Friday the 13th Woes and A Recipe

Friday the 13th has not usually been a day of bad happenings for me.  Or if it was, I  just didn't put my troubles and the date together..

This one was completely different.  I was in the middle of my shower, head full of shampoo..when the water quit.  As in, there was no more.  AT ALL!  I was so ticked.  I was already running late to get Dad to a doctor's appointment but I managed to get most of the suds out of my hair, not all.  The Scottish-Irish temper overflowed in a hurry that morning..To make an extremely long story short, we had no water ALL DAY as the pump company had to come out to drop the pump another 100 feet.  Lovely!

Since I had been dealing all week with the fact that the well WENT DRY at the ranch last week, I was not in the mood to mess with it here as well.  Mr MoonCat dealt with them quite nicely so we did have water by Friday night. 

~~They're starting to drill a new well at the ranch tomorrow to the tune of about $10,000 that we don't have laying around BTW!  Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors and friends.  My dad's closest neighbor Adolph had his well go out about 6 years ago.  Dad had him hook up to our well until they could get his new well drilled (took them 2 months due to the rainy season).  So when Adolph found out what happened, he immediately grabbed Dad and told him he WOULD be hooking up to his well until it was taken care of.  We are so grateful to him.  If he hadn't have stepped up, we have been hauling water in several times a day for all of the horses and cattle, etc.  Good neighbors are more precious than gold!

The absolute worst part of Friday was that when hubby went out that afternoon to help the pump guys, he found one of our little Barred Rock babies dead.  She was laying outside of the chicken run area near the garden.  We never have figured out how she got out as the entire area is fenced and covered.  Personally, I think she may have squeezed through the ONE section that has chain link with no chicken wire and couldn't find her way back in.  We are remedying that now, but I was so sad and upset.  I have grown way too attached to the little feathered fiends.

About the only good thing we DID have on Friday was this for dinner:

Can we all say YUMMMM?

This was so easy and quick. Did I also say DELICIOUS??? I pigged out. The tomatoes, basil, and chives are from my garden. It took me about 5 minutes to prepare (the cheese was already sliced). I don't recall what it is called as I had it scribbled down on an old receipt. But here goes:

• 1 lb fresh mozzarella cheese
• 4 large ripe tomatoes
• 2 cups fresh basil leaves
• 2 tbsp fresh chopped chives
• Sea salt to taste
• White pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup virgin olive oil

Slice the mozzarella and tomatoes into 1/4" slices. Alternate the cheese, tomato, and basil in a circular pattern around the side of a serving platter (or a quiche dish works very well!). Sprinkle the chives, salt and pepper over the top. Just before you are ready to serve, drizzle the olive oil over the top of the dish. Serves 8.

While not required, I served this with fresh French bread - still warm. It was outstanding. Try it!

Don't forget the CSN Stores $50 GC drawing ends today!