I have not been disappointed. While I am far from having cooked every recipe in the book, my family has liked every single dish I’ve made. That is nothing short of a miracle.

Liz offers suggestions for side dishes to accompany her main courses. These suggestions are a good start to rounding out the meal. However, I always have to add another vegetable or two–but that’s simple enough.

She assigns a food theme to each day and uses that to plan meals for two weeks at a time. Her theme nights all revolve around the type of cuisine being served: Italian, Mexican, Grill, Pizza, Comfort, etc. I have used themes for quite some time, but mine are based more around the type of meat or the craziness of that night’s schedule: quick and easy, slow cooker, ground beef, chicken, with Mexican and Italian thrown in there.

I liked her cuisine-style themes, but it’s not a good fit for our lifestyle. I’m still working on meshing her themes with mine. For example, I need to make sure I throw in a ground beef night or two or I’ll end up with a freezer full of ground beef at the end of the year and nothing else. Also, I have one (at least) insanely crazy night each week where dinner has to be in the slow cooker so we can all eat whenever it is that we’re home that night. For me, I have to look at the week’s activities before I can plan dinner.

I have loved cooking out of this book. The recipes are simple and EVERYONE eats them.

One dog we had dug a hole reaching halfway under our driveway trying to catch a burrowing squirrel. My in-laws have had vehicles torn apart when a squirrel seeking refuge from a dog climbed up into the engine.

What does all this have to do with tractors? I was outside talking with my boys when a tractor drove by. Immediately, as in mid-sentence, my three-year-old said, “Tractor!” All three boys’ heads pivoted toward the sound.

This obsession starts early.

Here my youngest is covering his eyes because if he doesn’t see Mom, he won’t have to leave the tractor.

I was only there to bring the boys some lunch, but the littlest cowboy sat  the furthest from me and wouldn’t leave his Dad’s side lest I take him away from the tractor.

I’m sure he was greatly relieved when Mom left so he and his brother could get back to work inside the tractor.

You’ll need 4 bonleless, skinless chicken breasts. When I photographed this recipe, I used frozen because that’s what I had. Today I used fresh.

For the marinade you’ll  need:

1/3 cup of lime juice (or the juice of 3 whole limes)
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 whole jalepeno, sliced or chunked
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cilantro
1/2 cup orange juice
5 T. olive oil

Place all marinade ingredients in blender and pulse to combine. Turn blender on and

drizzle in the olive oil. This marinade turns the most beautiful green color.

Pour the marinade over the chicken breasts. Then bring the blender close to your face and inhale. This smells heavenly. Cover and put in fridge. (If you have a gallon Ziploc bag, that would be great. It makes turning a breeze. I didn’t so I used my handy dandy Tupperware. You’ll want to marinate this for at least 6 hours. Remember to turn it sometime. Halfway is best, but we do what we can. Marinating overnight is better, especially if you’re using frozen chicken like I did. Today mine will marinate for 6-7 hours and it will still taste great.

Once you’re done marinating, throw the chicken breasts on the grill. I love the grill on hot summer nights when the last thing I want to do is heat up the house with the oven. Grill on both sides until no pink remains.

I like to serve this with Lime Rice and Pico de Gallo. Although a black bean salad would be really good here, too. Serve and enjoy!

(I’m thinking of using this marinade on shredded chicken for tacos someday. The experimenting continues.)

Grilled Lime Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Marinade:

1/3 cup of lime juice (or the juice of 3 whole limes)
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 whole jalepeno, sliced or chunked
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cilantro
1/2 cup orange juice
5 T. olive oil

Place all marinade ingredients in blender and pulse to combine. Turn blender on and drizzle in the olive oil. Pour the marinade over the chicken breasts.  Cover and put in fridge. (If you have a gallon Ziploc bag, that would be great. It makes turning a breeze.) Marinate for at least 6 hours. Marinating overnight is better, especially if you’re using frozen chicken. Turn halfway through marinating time. Grill, serve, and enjoy!

