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What’s going on right now:
- There’s 14 1/2 dozen eggs in my fridge right now. It’s getting dire, people. I am going to start doing egg drops on peoples’ doorsteps.
- I’ve been reading 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C Mann and I am loving it. There’s all kinds of great little – known facts about the impact that contact with the “New World” made globally. Did you know that at Columbus’ time (he was called Cristobal Colon then, btw) people had known for years the earth was round; Columbus (or Colon) insisted it was pear – shaped, with the very top resembling a woman’s nipple? Did you know earthworms were unknown in the Americas before the Europeans arrived? Or that Pocahontas’ name was actually “Mataoka”. The name “Pocahontas” was a nickname which meant “Little Hellion”?
- I’m working furiously on Wicked using the luscious Superfine Alpaca yarn Caroline and I bought from the Montpelier Fiber Festival in the fall. It’s very slow going, and normally I would be ultra bored with it by now, but the yarn is just so wonderful I can’t put it down.
- To assist with all that knitting – we got a new dvd player. Okay, we got it because our old one broke. Paul picked up a new one with all these crazy bells and whistles that I can barely figure out BUT. I can access my Amazon Prime account through the dvd player so that I can watch any of the streaming shows and movies from my online account ON MY TV!!! I know I am so late to the party on this but I am very much enjoying it! Now I don’t have to rely on my laptop to watch Downton Abbey!!! (And goodness, if you haven’t been watching Downton Abbey, please do. It is so very good!)
- I started working out every day back in January. I’ve been alternating between a strength – training Pilates program with resistance bands and an “Ease into 5K” program on the elliptical. I also gave up soda completely and have replaced it with green tea. My favorite is The Republic of Tea’s Blueberry Green Tea. I’m feeling pretty good. My goal is to run on the beach this August during my book club beach weekend. My super – fit friend Beth runs every morning while we are there, and this year I plan to join her.
- Today I got my spinach and broccoli planted. As last year, I am using all heritage non – GMO seeds from Baker Creek. We’ve expanded the vegetable garden site and I am excited for all the fresh veg we’ll have this year!
- Last but not least, I bought supplies to take to Juniper Moon Farm this weekend where I will get to meet Lizzy House! She’s giving a quilting workshop and I get to go sew with some of my favorite people (and meet Lizzy House!!!!!!)
What are you up to this week????
Normally I wouldn’t give up on winter so soon. After all, where I grew up, March was blizzard season. Even here in Virginia we’ve had more than a few surprise March snowstorms; at least of those was nearly record – breaking. However, given the incredibly mild weather we’ve had since fall I think it’s not foolish to expect winter is done. Perhaps we’ll have another blow-out – who knows? But I am not holding my breath. Not when in the same week we’ve had several inches of snow followed by nearly 80 degree temperatures three days later.
So, over the course of the week we’ll be washing and packing away the heavier winter items and changing out our winter decor for spring.
Yes, I change the art on the walls along with the sheets, the pillows and the blankets to coordinate with the seasons. It’s easier than a re-doing your furniture every time you get sick of where it all is.
It’s hard to believe I took all of these pictures not eve a full week ago, considering a few days ago we were outside like this:
I gave in and planted some of the cold crops: beans, peas, arugula, Black Seeded Lettuce, and Red Romaine. I’m afraid if I wait for the normal planting date it will be too warm.
Spring cleaning, here we come.
I didn’t think it would happen – I dismissed all talk of it.
But it happened – we got SNOW! Not only that, we should be around 4 inches by the time it stops – a positively HUGE amount for us!
The recipe for the French Onion Soup comes from Susan and it can be found HERE. It is AMAZING. I made some crusty bread today to go with it and pulled out my French Onion Soup pots, filled them with soup, stuck a thick piece of bread in each one, topped with grated gruyere and OH MY GOODNESS.
Best way to warm up on a snowy, blustery day!!!
For Valentine’s Day I gave my sweeties fun glitter projects for school. It’s been quite a messy morning, but it’s been worth the peace and quiet and overall happiness that has been the result.
We all look forward to Valentine’s Day because of dinner. Every year since Paul and I have been married we have had Chinese for dinner on Valentine’s Day. The first two or three years it was a fluke (we were living in NY, restaurants were impossible but there was great Chinese take – out), and then once we realized there was a pattern going it became tradition.
So tonight we are all excited for Chinese, and we are adding a new element. I got a fondue pot after reading all of Susan’s blogs from Zurich this week and tonight we’ll have chocolate fondue for dessert (I cannot wait to try cheese fondue, though. Maybe tomorrow?) with strawberries, marshmallows, pound cake cubes and pretzels.
How about you? Do you have any fun Valentine traditions?
Even though the weather is NOT cooperating (as in, we’re having fall followed by spring) I am still trying to enjoy all the goodness that winter has to offer.
Cozy handknits, warm fires, hot tea…….citrus fruits.
