2-3 lb chuck, rump or arm roast

1-2 T olive oil

onions

carrots

salt, pepper

3-4 sprigs fresh rosemary

2-3 sprigs fresh thyme

3-4 bay leaves

1 cup water

1 cup red wine (can substitute beef broth)

Heat oil in skillet or dutch oven over medium heat.  Brown roast on all sides and remove to platter.

While roast is browning, quarter 2 or 3 onions and remove outer skin, wash but do not peel about 6 carrots and cut into halves or thirds.  When roast is finished browning, remove from skillet and add onions and carrots to brown. You may need to add a little more oil at this point.

Remove from pan and then add the water and stir and scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the dutch oven.

Replace the roast and sprinkle with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Cover with rosemary, thyme and bay leaves.  Add the carrots and the onions and red wine.

Cover and cook on stove top or in 350 degree oven for about 2 hours, checking every 30 minutes for doneness or until meat thermometer registers 160 degrees.

Remove from pan, slice roast and serve with vegetables and mashed or roasted potatoes, salad and thick slices of crusty fresh bread!

Congratulations to our Valentine “Are you Sweet on Someone?” Steak Giveaway!  Stephanie Skillman and John Heuer each won filet mignon’s for their’s and their sweet one’s Valentine supper.  It turns out Stephanie is a cowgirl from way back and used to ride around here at the Hawthorne Ranch with Trail Boss Miss Sally Hawthorne.  John won because his brother signed him and everyone else in the family up to win when he ate all the free samples he could hold and decided he REALLY wanted more at home tonight!  Congratulations Stephanie and John!

New calves on the prairie

It has been VERY cold this month on the farm (like wind chills of -25 cold) and some of the cows are having their babies a little early…they usually calve in February, when it’s REALLY cold.  We were feeding them on the side of the river  where there is a lot of protection from the wind down in a big oak grove.  In the afternoon when we were taking them big round bales of alfalfa, we found them on the other side of the river instead.  

They’d been spooked by a coyote that we saw running along the river I guess.  But just as we were leaving the grove, we spotted one little calf lying alone in the grass on the riverbank.  We took the hay bales to the other side of the river and fed the cows. We couldn’t tell which cow was a new mama and had left her calf on the wrong side of the river…. in the meantime there was that lone coyote roaming around over there…

Hey! You're goin the wrong way!

Randy climbed down the icy riverbank and walked across the frozen river and carried the poor little heifer calf back to her mom.   It took her mom most of the rest of the day to recognize and remember her calf.  They must have really been spooked.

"Are you my mother?"

All’s well that ends well!  (…actually kiddo he’s your dad.)