The Goody Plate

I stayed at a B&B in northern Arizona a few years back with some of my girlfriends. The proprietress had some cookies on a pretty plate under a cake dome that was just sitting on the counter, no cake plate. I thought that was such a neat idea that when I got home I borrowed it!

First, I had to find a really pretty plate! This one came from Marshall's a few years ago. I was so glad it fit under the cake dome!

Jerry is a big fan of sweets so I try to always keep something on the Goody Plate; cookies, muffins, brownies, etc. Right now, it's homemade brownies with chocolate chips and walnuts in them. They are so moist and chocolatey that they don't need any frosting! They are made from my brownie mix but that is a post for another day! ;-)

100% Whole Wheat Bread

We were having a discussion on the MaryJanesFarm chat room about baking whole wheat bread. I thought I would share my recipe and some tips I have picked up over the years.

100% Whole Wheat Bread               **Click here to print recipe**

3/4 to 1 cup milk
1/4 cup orange juice
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons honey

4 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons bread machine/instant yeast OR 1 packet active dry yeast (If using active dry yeast, dissolve it in the warm milk before combining with the remaining ingredients.)

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until done.

I use my bread machine to mix, knead and do the first rise. The egg helps the bread rise nicely since it is 100% whole wheat. The orange juice helps to cut the bitterness that sometimes is associated with 100% whole wheat bread. I use King Arthur flour for EVERYTHING I bake, it is the only kind of flour I buy. I use the all-purpose unbleached, the bread flour and the whole wheat flour. I truly believe it makes a difference in the finished product.

After the bread machine is done doing it's thing, remove the dough, shape it into a loaf, put it in a greased pan, cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly doubled. Another thing I have found is that if your dough is more on the soft/sticky side you get a better rise. If you think it is too sticky to work with, spray your work surface with a little cooking spray so that the dough won't stick. If you just keep adding more flour, your bread will be heavy and dry.

  When the bread is half way done, cover it loosely with aluminum foil to prevent overbrowning. Uh, yeah, I do use the same piece of foil over and over and over....

 When done, remove the bread from the pan immediately so that the crust doesn't get soggy and let cool completely (if you can stand it!) on a wire rack before slicing.

This is great for sandwiches or toast or with a big slather of butter!! YUM!!



Farmers Market

Yesterday was the Farmers Market in St. David. It is every Saturday from 9 a.m to noon, May through October. It is still kind of early in the year for much of the summer produce but we have several vendors who have worked hard to have spinach, lettuce, chard, kale, radishes, etc. until the summer produce really starts to kick in. One of the ladies has a greenhouse (I'm SOOO jealous!) and she has even had some cucumbers and zucchini already! I have greens, eggs, goat cheese, my Gourmet Baking Mixes and Seasoning Blends, hand lotion and one African violet left! Oh yeah, I also have my little chicken pinkeeps, they have been pretty popular!

 

I have started carrying pinto beans that are grown over near Willcox too. Last year, a couple of the vendors were carrying them but they have moved on to a different Farmers Market. I took five one-pound bags yesterday and sold them all! They really are the best pinto beans I have ever eaten, must be because they are fresh. I will have to do an update later in the summer when I have tomatoes, squash, eggplant, etc. Gives the table a whole different look! 

Early Summer Garden

I love the early summer garden! You can still harvest some of the cooler weather crops while the summer crops are getting started. I have green beans coming up in between the snow pea plants and summer squash coming up in the lettuce bed! Some of the squash are blossoming and I even have a couple of baby Clairmore zucchini setting on! The second picture is of one of my Tatume squash plants.

I still have cabbages, broccoli and lettuce growing. The lettuce is starting to go to seed so the chickens will be getting extra greens this week! The spinach was done a couple of weeks ago.

The Swiss chard will last pretty much all summer, I love cut-and-come-again crops! (Hmmm...don't know why the picture turned out all cock-eyed!)



I picked my first cherry tomato the other day and stood right in the middle of the garden and ate it! I did offer it to Jerry first though! I have fifteen tomato plants with seven different varieties.

I have some of my herbs growing in containers in the garden. The dill and cilantro however are growing wherever they want to! The cilantro is already going to seed because it is so hot here. I started the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant from seed this past winter. I buy most of my seeds from Baker Creek, love them!!



Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop

Buttermilk Biscuits

Mmmm... buttermilk biscuits made with my Baking Mix!

2 cups Baking Mix
4 tablespoons cold butter cut into little cubes
1 cup buttermilk (made from the goat milk the other day)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place baking mix in a bowl; cut butter into baking mix, I use my fingers, one less thing to wash!

Make a well in the center and add the buttermilk all at once.

Stir together until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Dust the top with additional flour. Knead gently 8-10 times.

Pat dough to about 1/2-inch thickness and cut out biscuits.

Gently push the dough back together and keep cutting out biscuits until all the dough has been used. Place biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve hot with butter.

Mmmmm.....

Bees in the Trees

The bees are swarming here in beautiful southeastern Arizona! This particular bunch decided to spend at least the night in the Arizona Ash tree down by the barn. We were down at the barn putting everyone up for the night and feeding when they arrived. They flew around a LOT before deciding where they wanted to light!

We hope they are gone tomorrow, they are kinda close to Paco's horse pen. We had a bunch light underneath the sundial out front last year and they stayed for a week!!

Baking Mix

I have been making this baking mix for several years now and I love it! The recipe came from Mother Earth News magazine and was submitted by Sophia Dobra, I want to give a big thanks to both! I use a LOT of this making buttermilk biscuits, beer breads, pancakes, muffins, cookies, etc. I also use this mix as the base in my Gourmet Baking Mixes I sell at the Farmers Market. If you don't think you will use it all up in about a month, store part in the fridge or the freezer so the baking powder doesn't lose its effectiveness.

I have added the label "Baking Mix" to all the recipes I have posted using it. If you click on the "Baking Mix" label at the end of this post, it will call up all the recipes. I will be adding more recipes using this mix as time goes by!

Baking Mix               **Click here to print this recipe**

5 pounds all-purpose unbleached flour
1 cup raw wheat germ
3/4 cup baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
2-3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon cream of tartar

Put about two-thirds of the flour in a large mixing bowl, add remaining ingredients.

 Using a wire whisk, stir together well. Add remaining flour and stir together well again to make sure everything is evenly distributed. 

I store mine on the counter in a large, wide-mouth jar.

Gopher Snake In The Garden

When I went out to water the garden the other day, I found this guy entangled in some bird netting I had put down over the cataloupe seeds because the birds kept digging them up as fast as I could plant them! I went in the house and got some kitchen tongs and my embroidery scissors and cut him free. About 2 hours later, when I went down to the barn to feed Oliver, the baby goat boy, the silly snake was stuck in the bird netting again!! This time, when I went in for the tongs and scissors, I also grabbed the camera. He was stuck worse the second time. Jerry came home about then and was trying to help (he really, REALLY doesn't like snakes!). We got him loose but didn't get all the bird netting off and he kept getting the bird netting caught on the fence. Jerry went out a few minutes later and he was gone but I was feeling really bad that we hadn't gotten all the netting off. In the evening, after we fed the critters, I went to the garden to water a couple of things and there was ole snakey again hung up on some wire trellis. Well, this time I held his head and Jerry was able to finally get all the bird netting off him. Needless to say, I took up the netting and threw it away! Ole snakey was heading east along the pasture fence the last time I saw him! By the way, it's kinda hard to tell from the pics but he was about 5-1/2 to 6 feet long!

Milking Time!

This is Madeline, she is my number one milk goat!

Okay, let's get to milking!

Mmmm, fresh from the goat!

Not a bad haul for milking once a day and she is still nursing babies! The quart has buttermilk culture added to it so that I can make cheese later in the week.

About us

My name is Candy and my husband is Jerry and the Lazy J Bar C Farm is located in beautiful southeastern Arizona near the historic town of Tombstone. We are at 4500 feet and are considered high desert. We have horses, dairy goats, chickens, a farm dog and two spoiled indoor cats. Actually, all the critters here are spoiled! We also have a garden and some fruit trees that provide enough produce for us with some left over to sell at the St. David Farmers Market. I make a couple of kinds of cheese from the goat's milk. I try to cook everything from scratch including all of our bread. I have been making my own baking mix for several years now and have come up with a line of Gourmet Baking Mixes that I sell at the Farmers Market. The Beer Bread mixes have been a big hit (samples sell)! There is always something that needs done around here which makes for interesting days.