Crock Pot Goodness

I've been trying my hand at cooking lately.

[insert joke here]

My first meal was a crock pot Beef Stroganoff, which I have to say was simply Amazing. And so incredibly easy! Here's the recipe:
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Beef Stronganoff

Ingredients:

• 1 lb cubed beef, browned
• 1 can (10.75oz) condensed Cream of Mushroom soup
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1tbs worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 beef broth
• 4 oz cream cheese, cubed
• sour cream to taste (start with one heaping spoonful)
• egg noodles

Directions:
In a slow cooker combine the beef, soup, onion, worcestershire, and beef broth. Cook on low setting for 8 hours or high setting for 4-5 hours. Stir in room temperature cream cheese and sour cream just before serving. Serve over egg noodles.

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I doubled all ingredients because my slow cooker is a 5 quart sized monster. I also was fairly generous with the sour cream because that's how we roll. The doubled ingredients made at least 8 normal-sized servings.

Enjoy!!

Horse jugular - AKA fishing for a garden hose

Today I got to inject a horse in the jugluar with a sedative so the ferrier could do his job. Having worked with small animals for so long I have loads of experience drawing blood and giving injections - but my largest patient was maybe 120 pounds and he couldn't run me down if he didn't like the tiny prick of the needle. When our professor asked who wanted to do the stick, I jumped at the chance (even though today is Kip's birthday and I probably should have shoved him to the front). A big difference with injecting horses, besides their sheer size, is you have to be careful not to stick the needle in the carotid artery. One way to be sure you have the correct vessel is to hold off on the neck, insert the needle first (without the syringe attached) and then take your hold off the vessels to let the blood flow. If the blood flows slowly and sluggishly, you have the jugular (blood pumped back to the heart via the venous system moves slowly since it is farther from the pump). If the blood is bright red and spurts out, you have hit the carotid artery (blood is pulsing and is more oxygenated). I got the needle in the correct position on my first try, but of course made a complete bloody mess by taking too much time to get the syringe attached. Such is life.

I have to say overall it was a pretty terrifying cool experience. But I'm still sticking with the tiny four-leggeds.....