Yummy Salad Dressing

If your a cilantro lover like me, you will love this dressing.

I have had a great love for creamy cilantro dressing, but it contains 2 things that I can't stomach anymore milk and cheese (well dairy of course). So I decided to do an internet search and find out what all it contains, and then make a tummy friendly version, that would hopefully taste good. I have to say that when I made this dressing I surprised myself.

Here is what I whipped up in our Nutri-Bullet.

Dairy-Free Creamy Cilantro Dressing

1 cup mayo
1 bunch rinsed, minced cilantro (you want it to be wet so it will add a little water)
juice from 1/2 lemon or 1 whole lime
1 teaspoon raw apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon each: cayenne, black pepper, and cumin
1/2 cup diced sweet onion
1/2 cup Daiya pepperjack shreds

Blend and enjoy! This will make enough to fill a 16 ounce jar.

*I am not a fan of artificial cheese, but it works well in this recipe. I am thinking that I am going to try making it with canned white beans in place of the cheese, because we really don't have any other reason to buy artificial cheese than to make this dressing. If you find a substitute that works well, please let me know.*

Kimberly

how to blade shear a sheep

A couple months ago I bought Burgon and Ball sheep shears at the local feed store for a hefty price, and ordered a blade sharpener off of ebay. I had it in my head after reading our sheep book and looking at the drawings of how to hold a sheep for shearing, that my 128 lb. self was actually going to be able to hold a 100 lb. sheep in those positions. HaHa!

Well I got my shears, piece of plywood to shear on, a broom, plastic bags, and a cart to set the wool in. My Mom joined me in this venture to assist me, and we both quickly found out I am NOT strong enough to hold a 100 lb. sheep in any sort of position, but laying it on its side.

My Mom helped hold the sheep down, while I sheared. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get her done, but I didn't cut her once, and I had very little second cuts (undesirable short cuts of fiber from shearing over the same spot twice). Her fleece is beautiful. We had thought that these two ewes we have were some sort of Suffolk cross, but we got to looking through our fleece book and the breed that they resemble the closest is the Dorset Down, both in body and fleece. Which is really funny that they are identical because they came from two separate breeders.

 What happened to you?
We also noticed after shearing these girls, that they were not pregnant. So I guess we won't be getting any lambs from them till next year, but as to why they didn't conceive? I don't know. Maybe they were to young. I didn't ever notice them to come into heat, but I did see the ram breed them. So thought we would be getting lambs. Oh well. There is always next year. 

 

Isn't that some gorgeous crimp?

I washed some of the fiber, dyed it with food coloring, and set it out to dry on a rack on the lawn.

Then I spun some of it into a thick and thin crazy colored yarn.

Kimberly