Every now and then the hubby requests a certain meal, and very very rarely does he request something other than a juicy pork burger with cheese. But when the conservation goes like this:




“Hubs what would you like for supper tonight,”


“Oh I don’t care”

“Really just tell me you complain about so much pasta so just tell me,”


“Anything”


“Sure anything well besides meatloaf” (I just have a fear of meat formed into a loaf)


“Haha I figured that well I want pork chops with an orange glaze and broccoli no cheese on the veggies please”


“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh (this is my utter shock) ok I will do my best.


So when we have that discussion for dinnerI am so so so happy! He had a different type of orange glaze in mind; he was thinking more of an orange and honey glaze while I was thinking orange and balsamic, I guess we need to communicate a bit better, oh well at least we had that conservation. Anyway regardless we both really enjoyed this dinner.



Orange and Balsamic Glaze-

½ cup Balsamic

1 cup orange juice

A sprinkle of sugar (this is to your taste)

Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan and let reduce in half over medium heat. Baste chops with glaze and top them with it after they are cooked.

Pork Chops (use your own method if you would like this is mine)

½ in thick boneless pork chops

Season with salt, pepper, paprika, and a bit of cumin

Mix seasons sprinkle on top of chops (both sides)

Brush with glaze

Sear in a hot pan 3-4 minutes per side

Allow to rest and top with glaze before serving



Roasted Broccoli (super easy and one of my new favorites)

2-3 heads of Fresh Broccoli

Olive oil

Salt, Pepper, Garlic

Break heads of broccoli into small bite size pieces place on a cookie sheet, drizzle with oil and season with salt pepper and garlic. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. If you would like top with a bit of freshly grated parmesan cheese.



This meal is really easy and delicious, we definitely enjoyed.

Reese's Cake

Birthdays are a huge deal in my world; I truly believe that you should have the day off from everything when it is your special day. I know I live in a fantasy world if I truly believe that, but I do try to make birthdays special for my family and the people I work with well it happened to be my most creative co-worker’s birthday. Each year he tries to create a cake that he would like me to bake, most the time it is a cake with some form cookie or candy in it. This year he decided that he had a hankering for peanut butter and chocolate what does that equal a Reese cake!

 

1 Butter Cake Mix

1lb bag of Reese’s miniatures unwrapped and cut into quarters

1 cup Peanut butter

¼ cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 TBSP Butter

A batch of your favorite chocolate icing





Mix cake according to package directions, just before baking fold in two handfuls of the quartered miniatures. Bake according to package directions. In the mean time melt the peanut butter and chocolate chips together with the butter in the microwave for about one minute stirring every 20 seconds or so, until you reach a smooth consistency, this is the filling for the cake. Once the cakes have cooled place one layer on a cake plate of your choice, spread filling over the top and place second layer on top of the filling. Next ice the cake with your fave, chocolate icing and decorate with the remaining Reese’s candies. It is quite a rich cake, but I do thank Nick for the idea.

Here is birthday boy himself enjoying some cake!!!!!!!!!

Turkey Day!!!!!!! (A little Late on the Post!)

We have so much each year to be grateful for and on the top of my list each year is family. So I thought I would quickly share some pictures from a few of the Thanksgiving celebrations we attended.

A Great First Year!!!!!!!

A few weeks ago the hubs took it upon himself to plan a wonderful trip for the two of us to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary, what a sweet gesture right! We headed out to the beautiful state of Colorado, for some skiing and site seeing. The trip was absolutely amazing with a few minor set backs along the way, from snow closing the road to a few extra passengers on the way home. I can’t tell you how amazed I was at the great trip the hubs had planned.

Check out all that snow this is in Evergreen, CO they had 24 inches of snow! Oh and check out that lovely dog yes we took Gabby along for the ride.

This was the biggest creature I do believe I have ever seen, this elk made the Hubs want to come back next year, not for another romantic getaway but to hunt. Oh well you can't win them all.

While in Rocky Mtn. National Park we (ok I) really wanted to take a picture for our Christmas cards. Luckily we stumbled upon a man who also was a professional photographer and he took some wonderful shots for us!

This is me just being overwhelmed by the view I couldn't believe all the snow and just how beautiful everything was.

And this is one of our extra passengers on the way home Pappy Paul, Gabby was welcoming him into the car!

I can't thank the hubs enough for the great trip it was amazing and a wonderful getaway for the two of us!

A Rude Awakening...

What do a pig a police officer and a butcher equal I might ask you?

Well in my world they equal a perfect disturbance to my morning of sleeping in.

