Kick up Your Heels
Weddings today are all about expressing the unique personalities of the Bride and Groom. The charming and unexpected detail can make your wedding a lasting memory, and if you’re getting married in the mountains you have endless ways to make the day truly yours. One of the great style elements that have emerged of late is the bride and her maids in cowboy boots. Cowboy boots have become an iconic fashion statement unto themselves, but added to a wedding gown they turn into a flirty, all American show stopper. The choices available are myriad, with something to suit every taste, and don’t overlook the comfort factor. You will spend a good part of the day on your feet and a great pair of cowboy boots will not only look sleek and sassy, but will give your aching feet the break they deserve. Getting married? Go West – it’s where all the fun happens!
Upstairs and Downstairs
At Pine Country Feed we are particular about the brands we carry. We are proud to stock Purina, Mazuri, Manna Pro and Kent to help keep your equine companion healthy and well nourished. We carry small pet feeds like Evo, Active Care, Red Flannel and Pinnacle to name only a few, and it doesn’t stop there. Our wild bird products include suet, black oil sunflower, nyjer and hummingbird oil as well as some adorable, functional birdhouses and feeders for your yard. We talk a lot about our cowgirl boutique because we love to bring you the best and brightest in western wear and home décor, and the same goes for the feed store. Only best for the best people we know – our fabulous customers!
Day to Remember
Memorial Day Commemoration 2008 (Photo credit: davidyuweb)
We call this day Memorial Day because we are meant to remember the people in our lives who have been lost to death. We deem remembering so important, in fact, that we have set aside a whole day, for thinking of the people in our lives who have crossed the threshold into eternity. The day seems to be spent, often with family and friends, cooking outdoors, sharing some pre-summer sun, perhaps working in the yard. All of those things are worth doing and we wish everyone safety and fun in their endeavors, but we wish everyone something else. If on this day you have a lost someone you are thinking of, we hope that your thoughts will be filled with joy, with memories of all they meant to you, with laughter for all the funny times that life throws our way, with tears for the days you wish you could talk to them just one more time, with contentment for knowing that you have loved someone enough to carry them in your heart always. Pine Country Feed wishes you a happy and memorable Memorial Day!
Be Adorned
Many years ago I was given this one piece of advice that has carried me for years. Very simply, “it’s all in the accessories”. Think about it, it will change your life. It’s Monday morning and you’ve got a meeting, so you pull the black jeans, your boots and a long sleeved grey tee with a v-neck out of the closet. It all looks painfully like what you wore last Monday to the same meeting, except for the tee, last week it was light blue with rounded scoop neck. Thankfully you’re not quite done. Start with a belt, the one with the rhinestone and red coral inlay and the pounded pewter buckle. For earrings you’ll wear the antique silver with red coral beading and for a necklace you’ll do the heavy silver chain with dangling baubles and red coral pieces. Grab your suede fringed jacket and you’re good to go, anywhere. When you meet your husband and his new client for dinner tonight, you’ll switch your boots for heels, the jacket for your boiled wool blazer and your necklace for the red and silver silk scarf that wraps around twice and still has room for a knot. The jeans are great, the tee is one of your favorites, but it’s all the other stuff, the bling, the pizzazz that really gets it done, and brilliantly you have enough of that to wear something different everyday for months.
Then there is This
Warm weather is the call of the day – the time when faces turn to the sun and hearts to the carefree days of late spring. Coffee on the porch in the early morning, a mid afternoon venture through the back pasture astride the mare that always knows just how you feel, the first taste of quiet, breezy evenings when the sun seems reluctant to sink behind the hills. We are determined this year to experience the moments instead of the seasons, to relish the whispers and cling to the reminders that life is a fleeting fancy that should be treasured for its possibilities. We are blessed with the wealth of family and friends and the joy of today and we wish all of you the wonder and warmth of the late, sweet spring.
