How to Beat the Post-Thanksgiving Gut

I'm sure if you've been reading this blog a while, you will notice that both my complaining about my weight has increased, as well as the size of my waistline. (Another reason not to include photos of ME here very often.) For a long time i avoided Thanksgiving all together simply because i cannot enjoy eating without then subjecting myself to massive guilt trips. It's lame, but it's who i am. I've tried to get over the guilting after the holiday, but i can at least be sure and exercise daily and maybe take it easy on the creative and filling meals for a while.

Enter, cabbage soup! Cabbage is filling, yet light and chock full of vitamins. Onions are my favorite cold-fighters and vitamin C troops, and hot peppers do wonders for the metabolism. I don't follow any particular recipe for my cabbage soup, just throw in cabbage and veggies, some water and/or stock, a splash of apple cider vinegar and plenty of herbs: boil, simmer, eat, get full. Then, maybe try not to eat half a dozen ginger snaps afterwards. ;)

Let the Dark Days Challenge Begin!

I am excited to be a part of the Dark Days Challenge over at Not Dabbling in Normal this year. I'm in charge of reading and re-capping all the luscious, local and scrumptious posts that participants from the west coast will be submitting. I will do my best to post some of my favorites here at An Austin Homestead, and will be posting every other Sunday over at NDIN. Check us out this Sunday for some tantalizing photos, and be sure to visit all the participating blogs to see what they're cooking up this season.

What is the Dark Days Challenge, you ask?

Cook one meal each week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients, write about it on your blog and email your happy recapper a link to your post. It’s really that simple, but at the same time, it can really be that hard. Need more details? See the links in the right side bar at (not so) Urban Hennery to the past Challenges.

It's quite a task for me this year, as i have A. no garden B. no chickens C. no farmer's market until mid January and D. limited food put by in my cupboards. BUT i did put up SOME produce, and i do have a little local meat left in the freezer, so i'll do my best and hope to scrape together some yummy, local dinners. Come January the farmer's market opens back up, indoors and i'll be vending my soap! Hopefully i'll be able to convince some farmers to trade me for veggies.

Here's a sneak peak at what one blogger is finding locally in her area: Kamut!

I just started a new job this week (!) and wasn't able to cook up the apple nut bread I'd planned for this post... so stay tuned for that. I'll be using almost all local ingredients, except the flour and salt... which i think will be a problem for many folks trying to source all ingredients locally. NDIN has a nice bit about 'what's local' too:

What does local mean?
Traditionally, local food challenges call for a 100 mile radius. Winter time is more difficult in many climates, especially if you’re new to eating locally, so my default winter definition is 150 miles. You can choose to make your radius smaller or slightly larger as you need. Typical exceptions to the local requirement are oils, coffee, chocolate and spices. If you’re making fewer or more exceptions, please note that on your first post.
What if I can’t find every ingredient locally?
That’s why this is called a challenge! If you can’t find every ingredient, or heck even most ingredients, please still write about your attempts. This is just as much about what we learn, the obstacles we find, and the decisions we make as it is about cooking with SOLE ingredients.

I hope you'll enjoy our adventure and challenges this Winter. Read along, cook along, and join us during these dark days.

DIY Ranch or Tartar Sauce

I posted a comment on Facebook recently about a not so yogurty batch of yogurt i made. It has since become tangier after sitting a bit longer in the fridge, but a reader left me a great idea on how to utilize yogurt that may be less than up to snuff: make Ranch Dressing!

I for one, have never been much of a ranch eater. It's just so clearly fattening. But it is delicious, and my hubs sure likes it - so i decided to give it a shot. This 'recipe' sounds just up my alley. Unfortunately, i'm lacking any homegrown veggies so my additives this time around were pretty scant, just some garlic, salt, pepper and paprika. I remembered that i had some multiplying onions in a pot out on the porch at the last minute, so i chopped some of them up as well. The resultant sauce is tangy, rich (but not toooo creamy) and delightful for dipping or as a side. I imagine you could add more lemon juice and maybe some relish and turn it into tartar sauce!

