Favorite Things

I thought it would be fun to put together a list of my favorite things.  Sort of Oprah-ish, except these are things that "normal" people can afford and some are things that are more specific to my horsey lifestyle.  As I sat down to think about the things that I really enjoy, I realized that recipes/food are what kept coming to mind, not surprising for those of you who really know me.  I have been working on getting in show shape.  Hey if Lou can do it, I can.  I don't lope very pretty circles though.

#1     Every morning after feeding the animals, I sit down to watch the news and enjoy my breakfast and a cup of coffee.  I usually only drink one cup a day so I've never needed to brew a whole pot and don't like stale coffee anyway. 

This the Keurig model that I use.

My mom bought me a Keurig coffee pot for my birthday and the mud it brews is like a little slice of cozy, warm heaven.  You purchase single serving k-cups of coffee and they come in all different brews and flavors.  One of my favorites is Wild Mountain Blueberry.  I buy the k-cups at Great Office Coffee. 

#2     The second thing to hit my favorite things list is also an appliance, and also a gift from my mom, its my KitchenAid mixer. 

Mine is red, just like this one.

This mixer never seems to get bogged down and scrapes every bit off the sides of the bowl.  It comes with three different mixing attachments and most importantly, comes in different colors to match your kitchen.  My kitchen is red and I love the retro sort of look that the mixer has sitting on the counter.  I use it to make my famous Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I'll have to give you the recipe sometime.

#3     Another of my favorite things may not be accessible to everyone but I just knew my list would not be complete without including this most important item.

This is Lou.  He's my "hairy pardner".  JD said, "quit leaning".

I am most at home and relaxed sitting on a horse and have been since...

Riding is my own personal form of meditation.  It has also given me so many important things that I hold dear in my life: confidence, a sense of satisfaction, empathy, patience, work ethic, problem solving and courage.  Or will hold dear should I actually accomplish any of these.

#4    We'll stay in the horse world for my next couple of selections.  I really like a fat ringed smooth mouth snaffle bit.  I tried one for the first time last fall and have used it almost exclusively on our young horses since.  Its a little heavier than a regular ring snaffle and has a little more feel at the sides of the mouth.  I feel like the added ring weight also gives just a little more poll pressure, for developing a good headset in our colts.

Bob Avila Signature Snaffle Professional's Choice Horse Bit

I should mention that the one I tried last fall was the one I bought for JD.  He bought me my own for Mother's Day.  Maybe he's trying to tell me something....  The going joke around here is that JD never has any of his own stuff.  I guess its only a joke if it isn't true...we all steal his stuff, horses, tack, clothes, pickups.  If you don't want us to steal it, quit buying cool stuff.  What do you expect in this family?  Wiley says, "we all share".  But I don't think that applies to him.


#5     Our family loves G-G saddles!  They are made by Dennis & Randy George right here in Riverton.  He is most well known for building bronc and steer wrestling saddles and his clientele include many NFR qualifiers and World Champions.  He also builds stock saddles, roping saddles, barrel saddles and just last year, he built his first cutting saddle.

This is my G-G cutting saddle.

JD's G-G ranch saddle.

Abby's G-G kids saddle.

We are up to five of these saddles now and love every one of them.  They are really well made and Dennis really cares about improving his product over the years.  Before making his first cutting saddle, he went  to Texas to spend time talking with and watching some world class cutters.

#6     We were introduced to Platinum Performance about three years ago.  We have a 34 year old mare (hardly a performance horse, even in her glory days) that needed a little something extra in her diet.  She has almost no teeth left and we were being told that she would need to be put on a diet of exclusively Equine Senior.  That's expensive!  It also made it hard because she would need her own pen for her special feeding needs.  I was first alarmed about her dietary needs in the spring when she shed out to bald in some spots.  Her body couldn't process vitamins and minerals well enough to replace her coat right away.  Our vet had us try Platinum Performance and the rest is history.

Boyd Rice, Team Platinum

The supplement can be given in your horses grain and they really like it.  Its a little pricey but the results are real.  Our horses shed out nicely and always feel their best even after some hard weeks around here.  And Lady?  She's still kicking and looks as good as ever.  Wiley rode her on Sunday.

#7     Alrighty, back to food.  That's where I really wanted to be the whole time anyway.  Bob's Red Mill makes my favorite oatmeal.  I eat oatmeal almost every morning because I love a hot breakfast and it seems to stick with me.  Bob's offers 18 different kinds of oatmeals and granolas. 

My favorite cereal, so far.

Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods produces more than 400 products, including a full line of certified gluten free products and an extensive line of certified organic products. With a wide variety of whole grain products, from flours and hot cereals to baking mixes and grains, Bob’s Red Mill has “whole grain foods for every meal of the day.”


Bob's is going to help me get into show shape!  Grain and Platinum for Lou, grain and vitamins for me.  Incidentally, Platinum does make human products but I haven't tried them yet.  Please let me know if you have.

#8     I may be gloating a little here but I think I make some pretty good pico de gallo.  I love pico!  Its fat free and delicious on so many things.

Of course you can eat it on chips.  Its also good thrown into a wrap, on eggs, over fish, in a tuna sandwich and anywhere else you want added flavor.  I make it different each time because I don't follow a recipe.  I think I've mentioned this before but I don't like rules. 

Here are the basics:

About....
6 roma tomatoes, diced
1 large onion, diced
a good handful of cilantro, diced
a couple of cloves of garlic, minced
4 jalapenos, seeded and diced
a couple of Tablespoons of lime juice, to taste
a dash or two of sea salt, to taste

Mix it all up and refrigerate for a couple of hours.  I have also added baby shrimp, cabbage and other things per my whims.

In the comment section, I would love to have your favorite recipes.  Healthy if you have them, or your guilty pleasures are fine too.


