Fajitas...Yummmm

The other day, I wanted a quick and easy recipe.  Since I've been trying to get my garden planted in the evenings after work, and I don't get home from work until around 5:45 usually, I don't want to spend an hour in the kitchen getting supper ready.  By the time I do that, and then we eat whatever I've made, and then I clean it up, the sun is going down.  

I had seen a recipe that looked super simple, and pretty tasty, on Pinterest.  I followed the link to this website {http://eatathomecooks.com/2012/12/easy-crockpot-chicken-fajitas.html} and decided to give it a shot, with a couple small tweaks.

It was probably the easiest main dish I have ever made, and we really liked it!  

Easy Crock Pot Fajitas

2 or 3 peppers (red, green, yellow)

1 onion

Enough chicken breasts to make a single layer in your crock pot

1 package fajita seasoning

1 package taco seasoning

Slice all peppers into long, thin strips.  Slice an onion and break up the rings.  Dump all peppers and onion into a Crock Pot.  Place chicken breasts in a single layer on top of the bed of peppers & onions.  Sprinkle the packages of seasoning over the chicken.  Cook on low 6 to 8 hours  Shred or slice chicken before serving.

Seriously, how easy is that?!  It took me all of 5 minutes before work to slice up the peppers & onion.  I threw them all in a bowl and gave The Farmer instructions about how to put them in the Crock Pot, with a layer of chicken on top, and sprinkle on the seasonings.  I came home after work that day to a house that smelled AMAZING.  I shredded the chicken before we ate it, and we topped ours with sour cream, shredded cheese, and homemade pico de gallo that we had leftover from taco night.

The onions and peppers were a bit more limp because of being cooked in a Crock Pot all day, and from sitting in the liquid that came out of them and from the chicken as it all cooked, but other than that they tasted like restaurant fajitas.  Later The Farmer was heating up some more and called me from the other room.  I walk around the corner to see what he needs and he just said "Hey...these are good."  Haha!  I think that is a good sign. 

 

 

 

Goodness, what a week!  I'm usually not a huge fan of Mondays, but today I am very glad that it is the start of a new week.  Last week, I started feeling pretty crummy on Sunday evening.  All week I was fighting a nasty cold that finally got me down Friday afternoon.  I wound up sleeping a ridiculous amount Friday afternoon/evening/night and Saturday morning, and feeling much better when I finally woke up.

I felt so good that Saturday afternoon I went out to the garden and planted onions, cucumber, and one variety of sweet corn.  I also poked around in the dirt a bit and discovered that my watermelon is coming up!  At church on Sunday, a friend gave me 4 tomato plants that they had started from seed, so I planted those tonight.  

I went to check on the maybe-Hostas, maybe-Lily of the Valley plant that's behind the house, and it is definitely Lily of the Valley!  I couldn't resist picking a few sprigs (stalks?) and putting them in a small vase in my kitchen window.  We've got that window open this evening, and the breeze is blowing the amazing scent through the house.  I LOVE spring!

Grow All the Things!

I mentioned in an earlier post that we recently moved to the farm.  The Farmer's grandparents had set up a pretty sweet vegetable garden when they lived here.  They had fenced the whole thing to keep critters out, and when animals started climbing/jumping the fence, they put electric fencing around the whole thing too.  I've always wanted to have a big vegetable garden, because there is NOTHING better than eating fresh veggies you just picked a few hours ago.  But I've always lived in rental housing that either didn't have any yard space, or that I didn't want to put the time/work into since I knew I wouldn't be living there permanently.

With the sweet garden setup waiting for me at the farm, I knew that this year I wanted to try my hand at growing some things.  I've done tomatoes before, and I love fresh grown tomatoes, so I'll definitely be planting some.  I also plan on planting sweet corn, cucumbers, watermelon, green beans, and onions.  I've been itching to get the garden going for several weeks now, so the day before Easter I went out and planted potatoes.  I waited a few days, then went out to check if they had sprouted yet.

