Catching Up From Thanksgiving

I'm sorry I've been  away and haven't popped in lately. Thank you to those of you who have checked up on me - I am touched by your thoughtfulness. And yes, I am with my mom. I'll post an update in a day or two, but before I left home, I had started this post so I'll publish it first.

After shipping out the steer calves last Wednesday (well - a few Wednesday's ago. 😉 ) and feeding the crew, there was about 2 1/2 hours of daylight left. DH said, "I'm going hunting". It was the last day of his deer hunt and he was determined to make some jerky. We always look forward to a dinner of tenderloin and backstrap and everything else is made into jerky. Our Fall has been so busy that he had pretty much resigned himself to a year sans jerky, but he pulled up in the dark with a deer that evening. Our girl and her fella pulled in about 15 minutes earlier. Kenny jumped right in to help. He's a hunter too and this is how we initiated him into the family. LOL. Lucky for you, I'm at my mom's and I don't have access to the photos of the boys processing the deer. 😉

Kenny brought one of his bird dogs:

And the kids and DH spent a lot of time chasing quail and ducks. Our girl stayed at the house with me one evening and the boys ended up rescuing 2 ladies with 2 little ones in a car that had a flat. It was pitch dark as they boys headed back to the house and I was out in the pens tending to chores. DH stopped and changed their tire, but their spare was flat as well so he offered to fill it for them at the house. That meant driving down the 2 1/2 mile dirt road in the dark. Poor ladies - they were scared to death. DH said he tried to put them at ease, but can you imagine having a flat 30 miles from anywhere, in the dark and 2 men drive up - with blood on their hands (from cleaning birds) and guns in their truck and say, "Hey - if you follow us down this long dirt road - in the dark - we'll fix your car". DH didn't present it that way, but that's probably what those poor girls heard. They did follow them, albeit so slowly that I'm sure they contemplated turning around multiple times, but they weren't going very far on a flat tire. The boys assured them they would be safe, but of course they were frightened. I think they were somewhat relieved when they saw me walk up. The boys fixed their tires and sent them on their way. They asked DH for his number and he couldn't figure out why, but I told him they probably figured if they broke down again, he'd come to their rescue again. LOL. He said he understood their reluctance, but if our girl or I had been in the same situation, he hoped someone would have stopped to help us. Of course, he'd fuss at us for having a spare tire that was flat. 😂 

Our Thanksgiving was filled with culinary delights and the turkey didn't even make the list. My little kitchen was a bevy of activity long before daylight:

 Our girl spoiled us 

with homemade beignets and raspberry sauce which we foundered on

                                        

But DH said we had to eliminate the evidence

                                    

These were absolutely to die for. She made them twice and then, with a belly full of beignets, 

                                            

they all headed out to chase quail. This is an old photo, but I don't have any shots from that afternoon. As they headed out, DH said, "I think the quail are gonna win today - I'm full of beignets". 😂

Then it was Kenny's turn in the kitchen:

                              

A man in the kitchen always gets brownie points around here:

The kids had gone to Galveston and they brought us Swordfish steaks and shrimp which they grilled and it was the best seafood we've EVER eaten - 

                                                 

I made the green beans and salad and our girl bought Batard bread at the grocery store bakery. She said at first she thought it was called something else so it made her look twice, but it made her laugh and it looked good so she brought it home and then in true family fashion, we had to research it's origins. 

From Google: Batard bread is a variation of the well known French bread, known as a baguette. Although "batard"  means 'illegitimate' and is therefore seen as inferior to a traditional baguette, don't let that misconception divert you from diving into a delicious loaf of freshly baked Batard bread.

It's really just a shorter baguette and this one had a wonderful nutty flavor. You can bet we'll be trying out recipes now.

Next up was this fabulous Pesto-Pasta-Shrimp dish I made:

I'll share the recipe soon! It's worth sharing! So good! And we're not done yet!

Up next:

Scotch eggs:

With hollandaise sauce:

Sorry this picture is blurry. Kenny wanted to make these and they were also a big hit. Have you ever had Scotch eggs? They are a soft boiled egg, wrapped in sausage, rolled in Panko breadcrumbs, and fried. Sorry about the blurry photo:

And we have another winner! Although lots of fresh air and exercise are needed after a weekend of sublime cuisine like that! DH told the kids that we now expected them to step up their game next time. That's going to be a hard act to follow!