A grey and gloomy day, or is it? 

The birds continue to flock daily - they know the season is changing.  Birds line up along electric or phone lines, one right next to another. Their numbers seem to increase with each glance.  How many this time?  Or, they gather in the tree tops, moving from time to time, in one large sweep across the sky. The twittering is loud and lively. The birds are getting ready...ready to leave our farm before winter arrives.  These birds are nowhere near as bright as the sun, when it is visible - of course; but they do provide many 'bright' moments throughout my day.  A grey and gloomy day...not really!

Kitchen duty beckons.  I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately - washing dishes, cooking dinner, washing dishes, canning tomatoes, washing dishes, freezing corn, washing dishes, testing recipes (for my cooking column in the Friends of Gladys Taber newsletter), washing dishes, and washing more dishes....that chore just never ends.  I supposed if I utilized the dish washer, I would save a bit of time, but not much. I grew up washing dishes by hand, spent most of my adult life washing dishes by hand, and now that I do have a dish washer; I still prefer to do the dishes by hand - call me crazy....

Today, my  priority was to freeze the rest of the sweet corn.  This is our late harvest corn and most of that last planting matured at the same time - so convenient.  Once I cut the corn from the cobs, the cobs are fed to the cattle.  Ember and the three rams get a few of the remaining green corn stalks as a daily  treat. They come a runnin' if they see me or Glenn, whether it is treat time (hands carrying corn stalks) or not (empty hands) - they are telling us that they are ready for their treat, now!  I do not know what we are going to give when the corn stalks run out.  But, I am sure,  they will still expect their treat!

I could let the corn stalks dry out and use them to make a fall decoration, but it is more gratifying to see a happy Ember, or a happy Winky.  I can live without a decoration, but these guys like to eat..don't you?

Before I began my corn chore, though; I wiggled in a little time to make my variation of sour cream bread.  I do not have any of my own original recipes, but I always make changes to prepare any recipe easier and faster. 

 

 

This bread is more like a dessert bread, what I call a 'sweet bread'.   I also call it 'good' - a real treat!

This recipe makes one 16" long loaf. I abandon the requisite powdered sugar frosting. It is not needed. The bread is delicious plain - just cut off a slice, and eat.  The bread is gone, vanished, no crumbs to nibble within hours.  I do know, if I do not eat a slice as soon as it cools from the oven, I may never get a slice - gone.

I guess I am like our animals...I like my treats!