Nothing.

I waited a few more days, until it had been a week since I planted them.  

Still nothing.

By the 2 week mark, there was still no sign of life and I was pretty sure I had somehow screwed up the potatoes.  Then today, I saw this:

They are finally poking through!  Not all of them yet, but at least it's a start.  

One of the fun things about this spring on the farm is that plants are popping up, bushes are greening up, but I don't know what any of them are.  It's been fun to watch as things come to life and to try to guess what everything is.  There is a small bush by our garage that didn't look like anything special when we moved in during the dead of winter, but a couple of weeks ago it bloomed with the most beautiful, fragrant lilacs!  I've always wanted to have a lilac bush, so I was really excited when it greened up enough that I could tell that it was lilacs.

There is a plant growing in a shady spot by our back door that I though was a hosta.  But when I looked at them closer today, I noticed that they have little stems with buds on them that don't quite look like hostas.  I'm thinking now that they may be Lily of the Valley?  I've always wanted to try growing it, so I'll be super excited if that's what it really is!  This is what it looks like today:

I'm anxious to watch it grow and bloom! I read that it can be poisonous to dogs, so I hope Harlee doesn't decide to munch on it. 

One flower I reeeeeeeally wanted to add to the yard was peonies.  They are just so darn beautiful!  In the meantime, there is a row of at least 2 different kinds of plants growing between our house and the shed.  Early in the growth process I recognized that most of the row are day lilies.  But there was some sort of plant growing at one end of the row that I had absolutely no idea what it was.  I swear it has grown a foot overnight, because the last time I checked it, it was only about 6 inches tall.  Today I stopped to get a closer look, and this is what I saw:

I'm like 99% sure they are peonies!  Hooray!  :)  I'm lucky that The Farmer's grandparents have such great taste in flowers.

I do have a few other flowers I want to add to the yard, but we have such a great start with the plants that his grandparents left.

The Best Pie Ever

A couple of weeks ago, The Farmer's family got together to celebrate Easter.  It was a great evening of catching up with family and eating a lot of delicious food.  One of his aunts had made a pie that both The Farmer and I ate and LOVED.  His aunt gave me the recipe, and it sounded pretty simple, so I decided to whip one up the other day.  It was delicious, and so easy to make!  

Are you ready for the easiest, tastiest recipe ever?  Here it is:

Creamy Peanut Butter Pie

1 cup peanut butter (we prefer creamy but crunchy would be fine too, if you're into that)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 8oz block cream cheese, softened

1 12oz tub Cool Whip

1 Oreo pie crust

To make the pie, mix the peanut butter and powdered sugar well.  Add the softened cream cheese and mix well.  (I used a Kitchen Aid mixer for all of this.)  Then gently fold in the tub of Cool Whip with a spatula.  Once the mixture is all folded together, pour it into the Oreo crust and refrigerate.  How easy is that?!

In other news, Harlee had to take a bath last night.  Since we've moved to the farm, she has picked up a nasty habit of finding dead animals and rolling herself on them.  Apparently this is appealing to her?  Dogs are weird.  Anyways, Harlee is terrified of getting a bath.  She cowers in the corner of the shower, tucks her tail completely between her hind legs, and shakes.  She doesn't stop shaking until she's out of the bath and getting dried off.  

The first couple of times I bathed her, I felt bad for her.  I was still a relatively new figure in her life, and she didn't have any history with me to know that I was not going to hurt her.  That was over two years ago.  As I was bathing her last night, and she was shaking as violently as ever, I was thinking about how silly she is.  She knows me now; she knows I would never do anything to hurt her.  She knows that I make sure she has food, water, shelter, love, etc. every single day.  She knows that in our entire 2+ years of being together, I have never done anything to hurt her.  Yet she's still terrified when I bathe her.

