Let's Have a Contest!

Okay...here are the basics...
Remember Nina?

Yup, still preggers, no change from yesterday.
She is due on April 1st.
Here are the contest rules:
1) Predict the day and time of birth. (NONE of my does have been on time this year, btw...all were 3 days to a week and a half late!) 10 points for most accurate prediction
2) Singlet? Twins? (ALL my does have had twins this year! It looks like twins to me, but I have been wrong before!) 5 points for most accurate prediction
3) Sex of offspring (Two does, one buck/one doe, two bucks or a singlet doe or buck) 5 points for most accurate prediction

Whoever gets the most points WINS!
What will you win?
1) The right to name the new kid(s), with the caveat that the names must start with the letter "N".
2) A jar of my cajeta, lovingly packaged and sent straight to your door!

Also, in case of a tie (hey, it could happen if someone gets just the day/date right and someone else gets the number of kids and the gender correct), I will send out a jar of cajeta to each person , and I will choose the name(s) from both winners suggestions.

Entries accepted until noon tomorrow!

Help Me Choose!

Barreling on towards getting my cajeta to market...
We are ordering labels for the jars tonight!
I needed three pictures for the three different labels (reg., extra thick and spicy cajeta)
I picked two pictures:

Gabrielle aka Gabby for the label for the regular cajeta

Champagne aka Champ for the extra thick cajeta (happy goat!)

Having a problem picking the picture for the spicy cajeta
This picture of Patches?

I think it is too much of a close-up and you can't really tell it's a goat!

This picture, which I would have to crop out excess background and you can still see Paulis standing behind her.

or this one..Patches standing in the feed box with her goofy happy-goat expression on her face (and she is endearingly goofy!)

Or should I try for some new shots and hope I can get a better one? Patches is notoriously hard to get a good pic of, as she will come over for her close-up, but then try to nibble on the camera or the person holding the camera! Patches is just a *nibbly* type of goat, lol!

I think I will try to get a couple of pics of her...may post the results later IF I get a good one. If I don't, I am tempted to go with the bottom pic. My son likes the close-up and the fella likes the middle picture (if I crop it).
Which one do you think would look cuter on a label?

Early Morning

Since it has been so unbearably hot, I got up at 2:30am to fix breakfast for the fella and do chores. The fella got up early as he had to report in at 4:00am today. Good news on that is---he isn't being deployed this go 'round. YAY!!! Bad news is, his schedule is being changed a bit. Longer hours, as there are fewer people available to do the work in his unit. But I would rather have him be here and working these hours than over in the *sandbox* again!
I've already milked the goats

and my son turned the does out into the front yard to browse. I fed the chickens and the Girl gave hay to the rest of the goats.

I have a big pot of cajeta simmering on the stove and after about 10 hours on low simmer, it will be ready for canning.
I am also mixing up my barbeque spices for some ribs.I am trying a crock pot recipe for ribs and I hope it turns out okay! Never cooked ribs in a crock pot, but I have been told they come out beautifully. We'll see!
I plan on getting some sewing done and I have a new quilt I plan on piecing together.
All in all, a quiet day...unless that thunderstorm they are predicting hits! And I so hope it does!
We need the rain here so badly! So many farmers and ranchers are having a rough time here.
Hope everyone out there is having a terrific day as well!

Cajeta Again

So, after reading all the comments and cautions from readers AND after getting feedback about the samples I gave to various friends, neighbors and store owners, there has been a slight change in plans.
First, I will be selling the cajeta in smaller jars. I'll save the big jars for my home canning.
I'll can the cajeta in half-pint jars instead.
Cajeta is rather intense in flavor, so most folks only use it as a *special* treat. A smaller jar just makes more sense.
I looked over the laws/restrictions/rules/etc. for selling homemade goods in Texas and in El Paso and I think there is a lot more there than I want to deal with!
Now, I can sell at Farmers Markets without going through all that red tape, I can also sell online with relatively little hassle.
So, I will do online and local (but limited) sales.
Now that I have settled all those issues...

Cajeta bubbling away on my stove, heading for yummy goodness! Still a few hours to go, but the house already smells delicious!
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I love my dog, as I have mentioned before.
She is allowed ANYWHERE in the house, except one spot. She cannot get on our bed.
Guess where her favorite spot is?
Guess where I found her when I came in from milking?

I hadn't made the bed yet, and left the door open, so there she was!
And she really doesn't look like she is feeling guilty, either, lol!
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Wang, our buck, wandering around the back patio while we were cleaning the pens!

