Chili Competition Pie

Jamie won our annual work chili cook-off this year.  There were nine entries, and he won first prize, which is a day of paid leave.  Instead of entering a chili in the competition, I baked pies.  The award for pie baking is the joy of crafting the pies, followed by the pie admiration of my coworkers, and then the miserable state of everyone's digestion after eating nine bowls of chili and giant hunks of pie for lunch during a work day!   

I enjoyed making these pies so much I couldn't resist taking photos. Cutting butter chunks into flour is so satisfying.   

Apples, peeled and ready to fill a crust. 

I made a little extra dough for each pie this time, and it was nice to have plenty to cover the dish, and even a little extra for a tiny bonus pie.  

Flipping the rolled out dough into the pie plate is always tricky.  But look, I did it perfectly this time! 

Isn't it pretty, with the edges all crimped?  

The apple peeler/slicer crank tool thing I have always leaves a little bit of peel on the slice at either end of the apple.  These slices with peel were perfect for the tiny bonus pie made from the extra bits of dough.  

Cinnamon and sugar, poured over the apple slices.  Oh yeah.  

Then a mixture of flour, sugar, and butter sprinkled on the top.  

Baked to golden perfection!  

While the apple pie was baking, I rolled out the dough for the chocolate pie.  Success!  

The chocolate, sugar, butter, egg yolks, and evaporated milk are heated on the stove top until the butter melts, then poured into the unbaked crust.  I used up all the extra bits of dough in the little bonus pie, making the crust extra thick so I only had to steal a little filling from the big pie. 

When the pie was nearly done baking, I used the egg whites and sugar to whip up the meringue.  I even added and extra egg white, so it would be tall and fluffy.  The meringue goes on the hot pie, then back in the oven until it's golden brown.  

The meringue is always taller out of the oven than it is when it cools.  I wonder if there's a way to keep it from shrinking?  

Brandon was prepared to be dissapointed that I was baking pies for a party he wasn't able to attend, so the little bonus pies were perfect.  He got to have a slice of the pie, but we didn't eat an entire pie all by ourselves!  

October Things

My brothers and I celebrated our birthdays this October, and I baked two cakes!  Real cakes, with gluten and sugar and all the bad wonderful tasting things.  The cakes were a treat to eat, and also a treat for me to bake.  We would have needed one hundred and nineteen candles to represent all our years!   

Our traditional October birthday family meal is chili spaghetti, Cincinnati style, topped with shredded cheese, diced onions, and oyster crackers, and served by the fireside.  This year, along with regular spaghetti and gluten free spaghetti, we served spaghetti squash grown in my garden, which has been stored in the root cellar.  

I baked the squash halves at four hundred and sixty degrees for an hour, then scooped out all the squash noodles into the crock pot, topped it with ghee patties, and turned it on low.  It worked pretty good!  I hoped that if I skipped the real noodles and crackers, then I would do less damage to my body when I ate two pieces of cake!  

It's hard for me to believe that October is already over.  October was the check-in on Ernest from the equine adoption agency.  I had to submit a picture of his body, from the side, and a photo of his feet.  In January they will remind me that his vet check-up is due.  If the vet says he's well cared for, then I think the adoption agency will be satisfied that we've provided a good home.  Ernest has settled in well, and feels free to bray for food and attention!  We can tell the two donkeys apart from their bray.  Rufus sounds like a rusty hinge, and Ernest sounds like an old fashioned car horn.  Aa-ooga!  Aa-ooga! 

The new puppy, Sienna, likes to chase the chickens.  Not with intent to eat or kill them, but she enjoys it when they squawk and flutter away. She's a ruckus instigator!  

When the puppy is on the loose, Cogburn, the rooster, clucks and calls all twelve hens together and leads them into the dense weeds in the tree line.  Most of the hens look ragged right now from the fall molt.  They look like scruffy ruffians hiding in the weeds!  

Look, a double rainbow!

The guineas are more brave than the chickens, so they don't run far when Sienna charges through their space.  Wendigo knows to pay attention when the guineas sound the alarm, and you can see her turn her head and prick her ears when they start to call.  She will follow them to the source of their excitement, and I've noticed the puppy following her lead.  Guineas and great pyrenness make a good defensive team.  

Pistol Pete, the ram, is growing a long shaggy neck ruff.  He's very shy and won't let me pet him.  When he sticks his head in his food bowl I sneak a few scratches between his ears.  He gets offended, and ducks his head.  He loves his daily pound of mixed grains, which I call cookies.  Who doesn't love cookies!   

Lambchop, the ewe, hasn't had her baby yet.  When we brought her home, we thought birth was imminent, but she just keeps getting fatter!  Sheep are pregnant for five months, so if her pregnancy started in July, it may be as late as December before we get a new lamb.  The reason the farmer wanted to sell her was because she was pregnant out of season, and will give birth during the cold winter.  My hope is that we can keep her lamb warm and help it survive despite being born in the wrong time of year.  If we can keep it alive, and it's a girl, then we will have another breeder.  Cross your fingers!  Lambchop is getting tamer by the day, and will even stay lying down while I pet her.  She's as soft as a cotton ball.  

Do you know how I can tell it's getting to be winter?  Is it the frost, or the dropped leaves?  Nope.  It's how many pictures I've taken of cozy cats!  

The cats and I are patiently waiting for the first inside fire.  Brandon has accused us of burning all the best, driest wood early in the year last year, so this year I'm wearing an extra sweater, and the cats are curled up somewhere snugly until real winter sets in.  It won't be long!  

Spiders, Snakes, Mud, and Mold - Oh My!

Time to retrieve spaghetti squash from the scary root cellar, Rain.  But what about spider webs?!  I could walk right through a giant spider web and get a spider in my hair!  Ack!  Don't be a ninny, Rain, you've walked through spider webs before and it didn't kill you. Do it!

