3/4 of the World's Population Can't be Wrong

Nearly 3/4 of the world consumes goat as their primary meat source. With that many people eating it, it can't be all that bad, right?

I'll admit; I've been very curious to try it for a while now. I keep seeing it at the farmer's market, but it's fairly pricey. I have no idea how much is costs to raise goats, but $16 a pound seems a bit high. I know; people like me will pay it. But I don't think one time customers is a good business model. Maybe that is a very reasonable price-again, I have no idea what it costs to raise and finish goats.

Anyway, I got a bit sidetracked. Back to my curiosity.....

So the husband and I finally decided to purchase goat chops at the farmer's market. Now that we bought them, how the heck do I cook it? I turned to facebook, where all my foodie friends could give me advice. I got the same thing over and over...."low and slow". Yeah, I figured that part. But what seasonings do I use? And that's why I love Google. I found a recipe that seemed easy enough here. I used white wine vinegar instead of plain white vinegar. I don't know that it really added anything, but I figured it couldn't hurt. The recipe says to marinate for 2 hours-I let it marinate in the fridge for nearly 4 hours. I did flip it after about two hours and gave it another massage to really work in the curry.

I cooked it at 400 for 30 minutes, then at 300 for 2 1/2 hours.

I really should have taken a picture of the meat when it was cut open. It was a beautiful, perfect pink and it fell apart when you cut into it! Goat chops with garlic and rosemary couscous and roasted veggies....delicious dinner!

I was very surprised by how much I like it. I had several people tell me if I like lamb, I'd like goat. In my opinion, the goat was much better than the lamb I have made. I'm not sure we'll buy it again at $16/lb, but if I found it cheaper, I could definitely see us eating more goat! 

Getting Settled in....and Chickens!

So we're finally settled in to our new house....and we are completely loving the new house, new area, and new surroundings!

We had to do a little work to the house, including adding a wall and doors to create a master suite in the former family room.

I'm so glad my dad and husband are carpentry-inclined!!!

Then we had to buy a new stove and dryer.....which were unexpected purchases! But as soon as all of that was done, we were able to dive into the fun stuff! We planted a few fruit trees. 

Then we moved on to the next project.....chickens!

With the chicken coop built, we were ready to pick up the hens, or as I refer to them.....the ladies

We've really enjoyed getting to know their personalities, and of course the eggs!

Meeting the New Neighbors

Chicken Helper to the Rescue!

For the last few months, I've been MIA. We've been house hunting, then packing and finally moving! It's been crazy around our place since February, but I'm finally (almost) settled in! Woohoo! During this whole process, most of my kitchen was boxed up and quite honestly, I was exhausted. That's why I was so excited when I received two boxes of Hamburger Helper in the mail from Betty Crocker and General Mills! I received Sweet & Sour Chicken Helper and Parmesan Crusted Chicken Helper. 

Nailed It!

Pinterest....the virtual bragging grounds that inspires us all to think "I can do that!" I'll be the first to admit I pin things all the time that I think I'll do one day. And then something else shiny and glittery snags my attention and I never think about that wonderful recipe I just pinned. I'm an pinner full of great hopes and dreams....and an empty reality. Yesterday, I decided to start changing that. I went through all the pins I had looked at recently and decided to actually do one!

There are several pins of this going around and I don't know if I have the original post here or not, but here's what I was going for....

Source: delish.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Two problems here....1. When I saw this, I thought it looked simple enough....who needs to read the instructions?! 2. The pin doesn't really have any instructions.
I figured it couldn't be that hard....mold dough over muffin tin and bake. I think I did something wrong....

The good thing is, it's still chocolate chip cookies so we all sat around picking pieces off the muffin tin. Lesson learned....I promise I will read the instructions next time. Well, probably not, but I will not attempt these ever again! 

What to do while you wait

Yesterday and today, I've spent a lot of time waiting in a hospital. And let me tell you, waiting sucks. But when you have lots of time on your hands, a computer, and internet, you can get caught up on things that have fallen through the cracks-like blogging.
So what's been going on lately? I had a bit of a surprise last week. I made cupcakes for someone to take in to their office for Halloween. What they didn't tell me, was that the "Halloween Pitch In" was actually a baking contest. I won. Crazy, right? I made chocolate maple cupcakes with chocolate maple frosting. For the decorations, I used candy melts and a piping bag to write "Boo" and make spiders. I also pulled out some skull molds and made candy skulls. Here were some of my early attempts:

I finally came up with these:

I guess they were a big hit! And here's the kicker-I can't stand maple. And I mean maple anything-syrup, candy, flavoring, etc. Making those cupcakes about made me gag, so I obviously didn't taste them. Come to think of it, that would actually be a good diet plan. Maybe I should only make sweets I don't like! I'm sure there will be more to come later as the waiting continues!

WW-Halloween Edition