Olympic Tour Meal Plan

This is our meal plan for the duration of the 2012 Olympics starting TONIGHT!

Friday, July 27, 2012 - Sunday, August 12, 2012

Friday: Great Britain - Fish & Chips **Opening Ceremonies**

Saturday: Mexio - Chicken Enchiladas, Spanish Rice, & Charro Beans

Sunday: America - Hamburgers & Hot Dogs with Chips & an Unknown Dessert *Having another family over for dinner & they're bringing the dessert*

Monday: Japan - Asian Lettuce Wraps

Tuesday: Germany - Jagerschnitzel, french fries, salad

Wednesday: Morocco - Make Ahead Vegetarian Moroccan Stew with crusty bread

Thursday: Greece - Souvlaki, basmati rice pilaf, & baklava 

Friday: India - Curried Coconut Chicken over rice with broccoli with garlic butter & cashews

Saturday: Italy - Italian Meatball Soup with crusty bread

Sunday: on vacation

Monday: on vacation

Tuesday: on vacation

Wednesday: on vacation

Thursday: China - Kung Pao Chicken, Fried Rice, Homemade Egg Rolls

Friday: Lebanon - Lebanese Chicken and Potatoes with steamed broccoli

Saturday: Spain - Empanadas, queso, sopapillas

Sunday: France - Chicken Cordon Bleu, creamy au gratin potatoes, & roasted asparagus

2012 Olympics

Today the 2012 Olympics begin and this house is planning our day around it!!

We only have two kiddos today and one of them leaves at 12:30. We're taking the other one with us to the store so we can be back home to do chores early while he naps. He's a baby & usually sleeps 3 hours so we can get everything done in that time. He'll be gone by 5:30, animals will be tended to promptly, & dinner will be made. We will eat dinner after opening ceremonies...while watching of course :)

We're about to decorate with flags, table runners, wearing USA t-shirts, dining on red, white, & blue plates, etc.

What hadn't been decided was if we are going to  make the food a tribute to America or opt to celebrate the host of this year's Olympics - London - with some British classics. The final decision is to honor the UK's traditional cuisine of fish & chips!

Remember, we'll be dining around the olympics through the next three weeks.

Go USA!!!

You can check out the schedule of events here

Welcome to the Farm

Okay, so I'm behind on updates again...imagine that.

We were very fortunate to find a great small stock farm here locally. We enjoyed the time we spent there and loving on the goats. The owner's name is Matt and we spent quite a bit of time talking with him and learning from him. That's what farmers do...they educate each other. Then you take that knowledge you gained and you teach the next generation. My dad was the foreman of a poultry farm when I was growing up so I've learned quit a bit from him since we've had chickens. Any time there's a problem, that's who we call.

We sold Anabelle's twins two weeks ago on July 7th. Then we used that profit to add our two newest additions to the farm on July 14th. Please welcome, G.G. & The Duke.

Duke is a bottle raised male. Fortunately for us, he's very gentle, sweet, & loves to be loved on. He was dis budded so I don't have to worry about horns around the kiddos we keep...or with us for that matter. Duke and G.G. are Nigerian Dwarf goats.

While we were at the farm to get our goats, there were ducks waddling around with the rest of the animals. We said before that we planned to eventually add ducks and later, pigs. So, we've also added a duck family. We bought four Muscovy's. A drake, a hen, and two ducklings. Meet, Professor Von Drake, Daisy Mae, and ??.

We still do not have names for the ducklings. They're supposed to be females. Any suggestions?

**By the way...anyone with small children who watch Mickey Mouse Club House know where we got the drakes name.**

And what shall the goats be needing this winter? Hay! We bought ours today & Linds was excited to get to haul hay to the hay barn.

They were small bales weighing in at about 35/40 pounds each. The people we bought from were having problems with their hay baler so the bales were sloppy and not tight like they should be. But, because of that and because we were willing to pick up the hay from the field so they didn't have to move, we got a great deal on it.

A lot has been done around here lately:

We got the pool up on the 4th of July & have been enjoying it on the scorching days of summer...

Fences have been built...

A picnic table has been built & enjoyed...

Puppies are almost 6 weeks old and ready to sell...

We said good bye to our first kids, Tom & Jerry...

And we lost Cali. About an hour or two after taking this picture, we never saw her again...

So here's where the current count is:

67 chickens (including 9 meat birds we'll be slaughtering in about 2-3 weeks)
3 goats
4 ducks
3 dogs
7 puppies (all for sale!)
3 adults
1 teenager
and a partridge in a pear tree
...not really, but what's one more thing around here, right?!?
Now we're gearing up for the Olympics this Friday and vacation soon!! We are so ridiculously excited about both!!! We're doing a tour around the countries of the Olympics in our meal plan over the next three weeks. We'll be enjoying baklava, curried coconut chicken, chicken parmesan, chicken cordon bleu, souvlaki, kung pao chicken, fish & chips, & so much more. Can't wait!!

Hopefully we'll have more updates sooner rather than later...but don't hold your breath.

7/27/12 Update: We sold 6 out of 7 puppies between Tuesday & Thursday!! We only have one puppy left & it may wind up staying here because he is deaf & we don't think anyone will want him. We're still trying to find him a home though.

