New Beginnings.

Barn Southeast of Bloomfield, Indiana.

Joe is over 9 months old now. That means almost eighteen months ago I first jumped into this crazy mess that is entrepreneurship. Where my business is currently is a far cry from what I thought it would be by this time, but instead of looking at it as a negative, I'm turning it into a jumping off point. Joe is getting more independent, and a lot more cooperative (she is currently taking a nap by me just laying her down instead of being rocked--a big step for both of us), so I am letting the business come back into the light a bit.

The Gallivanting Girl has been a lifelong dream. Selling my art, traveling the county roads looking for a story or a photograph or a great antique, all with auction and yardsale fodder in the back of my truck. I'm finally getting there. I'm so excited to be able to say--yep, I'm living my dreams. This house, this farm, my husband, my daughter, all of it has seemed to be right out of my journal as a kid. I wrote about every piece of my dream life and now it's a reality. How great is that? Now all I need is to make The Gallivanting Girl into what I always wrote it to be.

Yesterday I wrote down a bit of a re-vamp list of things I need to start doing in order to help push myself forward. I printed it out, along with an amazing inspirational quote I found and tacked them up on my newly cleaned off desk. Joe and I are going to be two very busy girls from here on out. I've got projects lined up, and auctions to check out, and photographs to edit. It's going to be magnificent.

I'll write more later, hopefully, but I've got a touch of housework to finish up with before Joe wakes up. Just thought I'd write a quick post letting everybody know that I'm finally getting a true chance at getting my business off the ground--and I've got VERY high hopes.

Homemade Chicken Tenders and Hot Fudge Pie.

First off, I'm sorry for the cruddy pictures it was storming last night, so poor lighting, sorry.

I'm proud to say that it has been many a month since I've fixed a pre-packaged meal. Everything I've made lately has been from scratch--although the ranch dressing in the picture is store bought--soon enough I'll be making homemade of that too. Last night's meal was homemade chicken tenders, Italian bread (from the bakery) with Mozzarella, Feta, Garlic, and Parmesan, and green beans. The tenders were really good for something I just whipped up sans-recipe. Definitely going to make them again soon.

All I did was grate some wheat french bread that I got at the bakery with a box grater, mixed that with some salt and pepper, and then took the cut up breast meat, dipped it in egg, and covered it with the crumb mixture. Then I seared it in a pan that was coated with melted butter (a few minutes on each side), and finally put them in the oven for 20 minutes on 375--just that easy.My husband is one of those people who LOVES pre-packaged food. This has been an interesting journey with him. As you can see in the background he actually saves hot mustard sauce from McDonalds to use at home--he's a sad case. He has taken to this new lifestyle fairly well--except for a few frozen pizzas he has stashed in the freezer, and a few other junk food items here and there he's sort of on the same path as me.I can honestly say I feel amazing. I've been losing weight--although Joe breast feeding is a main cause of that. And Joe's breast feeding is a main reason for me eating better. It's pretty sobering to think--wow, whatever I eat is going to nourish my kid, so I better make it count. I eat my 'recommended daily servings' of fruits and vegetables, lots of dairy products, and plenty of water. If that's all it takes to feel great, then I'm sticking to it even after Joe is weaned. She's got a great appetite for food already too--she eats our meals right off my plate every night.

Now picture this: HOT FUDGE PIE--sounds amazing right? What if I told you it's super easy to make too. I've got your attention right? Well to start let me apologize for the picture. My husband and I demolished this pie before it even cooled. This is all that's left, but I imagine I'll get better pictures soon because I know I'm going to make this sucker again.This recipe I stumbled upon on accident when I clicked on the blog aviedesigns.blogspot.com. It's super easy and I highly recommend it. Here's the post. Hot Fudge Pie:
2 Eggs
1/4 Cup Cocoa
Pinch of Salt
1 Cup of Sugar
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1 Stick of Butter, melted
1 Pie Crust

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine ingredients. Pour into pie shell. Bake 25-30 minutes (now here I had to adjust-my crust looked perfect at 27 minutes but the pie was still not set, so I just turned off the oven and let the pie rest in it while it cooled down for about 10-15 minutes and it turned out perfect). That's it--perfect pie--ta-dah!