Do you have a fun recipe that utilizes homemade yogurt?

Pre-Holiday To-Do List

Omigosh, it's practically December already. Time to really get in gear! This is what my week is looking like so far:

• Knit
• Felt
• Put serious hours into largest (secret) present project of them all
• Make soap to be ready for the Corvallis Indoor Winter Market
• Bake apple/walnut bread after putting that off for about a month
• Pack up the Christmas box for the in-laws.... after getting the last few gifts in and wrapped
• Shop some local bookstores
• Get out the sewing machine
• Spin
• Knit some more
• Apply for jobs
• Apply for some more jobs
• Cook dinner every night, and work on the Dark Days Challenge posts for Not Dabbling in Normal
• Did i mention i have some knitting to do?

Yeah, that looks like a great week to me... now if only i could knit while hiking i'd be able to get as much exercise as i need after stuffing face for Thanksgiving.

How are your projects/shopping coming along? Think you'll be ready for 'the big day'?

Fiber Fridays/ Handmade Holidays #5

I finished my very first knitting project last weekend, and it's destined to be a Christmas gift. I hope it will be cherished for years to come, despite some inconsistencies and a clear growth of technique from on end to another. It sure is soft! I used some of the first handspun for this project and have been repeatedly tempted to just keep it for myself. I can't wait until after Christmas when i can start spinning and knitting for myself!

How are your handmade holiday gift projects coming along? Will you be finished in time?

Happy holiday, everyone. I have so many things to be thankful of this year, despite having so many other things stressful and uncertain in my life. I have a loving husband, an adoring corgi, a roof over my head and a fabulous immune system. I am most thankful for the gumption of this little family: for moving ourselves away from our previous home to search for our dream here in Oregon. It's a rocky road, but i'm sure we can do it! I'm also so so thankful for the support and love of my family, near and far. We couldn't do it without you guys!

And i couldn't have run 3 miles this morning (at the Corvallis Turkey Trot) without this squinty beast pulling me the entire way like a little tugboat... I let the 'heel' training lapse a little, cuz who doesn't need a little corgi power to get you through a race?

Please keep in mind this photo was taken at 7:45 am... we are not looking our perkiest.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Eat well, love well, hug well and sleep well- easy on the stuffing!

Baked Salisbury Steak

When you have a whole mess of wild mushrooms on your hands, you have to use them in as delicious a recipe as possible! Salisbury steak is "the" recipe i request when i go home to visit my mom. She doesn't cook a ton these days, leaving the delicious fish preparation to Bud, my daddy #2 - but when i can convince her to cook up salisbury steaks I am never disapointed!

One problem i've had with enjoying this favorite recipe of hers, is that i really can't digest beef well. I should say, i can't digest 'conventionally grown' beef at all. I've recently begun dabbling in the eating of grass fed beef with pretty positive results (though i still get a tummy ache the next morning if i over do it) and definitely did not decline the several pounds of naturally grown beef mom got from our neighbor. Can i just say that the beef we got from the DuVal family is hands down the most delicious beef i've ever tasted, and i've only had the hamburger! Lean, bright red, flavorful. Yum.  Anyway, back to the recipe:

Mom bakes her salisbury steaks and generally uses golden mushroom soup plus a heap of fresh veggies. I made the mushroom soup from scratch, but followed her technique. It wasn't as gooey amazing as hers, since i failed to thicken my sauce until it was a bit late, but the flavor was devine and we had to try very hard not to lick the entire cookie sheet while it was still hot. This is NOT a greasy, pan fried beef dish, nor is this the salisbury steak found in frozen TV dinners. Shove in as many fresh veggies as you like, use bread, breadcrumbs or oats and enjoy this meal with some veggies and maybe a potato. You will not be disapointed.

