A fond farewell to a fashion favorite

O long-sleeved, two-button-pockets, fitted-but-not-too-tight, cotton chambray shirt with the buffalo-nickel buttons, you have served me so well these last five years. You protected my arms from the bugs and the sun and the brush in summer. You layered over and under and inbetween in winter. You kept my cell phone and point-and-shoot secure in your pockets.


You survived weekly washings in the hardest of waters, and now your fabric and threads are dissolving before my eyes. I wish you would have lasted longer...your only fault really.

I will save your buttons and sew them to your replacement, if I can ever find it. I've googled hither and yon, and do you think I could find a suitable substitute? Not yet. But that is my quest – to find a new shirt just like you, then buy a dozen of them so I never find myself in this dilemma again.

Friday Favorites ~ minus the favorite part

Don't get me wrong - I still love Fridays. I've really been lovin' Fridays this summer because I've taken every one of them off from work, trying to use up some of my vacation time. But not all Fridays can be play days – some of them have to be hay days.

Today started out well and good, though Smooch was a little surprised to wake up to campers in the garden.  

You know you live in the middle of nowhere when friends ask if they can take their kids on their first camping trip in your yard. The young'uns were under the impression that bears wouldn't come eat them if they stayed within the confines of my fence. Who was I to argue?

I wasn't about to tell them that what they should really fear are the pack rats that roam these parts...and eat the wiring in unsuspecting horse trailers, which I was soon to discover when I hooked up my trailer to go pick up hay.  I had no turn signals or brake lights. The window of hay opportunity is small, so I decided to venture forth anyway.  Does that make me a bad person? Maybe. Bad driver? Yeah, probably. But I rationalized that there is no traffic in the middle of nowhere and nobody would notice.

Today's hay was from the second cutting. The good thing was that it was beautiful and clean and I knew the boys would be lovin' it come winter. The bad thing was that the bales were SO much heavier than last time. Hay Alex and I loaded up 78 bales in the trailer and 16 bales in the truck. Let's see...92 bales times 65 pounds each equals I can eat anything I want this weekend and not gain an ounce. I tied down the bales in the truck and went on my exhausted, sweaty way.

Darn I wish I had a picture to show you from mile marker 12 on Highway 47, when the hay started flying off the truck. You know those scenes where suddenly everything is in slow motion? It was like that. Mercifully, no one was behind me and only one bale hit the pavement and exploded. Three others slid down the side of the truck, got hung up in the rope, and managed to stay there until I could slow down and pull off onto the shoulder. Karma's a bitch, I tell you. That knot would have held had I not been driving around without turn signals and brake lights. Lesson learned and duly noted. 

I arrived home with 91 bales,

only to discover that I needed to restack the old hay before adding the new hay. Deets showed up to commiserate. 

Between the restacking and the unloading, I had to call it quits when I was only half done and starting to get a tad delirious. Tomorrow's another day. Once the trailer is empty, I'll be able to take a good look at the light problem and plot my next move. How hard can it be to rewire a horse trailer? We'll all find out together because if that isn't blog fodder, I don't know what is.

Friday Favorites ~ Hungry Rancher-Woman Chicken

Now we all know that this is not a food blog. You will find no recipes here. I'm an eater, not a cooker, and I'm also a kitchen slob. I would be embarrassed to show you any meals in progress for purposes of gastronomic instruction. But today, I'm making an exception, because it's Friday Favorites and Hungry Rancher-Woman Chicken is my favorite dinner. Some might say it's my only dinner. I make it, or some in-bred cousin of it, several six times a week. And on the seventh day, she ate a salad. How boring is that?

But here's the thing. Hungry Rancher-Woman Chicken works for me on so many levels. It's easy and quick to make. It's satisfying and explodes with flavor. I know exactly where to find the ingredients in the super Walmart. It's a relatively healthy dish, and economical, too. And there are endless variations on the basic recipe theme. And since it's my kitchen and I don't see anybody else around here volunteering to cook for me, I'll do what I dang well please and eat the same dadgum thing night after night if I want to. Maybe I should call it Ornery Rancher-Woman Chicken?

And besides all that, a new recipe/food community site was launched this week by Pioneer Woman called Tasty Kitchen. If you haven't checked it out yet, go forth. It's full of real recipes from real people, and it's all free. Cookbooks? We don't need no stinkin' cookbooks. We can swap our best recipes over there. I want to contribute something to the site, and this will be it.

So without further ado...

Here is everything you'll need: instant rice, frozen orange juice concentrate, boneless, skinless chicken thighs, an apple, and curry powder.

Now this recipe owes its roots to Pioneer Woman. She waxed poetic about the virtues of chicken thighs in her recipe for Linguine with Chicken Thighs. And this recipe is sort of like that one, minus the linguine, the tomatoes, the olive oil, the fresh herbs, and the parmesan cheese.