#9     This is my last selection.  I just found this product in the last couple of weeks, ordered it, used it, and am already its biggest fan.  Maggie's Muck.

I have dermatitis and am allergic to most soaps and especially lotions.  Basically if it smells good, it eats my skin off.  I love lotions and it kills me that I can't wear them, especially since I have such skin hydration issues already.  Until now! 

Maggie says:

"Most of my products are made with olive oil, shea butter and vitamin E, I try to stay away from colors and dyes. Packaging is simple to provide a great quality product for a lower cost.  Presentation sells, however I want customers to use my product not only display it. Living in a dry climate, I focus on ingredients that moisturize, condition and heal the skin.  I do use a preservative in my water base products called Opthiphen ND. It is a paraben and formaldehyde free. I want to make sure that no bacteria, fungus or viruses are present."

 I would love to hear your comments about your favorite things.  I really believe there are wonderful products out there that don't always have a huge advertising budget.  I want to know what you can't live without!

Oh, JD wanted me to add this:

#10     Lincoln Welders.  "Without them, there wouldn't be any other favorite things around here." 

Uh, yeah, well then, Lincoln Welders!  115 Years of Excellence!!

Harry Pardner

Wiley's book club selection

 You know how kids sometimes say the funniest things? 

This story started yesterday when Wiley was singing in the tub.  He's such a happy kid and sings regularly.  He is a fan of Jerrod Niemann's "Lover, Lover" and "The Buckin' Song".  In fact one day over a year ago, he was sitting on my bed and upset with me over something and said, "lover, lover, you don't treat me no good no more" with his best furrowed brow and I'm so disgusted with you look.  And a couple of weeks ago when his donkey bucked him off, he cried, "she bucked me on the pickup truck, bucked me on the fence, my dad says son, you got no buckin' sense".  His timing is perfect!

So back to yesterday in the tub.  His song started out as "Bad to the Bone" and then morphed into something about killing a snake and then something different about (what is he saying?) Harry Pardner, and then ended with "next time won't you sing with me".  I'd love to Bud but sometimes your lyrics are a little hard to follow.

Abby is reading the Harry Potter series and has been talking with us about them at night.  Apparently he's been listening.  Harry Pardner! Come on y'all lets mosey on down to Hogwarts and rustle us up some vittles.

Ahh, the vocabulary of a four year old.

Slippery

As I have mentioned in the past, I am not a book worm.  It has be be good to hold my unfocused attention. 

A couple of months ago Oprah announced that her new book club selection would be A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations.  I dutifully purchased the books and then settled in one night to begin the first.  I didn't think I was stupid before I started reading them.  I suppose I could have finished them and maybe someday I will, but not this day, that's for sure.  The language was dated, obviously, and I just couldn't get lost in the story, at least in the first forty or so pages.  I'll save them for my nursing home days I guess.

My sister, Yvette, bought me Slippery for my birthday.  I thought it was sort of random at the time.  Ok...a book.  I hadn't heard of it, not that I really hear of many.  I guess I don't run in the booky circle.  Anyway, after finishing Black Heels to Tractor Wheels I was revved about reading again and was looking for my next book.  I pulled Slippery out of the drawer and started reading.  I was hooked right from the start. 

The story is set in a rural North Central Washington town.  Hmm...I used to live in a rural North Central Washington town, that's funny.  Here's what Amazon.com says about the book:

A young mother, an unfortunate slip--a tragic accident that will changer her family's lives forever--Danica Burdick has beaten the odds of teenage motherhood and one failed marriage to build a new life with her soulmate, Jimmy. Add three gorgeous kids and she truly has it all. Then she slips. What will become of her two older children if her wily ex-husband succeeds in seeing her dead? Will the authorities nail the man who runs over her and flees? And the toughest question of all--How will her parents, her best friends, and her beloved husband ever live without her? Much like the heroine of Slippery, you will find yourself holding one for dear life, as you navigate the profound twists and turns of a suspense novel written by a master storyteller.

At some point, I looked in the front pages of the book to find that it was published in Okanogan, my hometown.  Oh!  That's why Yvette gave it to me, it was published locally.  At some other point, I saw a picture of the author, Kimberly Ann Freel, in the back of the book.  Hey!  I know that lady.  That's Kim Morris and I used to go to school with her.  Wow!  Real people write books.  Hmm, who would have thought.

I can barely read a book, much less write one.  I have great respect for that kind of imagination, focus and follow through.  And to top it all off, the book was great, gripping and...I don't want to spoil it for you.  Go get it, you'll like it.  She has others out too:  Monster White Lies, Painted Rocks, and Callie of the White Sand.

At the suggestion of its author, I will be reading Painted Rocks next.

And Kim, if you hurry, maybe Slippery can be the next Oprah book club selection.  I hear its a pretty good deal.  She still has 17 shows left.  I'd vote for you over that Dickens guy any day. 

OMG, he let her drive!!! Oh, nevermind.

I wasn't dedicated enough to pop culture to get up at 3:00 a.m. to watch the royal wedding.  I figured that I'd see enough of the highlights the next day to make the event memorable enough for me.

The royal couple leaves Westminster Abbey.

When I first started watching the news later that morning, I saw the royal couple leaving Westminster Abbey in a convertible.  They pulled out of the building and OMG, he let her drive!!!  Wow!  She is handling driving and waving really well.  It must be an automatic.  Oh, nevermind.... Those crazy Europeans do everything backwards!

As a side note, during one of the interviews with a previous royal family staffer, I learned that Prince Charles has never put toothpaste on his own toothbrush.  That explains a lot.  I guess Camilla was what was left after  the other princess candidates learned of his utter helplessness.  Can you imagine having a butler THAT much in your business?