The Calm Before the Storm.....

This is pretty much me today.

Holed up in the house with yarn.

Didn't dress m'self.

Ate bacon for lunch.

I'm recharging my batteries.

Tomorrow the flour will be flying.

Friday 'it' begins. Ya'll know what I'm talking about.

So it's just a nice quiet day here at the Coop Keeper's.

The girls are quietly laying their eggs, in my garden shed no less.

I overheard them talking today. I couldn't make all of the conversation out, but I did hear 'thankful we aren't turkeys'

A lazy day like this calls for a lazy, soul satisfying recipe.

This is what is in the oven right now....it's so incredibly fabulous that if you make it, your children will thank you, and your childrens' children. Yes, it's that good!

Country Stew

Serves 8 (8 normal people, or 4 if you're like me)

2# beef stew meat 1 T brown sugar

3-4 potatoes 1 t salt

3-4 carrots 1/2 t black pepper

2 ribs celery 1/2 t ground allspice

3 small onions 1/4 t dried marjoram

28 oz can of tomatoes 1/4 t dried thyme

1/4 cup water 1 bay leaf

5 T minute tapioca 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

2 T Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cut meat into bite-size pieces. Peel and cut the potatoes into pieces a bit larger than the meat. Clean the carrots, celery, and onions, and cut all into 1" pieces. In a large, heavy pan, combine all the ingredients, except the parsley. Bake, covered, for five hours without stirring. Add parsley just before serving.

This does NOT freeze well.

I'm working on a post about the house for tomorrow. I know I left ya'll hanging with the masked man stopping by after we burnt all of his belongings....tomorrow I answer the questions left from that, and show you the kitchen before and afters. Hope you'll stop back by for that.

An interesting side note.....whilst working on this post, I began to receive comments that The Pioneer Woman has Aaron's picture up on her website, from her Chicago booksigning!

Oh dear...first Stubs, now Aaron. How will I live with these egos!

Here is what she had to say, hope it's ok that I cut and pasted....

"Okay, will you please look past my 2-hour-old BRUNETTE dye job and focus in on this dude for a minute? First of all, I thought he was 23 or something. He sad down with all the confidence of a reporter in the field and let me know that he and his colleague were getting ready to start chronicling all the recipes from my book online, one-by-one, and will give each recipe either a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Turns out, he's fourteen years old, and his "colleague" is his aunt, who homeschools him. I've got to sort through and find his URL and will share it with you as soon as possible. He completely charmed my socks off"

You should see Aaron now, he's beaming. Thanks Ree!