]]> http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/08/14/grilled-lime-chicken/feed/ 6 http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/08/11/here-a-chicken-there-a-chicken-everywhere-a-chicken/ http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/08/11/here-a-chicken-there-a-chicken-everywhere-a-chicken/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 05:00:52 +0000 Kate http://www.katrinapalmer.com/?p=2425 Last night my husband asked, “Are  you ever going to blog again?” So here I am. Blogging again. Perhaps this isn’t the best welcome back post for some, but this is our life. Last summer I blogged about processing chickens here with the title Chickens: Not for the Sqeamish. That title still applies. Take heed and click to another blog if you have a weak stomach. This post will detail how we’ve processed about 90 chickens this summer–54 this past Monday. Wouldn’t you love to be invited to Family Home Evening at our house in the summer!

Last year we used a skinning method. This year we tried the time-old dunking technique.

This is a family operation and everyone contributes. My husband’s brother, Matt and his family are raising broilers too, so we processed our chickens together. Plus, he has all the connections to borrow the equipment we used. Here my nephew (in the orange) catches the chickens and hands them to my son. Never fear, each chicken was named before it died.

My nephew: What should we name this one?

My son: I don’t know.

My nephew: How about Spikey?

My son as he places the chicken in the kill cone: Ouch! We should call him Dangerous.

My nephew: Why?

My son: Because he just bit me.

(This would be a good time to leave if you faint at the sight of blood.)

Then my son proceeded to slit the chicken’s throat. I explained in my other chicken post how the chicken bleeds out so fast that first it faints and then it dies pretty painlessly.

Once the chickens have bled out, the boys toss them into the wheelbarrow. When the wheelbarrow is full, they wheel it up to us where

my girl dunks the now dead chicken into a pot of 150° water. Yeah, my lucky sister-in-law, Stacy, had to donate her candy thermometer to the cause.(Hotter than this and the skin will sluff off in the defeather. Cooler and the feathers won’t come out.) My girl moves the legs back and forth and pulls the chicken out. Then repeats the process six or seven times before pulling the chicken out and letting it drain over the pot. Then she hands it off to my brother-in-law, Matt.

Matt turns the chicken over as the nubby drum spins and removes the feathers.

Matt hands the chicken over to Nate for beheading and innard removal.

He passes the chicken to our girl who removes the feet. (Thanks Matthew Buckley for enlighting my children as to how  to make a chicken’s foot move once it’s been removed.)

Next the chicken goes to quality control where my sister in-law and niece remove any missed feathers. Then I rinse the chicken inside and out and place it in a cooler of ice water and a bit of clorox. Ideally, they should age for four hours in the ice water. Then we give each chicken a final and thorough rinse, place it in a Ziploc freezer bag, and put it in the freezer.

Now aren’t you glad I came back into the blogging world to share all of this with you?

The children were all finally in bed. I turned to Nate and asked, “Do you remember when we lived in Springville and you would come home from work? We’d eat dinner, I’d do the dishes, and we’d all go for a walk?”

He nodded.

I glanced at the clock showing 9 PM. “I’m still on the do the dishes part.”

The cows were out of feed so it was time to move them to a fresh pasture. We all gathered and began saddling the horses.

Two of Nate’s sisters, Anna and Lisle, get their horses ready,

then give their daughters some early cowgirl training.

My oldest holds the Shetland Pony while her cousin saddles him.

Paul puts the reins on Talinka.

Matt’s got his horses saddled and is trying to figure out who’s riding up front, behind, and what path we’re taking to the new pasture. Finally, everyone knows their position, the lead and tail cars are loaded, and Grandpa takes a group of little cowgirls and cowboys to shut gates and guard openings along the route.

The cowboys (and cowgirls) gather the herd as the storm gathers. Sometime before I snapped this picture, Nate’s horse Canyon decided she didn’t want him on her back. She began crow hopping and then all out bucking. Nate stayed on a good eight seconds and beyond, but eventually Canyon got her way. Nate has NEVER been bucked off a horse before. He says forty is not the age to start. He climbed back on Canyon and together they helped herd the cows the four miles to the new pasture at which point it was all Nate could do to get off the horse and into the car.

Paul on the other hand looks like herding cows in the rain is the best way to spend a Saturday.

We brought the cows out and immediately crossed the road.

Here they come

to cross another highway. These crossings are why lead and tail vehicles are needed. They park off to the side of the road, one on each side of the crossing, with flashers going and a stick poking out the window with something red on it. This hopefully alerts oncoming traffic in both directions if they haven’t seen the animals on the road yet.

The camera doesn’t show the rain or the wind.

I drove the tail vehicle. Here’s my windshield.

