Happy Birthday, City Girl!!  Wish we weren’t half a country away from each other!

First off, let’s be clear here.  I am not by any way saying that this is a replacement for a real reuben.  The reuben is one of my all-time favorite sandwiches and I would never bastardize its good name by removing the corned beef.  And I am not claiming this is traditional Irish fare.  I will be the first to admit that I do not have a drop of Irish blood.  I am as Scandinavian as rosemaling.  Don’t know what rosemaling is?  That’s because its so Scandinavian. 

Anyways, I am posting this on St. Patrick’s Day because we happened to make these burgers yesterday and they were inspired by one of my favorite Irish dishes.  And they were suprisingly good!  Even Farm Boy enjoyed the combination of sauerkraut and cheese with the burger.  (On a side note, I am trying my hand at corned beef and cabbage later this week…if it turns out, I’ll let you know how it goes!) 

• 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
• 3/4 cup soft bread crumbs
• 2/3 cup Thousand Island dressing, divided (I used fat-free because that’s what I had)
• salt and pepper
• 12 slices rye bread
• 1 can sauerkraut, drained
• 6 slices 2% cheese

Mix the bread crumbs and 1/3 cup of dressing together.  Crumble ground beef over the mixture, add salt and pepper and mix well to combine.  Form into 6 patties and grill until desired doneness.  Place each patty on a slice of rye bread, top with sauerkraut, cheese, remaining dressing and another slice of bread.  I then placed the sandwiches in our big toaster oven for about 8 minutes.  I’m sure you could get the same effect from broiling them or even cooking them in a buttered skillet. 

As a side note, when made the way described above, the patties were very fragile.  I had to be very careful flipping them because they wanted to fall apart.  In fact, one actually did crumble.  So, I wonder if adjusting the bread crumbs would help?  If there are any burger gurus out there, I would love to hear your opinions!

Okay, you got me. This is basically an appletini, but I wanted to have something green to drink on St. Patricks’s day, so this is what I decided on. Okay, I am fully aware that the traditional drink for St. Patty’s Day is green beer but I have to confess that…I don’t really like beer.  *Screech!*  I know, I know.  I shouldn’t say it too loudly or I will get my Wisconsin membership card taken away but I think there is a time and a place for beer.  A hot summer day is a perfect example.   Now, green beer?  I don’t think there is ever a time or place for that.  Just my humble opinion…

• 2 parts vodka (This is not the time for Silver Wolf, people. Splurge for something good, even if it is just a tiny bottle)
• 1 part apple pucker (I cannot believe that I am over the age of 19 and just made a drink that includes pucker in the recipe but its just enough to give it the taste of apple.  You can also use apple vodka, but that would be a really strong drink)
• splash of sweet and sour

Mix together with ice in a shaker.  Pour in a glass and enjoy!  Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!  (Okay, yeah, you probably shouldn’t be drinking this in the morning, but “top o’ the evenin’” doesn’t have the same ring to it.)

Every time I pass this sign, it makes me smirk.  And to make it even better, the building that is adjacent to this sign (the car dealership is long gone) has two doors with different signs.  One says “Laurie’s Hair Styling” and the other says “Hank’s Auto Body.”  Ya gotta love Wisconsin!

Okay, here is one of the biggest problems with coming back to a sadly abandoned blog after a long period of time: what do you write about?  No, its not that I don’t have anything to say.  It’s that I have too much to say.  I have a hard drive full of pictures that I took with the intention of writing about them.  I have scraps of paper in my purse with random ideas like “Spaz” and “Wonder Woman” scrawled on them.  I have about 7 drafts of discarded posts on my WordPress Dashboard. 

Maybe that’s part of the reason I stopped blogging…maybe I felt too pressured with too many ideas…maybe I was scared to realize my own potential…maybe I was afraid to fail, so therefor I didn’t even try…

I’m just kidding.  Ths is Farm Girl’s World, not Dr. Phil.  I just have a lot of ideas and not enough ambition to record them all.  It’s the cross I must bear.

Anyways, as I was perusing my hard drive, I came across this picture:

And I thought, “Oh yeah!  That was one dang good roast!  I should really put that on the blog!”  The only problem?  Finding the recipe.  When I make a new dish, I write a rough draft of the recipe on whatever happens to be handy.  If I don’t file it right away, locating it can be somewhat of a challenge.  So I dug around in the junk drawer of my kitchen (actually, there are two junk drawers, but don’t tell my dad that).  Nothing.  I pulled out the notebook I scribble recipes in.  Nada.  I flipped through cookbooks to see if I had tucked it in them.  Zilch.  Finally, in desperation, I checked my computer.  Guess what?  There was a blog post that was never finished called “Tangy Roast Beef.”  Ha!  Jackpot!  Here ya go:

• 2 1/2 pound beef roast
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 15 oz. can tomato sauce
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. dried minced onion
• 1/2 tsp. paprika

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Season the roast with salt and pepper.  Add to pan and brown on all sides.  Meanwhile, mix remaining ingredients together.  Pour over beef and bring to boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until tender, about one hour and fifteen minutes.  Turn roast every 15 minutes or so.  Remove from heat and let rest for 15 minutes before cutting.

Serves: 8  WWP: 6

It’s been a wonderful two days here in Wisconsin.  But the weather…not so much.  Yesterday was a grey, dreary, icky, galoshes sort of day.  But at least it was semi-warm (it was ten degrees above freezing!)  Today was bright and sunny, but the temperature barely got into the double digits.  Welcome to Wisconsin in spring! 

