Summer Fruit Trifle and Cowboy Music

Are you enjoying this summer? I hope so, because it's slipping away!

Jan here, with a great summertime recipe.

One advantage to having adult children is that sometimes they find that perfect person to marry and bring into the family!

Our oldest son, Jacob, married Katie in February, and her love of cooking has fit so well into our family! She gave me permission to share the recipe she brought to our church picnic last week, and I thought it was so delicious - perfectly smooth and cool for a summer meal!

Summer Fruit Trifle

ingredients:

2  8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened

2 tubs frozen whipped topped (Cool Whip)

2 cups strawberries

2 cups blueberries

2 cups blackberries

In large bowl, mix softened cream cheese and whipped topping together. In another bowl, mix the fruit together - gently!

In a trifle dish or other serving dish, make layers of fruit and filling (about 3 layers of each), ending with a layer of fruit. Cover and chill for 2-3 hours before serving.

Isn't that easy? And it was SO GOOD!!! 

And Katie used sugar free whipped topping, which made the recipe a little easier on the calorie punch.

You could also use real whipped cream, of course!

While you're enjoying your trifle, let's move on to other fun stuff. I'm sure you realize by now that I am in love with the Black Hills. After almost seven years, we still thank our Lord every day for bringing us here!

Saturday night we spent the evening with a bunch of folks who are deep in their own love affairs with the Hills!

That's our daughter, Carrie, on the bass, playing with the classic country group, Aces & Eights. This summer they're headlining monthly shows at the Black Hills Opry. The concerts are played in the historic Homestake Opera House.

The Opera House deserves an entire blog post of its own, but you'll just have to head to their website to get the scoop - Historic Homestake Opera House

There are better videos on Youtube where you can listen to Aces & Eights, but this one includes Carrie. It's from "Deadwood Days" earlier this summer when they opened for Sawyer Brown. Yes, THE Deadwood. Check out the Aces and Eights Youtube channel for more of their music - www.youtube.com/channel/UCCFqXmVlJtZ3L0ooZvZu2dA

On Saturday, Aces & Eights was joined by some guests. One was Paul Larson. This guy is a cowboy who retired from the Rodeo Circuit after qualifying and competing in the Worlds Finals Rodeo in the team roping event. He has made his home in the Black Hills, keeping busy with cowboying for neighbors, custom carpentry, and singing in shows like this one. 

For a sample of his music, head over to his website, http://www.plcowboymusic.com/video--mp3.php, and scroll down to the mp3 samples. His song, "Home" is my favorite. True Black Hills cowboy imagery. *sigh* I love this song...and of course, I bought the CD. :)

The other guests - and the reason why we chose Saturday to head up to Lead for the concert - were Allen and Jill Kirkham.

You may know them better as Meg Brummer's parents!

Yes, Meg comes from cowboy music loving stock. :)

Allen and Jill on stage at the Black Hills Opry

Head over to Reverb Nation to learn more about their music and listen to some samples - www.reverbnation.com/KirkhamMusic

Or just listen to this classic cowboy song from their "Ghost Towns" CD - 

Or this one by Dan Seals, sung by Allen and Jill at the Western Music Association Friday Night Opry- -

Needless to say, we had a wonderful time.

So what do you think about Cowboy Tunes and Western Music?

When I listen to it, it tugs me toward writing another cowboy story....

Jan Drexler loves her family, her home, cooking and just about anything made by hand. But she loves her Lord most of all.

Stop by Jan's website to learn more about her books: www.JanDrexler.com

Ranch House Pot Roast

The Black Hills Stock Show ended yesterday, so we don't have as many cowboys in town as we did last week. Which is sad.

Because face it, how often do you get to have a photo op with a bunch of rodeo cowboys?

My daughter, Carrie, with the Wrangler Rodeo Cowboys
a couple years ago. These guys are all brothers from Utah.

A friend of ours had his picture taken with the rodeo queens this year. Much to his wife's dismay!

But all week long we've been livin' cowboy culture and sheep ranchin' and horses.

On Thursday I went to the sheep activities over at the Central State Fairgrounds.

There was the National Sheep Shearing contest -

- where I learned tons about shearing sheep. Once those woolies are on their backs, they relax and let the shearer do his work. The top guys can shear a sheep in about a minute. That's a lot of wool in one minute!

I also got to watch the preliminaries of the North American Sheep Dog Trials. It's thrilling to watch those dogs work.

I also learned to weave on a rigid heddle loom, card wool and spin. The Black Hills Crafters spent the entire day demonstrating the "sheep to yarn" process.

On Saturday we had made plans to head over to the stock show again to watch the afternoon PRCA rodeo, but our youngest son was coming home for the weekend. I wanted to fix a special dinner for him, so I decided to use my trusty slow cooker and a classic western dish.

This recipe is from a Montana ranch in the 1890's, where the lady of the house fixed it for family and guests. This is no Yankee Pot Roast!