Pine Country Pizzazz
It’s time the make getting dressed in the morning one of the best parts of your day. The moment has come when throwing your closet doors open should be done with anticipation, with a pounding heart, knowing that what you wear today will make everything go a bit smoother and you will walk into each demanding situation with that, “I know I look good” edge. Pine Country Feed has filled its more than inviting upstairs with clothes that will make you not “that woman who always looks nice”, but rather “that woman who looks so fabulous in everything she wears”. Get your cowgirl style on with boots and belts, skirts and shirts, jackets, vests, and of course that staple of every real wardrobe – jeans, from Cowgirl Tuff, Ranch Royalty, and Tasha Polizzi. Long on style and blessed with creative genius, the Pine Country closet is brimming with just what you need to go from “getting through it”, to totally owning the day!
A Stitch in Time
In 1873, immigrants David Jacobs and Levi Strauss, combined their talents and resources and came up with a new phenomenon, called Waist Overalls, more commonly known as jeans. From this first creation of denim thread and metal rivets, the single most popular clothing item in the history the world has taken shape, and variations are endless. Brilliant because of their durability and style, practical because they last forever and get the job done, jeans are synonymous with hard work and high fashion all at the same time. When women finally started wearing “trousers” in the forties and then “slacks” in the fifties, a proper pair of women’s jeans weren’t far behind. Cowgirl Tuff Jeans have taken the jean world by storm, doing their well-fitting best to make women’s legs look longer, behinds firmer, and all with a sense of wild west chic. Pine Country Feed has the good sense to carry a product that goes so far in making women’s fashion about comfort, style and ease of care. Proud to carry the Cowgirl Tuff brand, Pine Country is the place you’ll find a treasure around every corner.
Can You Hear It
Listen carefully and you’ll hear the song of spring at Pine Country Feed. The Chicks are coming and they are cheaping up a storm. You have always wanted to raise your own chicks and harvest your own eggs. Martha Stewart claims there is nothing like a farm fresh egg for baking or making a meal and she is right. So clean out your coop and reserve your brood. Spring has sprung and it is soft and yellow!
Bright Side of the Sun
The fleetness of time seems to take us by surprise every season, and believe it or not, spring rounded the corner and is actually here. If you just finished storing your Christmas decorations, first of all, know that you are in good company, and secondly, take pride in the fact that you got them down at all. There are great sunny days ahead when time spent outdoors will be everyone’s highest priority, so don’t let the joy of the coming warmth catch you off guard. New boots, something sassy, and a wide brimmed cowboy hat are in order for the warmth that awaits us, and a high on style jean jacket will wrap everything up with some flair. Pine Country Feed Cowgirl Boutique is brimming with flirty skirts and blouses, belts, boots, hats and bags and of course jeans that will take you into the new season with the perfect “face the world” wardrobe you are craving. Get yourself out of that parka and into Pine Country. It’s time to get your cowgirl on!
Miracle Drug
There are certain things in life you just have to know to be a true success. Cornbread should always be baked in a cast iron skillet, people who don’t like dogs probably don’t like you either, and there is no day that can’t be improved by chocolate. Be it gourmet, or the last grab when you’re about to check out at the Wal-Mart, that touch of wonderful will turn a questionable three into a ten within two bites. There is a lot to be said for the taste and texture, the aroma is a highlight, but the real draw is the extravagance of eating pure luxury while you’re on your way home from work, or waiting for a movie to start, or before you do the dishes. It is a relatively inexpensive way to say to the world, and even more to yourself, “I am choosing to do something that just makes me happy, and I may decide to do it again tomorrow”. It might have almonds, or toffee, or caramel, but the chocolate is the thing that puts it above the level of snack, way beyond the concept of treat, and takes it all the way to a spiritual experience. Our advice is simple. Whatever your station in life, choose to do the right thing, and make it a chocolate kind of day.
