Easy, Simple Chocolate Cake

This is the most moist cake you will ever eat! You could even eat the batter its that good!


Needed
1-Super Moist (Betty Crocker) and I used Triple Chocolate Fudge (its what I had)
4 cups of pumpkin or about 2 cans


Mix only cake mix and pumpkin (no additional ingredients necessary) together until thoroughly combined. Bake following the package instructions. Awesome, moist, and delicious and maybe just maybe a whole lot better for you than adding in the eggs and oil. Its a win, win situation.


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Random Pictures of Happy Cows (and a small rant)

We had about five cows/heifers calve this month. This is one of our twin heifers. She had a twisted uterus. The vet is trying to untwist it so the calf can be delivered. After untwisting the uterus the head was still down and away from the birth canal but the front feet were in the proper position. Kurt is standing on one side and a vet student was on the other side.

The decision was made because she was not dialated yet to wait an hour. Another vet came back and the calf had died which does happen. Sometimes there is too much stress on the calf or it is too big and can cause problems. After the calf was delivered, the decision was also made to give her antibiotics. Reason why to prevent infection in her uterus and other reproductive organs and or body. When a cow has just calved we milk her in what is called a bucket. Not the bucket you are thinking of but a pressurized milk-like can that her milk goes into instead of the pipeline that carries the other milk to the bulk tank. When cows have been administered drugs, antibiotics, or whatever is unhealthy for human consumption, that milk does NOT go into the bulk tank which is the milk that is picked up by the milk truck. No, that milk goes in the gutter (essentially down the drain). See the more antibiotics we give our cows the less milk we can use. Where I am going with this is there has been a lot of crappy reporting on "happy" cows and wondering where our food comes from. We can not ship milk that has antibiotics in it. You are not sold milk with antibiotics in it. All milk is tested before it leaves the farm and the whole tanker load is tested at the milk plant. Trust America's farmers they bust their butts for pennies and people whine about products costing too much. Walk a day in my shoes...pay $10,000 worth of bills with only $6,000 of income that is what I dealt with last year. American's do not have it that bad. We are giving you a quality product. Do not question our integrity. There are so many regulations in the dairy industry your head would spin. Bottom line. Non-organic milk is good for you. Please don't be fooled you are not drinking milk with drug residue.

A happy 2-year-old to make you smile. Her aunt and uncle (me and Kurt) and her grandparents make milk

One of our many happy cows (Sweet) with her brand new calf, Spice. That is why her udder is rather full. They get swelling precalving and it goes away after a day or two. Just something females get to go through. : )

Menu Plan Monday

So I am looking over what I said we would have last week. Tacos. The poor things are on my menu almost each week and I never get around to making them. This week is going to be different. This week we are eating them because I am going to make them tonight. Which means I better get some hamburger out to thaw. I also joined Weight Watchers last week. I'm too fat, I have high blood pressure, and I would like to have a (another) baby next year sometime. I am changing how I eat. I quit drinking pop as of Wednesday. I am going to treat pop as more of a treat and drink the diet variety. Read here about me quitting drinking diet pop. I am changing my lifestyle. : ) Healthier me since diabetes runs in my family. If you have any great WW recipes, let me know. I have not had a chance to check it all out.

Monday-Tacos, salad, peas

Tuesday-Smoked sausage, scalloped potatoes, green beans

Wednesday-Hamburger, corn, noodle casserole or Cheesy Tuna Noodle Casserole (unless I find something better)

Thursday-Crispy Ranch Chicken, boiled potatoes, salad, and green beans

Friday-Going out to eat for fish with our friends.

Saturday-Leftovers

Sunday-Crockpot Beef Roast (maybe hold the pickles and I will use beer that tenderizes the roast really well too), carrots, potatoes, and salad

Making these this week

Kurt's Favorite Cookie

Really hungry for these Pancakes with sliced strawberries and whipped cream YUM!

Thawed out 6 cups of pumpkin yesterday. So far I made mini chocolate chip pumpkin muffins. I might make pumpkin ribbon bread or crustless pumpkin pie. I will post the one I make this week.

Random Acts of Pictures

This year's Christmas program was Generations of Grace. Which is the theme of our church's year long 125th anniversary celebration. Kids wore period time costumes and each decade from 125 years ago was highlighted. Maclayne's was 1910-1919. She wore a nurses dress and cap. If you look on the wall in the picture, they were doing a slide show of family pictures from the directory. That is our picture on the wall. Kind of funny because I didn't notice I took

Here she is being just a little or a whole lot shy and reading her part. She had her part memorized but Christmas Eve can be a lot of pressure for a 7-year-old.