Make your minute rice first and get that out of the way. Make as much or as little as you want - I won't judge. This recipe will serve one very hungry rancher-woman with a ravenous appetite or two normal people. We'll be serving the chicken over the rice, so the more rice you make, the further this recipe will stretch.

Now it's time to cut up your chicken thighs. My secret to not getting into a violent argument with my chicken thighs is to chop them up while they're partially frozen. If I go at 'em when they're thawed, they're gross and slippery and raw-meat-like and they make me want to be a vegetarian, and then I wouldn't know what to make for dinner.

I cut the block of partially frozen chicken thighs in half, then chop it up into bite-sized pieces. Half of the chicken goes into a ziploc bag for tomorrow's dinner, which will take five fewer minutes to prepare. Yippee! Have I mentioned that this dish can go from zero to the table in about 20 minutes?

Heat your pan on high, then give it a healthy squirt of cooking spray. I always use this Calphalon-wannabe wok, but any old pan should work. When the pan is nice and hot, dump in the chicken and put a lid on it. DO NOT STIR the chicken yet. Let it get brown on one side first, then stir it.

While the chicken is cooking, peel and core an apple, then chop it into bite-sized bits. I use a Granny Smith apple, only because I think I heard that these were good for cooking, but I could be wrong. Use any kind of apple you want.

Back at the pan, your chicken should look sort of like this - brown and cooked. Turn the heat down to medium. The chicken cooks pretty fast and smells really good.

About this time, your dog will come into the kitchen to investigate the aroma and hope that you spill some of the chicken on the floor. Fat chance, Smooch.

When the chicken looks almost fully cooked (should take about 8 minutes or so), dump in the apples, stir things around a bit, and put the lid back on. Reduce the heat to low. The apples will cook pretty fast.

Now we're going to make a little spicy orangey sauce. Mix together one or two tablespoons of orange juice concentrate with some curry powder. How much curry powder? That depends. I love curry powder, so I use about a tablespoon. Less adventurous souls may want to start out with a teaspoon. Add a little water to the mixture so you'll end up with about 3/4 of a cup of sauce.

Are you wondering where I found curry powder for $1.49 in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico? Not at the Walmart, that's for sure. Why are spices so darned expensive anyhow? Anyway, en route to the Walmart, there's a large Mennonite community, and one of the families runs the coolest little market full of bulk baking supplies and spices. And that is where I find curry powder for $1.49.

So now our apples are almost cooked through.

Add the sauce to the pan, stir until all the chicken and apple pieces are coated, leave the heat on low, and put the lid back on.

Put your dog in charge of keeping an eye on things in the kitchen while you go set the table or feed the horses or whatever. This recipe is very forgiving. You can eat it a couple minutes after you add the sauce or an hour later.

When you're ready, spoon the chicken mixture over the rice and take it out to the front porch. This dish tastes best if you eat it while watching your horses graze, your burros play, and the sun set.

Hungry Rancher-Woman Chicken...it's what's for dinner tonight, and tomorrow night, and the next night, and the night after that...

Hungry Rancher-Woman Chicken

Half of a 1.8 lb package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 apple, peeled, cored, and cut into bite-sized pieces

1 - 2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate

1 - 3 teaspoons curry powder

1/2 cup water

Instant rice

Cook as much rice as you want to eat. Heat a heavy pan over high heat and squirt with cooking spray. Add chicken. Add a little salt and pepper if you're so inclined. Do not stir until one side is brown. Cook until done – about 8 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium and stir in apples. Cook for a few more minutes until apples are soft. Combine oj, curry powder and water, then add to pan and stir well. Continue to cook on low for a few more minutes until flavors are combined.

Here's the link to this recipe over at Tasty Kitchen.

Friday Favorites ~ my not-so-secret garden

On this episode of Friday Favorites, I'll share with you my not-so-secret garden.


Everybody out here knows about it, particularly the rabbits, the lizards, the snakes, and various other flower- and vegetable-eating varmints. But it's still one of my favorite places on the ranch.

It includes an ornamental cowboy, who spins around trying to rope the geraniums.


This year for the first time, mounds of these lavender wildflowers with yellow centers have magically appeared along the foundation of the house. They've been blooming since early May, opening up during the day and closing back up overnight.


Most of the perennials I've planted over the years haven't bothered to come back. Between the varmints and the hard-as-a-rock well water, only the hardiest survive.



The garden is also home to birds...


...and bees...

...and Smooch, but only when she's on her best behavior.



I love tending to my little patch of green. I'll love it even more once the fruit on that upside-down tomato plant starts to ripen. The varmints have yet to steal the little green tomatoes – that part of the garden is still a secret.

Friday Favorites

Fridays are one of my favorite things – always have been and always will be. I love Fridays so much that I think I will devote my Friday posts to celebrating all things favorite. And what better way to kick off this feature than with my favorite fab four, marching two by two up to the barn for breakfast.