A Feline Brother and a Sister

 Zabi's proud pumpkin picture for Dad.

The new addition to the family - the brother . . .

. . . . . . and the sister!

Yes, we don't have a full enough house, we brought home two siamese mix 4 month old cats!

Any idea for names?

Darlin' Daughter

Yup, that is the eldest darlin' daughter!  We were headed out to a shower and couldn't resist a photo op.  And yes, we are VERY good friends.

Say, what?????  No, she is not actually going to hunt, she was just holding Papa's gun for him.  She did go out with him, though!  I sure hope we have liver for dinner tonight!

One Nest Down

Curlylocks?  The girls wanted "kitty ears" hair.  When we were taking the buns out, this is what it looked like!  "Picture, mama, picture!"

IBoy conducted a brief science lesson for the girls when he came home from a walk.  They weren't too sure about getting very close to the nest.  Something about getting stung too many times?

You have to admit, we have a pretty awesome God who can create a creature to construct such an amazing structure, though!

A Scrabbled Family

Thought I'd share with you a couple of things we have hanging around.

The kids made the above collage for Father's Day using old Scrabble tiles.

This one was done for Mother's Day by MissE.  She found pennies that were issued the same year as each person's birth.  She even included grandbabes as little frogs hopping around their parent's flower!  SO creative!

I am always on the lookout for fun gift ideas - share me some, ok?

High On The . . . .

Tractor bucket - what else?

Life on the farm - ain't it great?

Picasso, watch out!

Long enough hair for french braids now!  Does the word gorgeous do any justice?

Uh-oh, no eggs????

I had taken my very last bag of razor clams out of the freezer this morning to defrost.

I was fantasizing about crispy clam fritters all day.

Finally time to make dinner, only to discover that we had no eggs!  Kind of a main ingredient in clam fritters!

Although this dish was a totally different taste than what I had been dreaming about, it was surprisingly delicious!

Seared Clams with Brown Butter

6 tablespoons salted butter
1 lemon
olive oil
24 razor clams or 24 littleneck clams
1 tablespoon chives, minced
fresh ground black pepper
Directions:

1
Heat butter in a saucepan, over medium heat, until it turns brown and is fragrant; remove from heat, stir in juice from one lemon, and set aside.
2
Heat a large griddle, or cast iron skillet, over high heat; once very hot, coat with olive oil and place clams, hinge side down, if possible, on griddle or skillet.  (I had just chopped them for fritters, so I just cooked them chopped did them this way instead of whole!)
3
Cook until they open, about 5 minutes; turn over and cook until the meat just starts to brown ( cook in batches, if necessary).  (this would probably have worked better if my pan wasn't so full - I just kept draining off the juice and probably cooked them 5 minutes total or less)
4
Transfer clams to a serving platter.
5
Reheat butter sauce, stir in chives, and season with pepper; spoon over clams.

We served this over baked potatoes - I just split them open and kind of roughed up the inside and spooned the clams in butter on top of the tater.

Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Carking

Who'd'a'thunk cleaning a tuna would be called carking.  Like, who would have come up with such a weird word for cleaning a fish!

I didn't know it until I proudly came home hauling a 25 pound whole tuna.

I can everything else, I was confident that I could can a tuna.  How?  I had no idea, but my trusty friend "Google" led me to a site that taught me.  I have to say it was the easiest game that I have ever cleaned - easier than poultry, rattlesnake, rabbit, venison.  I haven't done goat yet, but I plan on that real soon.

I canned us up some plain tuna, some lemon/black pepper tuna, some garlic tuna and some jalapeno tuna.  Now it looks too pretty to open up!

If you have to know, out of that 25 pound whole tuna, I got 8 pints and 6 half pints.

So, if you have a twisted sense of curiosity and want to see how you cark a tuna (and I know you do . . . .) here it is.

Unless you want to turn back now.

Your choice.

OK - how is this - if you look at these pictures, you have to leave me a comment on the oddest creature that you have ever cleaned.  And eaten.

I bet I might have you beat on that one, too - had scorpions lately???  Kinda crunchy, but not too bad.

Alright - Tuna Carking 101