Refined Sipping
A photo of a cup of coffee. Esperanto: Taso de kafo. Français : Photo d'une tasse de caffé Español: Taza de café (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We have decided that coffee, at times, should be sipped, not from oversized mugs that give the drinker a wrist cramp, and certainly not from an ecologically sound recyclable cup made from previously recycled materials that were retrieved from landfill in a third world country, but from an actual porcelain cup with a saucer, accompanied by a small spoon for stirring and perhaps a chocolate cookie that is wrapped in wax paper. Have we become so enamored by our brew that we have come to overlook the joy of the ceremony, the ritual of stopping and drinking coffee in quiet contemplation, letting the steam cloud our specs, and the aroma waft thoughtfully above our head. Next time you get a coffee let it be an event, a moment of non-moving time, when your soul can gather itself in calm, heartwarming repose. Ask your coffee guru to add saucered cups to their repertoire, and if they don’t know what you’re talking about, go somewhere else.
Common Ground
From the very beginning it was you and her, no cell phones or staff meetings. You and the one who understood that your soul was a priceless thing that deserved a moment of rest, a bit of understanding and a good amount of listening. When all the others didn’t get it, walked away, shook their heads the two of you stood by, undaunted, knowing that your answers would not be found on the bottom line, or even in the policy report but on the solitary journey, through the field, over the ridge to your point of perspective, where reality waits. The place you go together to remember what actually matters, and why you bother with all of this in the first place. She always knows right where to go, exactly what you need to find that place inside that assures you that you know what you’re doing, that you knew all along. She takes you to the place where you can believe again.
All the Way Down
Just a word about jeans – long. They are meant to be long, stretching the full length of the leg, skimming the top of a boot and staying put when seated in a chair. They don’t need tugging to get into place, they are made for long legs, or for short legs that long for length, and they are tailored to the cowgirl swagger. Pine Country Feed carries only one kind of jean, several styles by companies like Cowgirl Tuff, True Grit and Ranch Royalty, but every one sports a pair of legs that will dress your two legs without a flash of so much as an ankle, because, let’s face it. If they aren’t long enough they aren’t anything.
Better Together
There is something about horses and kids that make for a great marriage. It is a lovely picture, the mammoth being, meekly deferring to the tiny one, the one that could be swept away with one aggressive snort. Yet they stand together, nose to nose, one in deference to the other, because the horse, in its four legged splendor seems to understand that this smaller than average two legged creature is precious in some way, a treasure of some kind, and their keeping is a tremendous responsibility. It is the gentle and wise heart of the horse and innocent nature of the child that makes the mixture ideal, even magical. See them together and you will feel a smile spread across your lips, a lift of happiness in your step. Their gift is the perfect combination of generosity and delight and they are meant to be together.
March Winds
Driving around town today was an effort in “staying between the lines” due the ridiculously high winds, which I have decided I don’t like. I know that it blows the smog out, but if you think about it, that must mean it is blowing someone else’s smog in, and frankly, clean air or not, the wind is annoying. As I drove I passed a man walking up the road, which had a measurable incline, and when I say walking I mean he was “ralking” because I believe his intention was to run, but the wind and the incline were holding him in place. He had his head down and his hand grasping the top of his head in order to keep his hat on and I couldn’t tell for sure, but I think his eyes were closed. At the time he was running by a little group of shops in town, one where coffee is served to sensible people on a windy day and I found myself wondering why he didn’t stop his pretend run and step in for a bit of refreshment. He could get a ride to his car, because we do that sort of thing around here, and drive over to the rec center where he could engage in a productive run on the windless track. It reminded me of the way we conduct our lives at times. We start out to do a thing and when halfway through we discover that the method we have chosen is impractical, way more work than we expected and as a result becoming intensely stressful, but because it was what we started out to do we feel we must finish it or admit failure. Let us remember that failure is not seeing a mistake and correcting it, failure is seeing a mistake and stubbornly making it worse. The lesson here – come in out of the wind and drink your coffee.