Salisbury Steak

• 1 pound grass fed beef hamburger
• 1-2 onions, finely diced
• 1-5 garlic cloves, finely diced
• Optional green pepper, hot pepper, roasted pepper etc
• 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 egg
• salt, pepper, seasonings to taste 

for the sauce:

• A whole mess of mushrooms, chopped (i used wild porcinis)
• diced garlic
• pinch mustard powder
• pinch dried rosemary
• pinch dried sage
• salt and pepper
• rich chicken, turkey, veggie or beef stock- enough to fill the pan
• splash cornstarch/cold water slurry

In a large bowl combine the chopped veggies, oats, egg and beef etc and squish around with your hands until well combined. You may wish to add a sprinkling of flour to help it stick together. Form mixture into little patties and arrange on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, add all the chopped mushrooms and some butter into a pan with the herbs and spices. Add a pinch of flour and mix well. Cover with stock and bring to a rigorous boil. Boil for a smidge then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered until sauce has reduced by at least a third. Add the cornstarch slurry, stir and reduce heat to low. Pour some of the sauce over the patties and return to the oven for 5-10 more minutes. Serve topped with more sauce along side with maybe some peas and a potato. Be sure you make enough sauce to slather on everything, including a spoon in your mouth. It's so good! 

My salisbury steaks were a definite success, but i think i'll still clamour at mom to make her version.

Do you have a special 'mommy made' recipe you beg for when you see her?

Wild Edibles: Mushrooms

I got to go mushrooming with my husband last weekend, and we had a family blast. I found a patch of chanterelles, a huge porcini and Pocket even snuffed out a lovely frog after a long sprinting/frap session on the beach. We saw hundreds of mushrooms, most unknown to us and thus unpicked. We still admired seeing all the colors and shapes of the different types of mushroom, and we've enjoyed eating those we did bring home: all 6+ pounds of them!

Have you ever hunted for mushrooms?

Fiber Fridays: My First Knit Hat!

I'm totally excited that i finally finished my very first knit hat. I have suitably called it "The Hat of Many Mistakes" and have learned a heck of a lot about knitting from start to finish of this little project. I cannot count the hours it took me to finish this hat and i did not follow a pattern as i am still unable to decipher the jibberish that are knitting patterns. I do know, however that i am super proud of my feat: i spun the yarn with colors chosen specifically for my husband, i spun the color pattern specifically chosen for the hat, and i struggled my way from band to point - and it even fits!

Yes, it looks like a Hershey's Kiss, but it's warm and i think he likes it. What more can you ask?? I think it will look a bit more even after I wash it, but it will always bear plenty of little quirks and 'mistakes' that will make it even more well loved as the years pass: as my very first knit hat.

Do you love the foibles of a "first?"

Guest Post: Pocket Reflections

The hubs and I are off hunting mushrooms today! And, as i spent all of last night cooking down chicken stock and getting it ready to can when i get home today - i didn't get around to writing up a proper post. Pocket is thankfully always glad to provide some guest words, so she's taking over for the day. Welcome, Pocket!

First off, thanks mom for being such a great mommy and for feeding me that chicken heart last night and for letting me lick the chicken stock bowl and for getting me this awesome new bed and for feeding me that chicken heart last night. Secondly, i really like my new bed that gramma got me. It's really soft. It's even the same color as me, so i feel like i'm invisible and that's pretty cool. Thanks!

I'd also like to thank gramma for having such an awesome homestead. It just keeps going and going and going! And this last visit, it was covered with snow! SNOW! I love snow. You can eat it when you're on a long walk and get really really thirsty. Snow is great. Barooooooooo, snow is great. The sun there is really bright though. I always have a really hard time not blinking when you take photos of me. Sorry about that.

Here, this one is better. Aren't i pretty? I must be, because you tell me that like a thousand times a day.