Let me just start from the beginning, on Thursday evening my lovely husband deemed it necessary to wean a sow that we had out at my parent’s house. This was necessary so that we could rebreed her for her next litter to be born this winter. I remind you this is a typical practice around the farm not much out of the ordinary. Well the sow was going to be moved from my parents’ house to my in-laws house and since the houses are about thirty minutes apart the hubby decides he would just load her Thursday night and take her out to her new home on Friday morning. Well for the time being my dear husband and I live in town a very small town I mind you. Since he wanted to spend the evening with me he loaded the ole sow up on the trailer and brought her to town parking his truck and trailer outside of our house, not an uncommon occurrence.

Now back to my morning of sleeping in, I had taken the day off from work so I could spend some time with a very dear friend of mine in the big city shopping. But I thought that I would catch a few extra minutes of shut eye before I got up and made myself shopping ready. Well that is when I heard a knock at the door and the fun began at approximately 6:06a.m. A police officer and the local butcher shop owner were standing on my front steps informing us that our pig that was in the trailer was on the loose! And that they were going to help us find her. I think you can figure out where the butcher fits in.

I tell you this right now she sure went on a tour of town, from seeing the school, to walking down the main street, to trying to go to work at the local factory. Lastly she was decided to take a walk over to the city park and that is where she was found and safely returned to her trailer. Boy oh boy were we the talk of the town for the day. You never know what is going to happen next in our crazy piggy life!

No real pictures of this event were taken because:
It was dark outside
I was a bit busy herding a pig.
I was definitely NOT camera ready!

Enjoy my struggles!

Introducing Dexter!!!!!!!!

Ok I know I know I haven’t had a post in a long time and I sincerely apologize I will do my best to never let that happen again. But back to Dexter, this little bundle of joy is my new cousin, isn’t he the sweetest thing you have ever seen. I just want to snuggle with him. If you travel over to afarmerslfe.blogspot.com, you can check out his mommy’s blog and I am sure more pictures of him. Now what have the hubs and I been up to since my last post. Well mainly working like crazy, jobs, pigs, pigs and more pigs. From showing at the State Fair, which by the way we happened to have several champions, to having new litters of pigs, to breeding the sows for this winter’s litters, to getting the buildings ready for the winter. We have been a bit busy but that is the life that we live. Now we begin to enter harvest for both our jobs, hopefully the weather will cooperate and allow for a quick and painless harvest. I promise a wonderful Lasagna recipe tomorrow! Have a wonderful Monday.

Go Royals!!!!!!!!!!!! or Lets just enjoy the Fireworks!

Well as a family outing we decided to head on up to a Royals game, actually this was PP's father's day present. We had so much fun enjoying the newly remodeled stadium, though we truly wished the Royals would have been able to win the game. The Hubs swears that he is never going back to another Royals because he has been to so many and never seen them win. But I am sure that I will manage to get him there one day!

Happy Birthday America!!!!!

I love the 4th of July, it is so much fun getting together with family and friends and shooting off fireworks, and celebrating our freedom. Yet I do have a profession that requires me to be at work on this National holiday, corn doesn't stop growing to observe the day. So this equals 120 young adults and 144 bomb pops yummy!!!!!!!!

Here are a few enjoying their snack.

Cameron appears to really be enjoying all of his bomb pop!

Wow do I love the kiddo's that work here they are so much fun! Hope each of you celebrate this great nation!

Last Thought: Last night the pig family all headed out on a family trip to the Royals game. I hope to have the pics up for you tomorrow!

Spring Clean Up, YAY!!!!!!!!

Now each winter the farm tends to get a bit messy, I mean let’s be serious pigs can be such pigs. And I will be honest we do tend to put the clean up task off as long as possible, because it isn’t exactly a pleasant job. But the clean up did allow me to drive around on the tractor and using the scoop. This was the first time I had ever had to really do this so Hubby my prince did swoop in and attempt to teach me how to properly do this, shortly before he just decided to do it himself. This was ok by me as well. So now that the homestead is all spic and span clean we are ready for more piggies to come join the family.

Check me out I am trying to seem to know what I am doing, it appears that someone is closely watching over me.

Big Bro Zach and his driving skills, do you notice a theme of someone watching over us.

Last thought: I just got call from the hubby that there are some new little piglets coming as we speak! Woohoo hopefully I can convince him to take the time to get some great pictures for you.

Spaghetti a la Hubby

Now I don’t know about many of you other wives out there but I happened to marry a meat and potatoes lover. There is nothing that would make him happier than a supper of a pork chop and fried potatoes each night. But every now and then a girl has to have a little bit of what she likes. I, as the pasta lover in this marriage, definitely have a need for a big bowl every now and then. What I have found is that if the sauce is really meaty the hubby can even love the results.