Ranch House Pot Roast
(Slow-Cooker version)

Ingredients:

A medium-sized lump of lard
3-4 pound beef roast (chuck, round, or whatever you have)
2 handfuls of flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups beef broth or water
1 medium onion, sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
6-8 potatoes - enough for all being served

I cook with lard occasionally - often enough to keep a
small container in the cupboard.

Heat the lard - a lump about the size of a small hen's egg - in a skillet over medium-high heat. 

Season the flour with salt and pepper, and spread out on a plate. Dredge the beef in the flour. Brown the roast in the hot fat. Move the browned beef to your slow cooker.

Now add your broth (or water), onion, garlic, bay leaf and chili powder. Simmer until the onion is softened. 

Pour this over the roast.

Scrub or peel your potatoes, cut them in half, and arrange them on top of the roast.

Cover your slow cooker, turn it on low, and let it cook for 6 - 8 hours.

Now it's time to go to the stock show and rodeo!

If you're looking for a western stock show, here's a hint. Follow the nearest cowboy.

Before the rodeo, we wandered over to the show ring where they were judging the Simmental bulls.

This big guy can father a lot of calves by UPS!

I also fulfilled a long-time dream (close to 50 years!) by buying my first (and probably only) pair of cowboy boots.

Puppy photo-bomb!

Okay, here's a better view - 

I love these boots :)

The rodeo was great, we got to hear our friend's five year old grandson sing the National Anthem, and we got home in time for supper with the family...

...except the prodigal son had decided to go to a friend's house with his brother for a bonfire and supper there.

No worries. We have plenty of leftover beef, so I'm fixing barbecued beef sandwiches for supper tonight!

Revisiting The Barbecue Wars: Texas, will it hold up?

This is a post from a ways back but I was thinking about barbecue since I am on a plane headed to RWA in, gulp, Texas. They do barbecue in a BIG way. ManO even told me he's abstaining from NC barbecue because he knows he's going to indulge in all things Texan especially BBQ while he is there. So what about YOUR region's barbecue? Do you have any restaurants in town that do it a "foreign" way? We have one that does Texan barbecue. We will see how the real thing lives up.     

When I moved to North Carolina a few decades ago,  Man O took me to a company picnic.  When it was time to eat, we went up to a huge horizontal black oil drum. Hmm, I figured out it was the catering company’s grill. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, bratwurst floated through my mind. With a lot of hooting and hollering, the lid was opened and I jumped…BACK. 

There was half a pig, including hooves, grilling. The catering guy pulled out two huge knives and started hacking at it, not slicing it, but creating something called “barbecue.” No way!  Up in my neck of suburban DC, barbecue is what others call sloppy joes. Not this whack attack on Porky the Pig.  But I had one taste and was in heaven. Then I discovered North Carolina’s not so secret civil war.

When you get married, you find it is a series of compromises.  Colgate versus Crest. Jif versus Peter Pan. Coke vs Pepsi. We navigated those with ease compared to what we were facing now: Man O’s preference for Western North Carolina barbecue versus my affinity for Eastern.  I kept having to remind myself that Man O and I were both raised with relatives who went to Piggly Wiggly grocery stores, we both loved chili on our hot dogs, and this would not tear us apart like it did so many other North Carolina couples. 

Here is a  quick education in  the East vs West, very emotional, knock-down drag-out debate:

Eastern NC barbecue, dating back from colonial times, involves the whole pig, pit smoked and chopped. Its sauce is simple: Vinegar, red pepper, black pepper and salt! Western NC barbecue is a youngster, dating from the 20th century. Smoked pork shoulders are chopped but doused in ketchup based sauce. Man O is a Western die hard while I am an Eastern total fan. Now, I must admit it is harder for me to eat Western barbecue because the ingredients in the sauce are a mystery. If there is High Fructose Corn Syrup in the base, I am done for. But I just like Eastern better.

Recently Man O had been in South Africa for a while and I wanted to fix him a local meal for his return. 

What do Man O and this lion cub have in common? They both like meat!!! And they are really cute.

I missed him so much I made him Western Style barbecue, the quick way. I don’t have a smoker or a grill so this is how I did it:

Easy Oven Pork Barbecue:

Western Sauce: Puree one small sweet onion in a food processor. Add one teaspoon Penzey’s Barbecue of America [Click for more information on Penzeys Spices, the best spice company IMHO] spice mix, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon brown mustard, one cup or so of organic ketchup and one half cup water.  

Place one package (2-3lbs) pork tenderloin in a small roasting pan. Pour sauce over pork and seal tightly with aluminum foil.  Roast at 250 degrees for 3 and ½ hours, until you can “pull” the pork apart with two folks.  Mix meat into the juices.

See the two forks? Use them!

Serve with a slotted spoon to let juices run out and serve on the side with slaw or on buns. 

PS: When I am not as obliging, I make the Eastern style.  Quick Eastern Sauce: 1 Cup Apple Cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon each red pepper, black pepper, salt and sugar. Follow the same directions or just use a half cup water in with the loin and drizzle on sauce afterwards.  

Man O was happy and I was happy to have him home. So, at least in our house, barbecue peace reigns.