Have i mentioned that i really like my new bed? i like it so much, i think i'll actually have to cut this article a little short. I'm really sorry about that mom, but you know how much i need my rest. I work really hard. Well, i guess i haven't been working too hard lately, unless you count all the CATCHING THE FRISBEE IN THE AIR that i've been doing at the PARK lately. Those are my favorite words, by the way. Frisbee. Park. You should say those words all the time. Anyway, i need some rest on my soft bed now. Love you, mommy.     -Pocket

How i Spent Spring Break in 2001

Back when i was a young lass in college, i spent my Spring break helping my mom plant about 250 baby trees. We didn't really do the best job of it, and most didn't survive. My mom planted more trees in the following years and was more diligent about watering them, etc and now all the surviving original trees and the more newly planted trees are getting quite big and robust.

Our property was once inhabited by native pine trees, but has long been covered in sage brush and junipers. The junipers aren't native, but they're very good at surviving in drought/desert conditions. Along with some watering of the saplings, my folks have also been slowly but surely cutting down many of the invasive juniper trees that are so good at sucking all the water out of the soil. Fewer competing trees and more years of growth is really helping these pine trees re-establish themselves. I can't wait to see them in another 10 years. I wonder how tall they'll be?

Do you have trees that you planted as saplings? How big are they now?

Shorter Days

Is it just me, or is 4 pm feeling a little too much like "Chardonnay o'clock" this time of year? I hate that the sun is going down so early, but i'm happy to have light when i get up in the morning.

One of my favorite things in life is watching a good sunset. It brings me joy, and makes me feel more connected to the seasons, weather and my surroundings. I grew up on a mountainside with an amazing view and stellar sunsets. Living without daily sunsets is very hard for me, and a western view is very important to me and our home search. Living in Austin, i was without any sunsets: the only sunset view i could get from my little, tree surrounded house was the reflection in the neighboring condo's windows or while driving in the evening. Not cool.

Needless to say, i suck up all the sunset i can get when i go back home to visit my parents.

Photos never quite do a great sunset justice... but i think you can see why i love that view so much.

Is watching the sun rise or set important to you?

Country Cooking

Sometimes I really like not having to do the cooking. Especially when my step-dad is doing the cooking, and the dish he's preparing is venison he shot and cleaned right here on our property.

Venison loin = yum.

Bud always finds creative ways for cooking meat. Would you ever think of adding shredded wheat, cornbread stuffing, or cheerios to your meat? He does, and somehow it is amazing. Thanks, Daddy#2!

Do you or any of your family members hunt? What's your favorite recipe for using wild game?

Country Cute

Remember those kittens I found at my mom's ranch a few months ago?  They're getting bigger!

Puss pile:

They're bigger than their mama (the little gray cat) now, but not quite as big as their uncle who knows how to put them in their place. I'm still not much of a cat person, but i am looking forward to a small passle of barn cats to help us keep the weasels from our hens. All in good time. For now, it's fun to go on a hike and be followed along by team kitten.

Have you ever had a cat that likes to tag along on a hike?

Late Season Tomatoes

What do you do with big, green tomatoes - other than stare at them on the counter while they ripen?

Slice 'em, dip 'em, fry 'em, eat 'em!

You can find my recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes here, though i tweaked it somewhat this year. For the batter i mixed 2 eggs with a splash of beer and mixed masa, flour and corn meal with spices for the dry portion. I fried in coconut oil and got a much nicer crisp by keeping the heat low enough to not burn them to death. I put the finished tomatoes in the oven while i cooked the rest, so they cooked through even more. Yum fest.

I think i'd better have salad for dinner tonight.

Preserving the Orchard

I must admit, i'm a bit new to dehydrating. I've always loved dried fruits, but only recently considered dehydrating vegetables. After all, who wants to chew on some dried green beans?