Goat's Milk Update

We learned some valuable information about goat's milk this morning. We were talking to a friend Saturday night. She said that if the milk is very pungent it is being caused from something the goat is eating. We did some reading and learned that's exactly correct! That strong, kick you in the face, over powering taste that we experienced was caused by her eating wild onions & other weeds in our field. The book said that if you're experiencing this to lock her up 2-4 hours before milking.

So we did some experimenting. We tasted straight goats milk from an A.M. milking were she had been locked up over night....IT TASTES JUST LIKE COWS MILK FROM THE GROCERY STORE!!!! Do you know how excited we are?!?!?! We no longer have to buy milk for the Maass household! We're able to drink raw, organic, goat's milk...and we (all of us) actually like it!

We'll let you know if locking her up 2-4 hours prior to her evening milking is as successful as her morning milking.

Now we're planning on planting her a "goat garden" full of stuff she likes to eat that's good for her and hopefully will not alter the taste of her milk.



Raw, Organic, Goat's Milk

Got Milk?

We do!

Since Annabelle's kids left our little farm last Saturday we've started milking her. It's not a lot. We get about 2+ cups at each milking.

We've asked multiple people their opinion about the taste. Some people love it, some hate it, & some say it's an acquired taste. Sounds like we have to find out for ourselves. Linds was the first to try it...zing!! Justin was next...blah!! I was third...didn't care for it. It's a strong, kick in your mouth, sort of intensity. Brian flat out refuses to even try it.

So, in every attempt to be able to milk Annabelle and NOT let her milk go to waste, Linds did lots of reading. She read somewhere that if you don't care for the taste of goats milk to mix it with store bought cow's milk. Start at 30% goat's milk mixed with 70% cow's milk and slowly increase the amount of goat's milk while decreasing the amount of cow's milk. We did just that. Surprisingly, we liked it! We're drinking it at a 50/50 ratio. This is going to cut my milk purchasing in half! Woo hoo!! We're cooking with it and drinking it straight from the glass.

Here's the process we do:


1. Milk the goat into a bowl with a mesh strainer on top to catch any hairs you may pull loose while milking.

Straight from Annabelle

2. Bring the milk inside & pour it through a mason jar lined with 2 coffee filters. Let the milk strain through. It goes kind of slow towards the end.

Filtering the Milk

Left: Filtering Right: Mixed

3. Refrigerate the goats milk until it is chilled well.

4. At this point you can either freeze it in a mason jar leaving 1/2 an inch space at the top of the jar, or mix with cow's milk at the ratio that is best for you. We read that once it's mixed you should consume the milk within 3 days. We're going to do a little more reading on this.

Mixed & Ready to Drink!

We also read that you shouldn't put the goat's milk in a plastic jug because the milk absorbs the flavor of the plastic and the plastic absorbs the flavor of the milk. We're using good 'ol mason jars. They're all over my house & that's also what we use to drink from.

Thanks, Annabelle!

Enjoy!!

Update: Brian tried the mixed milk & said he can't tell the difference! We are now ALL drinking 50/50 goat & cow's milk!

Meal Plan for the Week of 7/2-7/8

Monday: Purple hull peas, corn bread, squash casserole, sliced fresh garden tomatoes. Totally a southern childhood meal. This is the kind of meal Brian & I grew up on.

Tuesday: Hamburgers & chips

Wednesday: Family BBQ ~ Ribs, Sausage, Potato Salad, Beans, Deviled Eggs

Thursday: Oven roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh shucked corn on the cob

Friday: Mexican casserole & salad

Saturday: Pork chops, skillet potatoes, corn on the cob. Yes, fresh corn on the cob is on sale in our area:) .17 a cob!

Sunday: left overs

Cali's Story

Last Monday, Linds and I were walking to the back of the place to take Sadie swimming in the tank. On the way, I heard a cat crying. We stopped & listened, then spotted her watching us through the bushes. We held on to Sadie so the kitten would come closer. She allowed us to pick her up & started purring instantly. She felt poor but had lots of life in her.

We took her up to the house to get some water and left her there while we went back to the tank to take Sadie swimming. When we returned, the kitten was still there. She was by the tool shed/hay barn hanging out with the goats and chickens. We loved on her a bit then we went inside. Later that evening, when we went outside, she was on the front porch. We brought her some scraps from dinner & left her outside for the night. The next morning, she was still there. We spent the week playing with her, loving on her, caring for her, & named her Cali.

On Friday, Brian went to the feed store, then the grocery store, then to church to pick up Justin from his mission trip. When he got to church, a friend of ours asked Brian if that was his cat. Puzzled, Brian turned around & there sat Cali! She appearantly rode under my truck to all three places & didn't leave my car while he went in the feed store, while the feed was being loaded, or while he was picking up a few groceries. She didn't even fall while he was doing 70 mph down the highway to church! They put her in the car and held her on the drive back home.

When Justin got home, he said, "I know who's cat that is." "Who's?", I asked. "That's Nana's cat." I called my mom and asked if her cat was missing. She said, "Yes! I've been looking for her all week!." I told her that we had her.

My mom lives half an hour away. The kitten rode under my mom's car doing 70 mph down the hwy on Friday when my mom came to our house. Nobody knew she was in the back of our place from Friday through Monday until we found her that evening.

My mom could tell we had taken a likin' to this little kitten...even though we're not exactly cat people. She said we could keep her because she knew she would be taken care of. Not sure how many of her 9 lives she has used up, but she'll spend the remainder of those lives here on our farm. Welcome home, Cali.