Bright Side of the Sun
Image via Wikipedia
The fleetness of time seems to take us by surprise every season, and believe it or not, spring is in actuality just around the corner. If you just finished storing your Christmas decorations, first of all, know that you are in good company, and secondly, be certain that you don’t let the long nights of winter lull you into thinking that the cold will never end. There are great sunny days ahead when time spent outdoors will be everyone’s highest priority. Don’t let the joy of the coming warmth catch you off guard. New boots, something sassy, and a wide brimmed cowboy hat are in order for the warmth that awaits us, and a high on style jean jacket will wrap everything up with some flair. Pine Country Feed Cowgirl Boutique is brimming with flirty skirts and blouses, belts, boots, hats and bags and of course jeans that will take you into the new season with the perfect face the world wardrobe you are craving. Get yourself out of that parka and into Pine Country. It’s time to get your cowgirl on!
After the Gauchos
Image via Wikipedia
It’s long been understood that the best cowgirl on television was Barbara Stanwyck as Victoria Barkley in The Big Valley. She was tough and wiry and could ride a horse and rope a calf with any man and still manage to keep her hair in place and her ranch hands, as well as her grown children in line. Amazingly, she managed to do it all in those hybrid skirt pants called gauchos which showed off her eighteen inch waist but allowed her to avoid the side-saddle thing. Today, thankfully, cowgirls wear jeans. The “bring in the herd, run the corporation, have dinner in the city” jeans that today’s women require, and even more thankfully, Pine Country Feed has that figured out. The jeans they carry are made for women who live real lives and want to look great doing it. Choose from Ranch Royalty, Cowgirl Tuff and True Grit to name a few – companies famous for jeans that work because they’re working jeans -whether your work is running a ranch or running the world. And coming soon, you’ll be able to order from the Pine Country boutique at Circle H Ranch, on-line, 2am, in your jamas. It’s a wonderful world!
Chicken Pasta Alfredo
Real comfort food is the very best thing in life. This is something you can prepare quickly, because comfort does not have to be time consuming, and it will delight all diners.
In a large skillet heat two tablespoons butter and add three boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Sprinkle chicken with one tablespoon tarragon, a shake of garlic salt and course ground black pepper. Turn chicken and let cook for three minutes. Remove the breasts one at a time and cut into large bite size pieces then return to pan. Continue to cook chicken until it is white all the way through. Do not over- cook.
While preparing the chicken, heat a large pot of water, adding two teaspoons of salt. When the water boils add your favorite pasta, radiatore is especially nice, but linguini or fettuccini work perfectly and are more traditional. Add one pound of the pasta to boiling water and cook, uncovered for 10-12 minutes.
While the pasta cooks, melt together in a heavy saucepan, one stick butter, one 8 ounce package cream cheese, one cup heavy cream and one half cup grated parmesan cheese. (don’t save calories by using fat free substitutes, you will lose the creamy flavor) Stir frequently until the butter and the cream cheese are completely melted and the ingredients are combined.
Drain your pasta completely and place on a platter, then sprinkle with course ground black pepper. Spread the cooked chicken over the top of the pasta and cover with the sauce. Serve with grape tomatoes halved and sprinkled around the platter as garnish.
This isn’t a dish you would eat often, but when you do, enjoy every bite. The ingredients are genuine and fresh, and worth the splurge!
Let Me Call You Sweetheart
Image via Wikipedia
We’ve been anticipating its arrival and now it is upon us. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and you are feeling that great sense of panic, because it is a widely known fact that men are not the only people who leave their shopping for the last minute. Take heart, we’ve got you covered. We have cowboy hats, denim dusters, spurs, bolo ties, knives, animal hide throws and some rockin’ signs that will help him bring a little of the ranch to his stuffy old office. There is a lot to look at and inspire you because we believe in romance at Pine Country Feed and we can help you get yours in place without even breathing hard. So stop in and we’ll get you saddled up for your best ever Valentine’s Day and a refreshing recharge for your epic romance.