Okay, I'm down the steps.  But what about snakes?!  The last time I was in here there was a snake on the stairs!  And what is that on that box over there!?  A snake skin!? It's huge! Oh nooo!!!!  Wait a minute - you are not afraid of black snakes, Rain.  They don't even have legs. Are you going to run from something without legs.  You might as well be afraid of worms.  Rain, are you afraid of worms?   

No, you're right, Rain. I'm going in. Oh my gosh, look at all that mud!  Why is the floor so muddy?  Its that horrible orange clay mud, too, that stains shoes forever.  The squash are way over there.  My shoes will be ruined!  Rain, it's just mud.  Jeeze.

Fine, I'm doing it.  Eeek!  That creepy lady sculpture is freaking me out!  What if the door blows shut, and I'm trapped down here in the dark with her FOREVER?!?  Really, Rain?  Just calm down and grab the squash, okay? Okay. 

 

Eewww, that squash is all moldy and leaking brown juice on everything.  If I disturb the mold, I'll be inhaling mold spores, mixed with dead spider spores, and snake skin spores and mud and ...is there even any air in here... I CAN'T BREATH!!!  RUN!!    

Happy Halloween Rain, you scared yourself silly.  

Orange Puppy

 

We got a new puppy!!  While I was away on Saturday, with Jamie, helping Farmer Joe butcher ducks and geese, Brandon found a listing for a female Great Pyrenees puppy for sale.  By the time I got home, Brandon had already been in conversation with the farmer, who wanted reassurance that we had land and livestock.  Out of a litter of eleven puppies, she felt this one in particular had the right livestock guardian temperament, and didn't want to sell her as a house pet.  

On Sunday, Brandon and I drove all the way over the Ohio River and into Indiana farm country, to arrive at a tidy llama farm.  The farmer's kids also raised show rabbits and goats for 4-H projects.  She said she had been raising llamas since she was fourteen and in 4-H herself.  From the detailed records she provided for our new puppy, I could tell she has honed her 4-H record keeping skills.   

Unlike when Brandon picked up Wendigo from the mountains in eastern Kentucky, where she was crawling in a ditch, un-weened, and covered in fleas, we felt we were on an interview to see if we were allowed to have this clean and well groomed three month old.  

The farmer referred to her as Orange, because she was assigned that color collar at birth.  We've changed her name to Sienna, since raw sienna is Brandon's favorite orange paint color.  Sienna is so much like having another Wendigo puppy that I keep slipping up and calling her Wendi! 

Wendigo is not sure how she feels about Sienna.  Ever since we brought Sienna home, Wendigo has had a worried look on her face.  Sorry, Wendi, she's here to stay! 

We've decided that Sienna has to stay in the kennel at night and when we aren't home, at least for a little while as she gets used to her new home.  The first night she howled and barked all night long.  Wendigo joined her, and I got no sleep.  I was complaining about it to a friend, and he said that's how all of his dogs have ended up sleeping in the bed with him - he just can't stand to let them cry!  

We've been taking leashed walks around the farm so she knows our boundaries, and she's met all the other animals.  

She's irresistibly sweet and her fuzzy coat is as soft as cotton.  It's all we can do to make ourselves go to work.  Who wants to leave home when there's a new puppy (and an old puppy!) to play with!  

Palisades Hike Near The Blue Bus

 

Brandon and I hiked the Palisades Trail on Saturday, which is along the Kentucky River, not far from where our blue bus lives.  The online trail guide said this was a heavily trafficked trail, so we were glad for the rainy weather as we knew it would keep sensible folks at home.  We didn't see a single other hiker until the end of the hike and we were back to the parking lot.    

The fall color was just beginning to show, and the trail was nice and wide and clearly marked.  All this hiking we've been doing is making me a trail connoisseur.  This trail had some steep climbs, and because of the rain the rocks were slick, so we were glad we had our hiking sticks.  

Say cheese! 

One of the neatest things about this trail was all the sinkholes.  In places the earth would just gap open, and we could see the exposed rock. 

The upper trail goes very near the top of the rock cliffs near the river.  We could see the forested slopes, the interstate bridge, the old road bridge, and the campground near the base of the cliffs.  

Purple asters were blooming and feeding the bees.  We saw thousands of little paw paw trees growing in the forest under the tall trees.  Someone is working hard to eradicate the bush honeysuckle from this forest, so the understory was open and we could really see the topography, unlike most forests in this part of the world where the honeysuckle clogs the forest so densely you can't see into it very far.  

The lower trail goes right down to the waters edge, so we could enjoy the cliff lines on the opposite bank, which are full of caves and holes.  It would take some serious rock climbing to explore those cliffs.  

The lower trail near the river goes right through a thick stand of stinging nettle.  Cool. 

After hiking over four miles, we were ready to leave the Palisades Trail and visit our bus property for a picnic lunch.  We don't visit as often as we used to, so our gate and footpath to the bus is overgrown.  I like that it isn't likely to attract visitors.  We found the bus just as we left it - shut up tight and no evidence of guest campers.  

The sugar maple trees were starting to glow gold in the sunlight.  We have a lot of bush honeysuckle in our forest.  I like the privacy screen it creates near the road, but it would be nice to cut the bushes around the bus and open up the view a bit.  We talked about tackling that project next fall, but not this year.  

We couldn't go inside the bus because we forgot the key, and we couldn't start a fire in the fire pit because of the rain and wet firewood.  Instead we used our camp stove to heat our lunch, and rested on the bench by the bus and admired our trees and the peaceful sounds of the forest and river.  How cool is it that there's a good hiking trail so close to our bus?!