Super Bowl 2010

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints and the Who Dat Nation on winning their first Super Bowl! WOOT!

Read more the Saint’s win here.

What am I getting myself into?

This cute story was shared with me by my friend Valerie Newell from Crown Point Alpacas in New Hampshire.

Spring shows are coming up. Time to start thinking about halter training. If you have kids, letting them come up with ways to make it more fun can make the whole process more enjoyable.

It was a beautiful winter day, and early in the morning with the sun shining…I heard my little girl having quite the talk with Curious George. “George, would you like to come and meet the alpacas and help us train them for the show? You are always up for a challenge and something fun and exciting? So what do you say?”Apparently George agreed because I saw them both bouncing happily as they headed out to meet the alpacas.

They each got their turn with the halter and the leads. “George thought it was so much fun.” It was truly a great day, it was very apparent that  George and Annie felt proud and happy at the end of the day as they walked the newly trained “Snowman” together!

And as a mom, when all is said and done there is nothing like a happy kid, a happy monkey, and a trained alpaca!!

P.S. Thanks so much to Valerie for sharing this cute story with us. If anyone else has interesting/cute/helpful alpaca things they would like to share, feel free to email me with them. I am always looking for great items to publish.

Love this little buggar!

I’m totally in love with this little cria that was born to my friend Stephanie Mize of Gulf Breeze Alpacas. The cria was sired by one of our herdsires. Guess which one? (Looks just like his daddy) I could blog about this kid all week. And I will later. On the road today. But I had to throw out the gratuitous cute baby pic. Smooches.

Wordless Wednesday Shouts!

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

The New Orleans Saints have done us proud! So proud. They have won the NFC Championship and are going to their first Super Bowl.

And it feels like Destiny.

I’m a huge sports fan. I believe there are many lessons we can learn from sports. Some of the greatest stories ever told are played out on the gridiron or the hardwood. These Saints may become one of them.

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

But the Saints’ story is an odyssey. A tediously long journey. Just to get to the Super Bowl.

I was born and raised in Louisiana. The Saints were our team. In Shreveport, La. the local networks usually chose to play the Dallas Cowboys game rather than the Saints. This left my child-like mind confused about loyalty. “Hmm. We’re from Louisiana, like the Saints are. The local TV likes the Cowboys. Why are we supposed to care about the Cowboys, again?”

So I found another team to root for. Have you ever seen Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait?

Well I did. And I fell in love. With the (at the time) Los Angeles Rams, the team the movie is about. The Cinderella story of  Kurt Warner taking the Rams to a Super Bowl is a great story, but I’ll save that for another blog post.

After growing up in Louisiana, I lived in various places and pulled for other teams sometimes. We settled in Alabama along the Gulf Coast.  Still- the Saints are our team. The past few years the Saints have had some good years where we thought, “maybe this is it, maybe this is the Saints’ year…” But it wasn’t. Not yet.

Fast Forward to the 2010 NFC Championship.

Now I’m the kind of girl who jumps up and down and screams after a HUGE play.  Can’t help myself. It’s who I am, more passionate than obnoxious I like to think. Unable to contain my joy, my excitement.

So last night, after the Saints kicker, kicked the winning field goal in overtime to send the Saints, the very Saints who have never been, to a Super Bowl, my oldest child looked over in confusion.

Why was her mother not jumping up and down? Why was she not screaming and running around like a crazy person? Why had she not yet woken up the one child who dared to prance around the house all day claiming to be for the Vikings to taunt him in victory? “Mom?” she asked, “You want me to go get Dad? Maybe he hasn’t seen it?”

“No, honey,” I said, tears silently leaking down my cheeks, reaching for her hands. “Let me tell you about when Saints fans used to go to games with paper bags on their heads because they were so embarrassed of the team…” I pulled her close and told her the stories of the Saints over the years.

…Of the years they were called “the Aints”…

Super Dome After Hurricane Katrina

…Of the years after Hurricane Katrina…

…and now. As Howie Long said, “For the Saints – this is Destiny.”

When the SAINTS. GO Marching ON…And how I want to be in that number when the Saints go marchin’ on…

WHO DAT?

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us. ~ Ashley Montagu

Learning to spin yarn has not been an easy pursuit for me. But after several classes and a good bit of practice, I’m starting to see some progress. It has helped me to use colorful fiber that I liked working with. The natural browns and off-whites looked so much like kitty hairballs that it was discouraging.

With gorgeous, bright colors it’s hard to not love the outcome – even if it is a bit over twisted.