2 carrots diced
4 stalks celery diced
1 onion diced
½ lb Italian pork sausage
½ lb Lean ground beef
1 ½ cup beef stock
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic chopped
A pinch of crushed red pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste 1 cup plus more for topping Italian blend shredded cheese
Angle hair pasta

Sauté the first three ingredients in olive oil until soft, remove from pan. In the same pan brown the meat, once browned drain. Add meat and veggie mixture back to pan and deglaze with beef stock. Add the tomatoes, garlic, red pepper and salt and pepper. Simmer with the lid on until mixture is thick about 30 minutes, then remove the lid and simmer for another 15 minutes. While mixture finishes cook pasta according to package directions. If sauce is to thick for you add a bit of the pasta water. Once you have drained the pasta mix it with the sauce and add cheese stir to combine. And yummy yummy there is a hearty supper.

Last thought: This dish is his preferred way that I make spaghetti, I like it as well but soon I share with you my beloved spaghetti recipe.

Father’s Day Weekend!!!

Wow did we have quite a busy weekend honoring our fathers. From frying fish to eating extreme cake, to breakfast, dinner, and BBQed steak dinner, we tried to fit it all into just two days. Holidays are quite important to both of us, because family is always first; they are so important that we celebrated several times over this weekend. Starting with a fish fry out at the MIL and FIL’s house, I do have to say that the hubby is quite a master of the fryer. But the star of the fish fry had to be SIL Mer and her friend Taylor’s EXTREME FUNFETTI CAKE. It was really fun watching FIL cut into that one. Lunch on father’s day was at my Grandma and Papa Jones’ house, the fried chicken was amazing, thanks to the aunts and my mom. No time to tell you about all that we did but I do want to wish my dad PP a very special father’s day and I can’t wait to go to the game with him. Hope all of you dad’s out there had a great dad’s day!


Check this crazy cake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is my papa with one of my cousins, who happens to be newly engaged congrats Megan!

Chicken Frying Ladies Yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A New Addition to the Farm

Oh the summer litters of baby piggies have started Gertie welcome these cuties just a few days ago and let me tell you I do believe they are my favorite. (But I say that with every litter) You just can't believe how small and cute they are when they are new born. The picture above is when she was still having more but I couldn't resist because it was such a cute picture. I love the litters born in the summer because it isn't freezing cold and ugly outside where you can't enjoy them.

Here is ML delivering one of the piggies while talking on her cell phone, she is seriously talented. (Oh and she threaten my life if I put this pic up but only you guys and me know about it so lets keep it that away)
Have a perfect piggie day!

Who Loves Chocolate I do I do!

And just about every one I work with. These cookies were a special request from one of my co-workers. Ok they weren’t really a request, I definitely owed them to him; he had to do some quick tire changing for me. These cookies were a hit at home as well, but they definitely are rich, a glass of milk is highly recommended. All you dark chocolate lovers out there will also adore these cookies. Enjoy!

For this recipe click here.
Oh I did replace the walnuts with pecans!

Refreshing Summery Veggie Pasta Salad…

As the heat of summer quickly approaches I am trying to get us prepared for that with light and refreshing recipes. This one I made a double batch of to take to a family BBQ, I wanted to have plenty to save back for the hubby’s and my lunch. This pasta salad is super easy and very flavorful. The best thing about this recipe besides the flavor is the fact that you can adjust it to your tastes and likings of veggies. Some of my favorite mix-ins are olives, capers, and mushrooms.

This is the original single batch recipe.
1 box of tri-colored spiral pasta
1 pint box of grape tomatoes
1 bell pepper (any color) diced
1 cucumber diced
3 stalks of celery diced
2 carrots shredded
5 green onions chopped
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 TBSP of Good Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 TBSP of Italian Seasoning
1 Large Bottle of Italian Salad Dressing
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Cook pasta according to package directions, rinse and cool. In a large bowl mix oil and Italian seasoning add veggies and toss. Add cooled pasta and mix, pour on the bottle of salad dressing and toss everything until all is well coated. Then add cheese and salt and pepper, toss, cover and chill. The longer the salad sits the better it gets.

Turning Catastrophe into Cake Eating Celebration!

For most newlyweds enjoying the top tier of their wedding cake on their first anniversary is something they look forward to. Or they look forward to seeing how well their cake had held up in the freezer. This past weekend we kind of had a small tragedy with our deep freezer going out, well our cake top happened to be in that freezer. Luckily hubby was a fast thinker and he rescued it right away, brought it inside and stuck it in the refrigerator. So to reward his fast thinking I cooked him a wonderful meal then we each had a piece of cake. I had envisioned eating the cake out on our porch picnic style feeding it to each other in the most romantic way. Apparently that wasn’t the hubby’s idea. I will report that what cake I did taste was absolutely wonderful, Blaine had picked that flavor and I was a bit uneasy about the orange dream cake.

Blaine thought he would eat the whole cake before he decided to shove it in my face instead!

See the small crumb of cake I managed to get on his face, tiny tiny tiny crumb.

And look at me cake all over my face.

I had to take this one pic so that I would have proof that the cake was really pretty.