Yup, citrus fruits are in season now, and we have plenty of my favorites: clementines and Meyer lemons. I’ve never actually been able to find Meyer lemons locally before, so I was surprised to find them at (of all places) our local WalMart. (I know….I am not a WalMart fan. But…..when they carry Concord grapes and Meyer lemons, how can you resist?)
Last week I made a lovely Shaker Lemon Pie, and we’ve been snacking steadily on clementines, but as of this morning I still had plenty of both.
So I rooted around a bit on Pinterest until I found what fit the bill for some lovely citrusy fare: recipes for Chinese Orange Chicken and Meyer Lemon Pudding.
Oh yeah.
Neither one was particularly difficult to make, and the results were outstanding. Seriously.
Paul declared the chicken “The best orange chicken I’ve ever had”. That’s saying something, because we are quite fond of Chinese food and we’ve tried quite a lot of it. It was fresh, bold and bright, with a strong orange flavor. If you like orange chicken, you HAVE to try this recipe. The only change I made was when frying the chicken, I simply coated the raw chicken pieces in cornstarch (I didn’t use the egg or flours at all). This was due to simple laziness. The sauce I made no changes to.
We followed the chicken with the Meyer Lemon pudding served on a slice of pound cake (which Paul picked up from the grocery – I didn’t feel like baking any).
After all of this it is a very good thing that I have been following a workout routine for the last week. SO MANY CALORIES!!!
This weather here is crazy, y’all. Two days ago there was snow and ice (well for us, crappy rain. For people a mile up the road and points north, snow. For all of us, ice overnight). We were shivering in our beds from the cold.
Today it’s been practically t-shirt weather. And since a lot of the eggs Emily has been bringing in from the coop have been dirty, I decided I’d use the warm weather to see how coop winterization was faring.
NOT GOOD.
People take care of their chicken coops a lot of different ways. Some people use hay or straw, some people use pine or hardwood mulch. I’ve even heard of people using grass clippings. Personally, I like to use pine shavings. They’re nice and fluffy and comfortable for the chickens’ feet, and they do a great job at drying out all the many droppings that chickens leave behind them and absorbing extra moisture and odor. I’ve used hay and straw but find that the poop doesn’t get dried out at all and the hay doesn’t break down as easily. If you’re going to use hay or straw, you’ll need to clean it all out more frequently. As for grass clippings….I imagine it would be like the hay but even less absorbent. The last thing you want is a moist coop to harbor bacteria and parasites. You’re going to have those anyway, but you don’t need to put out a welcome mat (and you don’t want to chance introducing any droppings from wild birds that might be on that grass).
Anyway, pine or hardwood shavings. You don’t want to use cedar because the aromatic oils are bad for the birds. I really wish that wasn’t the case, because my coops would smell SO much better.
I do a thorough cleaning out of the coop twice a year, in the spring and the fall. At those times I’ll completely remove all bedding materials and the leave the doors all open for a few hours to air it out well. If you’ve had a bad time with parasites or illness this is the time when you also want to scrub the surfaces a bit with some hot water and dish soap. You can bleach it if you’re so inclined, but be careful to dry it out completely and remove any residue before the chickens go back in.
Personally, I like the method that Zac over at Juniper Moon Farm used this past spring after a bout with mites. He used a propane – fueled weed burning tool (read: flame thrower!) and lightly charred the entire inside of the coop.
Anyway, once the coop is aired and dried out I dust it down with Poultry Dust. This is an insecticide powder to ward off lice and mites. Then I add the pine bedding and let the chickens back in to mess it all up.
Like I said, unless we are having an infestation of some sort or there is some major illness afoot, I only do this twice a year. The bedding and the poop break down together and whenever it’s looking more “muddy” than “piney” in there I’ll throw a layer of more pine on top. The composting of the under layer of poop and pine creates some heat and insulation during the winter that helps keep them warm. In the summer, it breaks down a lot faster with the heat and I replace bedding a lot more often.
But back to today. Today I intended to check the bedding and add some fresh stuff on top. That’s not what happened.
The winter this year has been very mild and very, very, very wet. The chickens are spending more time inside trying to stay dry and therefore pooping a whole lot more inside. It hasn’t been cold enough to keep the waste in any kind of deep freeze, and it’s been just cold and wet enough to keep everything gross and damp. No drying. Not breaking down as fast. Gross.
Today I cleaned out the coop.
The good news is that all the “muddy” compost I shoveled out can be used as……. compost. I chucked it all over the area that will be the garden this spring.
And while I was at it I spent time listening to the chickens, observing their behavior and taking stock of their general health and well – being.
Speckles – our Egyptian Fayoumi – just started laying for us. We’re getting the cutest little cream – colored eggs from her. And it took her long enough – she’ll be a year old in about a month and a half.
Miss Harriett, a pretty black Cochin.
Roobert, the resident jack-ass. He likes to attack boots.
ETA: Emily and I have been calling him “Mad – Eye” because he lost an eye a few years back, and that’s when the bad behavior started. Nothing worse than a grumpy one eyed rooster.
This handsome boy was one of the batch we hatched out in August. He’s called “Tevye” and he’s a bit off a mutt.
