Two Date Nights in One Week

Two years in a row now our mid-western family gave us a Christmas present of tickets for two nights at Fresno's Roger Rocka's Dinner Theatre. This year, since we're here throughout the year now, we added to it to give us season tickets. Tonight was the fifth show of the season— "Legally Blonde, The Musical" which featured superb acting, fabulous singing and dancing, a wonderful evening of good food and hearty laughter!

Tonight's play encompassed the story line of both movies and was fabulous! We are always amazed at how professional production and the actors are.

Thanks to our daughter and son-in-law we've enjoyed this Christmas gift throughout the year!

Life is good!

A Date Night Down Memory Lane . . .

One of our favorite country singers, back in the day . . . that is . . . the late 60s and early 70s . . . was Country Music Hall of Fame Artist Glen Campbell. He appeared tonight at the Chukchansi Gold Casino and Resort as part of his farewell tour. I heard about his coming to our local "hot spot" about a month before tickets went on sale and put a note on my calendar to go online to get good seats. We had great seats and sat in the second row, three seats to the right of center stage. (I'm pretty sure there wasn't a soul in the audience younger than sixty. During dinner before the show our waiter let us know he'd never even heard of him.)

This picture was borrowed from his website and was taken in 2006. He is now seventy-five years old, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, but with the help of teleprompters he sang from his heart all our old  favorites . . . "Rhinestone Cowboy," "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Gentle On My Mind," "Galveston," "Wichita Lineman" and many more. And his guitar picking is amazing even still! We loved seeing three of his children (sons Cal and Shannon, and his daughter Ashley) play in the band with him and were a big support to their dad.

What's extraordinary about the 75-year-old country star, who revealed his illness in an interview with People magazine three months ago, is his intention to stay in the spotlight — and asked his fans' indulgence. His fans tonight did just that. They not only sang along with him but the applause and cheers throughout the concert warmed my heart. It was a wonderful evening!

Life is good!

Pear Pie with Cornmeal Crumble

My sister emailed me a recipe the other day which looked delicious. It's a dessert and who doesn't love a yummy dessert! But of course I had to wait to make it because, as with any new recipe, I didn't have all the ingredients in my pantry or fridge. Yesterday we made a point to go to town during the time and day the farmer's market sets up to buy the fresh pears. The recipe called for two pounds of "firm" pears, so this is what I found at the farmers market. I did have to go to Raley's, though, for some fresh ginger. While there in the produce section I spotted some gorgeous red pears (Scully Crimson) which I've never tried, and the produce worker highly recommended them because they are "the sweetest and juiciest pears I've ever tasted." So, even though I had two pounds of firm Bartlett pears in my possession already, I purchased three more pounds of these red pears and thought maybe I'd mix the two. As I headed home i thought "Now I've got what I need, I can't wait to make this yummy dessert." Here it is!

"Pear Pie with Cornmeal Crumble"

Pears snuggled in a fruit-laden pie topped with crunchy streusel. Using cornmeal is a crumble topping that has never occurred to me before, and I really like the crunchiness it adds.

Life is good!

"A good fair in all . . ."

Karah, our only granddaughter, has worked hard within her 4-H and FFA chapters this year. And her work paid off at the Madera County Fair last week. She entered three of her goats and a pair of chickens in the fair competitions and did quite well, if I do say so myself . . . but I'm just an unbiased proud grammy!

The chickens were just an afterthought to bring to the fair since her brothers, who normally show the birds, had their football team obligations the day of the auction. She took the chickens to the fair and after showing them, received $300 for them at the auction! I'm just amazed how people fork over a whole lot of money for a pair of chickens just to support 4-H/FFA kids. It is truly a gift of love and support of the kids and the organizations.

In the Dairy Goats category she received second place in Showmanship, and Reserve Senior plus Overall Champion for her goat "Destiny."

Her FFA team from Minarets High School did very well in Livestock taking home second place in Sheep, third place in Beef and second place in Overall Team!

In her own words "It was a good fair in all :) . . . "

Life is good!

Shoo Fly Pie & Apple Pandowdy

Last night we watched a rerun of "Two Fat Ladies" on the Food Network channel. We've always like these two characters and haven't seen them since one of them, Jennifer Paterson, passed away around ten years ago. One of the dishes they were preparing was Apple Pandowdy and Jennifer Paterson broke out in song singing "Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pandowdy" — which was made popular by Doris Day back when I was a mere child. I've often wondered what a Shoo Fly Pie was and had no idea what a "dowdy" would be. I never thought about making one myself, nor have ever seen a recipe for one. So this morning Ken mentioned we ought to make one and take it to our daughter's for dessert tonight. After Googling Jennifer Paterson's recipe I researched a recipe for Shoo Fly Pie, and ended up making both to take to Sunday Supper at Simply Country Farm.

