Beef With Snow Peas

Photo Courtesy of The PioneerWoman.Com

Do you ever feel like you fix your family the same meals over and over and over?  And over and over and over?  That's how I've been feeling lately.  Like if we eat spaghetti, or round steak one more night for supper it will be the end of the world.

Well last week the Pioneer Woman had an awesome recipe for Beef With Snow Peas.  While Down On The Farm is a MUCH smaller farming operation than the Drummond's spread in Oklahoma, we eat a lot of beef too and I'm always looking for something new to do with my freezer full of beef.

I won't show you the recipe or the steps as you can check it out HERE.  She does a much better job of photographing and explaining the recipe than I do so for the skinny on the recipe, check out the link.

What I can tell you is that IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!  I loved it, my kids loved it (well Cole wouldn't eat the snow peas) but it is definitely a recipe I will add to our "rotation" of evening meals.  It did take a little time to prepare but it was well worth it.

So if you're looking for something new to fix for supper, check out Pioneer Woman's "Beef With Snow Peas."  I hope you like it as much as we did! 

One Week Ago

Just a few more pictures of our experience one week ago today, when the Eldon FFA Parliamentary Procedure team was named National Champion!

It has been an amazing week.  The kids have been on our local television station.  They have made the front page of both of our Eldon newspapers.  The whole town is talking about the National Championship.  The school is in the process of having signs made that proclaim Eldon as the home of the 2010 FFA National Champion Parliamentary Procedure team that will be posted along the highway at several entrances to our town. 

Eldon FFA Parliamentary Procedure National Champions . . . has a nice ring to it doesn't it ? ?

IN AWE!!!!!!

I am a huge fan of Hillsong United. You know from Hillsong Church in Australia?   Their songs are amazing, and absolutely Holy Spirit inspired.  One of my favorites is "The Stand." 

"You stood before creation, eternity in Your hand, You spoke the earth into motion, my soul now to stand, You stood before my failure, carried the Cross for my shame, my sin weighed upon Your shoulders, my soul now to stand. So what can I say, what can I do, but offer this heart O God, completely to You.


So I'll walk upon salvation, Your Spirit alive in me, this life to declare Your promise, my soul now to stand.  So what can I say, what can I do, but offer this heart O God, completely to You.


SO I'LL STAND, WITH ARMS HIGH AND HEART ABANDONED, IN AWE OF THE ONE WHO GAVE IT ALL, I'LL STAND, MY SOUL LORD TO YOU SURRENDERED ALL I AM IS YOURS."


Are you truly in awe of the One who gave it all?  If you aren't, then you should be.  He died for you.  Did you deserve it?  No.  Can you earn it?  No.  Can you receive His salvation by just asking Him?  YES!!!

To know Jesus is to be in awe of Him.  In awe of His love and mercy and grace.  If you don't know Him, today can be your day of salvation.  Ask Him to forgive your sins and come into your heart.  Ask Him to lead you and guide you.  Ask Him to save you.  He already paid the price.

If you do know Him, please take just a few minutes and focus on Him.  May we never be too busy to stand in awe of our Lord and Savior.   He is AWESOME.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

It was announced Friday evening in Indianapolis, Indiana that the Eldon FFA Parliamentary Procedure team is THE NATIONAL CHAMPION!!!!!!!   That's our son Cole, the second from the left!!! 

It was such an exciting time I hardly know where to begin.  Our team competed Thursday morning, one of over 40 state champion teams, and Puerto Rico.  Thursday evening it was announced that we had made it to the semi-finals, consisting of the top 12 teams.  Friday morning we competed against the other eleven teams.  It was announced at noon on Friday that we had made it to the FINAL FOUR!  These four teams, Missouri, Texas, Arizona and California, competed beginning at 1:00 on Friday afternoon.  We were the last team to demonstrate.  We were in the Indiana Convention Center and they competed before approximately 1,500 people. 

There was a banquet Friday evening for all of the parliamentary procedure teams.  Parents were not allowed to attend.  When the banquet was finished and the awards began, they opened the doors so we could come inside.  When it was announced that the team from Missouri had won we screamed, we cried, we jumped up and down.  It was absolutely INCREDIBLE.

The team consists of our son Cole, Peyton Atteberry, Kelsi Mueller, Arika Meyers, Abbey Thomas and Jill Blankenship.  These kids, and their advisor Mr. Matt Biddle, have practiced for countless hours.  They have worked for months and months to perfect their presentation and it definitely paid off.

The parents who went to Indiana this week had a prayer service Wednesday evening before the Thursday competition.  Thursday evening we again had prayer and all of the students were invited to join us.  I am proud to say that EACH student, and our advisor, joined us for prayer.  We asked God to bring all things to the remembrance of the team.  We asked for a calm and peaceful spirit to surround the students.  We prayed for boldness and confidence.  We asked for the favor of the judges and we asked for the students to do their absolute best.  And each time we prayed that above all else, God's will would be done, and we promised Him that we would THANK Him, no matter the outcome.