She’s Got Legs
Girls! Girls! Girls! The Pine Country Feed Cowgirl Boutique has the latest in leg wear – graphic tights and stockings, with socks that match or not so much. It is the newest rage in fashion chic and perfect worn with a skirt, or shorts and chunky boots. Pair the look with a belted sweater and you are on the fashion forward track to comfortable, “can’t get enough”, style. There are piles of colors and patterns to choose from and they are made to be mixed to suit your mood. They provide a great break from the usual winter garb, and what a fun way to show off those fabulous legs of yours without getting frost bite. Pass this along to your Valentine and let him know that we are giving free, yes FREE, gift wrap on Valentine’s purchases, and we promise, while he’s here we’ll make sure he sees our stunning jewelry, watches and handbags, also gift wrappable and perfect for the girl of his dreams.
V-Day
If you haven’t thought about it, it’s time you did. Valentine’s Day is February 14th, like it is every year, and that means it is coming quickly. Since it is indeed the same date every year, there are no real excuses for forgetting. People who forget anniversaries or birthdays are thoughtless, but the ones who forget Valentine’s Day have no excuses. They are mean. The great thing about this holiday is that it doesn’t revolve around how much you spend but rather around the fact that you thought of another person, be it your grandmother, your best friend, the guy who runs the toll booth, or your sweetheart. Treat your loved one to your creative genius by giving a handmade card with glitter and ribbons. Bake heart shaped cookies and frost them with pale pink icing – put them in a basket with a half pound of your favorite coffee blend. Give your spouse one heart shaped item for every year you have been married and it doesn’t have to be expensive – soaps, candles, notepads, earrings – can all be found in heart shapes, and placed in a tissue lined heart shaped box, they will be a treasure. Try to remember that there is nothing worse than not being thought of on the day Americans set aside for love, so remember them all. The best Valentine you will ever receive is the one you give yourself when you show that you care.
Presidentially Speaking
Some of the most sensible beings ever to grace the White House grounds are the horses of the Presidents. When the country was just beginning, horses were the best means of transportation, and many of our presidents have been land owners, country folk, who loved a daily ride for the exercise and the chance to clear their heads. George Washington started the tradition by bringing his horses to his presidency, always white horses and always six. He kept them in gleaming condition and was even known to brush their teeth. Thomas Jefferson was said to love to ride, but he never mounted a horse before wiping its back with his handkerchief to remove any unwanted dirt. All of the presidents who rode during their time at the white house paid for their own horses and their feed, and purchased their own riding accompaniments. Ronald Reagan may have been the greatest lover of horses in modern times. He was partial to Arabians and he and wife Nancy rode at their California ranch whenever they broke away for a vacation. There is something about a leader who understands the value of a horse. Winston Churchill once said, “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.” He was a smart man.
Who’s Hungry?
Shepherd’s Pie is a traditional dish from the British Isles, loved for its deep meaty flavor and hearty textures. It is easy to make and something tasty enough to serve to guests.
Brown 3 pounds of steak (your favorite cut), thinly sliced into bite sizes, one large chopped onion and two cloves of minced garlic in enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the skillet, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. When the onions are tender and the meat browned on all sides add one quarter cup Worcestershire sauce, 2 cups of Swanson’s Beef Broth (it is less salty than other brands) one bottle of your favorite dark ale, and three to four carrots sliced. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. After twenty minutes add one bag of petit frozen peas and continue to simmer.
While the beef mixture simmers, cut six large peeled red or gold potatoes into bite sized pieces and place in a pan of salted water on high heat. When the potatoes boil turn down, but let the water continue to boil for fifteen minutes, or until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain the potatoes thoroughly in a colander so that they are dry. Return to pan, add six tablespoons of sliced butter, garlic salt and coarse ground pepper to taste, two teaspoons of ground sage and one third cup heated half and half. Mash potatoes until creamy and spices are incorporated.
When the beef has simmered for one half hour and the liquid has reduced by about a third, transfer to oblong glass pan. Sprinkle mixture with two tablespoons of flour, spread mashed potatoes over the top and sprinkle with one half cup of shredded cheddar cheese. Bake pie in a 350 degree oven for fifteen minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Serve immediately from oven with a green salad or sliced tomatoes. When you receive rave reviews, be humble and say it was just something you threw together.
