SpruceHill

A day at the fair

 Yesterday when we were at the fair I snapped quite a few pictures. There are so many things to photograph.

 

There were quite a lot of baby animals at the petting barn. This little mini foal was one of my favorites. I love his fuzzy little tail!

 

Later in the day we went back and he was snoozing. He was just so cute, resting his little chin on the ground.

 

Nothing could be fuzzier or cuter then these little guys.

 

Little E Loved petting this little guy. Every time she did he fell asleep.

 

I can not forget the little chicks either. They too were very fuzzy.

 

This little calf was so cute all curled up in a ball. I just loved those long eye lashes.

 

How about these piglets, CUTE! 

 

 

There were so many great exhibits to see. All of the kids worked so hard. I love to walk around and look at everyone's great ideas.

 

What would a little county fair be with out produce? I just loved this pumpkin I wanted to draw a face on it.

 

If you care to there is a wagon hitched to these beauties that you can ride in, they take you all around the fair grounds. I love draft horses. They are gentle giants. Their hooves were as big as a dinner plate.

 

They had the perfect place to rest and cool off in the heat.

 

It was such a hot day that when we came home we were all ready to take a nap.

Happy weekend!

The results are in!

Wow what a day we had! I can't believe how well the girls did on there entries!

 

Big E won Intermediate Champion fondant cake, and Grand Champion fondant cake! WooHoo! She gets to auction it off on Saturday, she is already trying to figure out what she will buy with her money. Last years cake went for $500!

 

Miss H won a Senior Champion on her frosted cake and a won the Grand Champion Baked good!

 

Little E won a ribbon too. She is a clover and they all get the same ribbons. She was really proud of herself!

I am so proud of my girls! They worked really hard on their fair projects.

Spanakopita

I have been wanting to post this recipe for a while. It is one of my all time favorite things to make and eat. Spanikopita or spinach pie is an authentic, really rich pie stuffed with spinach, onions, cheeses and herbs that are all enfolded by crispy, flaky phyllo dough. It will make you sing!

Ingredients

• 1 bag Fresh Spinach
• 1 bunch(es) Fresh Dill
• 1 bunch(es) Fresh Parsley
• 4 whole Scallions, Or Onion (small)
• 2 whole Eggs
• 8 ounces Ricotta Cheese
• 1 cup Feta Cheese
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 teaspoon Pepper
• 1 cup Butter Or Olive Oil (I use oilive oil)
• 1 package Phyllo Dough

Preparation instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly oil a baking sheet.

Wash spinach thoroughly, chop fine. Also chop dill, parsley, and onion, toss together in a large bowl. Then add eggs, feta cheese, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper. Toss together with your hands. Make sure all ingredients are tossed together well.

 

 

 

Melt butter in a small saucepan or microwave, then cool. Cover phyllo stack with a dampened kitchen towel. Phyllo is much easier to work with if it does not dry out.

 

Take one phyllo sheet from stack and arrange on a clean flat work surface (keeping remaining sheets covered) and brush with some butter. Top with another phyllo sheet and brush with more butter, stack four sheets for each pie. Cut buttered phyllo sheets in half so you have two long thinner sheets.

Put a heaping spoonful of filling near one corner of a strip on end nearest you, then fold corner of phyllo over to enclose filling and form a triangle. Continue folding strip (like a flag), in a triangular shape. Put triangle, seam side down, on a large baking sheet and brush top with butter. Make more triangles, using all of your filling. (you may have some left over phyllo.)

 

 

Bake triangles in the oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes, remove from baking sheet and let cool.

 

I have posted this recipe on The Pioneer Woman's new recipe site Tasty Kitchen. Go on over and check out her new site. She has printable recipes! Just click and print!

I am lucky enough to have a little Brother that cooks, He gave this recipe to me. He got it from a friend of his who is Greek. It is truly a great recipe.

Enjoy!

No Sheep!

  

That's right, the 4-H fair is here and we have no sheep this year for the first time in seven years. I kind of miss the little guys, baaing whenever we step out the door. Running to the gate when it is feeding time. Nibbling on our pants, watches, and cell phones.

We got all of our various projects finished and turned in today to be judged. We have been very busy baking. Yesterday was baking day for the girls and what would you know we had no electricity! We had had a severe storm the night before and our power went out at 2am and came back on at about 2pm. I was a bit nervous about not being able to get our baking finished in time and had no idea when and if the power would come back on. Sooo.... we packed everything up that we needed for 4 cake recipes and one icing recipe, piled into the car and headed to my brother's house. Boy my SIL saved my life. She had everything all ready for us when we got there and the girls really went to town and got it finished in good time! By the time the cakes came out of the oven our power was back on. So we packed everything back into the car and headed home. After a bit of cooling Big E Started her decorating.

 

I am very proud of all her hard work! I just love the design she came up with.

 

Of course our quality control supervisor was on hand to make sure all was done to her strict guidelines.

Miss H made an iced cake. It looked so yummy! Luckily we got to keep half of it. Both the girls used the same recipe for their cakes you can find it here. We did the icing differently then the one posted with the recipe. It was so good it almost made me cry!

 

It rained when we first got there but the sun came out just in time for the girls to be finished turning their things in. Did I mention that the fair always falls on the hottest week of the year? It does, it always does. Today was no exception.

 

I do miss the boys, but I am really glad that we don't have to hang out in the hot barn for 5 days with them. I also do not miss sheering them in 90 degree heat! We are planning to be there a couple of days, to watch friends show their animals and take in our little county fair.

Sometimes it feels like somebody's watching me

 

We have a lot of creepy crawlies around here on Spruce Hill.

 

This guy was inside my sliding door this morning. When I opened the door to let the cool morning air in he was sitting there, it kind of startled me. Then I ran to grab my camera.

 

We have them every where. On the front porch, out the back door and outside the sliding doors. The are mostly out at night and leave their calling cards everywhere.

   

I really love his color and all his bumps and patterns on his skin, or her skin.

 

I had fun taking pictures of this guy the other day as I was reading on the porch in my favorite chair.

 

He was not at all happy with me taking his picture. He had just shed his skin and was busy licking himself. He attacked my camera a coupe of times. He was pretty aggressive, it made me a little nervous. Then he jumped onto my camera and scared the ba-jesus out of me.

 

Here is the picture I took when he jumped me.

 

After that traumatizing experience I decided to switch to kinder gentler bugs.

 

I just love the spots on this guy.

 

These guys creep me out too. They kept dive bombing us.

 

I am not sure what kind of bug they are but I think they might be June bugs. They are really large.

 

Sometimes it feels like somebody's watching me!