Farmgirl Follies

Holy cow, that’s mighty tasty!

Posted by Farmgirl on July 31, 2010  |  5 Comments

Mmmm. Brisket.

We’re putting this in the oven today so we can enjoy it tonight for dinner with some friends. It’s truly heavenlyand very aromatic when cooking … but so worth it! Enjoy!

Farmgirl’s Beef Brisket

(Recipe actually belongs to these folks. It’s the best recipe I’ve found — and I’ve made a lot of brisket!)

Ingredients:
2 pounds Certified Angus Beef ^® brand brisket
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 large onion, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
6 ounces chili sauce
1/2 cup beer
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Combine garlic and pepper; spread evenly over brisket.
2. Separate onion into rings; arrange over brisket. Combine chili sauce, beer, Worcestershire sauce and sugar; pour over brisket and onions.
3. Cover and cook 2 hours. Turn brisket over; stir onions into sauce and spoon over brisket. Cover; cook 2 hours more or until fork tender.
4. Transfer brisket to cutting board. Slice on the bias across the grain.

 

I started with a 4.5-pound brisket, so I doubled the ingredients in this recipe. Spray the pan. Then add brisket, fat side up.

I minced the garlic and then sliced an extra-large onion.

Add pepper to the garlic, then rub all over the meat. Then cover with sliced onions.

Pour chili sauce into a bowl and add beer.

I happened to have Heinz Chili Sauce in the pantry. Yuengling is a very tasty beer, but it’s not readily available in this neck of the woods. Farmguy stocked up on our recent trip to Pennsylvania. Like beer? Try Yuengling. It’s America’s oldest brewery!

Add Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar.

Now pour it on … literally. Then cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for two hours.

This is what it looks like after two hours. It smells even better! Scrape off all of the onions, turn the brisket over, and then spoon the onions and sauce back on top of the brisket. Put it back in the oven: 350 degrees for two more hours.

If there happened to be a man in the house during cook time, he’s probably been anxiously awaiting the final buzzer of the oven timer. Put him to work slicing!

I’m telling you … it’s incredibly tender. So juicy and flavorful and again I say, truly scrumptious. And remember … this will feed a crowd or a family of five for several days.

Unless of course they are ravenous carnivores. In that case it will last for dinner, lunch and one sandwich.

Enjoy!

The saga continues

Posted by Farmgirl on June 30, 2010  |  1 Comment

Gather a bunch of women at a midnight movie premiere.

Picture a parking lot RV tailgate … frenzied emotions … a three-hour wait in line surrounded by hormonal teenage girls … and of course, Edward.

Life-sized, cardboard Edward.

Oh, and the food, of course.

Including a blood-red velvet cake exactly like the book.

It was a total Eclipse of the heart.

The movie started at 12:04 a.m.

We took turns waiting in a line that wrapped around the theater. We laughed and loved and giggled and gawked and generally joined in the general fray of teenagers and Twilight fans. What a blast.

Sometimes acting your age is overrated!

Total eclipse of the heart

Posted by Farmgirl on June 29, 2010  |  4 Comments

Do you remember this?

We’ll be doing it all over again this evening … for Eclipse.

A bunch of crazy women, standing in line with every teenage girl in a tri-county area, waiting to watch the third movie in the Twilight Saga.

The books will always be better than the movies … but it’s fun to act young and girlish and silly.

I’ll take photos of the madness so I can share it with you.

Or maybe you’re going, too?

Come on … any other Edward fans out there?

Howling at the new moon

Posted by Farmgirl on November 21, 2009  |  7 Comments

“Well-behaved women rarely make history.” ~ Mae West

One of my favorite things to do is spend time with like-minded women who enjoy basking in silliness even though some think them ridiculous. Are we old enough to know better? Sure. Do we run the risk of appearing off our rockers? Possibly. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

On Thursday I boarded the Chateau, above, dressed in a green Kiss Me, I’m Irish T-shirt and a fake alpaca-fur cape. My hair was in its natural state of reddish, curly disarray. My fingernails were painted black. No, it’s not my typical attire. I was in character, you see … Victoria the vampire.

An aunt, various cousins, friends and my sister headed to Tinseltown for the midnight showing of New Moon. We arrived about 7:30 p.m. Enjoyed red velvet cupcakes with frosted fangs. Enjoyed a few cocktails and dished about our favorite characters from the movie. Admired the movie posters taped inside the camper.

We laughed until we cried. We cried until we laughed. It was very emotional.

