You Like Tomato, I Like To-mah-to

As we harvested one crop, another was taking root. The milo crop is up and attempting to hold its own during these hot, dry days of summer.

This time of year is always a conundrum. It's kind of like that song, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," written by George and Ira Gershwin in 1937 for the film Shall We Dance?

"You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto"

Not that we can place an order on rainfall anyway. But is a harvest rain good or bad? Thankfully, I no longer have to answer the question. We are done with wheat harvest 2011. (Cue the celebratory trumpets!)

We wanted the hot, sunny days for harvesting our wheat, which is our biggest crop by far here on the County Line.

But the milo, sudan, pastures and alfalfa would flourish with rains and a little cooler temperatures.

Thankfully, Randy took advantage of the 0.30 inch of moisture we got at the end of May and got the milo crop planted.

The 0.70 inch during the overnight hours June 11 gave it a needed boost. Since then, we've gotten about a quarter of an inch of moisture.

It could use another drink of water. I'm sure the farmers along the Missouri River in Nebraska and Iowa would gladly give us some of theirs.

Larry Geiger Photo of a farmstead north of Omaha
from his Picasa web album

Wouldn't it be great if we could order up our rainfall and weather conditions like we order a restaurant meal?

"I'll take a nice, slow 2-inch rain. Hold the hail and the high winds. And I'll take a side order of blue skies for my flooded friends."

Dress 'Em Up, Dress 'Em Down

These Cheesecake Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars made their first appearance at the party we call Wheat Harvest 2011.

But they would be just as much at home on a fancy assorted cookie tray.


I just love a versatile cookie recipe. And make it a bar cookie recipe and I'm even happier.

Mandy, my cousin's daughter, posted a photo of these bars on her Facebook page. And I was a click away from a new bar cookie to add to my repertoire. She got the recipe from Heat Oven to 350 , a cooking blog. Now that I've discovered that blog, I'll be heading back for other ideas.

These cookies have to be stored in the fridge because of the cream cheese filling, so you might not think they're a good option for the harvest field. But I tote the guys' meals to the field in insulated containers - a hot container for the hot stuff and a cooler for the cold supper items. So it's not a problem.

It's sometimes a challenge to find extra storage space in the fridge. But I think you'll find these cookies are worth making room for. Enjoy!

Cheesecake Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Chocolate Chip Layer:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup butter-flavored vegetable shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. cider vinegar
1 large egg
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups flour
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cheesecake Layer:
1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugars. Add vanilla, salt and vinegar. Beat in the egg, then the baking soda and flour. Stir in the chocolate chips. Divide the dough into two equal parts and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese with sugar until thoroughly combined. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

In a 9- by 13-inch pan, spread 1/2 of the cookie dough evenly across the bottom. (This is somewhat tricky to do. Heat Oven to 350 recommends adding dollops of cookie dough throughout the pan and then spread the dollops together. I used my metal spatula to spread it after dropping the dollops.)

Spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the cookie dough. With the remaining cookie dough, flatten chunks of dough between your hands into discs and place on top of the cream cheese mixture. (I found that the dough was too sticky to really flatten the dough with my fingers, so I tried to dollop it across the top and spread it as evenly as I could with the metal spatula.) The top dough pieces don't have to entirely cover the surface of the cream cheese layer. They will spread out some.

Bake at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes (mine didn't take quite that long) or until top is brown and cooked through. Cool completely and store in the refrigerator.

Note: I didn't have butter-flavored shortening, so I used regular shortening and added a little butter flavoring - probably 1/2 teaspoon or so.

Other Harvest Cookie Creations

I also made my basic cookie recipe and made four different varieties. This time, I made:

• Date Oatmeal cookies
• Chocolate Chip Pecan
• Coconut (I used flaked coconut. I used both Mounds coconut drops and coconut M & Ms - somehow, I had partial bags of both in the freezer.)
  
• & White Chocolate Macadamia

I packaged part of them in twos in sandwich bags, then I put them in the freezer. I can then just pull out the needed packages to take for suppertime at the field.

But you don't have to be a farm family to enjoy this cookie recipe. I always feel like I'm getting great production with my investment of time to divide the dough and get several different kinds of cookies with one baking session. Enjoy!

A Rerun for Father's Day

Brent's first harvest - 1988

The Dads in my life aren't going to sit in their recliners on Father's Day. Their favorite way to spend their special day is in a Kansas wheat field, cutting a crop that's taken 9 months to grow.

In a way, it's like raising kids, I suppose.

Good, honest, hardheaded character is a function of the home. If the proper seed is sown there and properly nourished for a few years, it will not be easy for that plant to be uprooted.

~George A. Dorsey

Jill & Randy, Harvest 1987

Just as in farming, there are plenty of variables in parenting. Fortunately, the weather isn't one of them (unless you're the Father of the Bride worried about the weather ruining your princess' big day).

Gina Dreher, Gingerroot Photography, Wichita, KS

But, today, just like always, I'm thankful for the "Daddys" in my life.

Any fool can be a father, but it takes a real man to be a Daddy.

Philip Whitmore, Sr.

