Tortilla Soup! or Fried Rice!

Today has been great or at least most of it was. You see, late this afternoon I was planning on spending the rest of the day and evening writing. And that didn't happen and it did.

When Tony was going out the door to go to Medina, he said, "I talked to Chet and he is coming over to see us around 6:00."

I was thrilled about seeing our dear friend Chet O'Keefe, but in my excitement I decided to go ahead and cook our dog's breakfast—brown rice, carrots, kale and hot dogs, so I wouldn't have to do it later tonight after Chet left.

Well let me say that at my age, it is not good to get me excited, because I can get easily distracted. Thoughts were racing through my head: "I need to get Hazel and vacuum the floor—I need to clean the kitchen—I need to put pillows back on the bed, etc."

Now let me back up for a minute. Early this afternoon Tony and I went to the big H-E-B to get groceries, so I could make us some tortilla soup for a late lunch. I made the soup and it was absolutely delicious.

Okay, now back to the story. After eating lunch I decided to leave the soup, in the Instant Pot pot, so it would cool before I put it in baggies, so I could freeze it.

Well, in my haste, knowing but forgetting that the soup was cooling in the pot, on the kitchen island I measured out the brown rice—tossed it into the Instant Pot. Then I added four cups of water, put the lid on it and turned it on. And that is when I realized that I had put the ingredients directly into the Instant Pot—missing its pot, because it was on the kitchen island!

So, I immediately unplugged my Instant Pot and was wishing that Tony was here to help me.

At first, I decided to just throw away my Instant Pot machine, because I knew that it was ruined, because water and rice were leaking from the bottom of the Instant Pot. And that is when things got more than interesting.

Because I love my Instant Pot I did not want to throw it out, so I poured the rice and water out of the machine, into the sink. Then I turned it upside down to inspect the bottom.

The next thing I did was grab my power drill and removed the plastic bottom and inspected the Instant Pot's guts. And it was pretty, but was wet and full of uncooked brown rice.

And that was when I decided to take pictures, to document what I had done if I got electrocuted, so Tony, our four-leggers and the Police would know—"She died for her Instant Pot. She died cooking for her dogs..." Figuring that would be my epitaph even though I want to be cremated and not electrocuted.

After I had shaken the Instant Pot nearly to death with a pile of brown rice in the kitchen sink, I decided to dry the insides of the machine. So I turned on my turbo floor fan and aimed it into the guts of the Instant Pot.

About twenty minutes of blow drying, I turned off the fan and inspected the Instant Pot insides.

The fan had done its job. It had blown most of the rice out and it looked pretty dry, so the next thing I did was grab Hazel and vacuumed out the remainder of the dirty rice.

Then I decided to use my hair dryer to help make sure that it was as dry as possible.

I then said a quick prayer thanking God for everything, as I poured the cooled-off soup into a gallon Baggie.

As I placed the soup bag into the freezer I also thanked God for Tony, my beautiful family, dogs, friends, etc. 

Then I washed out the Instant Pot's pot and put it inside the machine and measured out 2 cups of brown rice and 4 cups of water. Then I secured the lid. But before I plugged it in, I went into the bathroom and removed my dentures, because the thought of having Tony find me with melted dentures was not how I wanted Tony and the dogs to remember me. And yes, it was a little vain.

Then I asked God to forgive me for being vain. Then I held my breath and plugged in the Instant Pot. The thing beeped like it always does, so I set the timer for 24 minutes and then walked away thanking God for not taking me today and keeping my Instant Pot alive.

As I finish writing this, Chet should be here in just a few minutes and we cannot wait to see him. And knowing that the rice is cooked and not fried rice I plan to finish making the dog's breakfast while Chet is here.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

P.S. I do not recommend doing what I did with my Instant Pot, because it really could be dangerous. And if this ever happens again, I am just going to throw it out and buy another one.

The Wonderful Wolfmuellers!

Saturday we had a cold front blow in and I totally loved it, because Tony and I built a fire in the wooden stove—making The Cabin so cozy. And here is a picture of Henry Standing Bear and Belle Starr-Simons relaxing or better said—sleeping and snoring.

I'm so glad that the cold front blew in, because it is probably going to be the last time for us to get to use the wood burning stove until Fall arrives.

Today has been great. This morning Tony and I went to visit Carol and we did a lot of laughing as always.  

After adios-ing Carol we took off to go visit Tony's brother Sam and his sweet wife Stacie. But first we made an intentional, fun pit stop, at the famous Old Timer, which is and always will be The official Heartbeat (Or The Pulse) of Medina, Texas—where everybody knows your name and the latest on what's going on, in Medina. 

