Bailey's Irish Creme Cake

Saturday is St. Patrick's Day.  And since I am part Irish, (my great grandparents came from Ireland) I do love St. Patrick's Day.  Every year I do a family dinner with the whole corned beef and cabbage thing as well as Irish soda bread but the hit of dinner every year is my Bailey's Irish Creme Cake.  So here is the recipe...from my little farm kitchen to yours:

1 yellow cake mix

1 large box instant chocolate pudding

4 eggs

3/4 cup oil

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup Bailey's irish creme

1 cup chocolate chips

Glaze:

1/2 cup Bailey's

1/2 cups sugar

Mix all cake ingredients except choc chips on medium speed for 3 minutes.  Stir in chocolate chips, preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour bundt pan pour in batter and bake for 1 hour.  Cool and remove from pan.  Pour glaze on top of cake when completely cool.

Have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!

Ducks!

The ducklings are growing at a rapid rate.  I swear they're a little bigger every morning.  They are happy and lively, and eating like crazy, just like a duckling should be.  Because of our still rather cold weather they have to live indoors and are in a cage so I put them in the tub every day for several hours to play in the water.  They love this and we love watching them.  I mean seriously...what is cuter than a duckling?

Bad day

Yesterday was a terrible day.  I spent the day dealing with an issue at my son's high school which still isn't resolved.  I went to bed feeling disappointed with the teacher in question, upset with the kids at the school, fearful for my son.  I came home from work feeling like the world was weighing me down.  I had even placed a frantic call to a friend saying I thought I was having a damn heart attack.  I never want to have a day like that again.  Coming from work, exhausted and stressed out, I snapped on Hunter's leash and we took our three mile walk through rural country.  We saw cows, horses, ducks in ponds, hardly any people.  I came home and went into the barn.  While I was climbing up to the rafters to get hay I felt two hooves in my back.  I turned to see who it was and there was Brie, my beloved goat.  It made me smile.  I'm counting my blessings that I have my barn and my animal friends to make me feel whole again.

Make way for ducklings!

The ducks out in the barnyard have been quite busy laying eggs and I brought some to a coworker who incubated them for me.  Well, yesterday five little ducklings came home to our farm!  If only they would stay this little.  Their little fluffiness and frantic peeps for food are so endearing.  

Heroes

A woman on my facebook page posted a picture with the caption, "Real heroes don't wear capes, they wear dog tags".  I know she was referring to our fine soldiers and rightfully so but it got me to thinking about one of the little heroes in my life.  My puppy, Hunter.  Hunter is a sweet rather overly energetic chocolate lab and I am so in love with him it's ridiculous.  He arrived here six days after we lost our beloved Missy and he has filled our home with laughter, endless energy and silliness, and above all love.  I finally have a guaranteed walking partner every day although he really needs to work on his gossiping skills.
Every morning he comes to the barn and watches me feed the gang.  This morning our little goat, Bucky, tried to make a run for it, looking for the duck's food that is so bad for him but that he loves to try and steal.  Hunter herded a rather startled Bucky, who is used to getting his way, right back into the barn.  It all happened in under a minute, which was great considering it was 5:15 and pretty damn cold not to mention dark.

So Hunter...you are my hero and my buddy and I thank you for coming into and being such a big part of my life.

Duck eggs

We have three ducks.  Izzy, Dizzy, and Lizzy.  I have no idea who is who.  I can tell which one is the male by the little curl at the end of his tail but other than that I have three identical Peking ducks.  I have always loved ducks. There is something so peaceful about the way they swim across a pond and dive gracefully under the water.  So back in May we acquired these three and imagine my surprise when they started laying eggs in December!  We were delighted.  If you've never had a duck egg you are missing out.  They  are much richer than a chicken egg, higher in protein, lower in cholesterol, and free of those stress hormones you get from the factory chicken egg.

Every morning I go out to the barn and there are two or three eggs waiting for me, like a little duck gift.  This morning however, one of my ducks was proudly sitting on her "nest".  She was carefully tucking the eggs under her and when she saw me she walked sadly away, looking back at me as if to say, "Go ahead, take them."  I reassured her that the eggs were hers.  Seeing her on that nest just made my morning.  It's the little things....

Our "Spirited" Home

http://www.saugertiesx.com/2012/02/23/haunting-west-camp/

Recently our home was featured in the local paper.