Yummy food stuff and a Chili taste test!

Okay, its been a pretty crazy last week or two!  I started my new job last week and I am really enjoying it so far!  I think working in the bakery will be something I'll really enjoy but we will see how things progress!  I'm very optimistic though! :)  Plus, it will be fun to see how the inner workings of a real bakery work.  Yesterday I got to make stuffing bread.  They just throw older and smushed bread through the bread slicer so that it is in slivers, but that bread slicer is a crazy machine to operate!  It was pretty cool though!  Speaking of baking and stuff, I've been making all sorts of delicious things lately....

For example, I found this recipe for Double Apple Cinnamon Muffins.  I've been looking through pinterest land for some good muffin recipes and found that one, and I also had a couple of apples that I probably wasn't going to eat.  So, voila!!  Here they are!  I made them into jumbo muffins instead of standard muffin size.  They are soooo good!  Moist and delicious! :)

I've also been wondering what all the hullabaloo is about with Greek yogurt, so I got a container a few weeks ago and decided to try it.  

It seems like the section for Greek yogurt is overtaking the area for regular Yoplait yogurt!  Crazy! My thoughts?  Well, first of all, its a dollar for one container (too much).  Second, I do kind of like how much protein is in it and that there is a gram of fiber.  But, and third, I didn't like the texture. I think people like it because it is thicker than regular yogurt, but for me? Not so much.  I didn't even finish the container because of the texture.  And the "fruit on the bottom"?  To me it seemed just like a little raspberry jam put on the bottom...that didn't really do it for me either.

I've also been making a TON of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies...

I got a recipe for them from a friend and forgot that we didn't have any pumpkin, so we got two small cans of pumpkin puree.  Come to find out we had two BIG cans of pumpkin puree in the food closet.  The recipe calls for 1 cup of pumpkin and there is about 3 cups in one big can, so I pretty much have to triple the recipe.  I doubled this recipe and it made just a hair less than 9 dozen cookies.  They are almost gone (because they are soooooo delicious!), so I'll have to use the other cup here soon before it goes bad.  Oh dear...no...not more cookies! ;)  heeeheee....But its full of veggies, right? Pumpkin is a squash which is a vegetable...Right?!?!?!?  Yum! I usually don't like pumpkin cookies either, but these are waaaay good!

Also, I've been super into scones lately.  Not the ones you fry in the deep fryer for Navajo tacos, but the English kind.  I figured I would give this recipe a try, it is Simple Sweet Scones.

This recipe calls for a stick of butter, so they aren't necessarily healthy.  But they are so good! The first several times I made them I cut them into little circles like biscuits, but today I decided to cut them into wedges.  Hubby likes them too, so I've made them several times already.  No complaints here!  When I did the biscuit circles the recipe made about 14-15 scones, but today we did 8. And we always have them with some raspberry jam.  YUM!  The texture of these is kind of interesting because its kind of biscuity but its also kind of not.  They are pretty moist and buttery (obviously...).  They are really good! (did I already say that?) ;)  I really want to try some cinnamon scones that I found in Pinterestland too...but we'll have to wait for when I have some free time again.

The sweet little chickens have been laying pretty steadily this last week.  We have gotten one egg a day since the 1st, so today we got our 9th little egg.  But!  Oh wait...there was another one today! Yay!  So now we have gotten 10 total!

The brown one on the left is the same size as they were last time, they haven't really started getting super jumbo yet.  Both of the red sex links are laying eggs like that and alternate days because of the lack of daylight outside.  If we wanted as many eggs as we could get, we would probably put a light out there so that they would lay very regularly.  Something about the amount of light they get regulates their egg laying, its kind of weird.  The one on the right is a regular store bought egg and that sweet little white egg in the middle is from one of our brown leghorns that we got today!  (I only know that it is a leghorn egg because the leghorns are the only ones that will lay white eggs.) I'm so proud of them! :) Because we have so many of our own eggs now, we decided to weigh and see the difference between store eggs and ours to adjust for baking and all that.  The store eggs were 47 grams (without shell) and our eggs were about 42-44 grams.  I think that with the large eggs we don't need to adjust for baking but with the bantam eggs we definitely will need to.  Also, since we ate a bunch of eggs for breakfast this morning we decided to eat ours.  Yum!  Something interesting we noticed was the color of the yolks.  See below:

