Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Fresh is best

This morning during chores, Barry wouldn't shut up. That only means one thing: "Change my water, Shepherd!" Not that it was grody, mind you. Oh, it had a bit of hay floating in it, but it was fine. Really. So fine that I was going to ignore him. "BAA. BAAA!" Oh, who am I kidding? I can't tune out noise. So I dumped the boys' bucket, scrubbed it out with a brush, rinsed it and refilled it.



You can see how eager he is for me to return the bucket. He did, in fact, get out of the unlatched gate - but followed me right back in.



Good grief. You'd think he'd been stranded in the desert without water for a week!

This boy and his dam are still available to a fiber pet home; they will grow lots of lustrous white Shetland wool for your dying pleasure! And trust me; if you are the least bit interested I will make you a deal you canNOT refuse.

Speaking of, I cannot refuse your pleas for recipes. Here is the recipe for fresh (as in not baked) peach pie:
one baked pie shell
4-5 cups sliced peaches
4 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon butter

Puree enough of the peaches to make 1 1/2 cups puree. Mix puree with cornstarch, sugar and water and cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Cool slightly, then lightly coat pie shell with sauce. Add a layer of peaches, a layer of sauce, a layer of peaches (the top layer can be arranged in a fancy spiral if desired) and a final layer of sauce, making sure all peaches are coated. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least four hours. Serve with whipped cream if desired. (To me, it is absolute perfection all by itself.)

As for the quiche, I followed the "formula" in Mollie Katzen's Enchanted Broccoli Forest (one of my all-time favorite cookbooks). I sprinkled some Tillamook "Italian blend" finely grated cheese (mozzarella and parmesan) in a baked crust (lack of communication with my MIL, but the quiche turned out great), then added my sauteed vegetables (chopped small onion and small Japanese eggplant, sliced small zucchini and small crookneck, and a big dollop of fresh minced garlic; a handful of basil leaves thrown in after veggies were done and removed from heat), poured over as much of the custard (three extra-large eggs, 1 cup skim milk and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt) as would fit, and sprinkled on a little more of the cheese. Baked it at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

That's it for now from . . .

8 comments:

Tammy said...

Good grief! What a little dork. My sheep could generally care less what the water is like. In fact the rams used to drive my mom nuts because they never drank any water (the dew was very heavy during that time...). I've never seen a sheepie drink with such gusto. I think he is enjoying himself greatly too. And the getting out of the gate--he knew exactly what he was doing didn't he??
Tammy

Marie said...

Oh my gosh! That is too funny! Maybe he saw a bug use his water as a bathroom and just refused to drink after that. Too funny!

~~Sittin.n.Spinnin said...

So with the quiche, you're supposed to start with a raw crust... looks wonderful! I will try both, but will substitute the sugar with splenda, do you think it will make much difference?

Michelle said...

We don't get much dew here in the summer, Tammy, and all the sheep are on hay now, so they DO drink. But Barry has ALWAYS been that way. His big sister Bronwen is a noisy drinker, too, but not such a prima donna about the freshness.

Yes Becky, you are supposed to start with a raw crust, but I liked this one so much that I think I may always use a prebaked crust now! I've never used Splenda in cooking, so I can't help you there. The only non-sugar sweetener I use is stevia; the rest I don't trust.

Mom L said...

That was funny! I thought my cat, Emma, was the only creature with strange drinking habits - I keep fresh water for her all the time, even though she usually ignores it. She waits for me to fill my big Gator cup with ice water then drinks from that!!! I've even dropped an ice cube in her water bowl thinking that would do the trick. Nope. She wants mine!

Nancy in Iowa

Kelly said...

Critters with picky drinking habits, I'm totally on the same page with you on that one. My cat, Thomas, refuses to drink any water that doesn't come directly from a fountain!!!!
My sheep drink very little water now that we are having such heavy dew, but in the winter, they are pretty particular about their water quality. We just do their bidding, sigh and say "Good grief". They have us trained well.

thecrazysheeplady said...

I love Enchanted Broccoli Forest! My other big favorite is Field of Greens. If you don't have that one, put it on your Santa list :-D.

thecrazysheeplady said...

The videos are classics too ;-). Crazy sheep should probably live at our house. He'd fit right in.