Sunday Slowdays

We have always been homebodies on Sundays if at all possible. With the exception of church. Not that we do not on occasion run to a store or eat out but generally staying home to rest up for the week ahead. I remember as a child everything being closed on Sundays. You didnt really have a choice but to stay home. If you have ever read Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder about her husband as a child they took Sunday pretty seriously. You cooked all your food on Saturday. The only thing you could do was read your bible and nap in a chair. Her husband, Almonzo and his brothers chose to sneak out while dad was napping. It didnt end well.

Even though its below freezing outside today the sun is shining brightly and is reflecting off the snow on the ground and has me day dreaming about the garden. The guys are watching Grand Tour, boys and their love of things that go fast, I just dont get it. The dogs are wanting to wrestle with each other and drive me crazy. Socks our cat keeps sitting on my keyboard looking at me like this because I am somehow suppose to make the cold and snow go away so he can hunt mice which he likes to leave outside for his brothers, the dogs, and I have to chase them to get them from them or we will find headless mice in our beds, behind couch cushions, or any other random place.

Just in case others are daydreaming about gardening as I am I thought I would share some garden info. If you are planning on growing onions from seed the time to plant them is within the next week. If you want to start them outdoors from sets you can do that on or after March 8th. I live in Zone 6 or at least thats what Mr Ladybug tells me. One of the reasons we decided to start onions for seed is its cheaper. We also chose types that we may or may not be able to find local. One of our favorite seed places closed down last summer in our area. I am going to probably offend a few people with this next statement but by the time lots of our big box stores get cabbage and other cole crops its too late to really plant them. They dont do great in the hot summer days. I am not saying they wont grow but if you have had trouble growing things its not always your fault.

Last night we had deer meat given to us. I looked at a million recipes and pieced a few of them together to get this one.

1 pound of deer back strap
1/4 cup of good balsamic vinegar ( we are total vinegar snobs and refuse to buy any under $16 a bottle)
1/4 cup worchestershire sauce
1 tsp chili powder
2 cloves of garlic (i sliced mine really thin but crushed should be fine also)
1-2 tsp molasses
1 tsp dijon mustard

Mix marinade and add it and the deer to a ziplock bag and marinate in the fridge for at least an hour. I  took mine from the marinade, sliced it in 1/2 inch slices and cooked in a Tablespoon of butter on the wood stove for 3-5 minutes on each side.

We had it with parmesan shells and peas. This is just a recipe in my head. I cooked 2 cups of pasta in boiling water, not on the wood stove. Its hard to get your water to a rolling boils for 12 minutes and you end up with icky gooey pasta that you feed to your chickens Learn from my mistakes and if you see someone who says you can boil pasta on their wood stove they  either have it really hot in their house or they are lying. About 2 minutes before pasta is done add your peas. Drain and add a Tablespoon or two of butter to your pan, add the pasta and 1/2  cup parmesan cheese and enough milk, maybe 1/2 to 3/4 cup, and heat on low until its melted and hot.