Farm in winter

Arriving at the farm about dinner time on a chilly Friday evening, I was glad to see everything was working—the well, furnace, oven, refrigerator, washer, dryer, tv, Internet—all the things that can go awry when left on their own for too long. A couple of ferns I brought in for the winter were doing nicely, too, thanks to a neighbor’s care.

A Dinner from the Freezer

Dinner that evening would be whatever we could pull together from the staples on hand. Robin made a nosedive into the freezer and came up with some broth from the Thanksgiving turkey. In no time, she had soup simmering on a back burner, giving the place the aroma of an old farmstead.

Using firewood my grandson, Andrew, had brought in during an earlier visit, she soon had a warm blaze that helped take the chill off the house. She had brought along homemade crackers, that she had baked on a sheet pan and broken into irregular pieces. The recipe was in a recent copy of Feast magazine and turned out to be a perfect companion for the soup.

Turkey soup to the rescue. From the looks of the freezer, we have about 3 more spur-of-the-moment meals left on the holiday turkey—a bird that has certainly given us our money’s worth in flavorful meals.

Homemade crackers

Granddaughters Arrive

The next day when Tom, Lisa and the girls arrived, bringing yet more soup—a humongous pot! They had made it from a recipe given them by the chef at Blackberry Farm in Kentucky. Wow! Was it ever good! More later on this hearty soup, that gets a dollop of mashed potatoes served on top. I’m re-writing the recipe so it doesn’t read like something the chef scribbled from memory on the front of an envelope.

Blackberry Farm Venison Stew. (I suspect beef would do as well.)

More to Do on a Cold Day

It being so cold outdoors, I wondered what the kids would find to do. They had already figured it out: ice skate. The farm ponds were not quite firm enough, so they bundled up and headed for Little Dry Fork creek.

Ice skating on the frozen creek.

Sitting by the fire watching TV and munching popcorn is a perfect way to end an afternoon of ice skating.

And, since it was Martin Luther King’s birthday, we commemorated on Monday with a breakfast of Rosa Park’s Featherlite Peanut Butter Pancakes—and, yes, they were feather light and just slightly peanut buttery. We followed that by listening to the “I’ve Got a Dream” speech, which the girls, to my surprise, watched attentively.

Sitting by the fire reading a book, suits me anytime the temperatures plummet.