I love The Old Timer so much, because it has the best vibes and you can always count on being greeted by Debbie Martin or her friendly, upbeat employees. 

Anyway, I could not wait to see all of the new changes/renovations that sweet Debbie has made to The Old Timer. And get this—when we pulled up, at The Old Timer and got out of Roy (our 2012 Dodge Ram truck) Debbie actually came outside and waved for us to come inside.

When we walked inside the store, Debbie and Melinda greeted us and after hugs and howdies I looked around and I loved what I saw. So I said, "Debbie, I love what you've done to your store. I mean, I have always loved the way it looked inside, but now you've outdone yourself....In fact, I am going to blog about this...."

Then I walked around and started taking pictures of the awesome-looking store, as Tony sat down at a table and visited with Melinda and Debbie. I loved the way Debbie had rearranged the store, with the longer, wider isles and her knack for decorating. And here are a just a few of the pictures that I took.

This is the Old Timer's Wall or as I like to call it— The Wall of Fame and Tony is such a morning regular there, he gets to keep his very own coffee mug, on the shelf, beside the big window.

And when I was at the back of The Old Timer, I took this picture of Debbie talking to Tony, but it is hard to see her, because The Old Timer is so big inside. Anyway, that is Debbie standing in front of the counter and Tony with his back to me, sitting on a bench.

Tone and I had a nice visit with Sam & Stacie and after we adios-ed them my day just kept getting better and better.

When we got back home, Carlton was flashing, on top of my desk. So I pushed his button to hear the message and then I punched in the number to return the call. "Hi Sandy! We just got back home and we would absolutely love for you & Jon to come see us...."

About forty-five minutes later, the wonderful Wolfmuellers arrived and we could not wait to show Sandy & Jon all that we've done to, the inside, of The Cabin, our water catchment system and Tony's keyhole garden area that he is still working on. 

Omg, Sandy & Jon made me feel so great. They loved our finished front porch, the painted red door and "the mud room" that we built last weekend, which is immediately on your left, as you enter The Cabin. They thought our kitchen was too cute and they assured me that they thought that there was no reason whatsoever for me not to have my electric stove, because of the microwave, counter top oven and my Instant Pot. 

When Tony and I started to brag about how much we love our Instant Pot, they laughed, and Sandy said, "Jon's sister Joan just got an Instant Pot and her twin, Jean, wants to get one, too. But I told Jean to just wait awhile, because Joan will probably use hers once and then give it to her...." 

After we gave Jon & Sandy a tour outside, showing them our water harvesting system and Tony's keyhole gardens we returned to the front porch and had a fun visit. And during our conversation I asked them if they had ever eaten, at the Wild Ass Hey Barn. "Yes, we've been there and we love it, too," Sandy said.

"There food there is so delicious," Jon added. And then they told us about the restaurant's super-cool deck, that overlooks the Guadalupe River. "Their Friday Night Catfish Dinner is fabulous, and it is also open Mic night, so you get to listen to some really good music while enjoying the best fried catfish...." 

And that is about it for tonight, because I am going to watch a movie. I don't know which movie I will watch on Netflix of Amazon, but you can be sure it will either be a comedy or a romance movie.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Great! or The Cedar Choppers!

Today has been great and so was Saturday, Sunday and Monday. First off, I had a fabulous time at Katelyn's birthday party, that Ronnie & Nita threw, at their Ronderosa Ranch. To say the least, "It was totally great.

Being with my beautiful family was great. Seeing old friends and then playing music with them was great. The food was great.

Sunday morning I left the Ronderosa Ranch, around 8:30 and I got back to Big Foot Ranch, about 10:20. And after hugging Tony and all of our dogs I took a shower, put on fresh clothes and then Tony and I took off, for Kerrville, to run a few errands.

Of course our first stop was, at Home Depot, to buy paint and our last stop was at the big H-E-B, so we could pick up a few groceries, so I could cook a late dinner for our dear friends, Jim Keaveny & Rachel, because they were driving in, from Terlingua, to spend the night with us.

When we got back home, we unpacked our groceries and then we put on our work/paint clothes, because we wanted to get started painting the front porch ceiling "sky blue" as quickly as possible. Because a porch ceiling painted the color of the sky keeps wasps away. Here are some pictures that I took of our project.

Jim & Rachel arrived around 7:30 and it was so good to see them and while Jim told us about leaving for his Holland tour, on Tuesday (today) I cooked us a delicious roast with carrots and potatoes and onions, in my Instant Pot.

