Busy Week

I know that things get busy for everyone this time of year, but our busy-ness this week has nothing to do with Christmas. Monday was nuts at work. We sold 1476 hd of cattle and it was after 8 p.m. when I left the sale barn. It's such a fast pace and requires lots of focus. I feel like I work on Wall Street and I always need to decompress and take some deep breaths on the way home. I'm not complaining because I really enjoy my job, but...Whew!

Then Tuesday morning was dedicated to making a list for town  and making something for our dinner, with enough for leftovers because I knew I'd be back home after dark. I made a quick Black Bean and Chicken Tostizzas.

No real recipe here. It calls for a can of biscuits and yes, I used canned biscuits. :) Sometimes I just need something quick and I picked a can up when I thought about making these last week. So, please do not report me to the biscuit authorities. :) I will be making plenty from scratch for the next 3 days again. Roll out the biscuits a bit. Mix up diced, cooked chicken (I cook up a bunch at once and keep it in the deep freeze for quick meals) and a can of drained black beans. Throw in some salsa. Chop up a couple of green onions. Mix it all up in a bowl and top the biscuit rounds with it. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Pull out of the oven. Top with grated cheese. Return to oven for a few minutes. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a side of avocado.

This is good with refried beans and ground beef too. DH and I thought it was a bit too sweet this time and I think it was the canned biscuits. And we cut some of the crust off and that made the chickens happy.Gosh, I haven't made these in probably 10 years. Not fancy, but quick and good for a fast dinner before I headed into town.

An afternoon in town with too many stops and I was plumb wore out. On Wednesday, we had the heating/cooling guy out to replace the furnace in the bunkhouse. It was beyond repair and ancient. So I fed him too. Then, after cleaning up the kitchen, I made stew for Thursday. It's always better the next day so I made it a day early. It was cold Thursday morning

and our high was only 29 and I just had a few extras to feed. Sure hated to send them out into the cold after breakfast. They were all bundled up and had on multiple layers:

and I figured stew was going to hit the spot at dinner. It did. :)

I'll still have the boys for 2 more days, but thankfully our highs should be above freezing. I wasn't even out in it for very long, just long enough to haul them out and come back to the house to chore. It took me a while to warm back up, but nothing a hot cup of tea can't fix.

After the crew leaves out on Saturday, we've got our Safari Club Christmas party. We always have a stuffed mug exchange and I made animal print potholders to go with mine.

DH will put jerky in his. He got a deer a few weeks ago and we've been making jerky for days.

I'm also trying to bind another quilt

but I jammed my finger yesterday and it's not operating as well as I would like

But I'm being well tended to. Nothing like a little sympathy from the resident pup patrol

I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open for very long anyway. We always enjoy watching the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, but this year we're not making it very far before we're nodding our heads.

Maybe if I add 'nap' to my list, I can make that happen. :)