For the past two days, all I wanted to do was lounge around on the couch and watch reruns of King of the Hill.  As I was at work, I’d daydream about doing…nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Sigh.  And then I got home and saw this:

And this:

You know that question “If you could be any animal, what would you be?”  Well, my answer (at least for today) is a cat.  A house cat.  Frankie, to be specific.  What a life…

Last night, I baked 10 dozen cookies for a church supper tonight. (If you missed the recipe, here it is. Three words for you: Damn. Good. Cookies.)  The thing that always amazes me when I make these cookies is how freakin’ easy they are when you have the right tools.  What are the right tools, you ask?  Well, I’d be happy to show you!

First of all, the number one tool for making cookies (or any baked good for that matter) is this:

I got my KitchenAid mixer as a wedding present five years ago and that thing has had some use!  I mean, look at it!  It looks like its been through a world war, carried on the back of a pack mule in the middle of a monsoon.  But that just means its loved. 

It is honestly the best kitchen convenience since sliced bread.  You throw the first few ingredients in the bowl, turn it on and add the rest of the ingredients as quickly as you can grab them and measure them out.  Pure genius. 

The other cookie-making tool is much less complex and much, much cheaper.  Suprisingly though, I didn’t buy one until just recently.  Is the suspense killing you?  Well, here it is:

A cookie scoop!  (Or mini ice cream scooper, as Farm Boy calls it.  He loves making a bowl of mini ice cream scoops.  Yeah, we need to get out more often.)  I used to scoff at cookie scoops.  Why the heck would I pay for something like that when two spoons works just as well?  But then, I found one on sale at Target.  I took it home and whooo doggie!   You wouldn’t believe how quickly you can load up a cookie tray using this thing!  If they had cookie scoop contests, I would totally kick ass with the help of this bad boy.

So, there you go.  If  you ever need to crank out dozens of cookies in a short amount of time, you now have knowledge of the tools that will make you job a walk in the park.  Now if I could only find a way to stop myself from eating half of the raw dough, I would be golden.  Happy baking!

Sometimes, to amuse myself, I categorize my moods by music.  I could be in an ACDC sort of mood; Thunderstruck to be more specific.  Or maybe I’m digging The Rolling Stones (the early era).  I find myself in a Tom Petty mood quite a bit too. 

Lately though, I’ve been feeling very Simon and Garfunkel.  More Simon than Garfunkel.  So I dug through my old cd collection (for some strange reason S&G never found their way onto my iPod) and dusted off a mixed cd with some Paul and Art on it.  I was listening to it on my way to work a few days back and You Can Call Me Al came on. 

And I instantly began to smile. 

Seriously, do you remember how good of song that is?  And how freakin’ awesome the video is??  First of all, it just has a happy little beat to it.  That alone raises my seratonin levels.  Secondly, its fun to sing to: “All along–along, There were incidents and accidents–There were hints and allegations.”  And if you can’t remember the words, you can always fall back on the chorus “Na na na na.  Na na na.” 

And that video!  Back when Chevy Chase was funny.  And Paul Simon looked like Rick Moranis.  When I got home that night, I pulled it up on YouTube and made Farm Boy watch it.  I giggled through the whole thing.  Chevy Chases’ expressions are priceless.  And when he drops the glass of water through the drum stand!  Hi-lar-i-ous!  So, as my service to you, I thought that I would bring this little gem out from the archives.  Watch and enjoy.  You’re welcome.

It is the first day of March in Wisconsin.  If you don’t live here, you probably don’t know that weather-wise, the first day of March is not unlike the first day of January.  It’s cold.  Very cold.  And there is snow.  A lot of snow.  And we are getting very, very tired of cold and snow.  Don’t get me wrong.  I like Wisconsin.  And I love the change of seasons.  The not-so-equal  length of the seasons is what bothers me.  I feel like its been winter for-ev-ah.  Kind of like in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  Where Narnia has been in winter for years?  I hope you’ve read that book or at least saw the movie, otherwise I look like an idiot.  Not that that’s so far off the truth…

Anyways, I was looking through my catalog of pictures the other day and I came across a few that made me even more heart-sick for summer.  Like this one:

That’s my sister-in-law and me sitting on the float at the lake and my cuter-than-a-bugs-ear niece swimming.  Notice the lack of parkas and snow boots.  And the water is actually a liquid!  If (for some reason) you wanted to fish, you wouldn’t have to drill a hole through it.  Sigh.  How about this one:

This is Farm Boy putting up a fence this summer.  All day, I followed behind him calling, “Hey!  Farm Boy!  Look at me!  Smile!  I’m taking pictures of you, honey!”  He kept fencing.  Always the hard worker.  But look at that green grass!  Look at that blue sky!  Look at his tan arms!  Oh, whoops.  Sorry about that.  Moving on.  Even this picture makes me itch for summer:

This is from when I went to visit my parents at Lake Superior last summer.  It was a grey, drizzly day.  The water was freezing and I wore a light sweatshirt and jeans even though it was late June.  And yet, I would still take that over the -10 degree weather I woke up to this morning.  Ugh. 

So, what am I saying?  I guess I’m basically complaining…a lot.  For the last four months, we’ve been putting up with snow storms that dump 9 inches of snow in a single day and temperatures that don’t get above zero for days at a time.  Hey, I’m all for winter.  I love a white Christmas.  And Wisconsinites are notorious for bragging about their ability to withstand cold temperatures…but enough is enough.  Can I put in an order for an early summer?  I’m even willing to pay the extra shipping and handling!  Please??