I wonder how many people actually look forward to their meals. I almost always do, lately even more so. Remember the cranberry beans that I had on the stove on Sunday? I made them into baked beans, finishing them under a layer of pork ribs (from our pigs) in the crockpot. I was so excited about that meal and I was not disappointed. The next day, I cooked burgers (from our cow) in the same frying pan that I had cooked sausage in on Sunday. I left the pan on the stovetop with a tight fitting lid. Perhaps not as sanitary as some people would like, but so far, neither Wally or I have died from doing this and the pan drippings from the sausage makes for a wonderful cooking medium for our lean, grass-fed burgers. With the burgers we had more baked beans and some potato salad (made from scratch using store-bought potatoes and our duck eggs). Tonight we are having boneless chicken breasts (organic, store-bought) with the same side dishes. I break up our meals of pork and beef with store-bought chicken perhaps once a week. We used to each chicken much more frequently than we do now. I was thinking this morning I should take out some steaks to cook in the same pan I cooked the burgers in, but alas, I gave it to Gel to lick clean and that’s where I draw the line on use and re-use.
Since the late winter, early spring weather has been so uncooperative, I have elected to completely forego spring crops. Instead we are going to grow summer and hopefully fall crops. I want to grow a lot of beans, both to be eaten fresh (and frozen) and stored dried. Now that I’ve finally mastered cooking dried beans, I want them to be our beans as much as possible. Dried beans are perfect because they store so well and add so much to a meal.
Our neighbor up the hill is having an auction beginning April 12. He’s selling off a lot of his old tools, antiques and equipment. This saddens me because I enjoy photographing it. I learned how to use a hot shoe flash over the past few weeks in my studio class. Well, really I learned to do it by experimenting. I’m particularly pleased with this image. A trained eye may be able to tell it was lit by flash, but I believe it looks like natural lighting. I did not think I’d like using a hot shoe flash because I like natural lighting so much, but now that I’ve learned to use it correctly, I see its benefits. I would not have been able to have so much of this image in focus if I did not have the additional light from the flash. It’s nice to have lots of tools in my photographic bag.
Until later …