It wasn't until i looked through a book all about dehydrating that i really thought about the possibilities dehydration opens up: you don't have to use up valuable fridge or freezer space, and you can rehydrate the veggies later. My favorite idea was to dehydrate mixed vegetables and layer in attractive mason jars to be popped directly into a soup pot. (Could make a really great handmade holiday gift!) I like the idea of storing veggies in the cupboard and throwing them into Winter soups....

This post isn't about veggies, though. It's about apples. We've finally ALMOST gotten through all of the apples we harvested last month. There are still a few in a paper back in the fridge waiting to become apple/nut bread. The rest have been turned into cider, snacked on, or dehydrated.

I have a dehydrator, but it's not overly fancy. My work, however has a very nice Excaliber that i borrowed for the weekend. I really love how the mesh inserts come off of the trays for easier cleaning and easier pouring into bags or jars. I sliced and cored my first batch, went insane with the tedium, and just sliced the 2nd batch. I dehydrated on 135 degrees for about 24 hours and got mostly dry apples - some crispy, some chewy.

We're really trying to save some, since our main goal was to preserve the harvest..... but i think we might eat them all in about a week. So yummy!

What's your favorite fruit or vegetable to dehydrate? Do you snack on them or use them in recipes?

It's Time for Handmade Holiday Projects

It's November. It is officially time to get your butt into holiday gear! I take that back, for some - it isn't even Thanksgiving yet and not even close to being time for thinking about other holidays, but for those of us who value handmade holidays, it's definitely time to get working on those projects!

Out here in the damp Northwest, I've been busy spinning on my wheel in the kitchen or cozying up on the couch under a pile of handspun yarn, working on scarves and hats for the special people in my life. As an artist and otherwise crafty person, i usually try to give handmade gifts during the holidays. I also love to cook and take every advantage of family get-togethers to bust out my favorite recipes. Instead of art this year, i'll be giving a lot of gifts involving my new passion for fibers. I'm a beginning knitter, and these homemade gifts are sure to be a little rough around the edges, but i think that will make them even more well loved. For the knitters in my life, i'm spinning them skeins of yarn with the colors and fibers chosen specifically for them.



Although i don't have a garden to harvest from this year, my husband and i took advantage of wild harvests during the late Summer. Oregon is full of blackberries for the taking, and take we did! I put up a few half pints of blackberry/cayenne jam that we'll be sending back to Texas with our Christmas package so that the family we left behind can enjoy some of the seasonal bounty found in our new home. It's apple season here now, and i've been slicing, coring, peeling and boiling until my hands cramp into achey claws. Apple crisps, pies, breads and rings are sure to play some role in my holiday plans and gift giving. We'll even get to toast the new year with some homemade hard cider!



This year marks the first holiday season spent in the same state as my family in about 5 years, and i'm absolutely thrilled to enjoy our silly traditions with them once again. (I'm also pretty happy about only having to ship one Christmas parcel this year!) We have some pretty great traditions that always make the season seem to last forever. One of my favorite traditions that was started by my mother's parents and has been passed on to every new family member i have acquired, from step-sisters to in-laws. Instead of just the basic "To/From" tags on our Christmas gifts, we also include clues that make the packages mysterious and even more exciting. These clues are often riddles or rhymes, often silly and misleading, not meant to be a hint or description of the gift, but rather something more involved and engaging. Something as basic as:

To Mom, From Miranda........ "Greasy Bug"

Greasy Bug really meant a decorative silk "butterfly,"and after 15 minutes of trying to guess, with some pretty outlandish ideas, and failing, my mother opened her gift and laughed. That's what the clues are really all about: extending the morning, bringing out laughter and creating family memories for years to come. Because memories and joy are what the holidays are all about, and handmade gifts bring back memories every time they're tasted, worn, looked at and enjoyed.
I'm looking forward to sharing my handmade holidays with my readers this year, as well as with my family. I hope you'll share your own handmade holidays with me, and with the writers over at Not Dabbling in Normal. We'll be honoring our time honored, handmade traditions with you and can't wait to hear about what projects you're working on and what unique gifts you come up with.