And earlier, when I started peeling the carrots, we excitedly told Jim & Rachel about us getting an Instant Pot and they both started laughing. "Jeff Haislip just got one of those things, too," They said. "And he's been telling everyone, in Terlingua, about how great it is...."

While our super-pressure cooker was cooking us a delicious meal, in under an hour, Jim told us that he was going to spend half of his tour opening for Joan Osborne. And these are the dates for those shows, in case you might be, in Holland.

Sunday night we had a blast visiting with our friends and we stayed up until midnight, so we could wish Jim a Happy Birthday.

Monday morning, around 10:30, I cooked breakfast and while we were drinking delicious Donut Shop Coffee, we made a toast to Jim's birthday and we had a good laugh about it working out that Jim spending Thanksgiving, Christmas's and his birthdays with us.

Around 12:45, after another fun visit Jim & Rachel took off to go visit Kinky. And we took off for Carol's ranch, so we could celebrate Mark's birthday and meet Bill's sweet niece, Cathy and her husband Chip, who were visiting them, from Wisconsin.

And that was a total blast, too. It was great to see Mark as always and meeting Bill's family was like being with our own family. Carol cooked up a fabulous fajita dinner and she made one of her signature pies—Magnolia Pie. (Last year, Carol gave me the recipe to this mouth-watering pie and after eating a small slice I definitely plan to make it for us soon. After I loose several pounds—thanks to Weight Watchers.) And yes, I might as well admit it now that Saturday and Sunday I fell off the wagon doing Weight Watchers.

Tony and I spent our Monday evening painting the rest of our front porch or at least as much as we could before running out of paint.

This morning our dear friend Gerry Olert came to visit us. Gerry is the incredibly talented, video-grapher that has done all of our rescue ranch videos for the past 20 years. And he is also the one who worked with me on our hilarious video spoof Longmire—Texas Style. Starring the one and only Little Debbie!

Before Tony and I went to go eat lunch with Gerry, in Kerrville, Gerry asked me to do a short video for him, on our front porch. So while Tony stilled my wind chimes for Gerry, I grabbed Little Debbie and he shot us and it was painless.

We had a fun lunch with Gerry and after we adios-ed him Tony and I went to Home Depot and bought a few more buckets of paint. And then we came home and started painting, again.

Tonight as I finish writing this I want to tell you about this fabulous book that I bought for Tony, because it arrived this afternoon. The book is The Cedar Choppers: Life On The Edge of Nothing by Ken Roberts. Published 2018 by Texas A&M Press.

It is a fabulous book. And Tony's dad, his brothers, his relatives and him are mentioned in this awesome book. It is a "can't put it down book" and as soon as I finish writing this I plan to spend this evening reading the history of all of these cedar choppers.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Praying For Rain!

The last couple of days have been great. Aaron came out, on Friday, to help us build another level "slab" for our second water tank for it to sit on.

Yesterday morning, as you can see in the above picture, Aaron and Andy came over and helped us connect our gutter system to the first tank. And to say the least we are more than excited about collecting rain water and that is why we are now praying for rain.

Saturday afternoon, Tony and I had a fun surprise or better said—twin surprises. Yes, our dear friends/twins Jean and Joan came out for a fun short visit and to see our ranch and they were bearing gifts for both of us.

They brought Tony a six-pack of Stone IPA beer, except we noticed that it was missing one beer and we were not about to say anything about it.  Then Jean or Joan says, (Remember they are identical twins and that is why I can't remember who said what.) "We bought six, but Jon drank one of them." And we all had a good laugh about that.

Then Jean tells me, "I made this for you, Nancy." Then Jean hands me this pretty sack and inside it was this beautiful, pink, crocheted shawl with a ribbon tied around it. And yes, my jaw dropped and I was speechless, because I loved it so much and I thought it was so sweet of Jean to have spent her time crocheting me this lovely shawl.

When I finally recovered and got my voice back, I thanked Jean for her beautiful gift and then I pointed to the wall where "our" framed, pretty, pink potholder takes up space. And both she and Joan laughed. And that made Tony and me start laughing, because their laughter is exactly the same.

The only bad thing about Jean and Joan's visit was they did not stay long enough. After we had given "The Girls" a grand tour of The Cabin and Big Foot Ranch they bid us farewell. And after they left I came inside, The Cabin and laid out the shawl, on the breakfast island and then I took this picture of Jean's pretty, one-of-a-kind, pink shawl. Which I cannot wait to wear.

Today has been great and it has been a pretty, quite day. So late this afternoon, while I was cooking a soup/stew, in my Instant Pot, Tony and I went outside and spread some more pea-gravel on our circular driveway.