We arrived at the new pasture …

and the neighbors were pretty excited to greet some new cows.

Our cows immediately headed over to make friends. All this neighborly kindness led to a long night a couple of weeks later. I’ll have to post about that another time.

The storm was picking up momentum about this time so horses were quickly loaded.

Done socializing, the cows spread out to enjoy their new pasture, and we drove home to warm houses.  Nate collapsed on our coach to finish watching a soccer match and I thought we might never beable to get him up again. After a hot shower and good night’s sleep he was doing much better and was able to hobble off to his early morning church meetings. By Monday morning, his limp was barely noticeable, and by Tuesday, his aches were almost gone.

]]> http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/06/30/another-rainy-cattle-drive/feed/ 1 http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/06/07/spring-cleaning-with-the-family/ http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/06/07/spring-cleaning-with-the-family/#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:21:22 +0000 Kate http://www.katrinapalmer.com/?p=2372 Our string of six birthdays in eight weeks is over.

End of school year plays have been performed.

Advancement speeches have been made.

And now all the children are home with Mom. Time for spring cleaning. I envisioned all the cleaning taking the first week of summer break. We’ve begun week two and aren’t even halfway there yet, but here are a few things my children learned last week:

1. White means no dirt in the corners either.
2. Mom yells.
3. There are four screen edges, eight if you count both sides.
4. Mom checks both sides.
5. The ledge where the latch is attached to the windows is part of the window and has to be cleaned, too.
6. So does the latch.
7. Mom yells loudly.
8. Mom will take the phone from your ear and tell your cousin that you can’t talk right now because you haven’t finished your windows. Especially if this is the third call in thirty minutes.
9. Window tracks go all the way around–they’re not just on the bottom.
10. Straight pins can be used to extricate fly parts from window tracks.
11. Mom won’t let you play until the window passes her inspection–even if it’s 2:30 and your cousins are hovering outside the house.
12. Mom doesn’t understand “I can’t …’
13. It can take two days to clean all the windows if the children help Mom. One if she does it by herself.

And this is when I chant, “Teach your children to work even if it’s easier and faster to do the job yourself.”

This is our water. Once it melts we have no way of storing it. That means after the fourth of July, we can’t water our crops. How many of you stop watering your gardens or yards at the height of summer heat? Eighty years ago a plan was established to remedy this situation. A storage resevoir would be built in Sanpete and the Scofield resevoir in Carbon County would be doubled in size. Sanpete’s resevoir would be built first.

Before work on the Sanpete project, called the Narrows or Gooseberry, commenced, a serious risk was identified in the Scofield structure. “During World War II, it was discovered that Scofield was failing. A catastrophic failure of Scofield would do huge damage, including wiping out the railroad line that carried Carbon’s coal to Geneva Steel in Orem. The damage to Carbon’s economy, and to Geneva Steel’s contribution to America’s war effort was simply unacceptable.” (quoted from The Narrows Project Website)

Sanpete agreed that Carbon County’s Scofield project must be completed first. The dam was repaired, and its size doubled. The war ended. Carbon County had their water. Sanpete did not. Since that time, whenever Sanpete has tried to initiate progress on the resevoir to store its OWN runoff, the Carbon County Commission, the Carbon Water Conservancy district, the Price Water Users’ Association, and others have objected.

We need the capacity to store our water. We need the Narrows Project. Please help us by sending an email to the Bureau of Reclamation. Your email needs to be in their hands BEFORE JUNE 1 and must contain your full name and address.

narrowsSDEIS@usbr.gov

You can read more about the Narrows Project on this website and also in this article in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Here’s the letter Nate sent:

I am a local farmer in the North Sanpete area and have been here for over 35 years. Without the ability to store water, we are 100% dependent on spring run off and when the run-off ends, usually by end of June, so too does our crop irrigation. We desperately need the water promised to us to continue with our crop production. Each year we eek out one and half crops of alfalfa, which is not enough to even pay the expenses. With this Narrows Dam Project, we would be able to get an extra crop, making it possible to sustain our operation and secure a future for agriculture business in Sanpete. I only desire this project to be completed as promised. I have traveled to Carbon County in the fall and observe their continued irrigation of crops well into October. It is only fair, that we recuperate the water that rightfully belongs to us. I urge you, with all of the emphasis I can, to end the bickering and approve this project so we may sustain our desire to preserve our local economy and feed our communities.