Starting a Home Grown Business

I have reached the point where I want to start a small home grown business.
Since I learned to make cajeta, I have found that this is an item in short supply in my area.
This is surprising, as it is a traditional Mexican food item and I live in an area that is approximately 80% Hispanic...and of those, 90%+ are of Mexican ancestry!
I checked local grocers, even the small Mexican stores. I had to take along a friend to translate, as in some of them, no one spoke English! I found one store that sells traditional cajeta--made from goats milk and cane sugar---and they charge 12 dollars for a 10 oz. jar!
From what I gathered, the Nestle product in a few stores is imported from Mexico, is made from cows milk and uses high fructose corn syrup in it's manufacture.The Mexican grocers bemoaned the fact that import regulations limit their options and they cannot provide their customers with the *true* cajeta they so desperately crave.
I dropped off a few samples here and there and with some friends.
Consensus is that I have will have no problem selling it. I will be the only person in the area making it in the traditional manner!
The fella is bankrolling my efforts. He bought me the canning jars I will be using.
I sat down this weekend and figured out my costs. I hate math! But, I struggled through (with help from the fella, a calculator and the Boy and the Girl) and figured out my cost at $4.00 per 16 oz. jar.
More or less...heh-heh. Math is NOT my best subject.
It's actually a little less, but we rounded up.
Cajeta is traditionally made in 3 flavors.
Regular (which I have been making)
Chocolate (tried last week, need to tweak the recipe)
Spicy (made with the addition of salt, jalapeno peppers and habenero peppers---trying that flavor this week)

I figured I will offer all three flavors once I have my recipes tweaked to the way I want them.
Since the traditional cajeta imported from Mexico sells for $12.00 a jar (10 oz.), I figured I would sell my 16 oz jars for $8 to $10 each. I just have to see what the market will bear around here.I guess it will depend on how the shop/grocer wants to do it...buy wholesale from me and then price it themselves (8 bucks a jar wholesale?), or let me put it n their shop on consignment (10 bucks a jar retail?)
Eventually, I will also sell online.
I also want to produce some more products, especially for my online store.
I make aprons and shoulder bags. Within the last month, I have been complimented by strangers on my shoulder bags and all asked where I bought them. I think they would sell. I make them out of scrap fabric and they only take 20 to 30 minutes to stitch up.
Since I am still recovering from the cajeta math torture, I'll put off figuring the costs for the bags!
Right now, the cajeta is simmering away on a back burner and I am about to do a test batch of chocolate cajeta in the crockpot.
The house smells so yummy it is unbelievable!

Keep checking back for the progress of this endeavor, as in around 3 or 4 weeks, I plan to do a cajeta give-away for my readers when I launch my online store!

Cajeta-Mania!!!

I made cajeta over the weekend.
The buttery, caramal-y, awesome-y decadent goodness of cajeta must be experienced...it just can't be explained!
Wikipedia tries.

Check this out:

Oozy, gooey, yummy deliciousness in a homemade caramel sauce!
Drizzle it on cinnamon buns, over oatmeal or fruit, a little drizzled in yogurt or your morning cup of coffee...over ice cream, over a slice of cake...it is AMAZING!!!

The recipe is simple enough.
1 gallon of goats milk (unpasteurized, please!)
1 vanilla bean (broken and halved lengthwise) or 1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
4 cups white cane sugar OR brown grated sugar (the hard sugar cones you get at Mexican grocers)
1 teaspoon of baking soda (to prevent foaming)
2/3 cup water
Stir that all together and heat until simmering. DO NOT STIR IT AGAIN! (If you do, you *break* the mixture and it will not process properly)
Now walk away. Don't stir it, don't even think about it...for at least 10 hours. That's right, it has to simmer UNDISTURBED for 10 to 12 HOURS.
After around 10 hours, you can look at it. If it has cooked down well, the simmering should still be going on, but the bubbles should be breaking slower...you should see that it has turned to caramel.
My stove is kinda slow, so I simmered mine for 12 hours.
Do a spoon and saucer test.
Dip a spoon into the simmering mixture and watch how it sheets and drips off the spoon. Is it thick and drips slow?
Put a spoonful on a saucer and let it cool for 15 minutes. It should thicken even more when it is cool.
Taste it. Is the texture right? (The flavor will be awesome!)
If everything seems right, pour into canning jars and put on lids and let cool.
If you used actual vanilla bean and not extract, pour through a sieve to catch the bean pieces.

Time consuming, yes. Worth it? OH YES!
My 1 gallon of goats milk made 2 quarts of cajeta.
I gave some to my neighbor (she is Mexican) to get an unbiased opinion. Actually, I figured she would be most critical because her mother used to make cajeta for special holidays, etc.
She LOVED it! Said it was just as good as her mother's!
Now THAT'S a compliment!

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The cactus flowers are still in bloom here...finally getting the hang of the camera...

The whole cactus (and it is a large one) should be an explosion of hot pink flowers by the end of the week or so...will try to get some more pictures when it hits peak bloomage!
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STILL no rain here! (I think it's 115 days now!)
Lost a hell of a lot of my garden due to dust storms, heat and the absolute dryness, even though I am watering them nightly.
A dry warm wind blows even at night here.I am thinking I need to mulch like crazy and maybe water once after dark and then again right before sunrise. (Hey, I am already up then anyway!)

I am going to try to replant some this week...maybe if I continuously plant, some of my plants will make it through!