Open-Class Projects.

Here are the photos I'm entering tomorrow. I printed them at home, but I think they turned out okay. I'm still as nervous as can be. I'm definitely going to practice more with the printer and various papers to get more confident with my finished prints. So, what do you think?

The Farmhouse Cafe Pictures.

I still haven't gotten a chance to talk with the owner of The Farmhouse Cafe, but I can't wait to show you these any longer. The Cafe is located in Bean Blossom, Indiana and after an amazing meal the best thing to do is go and walk the grounds which also houses a Flower and Herb Barn and Gardens. Here is a little photo montage of my last visit. Enjoy.

Big Girl Potties and County Fair Time.

Joe has been using the potty for over a month now. I'm not trying to 'potty train' her, but I'm just laying out some ground training. She wakes up dry, so I bought the potty and from the first time I put her on it--she seemed to understand and peed. I praised her a ton, and so we keep doing the same. She can't tell me when she needs to go yet, so we still have wet diapers, but there are a lot less of them than there were. People are shocked that I even tried her on the potty at 7 months, but I've heard of people starting kids at 6 weeks--that to me is a bit extreme, but as I said I just did this on a whim, and she understood, so I have kept it up. If she would've gotten upset or not taken to it, then I would've put the potty away until she was a bit older. I just got lucky.

Our County Fair starts this weekend. I'm entering some photographs in the open class this year, and I'm nervous as could be. When I was in 4-H I never entered any artistic projects. I focused on my cattle and that was it. This means I'm stepping WAY out of my comfort zone. We'll see how that goes.

Amazing Food--The Farmhouse Cafe

My new favorite restaurant has got to be "The Farmhouse Cafe" in Bean Blossom, Indiana. Here's just a quick peak of my meal--Bacon, Tomato, and Cheddar Quiche, Potato Soup, and a Cheese Biscuit.
They bring out chips and a creamy dip first thing, and I got the most amazing Lemon Cheesecake for dessert--both of which I scarfed down and didn't photograph--guess that means I will have to go back and order them again, yay.

I'm holding back the other photos because I'm hoping to interview the owner--we'll see how that goes.

Very Yummy Supper.

I found this recipe a few weeks ago and saved it back because it sounded delicious--and believe me it was. As always I changed a bunch of things so my version isn't exactly the same as the given recipe. However my cakes looked just as perfect as the image Martha had, although I served mine with Orzo pasta that I cooked in homemade beef broth with mushrooms. Very tasty.

Image via Martha Stewart

My version is below.

Fish Cakes

(makes 14 cakes)

1 large Amberjack Filet--mine still had the skin on it

Lemon Pepper Seasoning

4 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard

3 Tbsp. Mayo

14 Tbsp. Seasoned Breadcrumbs

A few dashes Tabasco Sauce

A few shakes Onion Powder

A tiny bit of salt

Then I just followed the directions of the other recipe. I froze 8 of them and served 6 last night. The ones I saved back froze very nicely, and will make us a quick meal some other night soon. It was a very simple recipe that I highly recommend. The serving size is two cakes, but they were so good I ate 3...oops. I would've photographed them, but last night we had a Tornado Warning with a hefty storm during supper and since my camera was in our house and I was over at my mother-in-laws I decided against running through the heavy rains with the Digital Rebel just to make record of our food--maybe next time. The only reason I used Amberjack instead of Cod is that my dad had caught the Amberjack on a fishing trip and brought us some a while back--in other words--I used it because that's what I had. It was a perfect fish for the cakes though--it flaked wonderfully.

If you try out the recipe tell me what you think, okay?