Here’s the letter I sent:

I’ve lived in North Sanpete for the past seven years, first in Mt. Pleasant city and currently in the county. Sanpete maintains excellent water conservation principles both within its cities and in its various agricultural pursuits. Utah State University has recognized Sanpete County as a leader in water conservation measures. Even so, I’ve experienced the yearly summer water rationing as a city resident, and witnessed first hand the crop devastation each year beginning in July when we no longer have water for our alfalfa, barley, and oats. Citizens of our cities, as well as our many farmers, would benefit greatly from being able to store our own runoff–our own water.

Repeated environmental impact and engineering studies show there is no better place to build The Narrows Dam and Reservoir. The location is a relatively small area inhabited by sage brush and a small meandering stream. Due to a tunnel ditch and gravity, the proposed site involves no pumping costs. In 1984 Carbon County agreed, in writing, that the Narrows Project should be built, and agreed not to oppose it. I urge you to move forward with this project that began in the 1930′s. It’s time we had access to our own water.

How You Tube Showed Me My Plotholes

Sadly, I was unable to attend LTUE this year. I know, I know. It’s free. I should be able to make my schedule accommodate such things, but such is life. However, some beautiful people made a video (5, 10 minute segments, actually) of Dan Wells‘ (author of I Am Not a Serial Killer and podcaster from Writing Excuses) story structure class. Then Dan Wells posted not only  the You Tube links but also his coinciding Power Point presentation.

Amazing. Simply amazing. Can I just say, I love these people for doing this, and Dan Wells is brilliant. Brilliant people. You should all check this out. Basically there are seven points to every plot: action, character, romance, betrayal. I used his seven point plotting system to plot my WIP (Work in Progress). When I did this I saw precisely where my plot fell down, stalled, ceased to exist even. It also quickly pointed out which genre I had written–not the one I thought. Now I know what is missing, where in the story it’s missing, and most importantly how to strengthen my plotlines to write the book I thought I was writing.

How Shards of Glass Are the Only Backstory I Need

When Anon critiqued my work, I discovered I had three chapters of backstory. Three! I knew I needed to ax those chapters, but I kept trying to rewrite my favorite scenes into later parts of the book. So frustrating, because if chunks of backstory don’t belong in the first three chapters guess what happens if you try to weave it in later? That’s right–the story comes  to a complete halt while I share this bit of backstory I’ve tried to rework as something that moves the plot forward, but it can’t–because it’s backstory.

Feeling as if this might be the book I have to put away and never touch again, I quit revising. But I didn’t quit searching for answers. At the end of April I came across a backstory series on Jordan McCollum’s website. She is an amazing blogger who packs her posts full of helpful info for writers. I’m in awe of the time and research she puts into each article. Back in March Margie Lawson wrote a guest post on Jordan’s blog.  The light of backstory understanding finally dawned when I read this:

Mark Sullivan (mystery/suspense/thriller writer) has a great plan for back story management.

He suggests writing down what you think the reader needs to know.

Grab a red pen – and go through your back story points and circle what the reader absolutely has to know.

Next, take those points you circled, that the reader absolutely needs to know, and picture them etched on a sheet of glass.Got it?

You’re imagining those points imprinted on a rectangle of glass. Imagine carrying that sheet of glass to a brick patio. Imagine standing on a brick patio, holding that sheet of glass.

YOU KNOW WHAT’S COMING!

Drop that sheet of glass.

Watch it shatter.

Imagine picking up one narrow shard of glass at a time – and slipping each sliver of back story in your first 100 pages. Repeat. You insert one sliver of back story in those first 100 pages, one piece of back story at a time.

That powerful image created quite an AHA! moment for me. Now I knew I had to throw out the first three chapters. No question.

How To Quit Spinning My Wheels and Write

I learned so much from Margie Lawson’s one guest post on Jordan McCollum’s site, I enrolled in her online Deep Editing class. Wow. It’s intense. The first five chapters of my WIP are in shreds.The class ends next week and I’m pitifully behind. However, I’ve discovered that I first need to rewrite with Dan Wells’ Seven Point Story Structure system, and then use Margie Lawson’s Deep Edits to make my manuscript shine.

Knowing what to do makes all the difference in motivation.