On Friday afternoon we were blessed to be given some blueberries and I tried a new recipe for blue berry muffins.  Hubby declared them the best blue berry muffins he ever had and the kids and I agree that they are delicious!  So I decided to share the recipe that I found on Food.com.


Best Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream 
• 1 1/2 cups frozen of fresh blueberries

Directions:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick vegetable cooking spray.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl until combined. Whisk egg in second medium bowl until well-combined and light-colored, about 20 seconds. Add sugar and whisk vigorously until thick and homogeneous, about 30 seconds; add melted butter in 2 or 3 steps, whisking to combine after each addition. Add sour cream in 2 steps, whisking just to combine.
3. Add frozen berries to dry ingredients and gently toss to combine. Add sour cream mixture and fold with rubber spatula until batter comes together and berries are evenly distributed, 25 to 30 seconds (small spots of flour may remain and batter will be thick). Do not over mix.
4. Use ice cream scoop or large spoon to drop batter into greased muffin tin. Bake until light golden brown and toothpick or skewer inserted into center of muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating pan from front to back halfway through baking time. Invert muffins onto wire rack, stand muffins upright, and cool 5 minutes.

The picture shows the second time I made them, when I upped the amount of blueberries to two cups and I think that was a little much.  But they were still very yummy!

On July 31st I saw a picture of Bella then known as Brindy.  She was on the euthanasia list at the Manhattan Animal Care & Control.   I was immediately struck by her resemblance to our dear Morty who died of cancer August 19, 2005.   I said that I would love to take her if only there was a way to get her out to us in Oregon.   Brooke Slater from "Bruised, Not Broken" said that their organization would do what it could to help get her pulled and into a foster until transportation could be arranged.

I posted on Facebook looking for folks to help with transport and then my college roommate from 20 something years ago called and offered her assistance with transportation since she is an airline employee and can fly pets with her for free.  So we had transport, and the BNB folks had found a foster home and then they discovered that Bobbi and the Strays had pulled her.   They called and tried to convince them to let the dog come to us but they already had an adopter lined up in Canada.   That extra effort would make such a difference in the weeks to come.

We were very disappointed but figured maybe we weren't meant to adopt her, just buy her enough time that she was able to be pulled from shelter and avoid the fate that would have otherwise awaited her.

Then the adoption fell through and someone remembered that there was a women in Oregon who also wanted the dog and they started searching for anyone that had my contact information.  It took a few days but eventually the connection was made, and I received a note from Brooke asking if we were still interested.   In the meantime Bella was taken in by another rescue, Eagles Den, and transferred to Nick Tartaglione's kennels a few hours north of New York City.

Once Bella was healthy enough to travel (she had kennel cough) two more great volunteers stepped up to help Bella make her trip.  On Thursday, August 19th Lyndsay Messina drove Bella from Nick's place into the city despite having a sick toddler to deal with and handed her off to Lesli VanSchaick who housed her and took her to the vet for her health flight check on Friday afternoon.  Her boyfriend broke his arm that evening and she barely made it back from the hospital in time to pick Bella back up and drop her off to Lisa Shafer at the airport at 4:30am Saturday morning.

Lisa and Bella hit a few twists on their way out west but finally arrived in Eugene, OR shortly after 2pm on August 21st.   Bella seemed happy to see us at the airport and even happier when we got home and let her run off leash in an unused fenced pasture.   She loves sticks and found the one she is carrying lying across Morty's grave - it was almost like he was passing the torch to her.

She has seen the goats and the chickens and cats and so far has been easily redirected from paying too much attention to them.   She and Izzy are about the same age, full of puppy energy and a little unsure of each other.  So we are following the advice of the rescue to take introductions slowly in order to build a firm foundation of trust and friendship between them.  

Far to often I encounter people who area appalled to find out that our family consumes raw milk and uses eggs from our own hens because "its just not as safe as what you can buy at the store."

As the recent recalls on milk and eggs has shown, what you buy from the store may not be all that safe.    And when you are depending on what is available at the store you might just have to do without as the empty shelves in the local grocery store  attested to yesterday.  

Yes there is a slight risk that we could develop salmonella or even ecol i from the eggs or dairy products we harvest here on our little ranch.   But that risk is mitigated by knowing not only how the animals were treated and what they were fed, but how the eggs or milk were handled right up to consumption.  

The blackberries are really ripening this week and I noticed there sure were a lot of them in the bucks summer pasture so I picked enough to make a quick cobbler for tonights dinner.   Now that sounds like a simple task, but to get to the berries you have to throw a plank into the thicket and then inch your way along.  Did I mention this was inside the bucks pasture?  Yup - they thought the plank was a great way of getting more berries and I had quite the time keeping my balance when they were trying to muscle their way past me to get their share too.

Blackberry Cobbler

2 Tbsp butter
1 cup Bisquick
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup goats milk
3 cup fruit

Melt butter in an 8x8 glass baking dish.  Mix Bisquick, sugar and milk together and then pour over the butter.  Add fruit to the top and very lightly dust with sugar. 

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

I finally got the results back from the test I took this past February to become a certified goat tester through the  California Dairy Herd Improvement Association's (DHIA)  and since I passed I'm now an official tester.  Fortunately the certification is good through 2012 so I didn't lose too much time waiting on results.  

For those that don't know it means that I can now test other herds milk production, either as a paid tester or as a trade of services.   And although I am located in Oregon the certifying agency for this area is out of California, hence the agency name.

Now I just need to find other testers in my area to trade services with so that I can get my does on milk test.