marechal Foch and Valvin Muscat; it proved to be a banner year for Chambourcin. This variety produces buds later in the season and is also located at the high point of the vineyard, helping it to avoid the peril of late frost. What rounded out to be a beautiful, warm and dry season led to a bountiful harvest on September 28th yielding about 14.8 tons of superb fruit!

Winemaking begins with 36 hours of skin contact to extract the optimal color, flavor and tannic structure. After fermentation in stainless steel tanks, this wine aged in barrels, of which 25% were new French oak. With soft berry flavors and mature tannins, this is arguably our best Chambourcin ever!

I agree! This wine would go perfectly with a big Hunk of Meat or a thick bolognese pasta sauce. But don't think too much about food pairings. I'm not above pouring a glass and just drinking it because it's good! I don't want you to get hung up on pairing the "perfect" food with the "perfect" wine.

This wine, at $22 a bottle, can be purchased at the winery in Bloomington or their new Wine Tasting room in downtown Bloomington.

If you have tried this wine, let me know! Or maybe you have another favorite Oliver Winery wine?

Salute!!

I Resolve To...

2013-01-01T21:06:00.000-05:00

I don't like resolutions. In years past, I never keep them and I'm always uncertain why I need to pick one day to redo my entire life. But I do like goals. I have a constant to-do list in my office and my kitchen. I find great pleasure in crossing items off of that list and have even been known to add something to the list, once it is done, to be able to cross it off!

With a to-do list in mind, I made a list of items I want to get done in 2013.

1. Continue consistent workouts ~ I have enjoyed running for the past dozen years. Putting on my running shoes creates adrenaline before I even walk out the door. I quit running last spring after doing a half-marathon and developing a bone spur in my heel. I finally got it treated and began running again in October. I'm down almost 25 pounds and want the loss to continue. But more than worrying about a number on a scale, I want the stress relief that running offers me.

2. Say NO more ~ I don't say no when people ask me to do something. The saying "give a busy person the job you need done" applies to me. I serve on many different boards for both work and my personal life. I love all of them and can't imagine stepping back from any of them! I can't step off the board for work, but I am going to have to evaluate what I am doing in my personal life. My kids need me at this point in their life. They don't need me going to meetings all of the time and being gone.

3. Quit yelling ~ Stress leads to me raising my voice, both at my Farmer and my kids. I hate myself for that. I can't stand getting to that point where I am so frustrated that I raise my voice. I've heard my kids yelling at each other and it makes me cringe. I know where they are learning that and I have to stop it now.

4. Make real friends ~ I've blogged in the past about my anxiety about relationship building. I've said if my world crashed around me tomorrow, I don't know who I would call. I have thousands of friend-acquaintances. I hate small talk and suck at trying to talk to people on a surface level. One of my closest friends lives two hours from me. The small group of Real Farmwives of America, many of which I relate to so well, live two hours south of me. So I either need to move two hours south or do a better job making true friendships in the area I live. It hit me pretty hard on New Year's Eve when I noticed a friend's Facebook post about the people she had over for a party. The whole group are people I think are good friends of mine, and yet I wasn't on the invitation list. Which sounds petty. But it hurt. And it feels a bit like Junior High.

5. Blog more ~ This goes without saying. And by blogging today, this provides the fresh start I need to develop ideas and write about them.

6. Read my Bible frequently ~ Anyone who knows me knows my faith guides all that I do. I was baptized at 10 years old and proudly shared my faith all through high school and college. And while my faith is still everything to me, I have gotten away from daily Bible studies. By using the YouVersion app on my IPad, I will read a passage everyday for the entire year.

7. Breathe and get rid of the anxiety ~ This should also be titled "quit multitasking everything." I feel like I run on stress. And it wears me down. I worry about the tiniest things. Doubt and fear creep into my head and it creates physical and mental pain. There are days I feel like I have a huge weight on my chest. And I know it's stress.

So with my to-do list in front of me, I greet 2013 with great anticipation. This will be my year of change. It's time to reevaluate what is important and what makes a difference for my eternity.

Being Green

2012-12-20T13:07:00.001-05:00

As I get my blog revamped and revitalized, I thought I'd post something that struck me recently. As we head into Christmas, I hope everyone steps back and realizes just how fortunate we are.

Being Green

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back
in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment f or future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truely recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room.
And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?