First, let me just say that the movie was awesome. Fabulous, actually. But that’s  not what this post is about. I want to point out how important it is to NOT take yourself too seriously. As it turned out, the others in my party did not wear their costumes. So what? I made a teenage girl in the long, long line shriek, “LOOK! She’s Victoria!” And really, that’s all I needed to confirm and justify my own stupidity. Everyone should be so lucky.

Women and girls stood outside the RV taking photos of our banners.  A local restaurant delivered pizza to our party in the parking lot. It was wonderful.

Hundreds, possibly thousands of women and girls, united by a zest for life. A willingness to be just a little addicted to romantic stories of fictional vampires and werewolves. Even a midnight movie and a 45-minute drive home in the dark at 3 a.m. could not quell my satisfaction and sense of joy. Every once in awhile it’s good to step outside your typical routine and do something that’s purely playful and ok, childlike.

Life is too short. You know the familiar phrase: Live well, laugh often, love much.

And to that I would add, wholeheartedly and with great fervor.

Farmboy gets his groove on

Posted by Farmgirl on October 6, 2009  |  4 Comments

Gettin’ down with his bad self. My three-year-old starred in his own dance party this evening. I was listening to Supermassive Black Hole by Muse … YES … from my Twilight soundtrack. Not my usual musical genre, but I have an addiction and I’m not afraid to admit it.

(Here’s the scene from the movie if you want to watch! It’s the Cullen Vampires playing baseball during the thunderstorm.)

Anyway …

Farmboy has some smooth moves. It’s too bad not even a belt can hold up his pants. He has no bum. No bum whatsoever.

“Lookie here, Mommy,” he demanded before doing a little twist and shake. Not sure what’s going on with the tongue, there.

Why do people do weird things with their mouths when dancing? Does it help balance the body? Does it help us breathe? Does it help us concentrate? I wonder … as I wander … over yonder.

Anyway … this is the kind of excitement we have around our place. Well, that and runaway cattle roundups. But this is much, much more fun.

P.S. In a little over a month, the second movie in the Twilight Saga comes to theatres: New Moon. I CAN’T WAIT!!

Ok … enough about my obsession. (But really, you must read the books … then see the movie.)

Dippety-do, kid finds and my Twilight addiction

Posted by Farmgirl on March 11, 2009  |  2 Comments

I created this space to showcase recent finds for my antiques and primitives shop. Things like pie cupboards, crocks, vintage quilts and wooden buckets. And I plan to use it for those things … I do, I will—I promise … but today we’re taking a break from the rustic things in my life to spotlight new curiosities. Like this one, for instance.

It’s a Dippety-Do glass jar, filled with icky creek water. My daughter found it submerged in the mud along the bank. She was sooo excited. “How old do you think it is, Mommy?” Hmm. I guessed … 20-25 years maybe. Her reply: “Wow! It’s a real antique.”

Hey, little whippersnapper. Watch it.

But on to other things … like these delightful books my mother-in-law discovered. What could be better than kid-friendly baking recipes and spectacular craft projects for kids—things I’d never think of but can’t wait to try. The bottom book, Crafty U, was written by a certain talk show hostess. I may not agree with her stance on many things—including gun control, but I do appreciate her creative approach to life with kids.

And then there’s the last item. I couldn’t resist sharing these babies. If you don’t have a clue what these are, then I urge you to head to your nearest bookstore, supercenter or Amazon and purchase Stephenie Meyer’s book, Twilight.

Ok, yes, there are vampires in the books; but Twilight is not a book about vampires. It’s a love story. A sweet, innocent and powerful book about love and acceptance. I promise, you will love it and want to read the rest of the series. You will catch Twilighter syndrome …

You will read the books again. Maybe purchase a T-shirt. Perhaps slap an “I drive like a Cullen” sticker on your automobile. The words “sparkle” and “dazzle” will make you grin. Edward screensavers will adorn your computer. You might hang a movie poster in your living room that so completely matches your rustic decor. And maybe, just maybe, you will purchase the Twilight-themed candy hearts on ebay because they’re not available in your neck of the woods. Why? Because you want to hand your sweetie a piece of candy that says Bite Me!

If you haven’t heard of Twilight, you probably don’t understand how romantic “Bite me!” really is. Trust me.

But I digress. Sorry, I got a little carried away. Hmmm. Ah, yes. Finds of the day. These are mine. It’s not always reclaimed wood and century-old pottery. Sometimes it’s all about kids and the fact that inside, mommies are little girls too!