Meet Layla

Meet sweet Layla!

Y'all, the LAST thing I needed on this earth was to take care of another living creature, 

but here we are!

This sweet girl was destined to be with us, 

here is her story.

We go to church in a very small town, and on the way there, we pass some trailer houses.  A long time ago, I noticed this little dog who was chained to the end of one of the trailers. 

Over time, her owners encircled the end of the trailer with cattle panels and plywood.  This poor little puppy only had a 4X8 space to live.  When we would drive by, sometimes I would see that she had worked her way in between the plywood boards to try to be in the sunshine.  The chain was only about six feet, so she couldn't go very far.  And since she couldn't go very far, I figured she slept, ate, pooped and peed in that very small six foot radius. 

It broke my heart.  I cried.

And since always we passed her on the way to church, I often prayed for her at Mass.  

Silly, right?

I thought about her all the time during the heat of summers, frigid winters, storms, you name it, 

she was always on my mind.  

She never ran in the grass, felt the sunshine on her face, or even a loving human touch.

I prayed for her for a year that the Lord would rescue her.

I contacted the sheriff's office during an ice storm, they did nothing.

I contacted the local animal rescue, 

they did nothing.

Last Monday, something FINALLY happened.

My husband went up to that trailer and rescued her himself!

He talked to the owner and he just gave her away like a sack of trash, he didn't even say good bye to her.

Poor baby was covered in filth, fleas, and sores.

But she was finally safe.

She was finally loved.

She was finally HOME.

You'll be happy to know she is now living like a QUEEN!

We cant change her past, 

but we sure can change her future!

We love you, sweet Layla

A Mess Of Greens

We're expecting low temperatures 

in the 20's next week.

Texans are not built for that!

And neither is my garden, so I went out today to harvest as many greens as I could.

As it turns out, it was A LOT of greens...

The washed greens covered the span of my island!

 Hardy greens like kale, collards, mustards, and swiss chard all lend themselves to freezing and the process in incredibly easy. 

After a thorough washing and removing the stems, roll stacks of your greens into a "cigar" shape and then make rough chops across.

Heat a large pot of water to just under boiling.  Put your greens in and blanche for 3 minutes.  Remove the leaves with a slotted spoon and submerge into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.  Keep the leaves in the ice water for 3 minutes then wring them out really well. 

Pack your greens in a quart sized zip lock freezer bag, press out all the air, and seal.

These little packets of goodness will keep 10-12 months in the freezer.

It's so nice to have these on hand to throw into a soup or smoothie.  But my favorite way is to boil a smoked ham hock and onion in some chicken stock and add the greens to that for a good 'ol southern "mess of greens."

The Goodness of Bread

One day, I took my daughter to the library and while she was browsing, I did some browsing of my own.  I went to the cookbook section and found a treasure trove of bread baking books.  

I checked out like five of them.  

It was wonderful, dare I say life changing...

My favorite book was this one:  

Bread Baking for Beginners

I literally baked my way through this book!

Now, I'm no stranger to bread baking. You can see in some of the previous posts on this blog that I did quite a bit of it.  But this book helped me take my skills to the next level!

And I shall refer to December 2023 as the month of "Fatty Christmas" because I baked so many versions of bread...

Focaccia,

Cinnamon & Sugar,

English muffins,

An insane amount of pizza,

and the list goes on.

And while this little side track may seem frivolous to some, I have gained so much confidence in this new skill.  Mass produced bread products are just that, mass produced.  One reason homemade bread tastes so much better is that I know exactly what is going into it.  Not every loaf of bread is perfect, but every loaf of bread is edible...

and that makes bread baking the most delicious form of therapy for me while my garden is sleeping over the winter.