Happy holidays, almost!

I'm Not Dabbling!

I am so happy to formally announce that i have been invited to write at the online collective of all things awesomely sustainable, frugal, nourishing and fun: Not Dabbling in Normal. I have joined a group of really creative and savvy ladies and gents, whose blog i have long been a follower of. I know at least a few of my readers are also followers of Not Dabbling, and for those of you who aren't: get on over there! It's like An Austin Homestead, but better. Which is why i'd better be a part of it so that you still get some of my articles and don't just leave me forever ;)

I'm hoping that my participating at Not Dabbling will also serve as a bit of a bridge when i finally change my blog from An Austin Homestead to whatever I end up naming my new, Oregonian venture. I'll have a brand new blog with a new locale, so please follow me over to NDIN and then follow me back to my new online home. I'm not going anywhere yet though, so keep reading here every weekday for now :)

I'm super excited and can't wait to be part of the challenges and fun that will certainly be soon ensuing.
Head on over there now!

A Calendar is Born

I hope you'll check out my 2012 Calendar. I chose some of my favorite photos from the past year from Austin to Oregon and everywhere in between. The calendar includes some gardening tips, inspiring and sweet quotes, and luscious photos of my favorite recipes. Hard to believe the year is almost over and it's time for a new calendar again. Will the years ever stop flying by?

I receive just a small portion from each sale of this calendar, which helps me to pay the costs accrued while writing this blog, which i do basically for free. The limited ads i carry on this blog bring me less than $10 a month and the occasional 'free sample' which is fun, but not exactly the wage warranted by the amount of time i spend writing and documenting my adventures and recipes. I write this blog because i love it and because i love teaching, sharing, learning and discussing. I hope you'll consider purchasing a calendar to help support my labor of love.

The calendar is a basic 11x17, full color calendar chock full of my favorite recipes, wild creatures, garden views and more. Thanks for checking it out. :)

Planning for Livestock

We drove up to Portland this past weekend to visit with some of my best old college friends (it was so good to see you guys!) and to stop by a farm in Sandy: Cascade Meadows Farm.  CMF raises all sorts of heritage critters, and most of them are small statured. My main interest was in their Icelandic sheep (a very small and very ancient breed of sheep from Iceland where they served as "the cow" for the community) and Miniature Nubian goats: we want sheep and goats for fiber, milk and meat plus the entertainment of watching some seriously cute critters graze and romp on our property.

Why small livestock, you may ask? Other than having animals with similar dwarf-qualities as our herding corgi dog, we will be small time hobby farmers, with the needs of a small family and the means of small freezers and less need for the massive production that commercial livestock growers have. Commercial growers want the biggest bang for their buck: if they're spending the money to get the animal butchered they want the most poundage off that animal as possible. For the small homesteader, however the need is different. If you're planning on butchering yourself, you need an animal that is manageable in size, but efficient in meat production. Icelandics have an excellent amount of meat for the size of the body, that is delicious and nutritious, and their fiber is multipurpose, with an undercoat suitable for clothing and an outer coat better for rugs. You can even milk them (who doesn't love Manchego???)

The same goes for the mini-Nubians. Full Nubians are really big, really noisy milk goats with a penchant for excape. The smaller versions are bred with Nigerian Dwarves for smaller stature and excellent milk quality and production. They're less noisy and more easily handled during milking time and slaughter. They tend to kid twins or triplets, and goat meat is actually one of the better meats for you, despite it not being commonly eaten here in the states (the only country in the world to NOT commonly eat goat meat).

Kirk also raises Dexter cattle, a small breed of cattle - which makes seeing how small the sheep are in these photos a little screwy.

It was a rainy day (gosh, rain in Oregon?) so their fleeces are wet, but you can see their lovely colors. You may not be able to tell how small they are, but they're pretty teeny, have naturally bobbed tails and come both polled and with horns.