Sadly, even though that gigantic pile of pea gravel is slowly disappearing—I'm nervous that it may take us a few months to completely use up all of our pea gravel.

Now before I finish writing this for tonight, I want you to know that my soup/stew recipe turned out to be absolutely healthy as well as delicious. And it only took me 45 minutes to pressure cook the whole thing. Which included dried pinto beans, zucchinis, carrots, onion, bell peppers, corn and tomatoes and a slew of spices. 

In fact, Tone loved it so much he took a second helping, before I froze the rest. And I am doing great on Weight Watchers and my soup/stew used up only a tiny amount of my daily points.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Tiny Pink Pills!

First off, Monday night after Tony and I spent over thirty minutes searched to find Big Al(ice)'s thunder jacket I finally found it. For some reason it was stuffed inside one of my straw, Resistol cowboy hats that I have yet to hang up, on a wall. So we survived Monday night without a hitch.

Yesterday, we spent most of our time outside burning brush. So it was a pretty uneventful day. But last night wasn't.

It was around 11:30 and Tony had already gone to bed, while I stayed up reading Second Sister by Marie Bostwick. I had just started reading this great book, around 9:00, and I was so hooked on reading it I could not put it down and it is a good thing that I didn't.

Because at 11:46, there was this big, loud thunder clap and suddenly the rain started pouring down, which made Big Al(ice) go into a full-blown a panic attack. The lightning strike was so loud that it also startled Henry Standing Bear, Belle and me. So I immediately went into action to help Alice even though I knew that I needed to unplug everything.

First, I folded up one of Alice's tiny, pink, happy pills, inside an even smaller piece of Honey Wheat bread and then I picked up Big Al and put her, on top of the kitchen island and gave her the pill. Then with her still shaking and standing on top of the island, with Belle and Henry closely watching us, I put Big Ali(ice)'s thunder jacket on her. And that seemed to relieve all of us.

Then with Alice tightly clutched in my arms I raced around The Cabin unplugging everything as fast I could. And right after I unplugged Jaws (my mighty Vita-Mix machine) lightning hit real close again startling all of us, once more. Several seconds later all was unplugged and Big Al(ice) seemed to be calming down some.

So I left Big Al, on the sofa, cuddled up with Belle and Henry and went and took my little pink pill (Baby Aspirin), so I wouldn't have a heart attack or a stroke, because of all of the unexpected commotion.

Well, it rained hard for about forty-five minutes and I could hear the thunder finally moving farther and farther away, as Big Al(ice) slept peacefully between Belle and Hen. (Yes, sometimes I call Henry Standing Bear—Hen to save time.)

A little after 12:30, I decided to do a little more reading, because I love this book and also because I was too wound up to go to sleep.

Anyway, I was so engrossed in reading Second Sister the time flew by and I ended up going to bed just a little before 2:00.

Today has been great even though I got up at 7:00 and was moving slower than normal. The Cabin was warm and cozy, because Tone had gotten up early, at 5:00 (Like he always does.) and he had started a big fire, in our wood-burning stove. It seemed everyone was rested but me.

We spent most of our morning putting away more stuff. Then using my new Instant Pot I made us a super, delicious lunch—pot roast with red potatoes, carrots and onions. And Tony and I were both impressed with how delicious it was and how little time it took for the pressure cooker to cook our meal.

So late this afternoon, after sweating and walking 4 Fast Miles With Leslie Sansone, I called Ronnie, because I wanted to tell him about how great our Instant Pot is so he could buy one, too. "....I know, Nance," Ronnie said. "I bought us an Instant Pot, about a year ago and we use it all of the time..."

After he told me about Nita making the best macaroni and cheese in their Instant Pot and rice, roast, etc. we changed the subject and talked about what Heartland episode he and Nita were watching, because I've already watched the entire series. "Well, let me see. We're on Season 10 now and we've watched the first three episodes and...." Then we went back to talking about Instant Pots, again. And before we adios-ed each other Ronnie gave me his Instant Pot Pork Ribs recipe, because he told me that he makes it all of the time for his friends and they absolutely love it and they can't believe that it only takes 13 minutes, in the Instant Pot and only 4-5 minutes in the broiler.

So tomorrow I plan to go to the big H-E-B, in Kerrville and buy some pork ribs, chicken broth and bbq sauce, so Tony and I can eat Ronnie's "Falls Off the Bone" pork ribs for our dinner. And that's about it for tonight, because I am going to read for a little while and then hopefully go to bed early, so I can catch up on my much needed beauty sleep.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!