My workload on the farm has increased heavily recently so I am having to cut back on some of my “responsibilities”.  After about a year of running the Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival here on the Alpaca Farmgirl Blog, I am sad to say that I will not be hosting it anymore. That’s the bad news. But the GOOD news is that it is just moving….

…to Wonder Why Gal (Andrea’s) Wisdom Begins In Wonder Blog beginning next Friday.

I would still LOVE to see what you are doing with Fiber Arts. Please feel free to send me anything you’d like to share and I will blog about it. I’m always up for good ideas for fiber! There will still be Fiber-y posts here each Friday, but the Mr. Linky will be moving.

So next week link your fiber blog posts to the Fiber Arts Friday Blog Carnival at Wisdom Begins In Wonder. Your hostess there, Andrea, raises suri alpacas. Her passion for alpacas and fiber is contagious. I believe she is the perfect person to carry the torch for Fiber Art Fridays!

Ultra had her first cria on Tuesday. With first time moms – you’re never quite sure what you are going to get. Most take to mothering well, some need a little more time to figure out what is expected of them. Ultra did a great job. She loved her cria from the beginning, and didn’t want me messing with her. Yes, the cria is a girl. (Congrats to owner Kaiser Mommy!)

Here’s the little tyke just after birth. Isolde (left) is the welcoming committee. She’s a super maternal female. I think that she would just take over another alpaca’s cria if we ever needed her to, even though she has her own, Tianna.

Cria are so fun to watch. They explore the world just like human babies do. I love watching them learn about new things, whether it’s meeting and bonding with their mom, or trying to figure out what to make of the cat or livestock guard dog.

Here she’s figuring out her legs and what they can do. Right after this picture she jumped into the air, testing them out.

Ultra is feeding her cria well. She’s gaining weight and they are happy as can be! So happy she joined the herd.

When alpaca cria (babies) are born on cold, grey days we usually use a blow-dryer to get them warm, toasty, and dry: ready for the world. Most of their moms are startled at first, but they usually decide it’s okay for me to blow-dry their cria.

Not Ultra. (see above green spit)

Participating in Wordless Wednesday.

Participating in Wordless Wednesday

This was a phenomenal book. I didn’t want it to end, and I found myself rationing it out chapter by chapter so it wouldn’t be over too quickly. If you haven’t read it, RUN go get it. I was born about ten years later than this book took place, but it was interesting to me how many things I could relate to from my Southern upbringing. Many, many things were the same, including bridge clubs and the Junior League!

My favorite character in the book was Minnie. She was known for her good cooking and her specialty was her caramel cake.  The more I read, the more I wanted to make a caramel cake. Last weekend, I finally did it. It is not difficult, but I swear you will feel like a gourmet chef when you are finished.

Here is the recipe I used:

Caramel Cake

Ingredients:

Baking Spray for greasing pans

1 box Duncan Hines plain white cake mix

1 cup whole milk

1 stick salted butter, melted

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons Tahitian vanilla (or regular vanilla extract)

Caramel Frosting (recipe below)

• Place rack in middle of the oven. Preheat to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 round cake pans with the bakers’ cooking spray (the kind with flour in it). Set aside.
• Place cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla in large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, blend for a minute or so. Then blend on medium for another minute, until it is well blended. Divide the batter into the two pans, smoothing over with a rubber spatula.
• Bake the cakes until they are golden brown and bounce back when lightly pushed with finger, about 27-28 minutes. Remove pans from the oven and let cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Then invert each onto the rack and turn right side up on wire rack to cool completely. About 30 minutes. Make Frosting.

Ingredients for Caramel Frosting:

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup whole milk

2 cups confectioner’s (powdered) sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I used Tahitian)

• Place butter and light and dark brown sugars into a medium sized saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the mixture combines  and begins to bubble, about 2 minutes. Add milk and stir. Bringing back to a barely bubbly boil. Then remove from heat.  Add confectioner’s sugar and vanilla. Stir vigorously with wooden spoon until smooth.
• Frost your cake immediately while icing is still warm. It will harden. If it does harden while you are still trying to ice your cake just place the pan back onto low heat and stir until it softens up.

The only problem that I had was that frosting the sides was messy. I got it all over the place. Actually, that was part of the fun. If you know how to avoid dripping it everywhere please leave a comment and tell me. My guess is that I should have waited for it to cool a little more, but I will have to make this cake again – many times – so I’ll test out that theory next time.

This recipe was taken largely from The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn. I love this cookbook because she takes store bought cake mixes and turns them into amazing desserts. A must for every modern kitchen.

Leave a comment and tell us – What is your favorite cake to make? Or what is the best book you’ve read lately? I need another one to start!