I am so very proud of each one of these kids, and of course we are extremely proud of Cole.  The caliber of the teams we competed against was outstanding.  Any of the other three Final Four teams was deserving of the championship, and we cried with the students who didn't win, and we congratulated them on their accomplishments.

Thanks to each one of you who prayed for Cole and his teammates.  It was very much appreciated.  Now I ask that you join me in praising God for His goodness.

I don't think it has quite sunk in, to me or to the team.  NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.  I remember how excited and proud we were when they won the State FFA competition.  This, this is beyond our wildest dreams.  So today I praise the Lord for blessing these young men and women.  Thanks again to each one of you for praying. May God bless you!!!

Fall Beans

Our garden didn't do very well this year.  We had a very wet spring, and a very wet summer here in Missouri.  And while gardens need rain, they don't need THAT much rain.  We got our garden planted pretty late, waiting for it to dry up.  And even after we planted it just kept raining.  And you can't till muddy ground.  A lot of our seeds rotted in the ground due to the moisture and the seeds that did grow got crowded out by the weeds.  So, in July, we gave up and my husband plowed our garden under. 

The thing that really hurt about plowing under our garden was, we didn't have many green beans left from last year.  We eat a lot of green beans at our house.  And for those of you who say you don't like green beans, I proudly reply "you haven't tried MY green beans."  Bacon, onion and Lawry's seasoning salt, plus my home canned green beans.  Whooeeeeee!  De-LICIOUS!!!!!  Now when I say we didn't have many green beans left, we probably only have about 40 quarts.  Sounds like a lot, but believe me 40 quarts go pretty fast.

So we (and I say "we" very loosely 'cause it was actually BP, the CEO here at Down On The Farm) re-planted fall beans.  And can I just say that our fall beans did OUTSTANDING!!!  Fall beans are so much better than summertime beans.  There aren't as many weeds, aren't as many bugs, and it isn't 100 degrees in the shade when you're picking them and canning them.  The problem with fall beans is, you never know when its going to frost and if the beans aren't mature enough to pick before the frost, then you have NO BEANS!

I won't try to detail the entire canning process.  There are plenty of sites that do a much better job of that than I could ever do.  But for you non-canning folks, these pictures will give you an idea of what we did last week.  We canned 42 quarts of green beans in one night.  Our plants still have lots of beans on them, but we just don't have time to can beans AND go to Indianapolis to watch our son.  So, if it doesn't frost between now and this weekend, we'll probably pick more beans and can more beans.  Those beans sure taste good when it's cold and the snow is flying!

If you've never planted a garden and you love food, do yourself a favor and grow SOMETHING!  Get a five gallon bucket and plant a tomato plant.  Dig up a 5 foot square and plant some lettuce and onions.  There is nothing like the flavor of home grown food.  And there is a real sense of satisfaction that just does something to you when you know you are eating food you've grown yourself.  Remember God planted a garden . . . and He called it Eden!

National FFA Convention - Indianapolis

As I am typing this post my son, Cole, and his Eldon FFA parliamentary procedure team mates, are on their way to Indianapolis, Indiana for the National FFA Convention.  Cole's parliamentary procedure team won 1st place at the Missouri FFA Convention this spring, and they are competing this week at the national level.  On Wednesday several other FFA members are heading to Indianapolis separately to attend the convention, and BP, Alex, my mother-in-law and I will be heading there as well.

Today I would ask for your prayers.   Please join me in asking for traveling mercies for all students and advisors and parents that are traveling to the convention.  I ask that God would go with these students, and go before them.  I ask that He would give our Eldon team a boldness and a confidence in their competition and that they would remember everything they need to know in order to compete.  I pray that they would have peace.  I ask that they would trust Him in all things.  That they will do their absolute best, and leave the results up to God and praise Him, no matter the outcome.

Thank you all so much for your prayers.  I am blessed beyond measure to have this opportunity to share my prayer needs with you and I know that when you say you are praying, you ARE.  The Bible tells us to pray one for another so, thank you my blogging friends for lifting your prayers along with mine. 

May you have an absolutely BLESSED day!  Always remember, this is the day that the Lord made, and we are to rejoice and be glad in it!

Show Calf

Every year about this time our daughter, Alex, gets her show calf for our county fair, which is in July.  Alex feeds the calf, gives him a bath, brushes him, and breaks him to lead.  Now she does get some help with the "breaking to lead" part as these calves can be fairly cantankerous at first.  Amazing how much more well behaved they are when my husband, the CEO of Down On The Farm, has the halter and lead rope in his hands.  He shows them who is BOSS.

This is what Alex will be showing next summer at the Miller County Fair:

This calf has no name yet.  Alex puts a lot of thought into the names of her steers.  Last year Alex named her steer "Ticket."   No word yet on what this year's steer will answer to.

The county fair is kind of a "beauty pageant" for steers.  You want the steer to be in good shape so this animal is well fed.  You want him to be very gentle in the ring.  The steers pose to show off their "shape."  These animals are styled and trimmed and blow dried and hair sprayed.  Really, it's quite a process.

Living Down On The Farm is different - some kids take out the trash - our daughter raises a show calf.  An excellent opportunity to teach responsibility and maturity, and have some fun too.