It's easy for me to laugh at her, but then I realize that I do the same thing.  I have a long history with God.  I've been in church since before I was born, I asked Jesus into my heart when I was 3 years old, and my entire life has been a journey with the Lord.  Through all of that, over the last 30 years of life, He has never once let me down, left me hanging, or let something happen to me that wasn't for my good.  Sure, He's let me go through some difficult things: a very difficult breakup, a scary car accident, and two months of being violently ill in the Amazon jungle come to mind, but those are stories for another day.  Looking back on each of those events, I can see his grace and protection in each one.  I know that all 3 turned out for His glory and my good.  But along comes a new challenge, and my reaction is to freak out, tuck my tail between my legs, and shake like Harlee.

I want Harlee to calm down enough to just stand there while I bathe her, but much more importantly, I want to calm down and rest in His goodness while He takes me through the things that I don't enjoy.  Isaiah 30:15 says that “In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.”  I want to stop standing in the corner shaking and just wait in quiet trust.  

God is so good, to use even the mundane tasks like bathing the dog to teach me.  If anyone has practical ideas about how to be a quiet truster (not a word?) instead of a corner shaker, I'd love to hear them.  In the meantime, I'll be over here bathing my dog.  Because now that she's all clean, her mission for tomorrow will be to find a new rotting carcass to roll in. 

   

Wedding Photos

This post has nothing to do with farming, decorating, renovating, or anything else I want this blog to be about.  But The Farmer and I just got our wedding photos this past weekend, and I'm in love with them!  We had two AMAZING photographers (who happen to be my cousin and her husband) who captured the day beautifully for us.  From the time I arrived at the church to start getting ready to the time The Farmer and I pulled out of town in his truck, my memory of the day is one big blur of hugs, talking to so many family and friends, smiling for a thousand pictures, and the ceremony itself.  Since it all went so fast, it was fun to look through all the pictures and be reminded of all the little details, all the people, and all the events that made our day so special.  We decided not to have any video (I know, we've got to be the only people on the planet with no wedding video...we are so not 21st century!), so we are thankful to have such wonderful photos that we can look back on through 60 years of marriage, Lord willing.

Here are a few of my favorites!

First look

My sweet niece was the flower girl

I L.O.V.E.D. my dress, especially the back

Ready for our first walk down the aisle as Mr. & Mrs.

The perfect end to a great day

The cast of characters:

The Farmer and me. 

The Farmer grew up on a farm, his dad farms, and his grandfathers both farmed.  He went to college to study farming and came back home to farm (are you seeing a theme here?).  He grows mostly wheat, with some milo and soybeans thrown in for good measure.  He likes farming (duh), K-State football, and leftovers.  He is utterly confused by my decision to make and hang fabric bunting.  He likes numbers, logic, and practicality.  

I grew up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.  While my parents weren't farmers, my mom's extended family (cousins, uncles, grandparents) all lived nearby and farmed, so I at least had some idea of what it entailed before meeting The Farmer.  I studied psychology and now work as a secretary at a small Christian college in the Midwest.  I'm a die-hard Nebraska Cornhusker football fan, I love chocolate and Dr. Pepper, and I've been to 4 continents on mission trips.

We recently got married and moved to the farmhouse that The Farmer's grandparents built in the 1960s.  It's not really a farmhouse, more of a ranch style home really.  But it's on the farm, and it's a house, so it's the farmhouse.

The guard dog.

Harlee is a 30lb spaniel/German shepherd mix that I adopted about 2 years ago (before I met The Farmer).  We think she was abused when she was younger because she's very timid and hates loud noises, people she doesn't know, and being left alone.  She has LOVED the move to the farm because she now has several acres of yard to run on, and an endless supply of rabbits/pheasants/other wildlife to chase.  She loves to ride along with The Farmer in his truck and has even been coaxed into the tractor a couple of times.

The plan.

I want to use this little blog as a way to document our adventures in farming, gardening, cooking, decorating, and renovating our house.