Off with the nurse's cap and trying not to smile. How dare you smile at your mother when she has a camera in her hand!



Maclayne in her new outfit from her Godmother Heidi who spoiled her the day before with shopping for many other outfits as well. The tights are a little long as you'll see from the bunched up right leg. Atleast they'll be comfortable. I remember wearing tights many Sundays and not I don't think I could tell you the last time I wore something like that. She looks really stinking cute though and yes, those are Kurt's gloves on the ground. They are set there intentionally to warm up in front of the heat register. Yeah... : )

Menu Plan Monday

Monday-Pork roast, mashed potatoes, and green beans (leftover from yesterday)





Tuesday-4-H meeting tonight...hot dogs/ring baloney and homemade mac n' cheese (leftover from Monday's dinner...retread but it works.





Wednesday-Meatballs with gravy over mashed potatoes and green beans





Thursday-Pork chops with country gravy, stuffing, and mixed veggies





Friday-Tacos with cornbread because we have not had these in a long, long time





Saturday-Homemade pizza





I was planning on not going to the grocery store this week until I looked at yesterday's ads. Darn it. Sale on pork. We need pork chops and some roasts. The roast from yesterday was the last from the freezer. I have about 20 bags of saurkraut to eat up. My favorite way to make it is with a pork loin roast in the crockpot. Frozen saurkraut goes on top of roast. It is the best. Or eating it alongside Farmland smoked sausage the ring style. Good stuff. Otherwise I would like to take a few pics of my pantry since there is this pantry challenge going on at someone's blog. We could definetly eat from ours for quite awhile. Plus I have all the fresh milk I could ever drink out in the bulk tank in the milkhouse. Yet I still buy my milk. I figure if people see me buying three gallons maybe they would be inclined to buy another gallon (or ten : ) ). You should see me buy cheese.





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Catch Up

2010 has barely began and I feel like I'm a mile behind. Each week has been busy which is not to be if you live on a farm in January. This is suppose to be the time relax and a time to get ready for the craziness that spring, summer, and fall brings. For example...this morning I am going to finish taking down my tree (only the lights need to come off now), shower, go to town 25 minutes away for groceries, sometime get the dishes done, help out the barn with the midday chores, do the second milking, straighten myself (whatever that means), go meet Maclayne at school and walk around the school to the H1N1 vaccine clinic (she's getting her booster), vacuum the needle trail up,.....I'll stop there : )



Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my hair cut in the morning and we have herd check with the vet. I also need to get two months of bookwork done by 10am on Saturday. It won't take me hours and hours (probably an hour total), but I still need to get it done. We go see our accountant Saturday morning. I better get moving.

Menu Plan Monday

So last week my plan went mostly out the window. The pickies didn't want this and didn't want that. Yaddy, yaddy, yah! Tuesday last week was busy, busy so we ended up going and picking up food. We were all exhausted from the days events. Milk testing-no big deal, heifer calving 11 days early with a twisted uterus. Two different vets came out to take care of her. The heifer who is now cow since she had the baby is doing great, but the calf died before it could be gotten out. The rest of the week is kind of a blur. This week is shaping up to be no better. We had a friend pass away from cancer. She was 38 and one cool chick! Her visitation was tonight and tomorrow we will go to her funeral which is at our church. Her husband and mine were classmates and they farm too. RIP Darla. The week continues with the farm bookwork. This needs to be done by Saturday for our appointment with our accountant. I also really need to balance the checkbook and pay some bills before the holiday on Monday comes and ruins bills being paid on time.

Monday-Pizza

Tuesday-Cheesy Tuna Noodle Casserole

Wednesday-Leftovers--Cheesy Ham and Potatoes and Tuna Casserole

Thursday-Crockpot meatballs, mashed potatoes (from last week)

Friday- Ring bologney (from the cheese box we got from our milk cooperative for Christmas), leftover mashed potatoes, green beans

Menu Plan Monday

Monday-Homemade pizza--I'm using leftover beef roast to make half of the pizza BBQ Beef for my hubby and the other half will be hamburger.

Tuesday-Brat patties on a bun, tator tots or fries, green beans

Wednesday- Meatballs in the crockpot (basically round meatloaves : ) ), mashed potatoes, and sweet orange carrots.

Thursday- Penne a la Betsy so good, but not so good for you...haven't had this in over a year, I'm due!

Friday- Maybe we'll go out to eat. Probably not. We have not gone out to eat since last year! Last year!!! I think we are due to go out to eat. : ) If not we'll have leftovers or something simple...freezer simple : )

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