Dedicated to April

Would you believe it snowed again this morning?  It's April 7th! This is beyond reducilous!  But now it is sunny, the birds are chirping and I am sitting watching the snow melt off of my car windshield slowly as the sun rises in the sky.  Hmm... That's the kind of stuff you get to do when you're retired.  Wonder how many people would be motivated to save all their pennies so they could sit around and watch that?  Dave and I must really be weird!  Oh wait!  This is Saturday... ok never-mind... but you get the drift right?  Speaking of drifting... this is not about the snow or the month... it's about April the brand new baby calf!  Awwwww...

How cute is she?!!!

And here she is meeting Dave for the first time

And here she is with Mama Ginger, don't look too closely, Ginger is "takin care of business" after the birth.

 So... adorable right???  Now... I love a good steak as much as anyone but this is the time of year when my appetite for beef takes a nosedive!  I mean... that's not a steak... that's a baby!!!  After hanging out with baby April all morning I decided I better make some lunch.  Hmm... what to have... certainly not a burger!  Well I knew I had a beautiful new head of cauliflower in the fridge so I got it out.  I never have an emotional attachment to cauliflower!  I remembered there was also a little wild rice blend hiding on the fridge shelf too... and perhaps some caramelized onion.  Yum!  Oh and some grape tomatoes.  And just a handful of spinach for color.  And freshly grated Parmesan cheeeese!  Yeah... that might work for lunch...

If only I could rotate this pic!  But this was sooo good!  And so non-beefy!  As a matter of fact this could actually be considered vegetarian!  :)  Nice!  I'm so proud of myself!

Of course a nice salad also works too.  I usually don't have meat in my salads... usually.  I made this one a couple of days ago...

It's got grapes, honey glazed walnuts, avocado and Gruyere cheese drizzled with balsamic vinegar and a bit of EVOO.  So good!

That cauliflower dish was so tasty that I decided to bake it in the oven and caramelize it down a bit more and let it appear again at dinner time alongside a very tasty sweet potato and a crispy... PORK chop!  :)  Hey... I said no beef not no meat.  I have very little fondness for pigs... unless of course they are babies but we don't currently have any baby pigs in our barn yard.  That's actually half a pork chop.  I split one with Dave and the other one is scheduled to become some very tasty Mexican soup tomorrow.

The last non beefy thing I want to show you is a little chicken dish that will be on my plate tonight.  Now... when I say chicken really I mean... rooster :)  Dave butchered it himself.  It took me awhile to come to grips with that but... see, last summer our batch of chicks included four little roosters.  It was all well and good to have them scratching around the chicken yard until they grew up.  I mean... those hens were screeeeaming for mercy so whatcha gonna do???  So after experimenting a few times my very favorite recipe for home grown rooster is this...

Kathy's Crock O Rooster

It's sort of a Thai inspired dish.  I imagine it's probably what happens after the cock fights :)  Anyway this little guy is covered with coconut milk, onion, garlic, orange bell pepper, some frozen corn from the garden, red curry paste, cumin, saffron and gobs of peanut butter with a little basil on top.  He will stew all day and be oh so succulent by tonight!  Of course I'll have to make a little basmati rice to serve him over and perhaps a tasty salad to go with him.  And this is what he looks like this in the pot... don't worry, you can hardly even see him under all the pretty colors.

And that's a good place for you rooster!

So here's to April the calf!  It's going to be a very non-beefy month!  Happy eating!  Ciao!