We liked what we saw in CMF's Icelandics and liked what we heard about Kirk (the farmer)'s breeding methodology. He's no longer breeding mini-Nubians, but had some of his old goats at the neighbor's house for us to look at. Beautiful! I think we will most likely be getting our ewes from CMF, but may have to source our mini Nubians elsewhere. We're excited to have a source of excellent breeding stock, plus tons of information: gotta love a farmer who will talk to you about sheep and pigs for 2 hours straight, and is willing to lend lots more advice as we get closer to raising our own.

What we didn't expect while on the farm was to fall in love with a completely different kind of animal. We're now obsessed with American Guinea Hogs. Kirk passionately says that if he had only one type of livestock on his farm, it would be guinea hogs. If you're at all familiar with pigs, you may find that hard to believe. Pigs are known to root up pastures and make a mess of just about everything, plus they're really big! Guinea hogs are different! A. They're pretty small. The piglets were the size of Pocket and the boar was about half the size of a commercial sow. B. They're friendly.  Kirk's boar came right up to us for some belly scratching and some happy grunts. C. They graze! That's right, no rooting. No messing up the hedges. They are happy to graze all day long, and what's even better, they're happy to dispatch all your compost, your butchering waste, even your dead of old age livestock. We're obsessed with this incredibly useful and apparently delicious breed of pig and have put a breeding pair of Guinea hogs at the top of our 'livestock to do' list.

Kirk's full grown boar, complete with sharp tusks: what a friendly push over for the belly rubs. You can see how much smaller he is than a big commercial boar that wold be about twice his size.

We'll probably also be adding a Pygora goat wether to the team (i need pretty soft wool for hats and other next-to-the-skin garments), angora and meat rabbits are for sure, and will keep an Icleandic ram lamb and a billy kid for breeding our ewes and does to to be self sufficient, culling and eating the kids and lambs (and ewes and does) that don't cut the mustard. More on livestock management and breeding programs when the time comes. For now we dream, plan, research and learn in preparation for our extended wolly/furry family. We're pragmatic and ready to organically learn and decide which breeds work for us and which don't. I'm ready to change my mind. I'm ready to be disapointed. But i'm also ready to bring home those first animals and get a thrill out of all our 'firsts' with our livestock.

Pocket is so ready to get her 'herding' on, but she's not sure what to think about these piglets.

Do you have livestock? How did you finally decide which breeds to get?

Handmade Holidays #4

Other than the knitting projects I am working on (that may or may not be destined as personal garments instead of holiday gifts), this gift definitely took me the longest.

Truly a "labor of love," I cannot wait for the recipient of this project to receive his or her special Christmas present.

Hint: it's really, really, really soft. :)

Salmon Salad Sammy!

What do you do when your radical husband catches a super huge fish that has enough meat to last for days? You use the meat for days! I already dished about our delicious salmon and mushroom feast and this is what I did with the leftover portion of fish (after the hubs had leftovers of a huge filet and the rest of the mushroom sauce for dinner when i was out of town.)

Looks good, doesn't it? I didn't bake the bread or make the cheese, but i did use some relish from our garden back in Austin and the bread was baked locally.

Salmon Salad:

• Portion of baked or grilled salmon, mushed up
• Spoonful mayo, preferably homemade
• Spoonful relish, I used my green tomato relish
• Smaller spoonful of mustard
• Salt and pepper to taste plus optional other herbs if your salmon isn't already slammin' in the flavor department
• Optional sliced cheese

Easy peezy: just mush the ingredients together and spread on slices of bread. You may wish to spread mayo and mustard on the bread as well. If you don't have a relish you love on hand, you can finely chop some onion and pickles instead. My relish is quite mustardy and not overly tangy. I would like to be eating this again right now. *Could be great as a salmon melt as well!