You've heard the saying, "I couldn't say it better myself." Well, I said it last year in my Father's Day post. Click here for a County Line rerun honoring my Dad, my husband and my father-in-law.

Happy Father's Day!

Boot Scootin' Boogie

I gave the boot "the boot."

After 6 weeks of wearing the lovely fashion accessory necessitated by a broken big toe, I decided it was time to lose the boot. (I had the orthopedist's blessing.)

On Monday, I walked a mile for the first time in 6 weeks. That may not seem like much for someone who typically walks 4 miles a day, 6 days a week. But I'm under strict orders to take it easy.

Ralph & Millie have been keeping me company. We're up to 1.5 miles a day now.


It has gone pretty well. I've had a twinge or two as my tennis-shoed left foot hits the County Line. But I haven't been huffing and puffing, even after weeks of inactivity.

However, someone else is. This week has been Millie's first excursions beyond the farmyard. Her tongue hangs out and her short legs pump to keep up with Ralph.

Once we get back to the yard, she immediately heads to her "pool" for a little spa time.

Move over, Millie. You're not the only one who needs a spa treatment right about now.

Name That Tune

Wheat harvest 2011 has had more stops and starts than a beginning driver learning to operate a stick shift. Yesterday was the first day we didn't have an interruption of some kind. (Believe me, I'm knocking on wood right about now just so I don't jinx today!)

Even though other people in the area had been cutting wheat since last Tuesday (June 7), we didn't find anything dry enough then. My farmer is mighty patient, but it's tough to sit on the sidelines when it seems everyone else is already cutting - even for my down-to-earth optimist.

(No, not everyone else was cutting. But it's like trying to convince your teenager, "No, everyone else's parents are NOT letting their daughter wear a skirt that short!")

We started cutting wheat Friday (June 10). Yields are better than anticipated, though it's definitely not a bumper crop. Test weight was good. Life was good.

Then came the breakdowns:

• Friday, it was the clean grain auger on the combine.
• Saturday, it was a combine hydraulic hose. You've heard that oil and water don't mix: Neither do oil and wheat chaff.
  
• Sunday, it was 0.70 inch of rain, though no one was complaining about that. The rain will help the milo and give the alfalfa crop and pastures a much-needed moisture boost. It also gave us the chance to go to our niece Emily's confirmation at church in Wichita on Sunday.
• On Monday, the breakdown was the truck. As Jake was about to pull into the elevator to dump his load of wheat at Zenith, the battery suddenly decided to give out.
  

• Tuesday evening, it was the suppertime storm and sprinkle that shut us down for the evening. Great rainbow, but not much precipitation.
  

I noticed a pattern: The breakdowns appear to happen right about the time I'm delivering supper to the field. I proposed a solution: Maybe I shouldn't deliver suppers anymore. Let's just say that suggestion didn't fly.

In my head, I kept singing the song, "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do." Just change is the words to "Breaking Down Is Hard to Do" and you have the County Line's theme song for harvest so far. I hope we'll be singing another tune soon.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

June 14, 2011

You can see the double rainbow just to the left of the intense rainbow.

You can travel the world over and see beautiful places and spectacular scenery. But a stormy Kansas sky has to rival even the most photographed places.


Otherwise, why would Dorothy have wanted to go home so badly?

I've teased the guys that I'm not going to bring supper to the harvest field anymore. They aren't going for that idea, even though we've had complications. Every. Single. Time.

For the first three nights, it was breakdowns. The scorecard so far? Two combine breakdowns and one truck battery failure. All happened around suppertime.

Yesterday's harvest complication had to leave a smile on your face, even though it meant another interruption.

As usual, it's impossible to capture the magnificence of a rainbow. Both ends were vibrant, and the shadow of a double rainbow decorated each end. Where's a panoramic camera when you need one?

We knew the storm was coming. And even that was beautiful. Randy wolfed down supper and picked up a passenger. (There was no time to pause for photo ops as Trevor climbed into the combine cab.)

It was a race to get as much wheat cut as possible before the winds blew in the rain.

But there was time for Trevor's sister, Emalee, to dance in the pickup bed ...

and to steal a potato chip or two from her Daddy's lunch before she and her mom, Katie, took a trip to the elevator with Jake.


There's no place like home ... there's no place like home ... there's no place like home.

***

I love this version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow with What a Wonderful World. We used it as background music for Jill's portion of her wedding slideshow. It's a Kansas girl's theme song, for sure. Enjoy!

When the Winds Blow

When a day is still, I don't notice flags. Do you?

But when a strong wind buffets a flag, it immediately draws your eyes to it. We watch its ripple and hear the snap of canvas as the wind tosses it to and fro.

Racers start their engines and put their foot on the gas when the flag man waves the green flag. At a race, do we pay attention to the checkered flag until it's waved wildly to signal the end of a race? We're probably not looking for the flag that's just sitting idly in the flag man's hands.

Today - June 14 - is Flag Day. Head on over to my Lovely Branches Ministries Food for Thought blog for more thoughts about facing the "winds" of life and for recipes (like the one pictured below) to celebrate Flag Day. Or click on this link to my KFRM blog for a more patriotic look at this special day.


Happy Flag Day!