At the same time I got the lyrics to the song online, printed them out, so we could all sing the song as I served up dessert. It was lots of fun, even the boys (well, one of them at least) joined in the singing. And it was fun to taste and enjoy something for the first time.

Shoo Fly Pie ready to go in the oven.

Apple Pandowdy is one of a family of simple desserts, known in different parts of the world as cobblers, duffs, grunts, slumps and pandowdies. While these desserts have subtle variations, the base of all of them is fruit baked with a sweet biscuit or cake top. The exact origin of the name Pandowdy is unknown, but it is thought to refer to the dessert's plain or "dowdy" appearance. Looks can be deceiving, apple pandowdy is delicious, especially topped with a bit of ice cream or whipped cream.

Shoo Fly Pie is a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch dessert. Brown sugar, molasses, shortening, salt, and spices were all non-perishable ingredients that could survive the long ocean's crossing to America made by German immigrants. The pie's unusual name is said to be due to the fact that pies were traditionally set to cool on windowsills, and because of the sweet ingredients, the cook would constantly have to shoo the flies away.

The boys liked both desserts especially smothered with whipped cream!

Both these desserts are super easy to make and everybody seemed to enjoy them.

Life is good!

Predator Alert!

I was in the bedroom getting ready to relax for the evening when all of a sudden the chickens were making quite a loud audible raucous. I hollered at Ken (I was a bit indecent at the time) to see if he had heard what I had heard, and apparently he had not. I told him something was going on with the chickens (actually it sounded like a  bunch of turkeys gobbling). When I was dressed enough to go out to see what it was all about Ken informed me he chased away a bobcat by picking up a 3' piece of re-bar that was nearby and flung it at the critter. The bobcat had been sitting right up next to the chicken run (most likely licking his chops) and the chickens were just in a tizzy!

When I arrived I could see one of the hens sitting inside the coop on the window sill looking out. The other seven were all trying to get up on one of the two perches in the run. Poor little things, I know they must have been scared to death. We talked to them trying to sooth their souls (do chickens have souls?) and walked back into the house. About a half hour later it was time to "put the chickens to bed" but they hadn't budged from the perch. So we had to put them inside one by one. I do hope they'll feel safe.

By the time I arrived they were still squawking as if to tell me what all the commotion was about.

Look at them all on the one perch. Five perched and two wanting to join the crowd.

They figured out there would be more room if they'd use one of the other perches but there is still one little girl that would really like to be up a bit higher.

Life is good!

Curiosity of a Chicken

Our hens are nearly four months old already and they are growing so fast now that they've had the luxury and freedom of living outside in a chicken coop. When we built the coop we used a manzanita branch as a perch for them in the chicken run. However between running back and forth to Oregon —and all that has entailed—we've not made time to establish a much-needed perch for them inside the coop—that is until this morning.

My job was to entice them to come outside so we could get in to work in the coop . . . don't forget it's in the 90s here and they'd rather stay inside. So I cut up some apple to peek their curiosity and at the same time bribe them to come out so that we could secure them in the run. The apple treat was the first time we've ever given them anything other than their chicken feed bought at the feed store. It was fun to watch them sneak up to the tray of apple, tip-toe all around the tray keeping their eye on the apple . . . and eventually take a peck at it. Next time I'll shred the apple because the half-inch chunks didn't seem to go over well at all.  But it did allow time to close the door so they couldn't return inside.

All the time Ken and I were in cleaning out the coop, building the perch, putting new sawdust down on the floor, etc., there was at least one chicken tapping on the door as if to say "Hey, what's going on in there?" And all eight of them would crowd around the door waiting for it to open.

When we finished I opened up their door and they all stood there for a good fifteen minutes just peeking inside. Not one of them dared to step inside the chicken coop for the longest time. They just each would poke their head inside to see what they could see.

Finally one came inside, looked around, and went to the doorway as if to say "It's okay, y'all can come in now, it's safe!"

Slowly, one by one would feel brave enough to check out their new digs.

Once they heard the news they couldn't wait to go see what all the commotion was about.

I love the shape of their back ends . . . aka "chicken butts!" If it weren't so hot out I could sit and watch them, they are quite entertaining with all their antics.

Life is good!