One of Speckle’s adorable little eggs next to a normal – sized egg.
And speaking of eggs: last summer our hens were on strike. Nobody was laying. For months we were in an egg drought. I couldn’t figure it out. I treated them for every possible ailment, checked thoroughly for any and all problems.
We’re pretty sure they were all in a slow molt. Nobody looked bald or shabby, but there were a whole lot more airborn feathers than usual. So this fall we installed a light into the back coop so that once the molt was over they wouldn’t go immediately into winter mode. ( chickens stop laying in the winter due to loss of daylight, not the cold temperatures. Increase their light, and they won’t stop laying)
Now it’s January and we are overloaded with eggs.
There are no fewer than 6 dozen eggs in my fridge at this very moment, and we haven’t collected yet today.
Anybody want an omelet?
There’s a reason I love winter. Winter is made for comfort. Winter is made for cozying up next to the fireplace with your tea and toasted cinnamon bread, with your knitting, with your book (or with back episodes of the Doctor). It’s made for snuggling up with your pets and your kids and watching the snow fall out the window (well, it would be if the weather would cooperate).
So these days, in between cleaning and dentist visits and getting school plans back in order, we are enjoying the cozy. What are you doing to stay cozy?
Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Bread
Harney & Sons “Hot Cinnamon Sunset” tea – my absolute favorite.
Local Kitchen‘s version of Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in (Butter)Milk
Quick knitting project: a light hat I can wear around the house when I feel chilly.
Okay, so Hamantashen aren’t a true Christmas cookie. They’re a traditional Purim cookie. But, hey. They’re yummy!
This recipe comes via my husband’s family.
Ready?
2 bars of butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
4 cups flour
Solo brand fillings of choice ( we like apricot, prune, strawberry & poppy seed)
Start by creaming together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, orange juice and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, salt & baking powder. Add this mix slowly to the wet ingredients. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour – or overnight.
Once chilled, roll out the dough to about 1/8″ thickness. Using a round cookie cutter (or glass) cut round shapes into the dough.
Place a dollop (about 1/2 tsp) of filling in the center of each circle. Next, you’ll need to fold in the edges to form a triangle.
Start with one side.
Fold it over at a jaunty angle. The, fold the oppostire side at a jaunty angle, so they slightly overlap.
Now fold up the bottom.
Now you’re ready to bake them. 375 for 15 minutes.
Voila! Delicious Hamantashen!!!
And with that, I have completed my self – imposed 6 days of baking challenge.
I am exhausted.
But Santa is coming tonight!
Merry Christmas / Happy Hanukkah – and I hope all of your crafty and foodie dreams come true this holiday season!
Let me just say: I just love Susan Branch. I use so many of her recipes at Christmas.
Today I made Florentine Cookies. You can find the recipe online HERE.
To start, I made candied orange peel. This is the step that took the longest. You can certainly buy candied orange peel to save time, but it won’t be quite the same. To candy orange peel you cut it into little strips or squares and boil it in water, drain it, and repeat 2 or 3 times to remove the bitterness. Then you boil the peel again with a small amount of water and some sugar.
Once your orange peel is done, the cookies are a snap to make.
Boil together your milk and sugar, add your orange peel (I didn’t use citron – I doubled up the orange peel), almonds, extract, flour and butter.
Once all of this is boiled together it looks like this:
It’s pretty gooey. You have to use a teaspoon now to drop small little rounds of dough onto your cookie sheet.
While baking they will SPREAD, so you have to be sure to use no more than a teaspoon.
See? You end up needing to reshape them somewhat since they don’t always spread out evenly.
Once cooled, you can spread melted chocolate on the back of your cookies, and, using a fork, make little zig-zag designs in it. This is really just for fun, though.
I like to stick them in the fridge or freezer at this point to speed up the cooling process so the chocolate hardens back up.
These are unbelievably delicious and mouth watering. I like to hide a few of them from the rest of the family for me to enjoy when no one’s around.
Don’t tell.
Tonight’s a short post to let you know I haven’t fallen off my cookie challenge wagon, but I’ve had a long and exciting day picking up 3 cows for Susan and driving them back to the farm.
Three cows in the back in my suburban, yes. There are pictures to come, I promise!
But for now, Linzer Cookies!
First, you’ll need to start out with the same butter cookie dough I used for the frosted cut – outs: Susan Branch’s ‘Annie Hall’s Butter Cookes’.
The dough gets rolled out once more and you’ll need your cookie cutters – or better, linzer cookie cutters. I have a linzer set I use which consists of a star – shaped cookie cutter and several very small cutters of various sizes for the center.
You cut out as many stars as you like, and half of them get the centers cut out (2 stars become 1 cookie).
Then you bake them and let them cool. Once cooled, spoon a small dollop of jam (or whatever sweet filling you prefer) onto a whole star. On a separate plate, dust confectioner’s sugar over the stars with the centers cut out. Then place the sugar stars on top of the jam stars and voila!
Linzer cookies!
These don’t last very long around here, let me tell you!