(Hubby was in charge of cracking the eggs and getting them ready...he got a little excited with the quantity!  But...we do love eggs!)  I think it is really interesting how dark our egg yolks are compared to the store bought.  Maybe its all the delicious grass and bugs and wormies they get, or maybe that is what you get with happy hens?...I don't know, but they are very good!!!

And last, but certainly not least...we got some delicious baking potatoes straight from Idaho that some of our friends gave us.  Yum!  So we decided to eat them with chili.  Because hubby and I don't hardly ever eat chili, we were wondering which kinds were best.  So, we both did some research, made a list of chilis that we wanted to try and we did a small chili taste test!  Yum!!  So here are the kinds that we did and some information about them.  I'll give the full name of the chili that we tried, the price that we paid for it, and a little bit of nutrition information.  All the cans provided 2 servings per can.
#1.  Campbell's Chunky Chili, Beef and Bean Roadhouse.  $2.59
Calories 240; Fat 8 g; Cholesterol 25 mg; Fiber 6 g; and Sodium 870 mg.
#2.  Hormel Chili with Beans.  $1.59
Calories 260; Fat 7 g; Cholesterol 30 mg; Fiber 7 g; and Sodium 900 mg.

#3.  HyVee Chili with Beans (store brand).  $1.49
Calories 280; Fat 11 g; Cholesterol 30 mg; Fiber 7 g; and Sodium 1300 mg.
#4.  Wolf Brand Chili, Mild, No Beans.  $1.34
Calories 340; Fat 24 g; Cholesterol 30 mg; Fiber 5 g; and Sodium 950 mg.

Unfortunately, we didn't have much criteria for the test, mostly taste and kind of texture.  A couple of things I would like to note before I give you our winner.  The first one, Campbells Chunky chili had extra chunks of veggies and stuff in it that hubby doesn't care for, but that didn't sway his decision.  I kind of liked the extra chunks that were there and it seemed really smooth.  The HyVee chili (#3) was a bit too salty or there was too much of something, not sure what (now that I Look at it again, there is 1300 mg of sodium, so that makes sense).  Also, the Wolf Brand chili (#4)....look at that texture!!  It looks soooo bad!  And when I opened it it smelled a bit like wet cat food or dog food.  Not very good.  Also, it has 80 to 100 more calories than the others!  And holy fat! 24g?! And not as much fiber either!  Wow!!!  But we proceeded with the test as planned regardless of initial thoughts.  And our winner?  That would be Hormel Chili with Beans (#2)!!!!  We both decided that we liked that one the most!  And number two was Campbells Chunky chili (#1).  The last two is where hubby and I disagreed, I put HyVee chili above Wolf Brand, and hubby put them the other way around.  So, we ate a little bit in the taste test then mixed them all together for the potatoes and ate them for a couple of dinners later that week!  It was kinda fun! :)

P.S. I really don't like daylight savings time.  Its 6:30 and so dark outside.  Feels like it should be so much later.  So annoying!
P.P.S.  What is the deal with microfiber cloths?  Why does everyone like them so much?  I do have a few and I kind of don't like to use them, but maybe I'm not using them for what I should be...They do hold a lot of water, which is kind of cool!  So, here's a question that anyone that reads this can answer if you like!  Why you like microfiber cloths so much?  Please tell me!  :) Have a good evening!
xoxo
c

Happy Hatch Day Indeed: 5 months!!

Well...the little babies are not so little any more.  They are 5 months old today! (yesterday?)  I can't believe it...where has all the time gone?  I remember when they were just little teeny tiny chicks playing on a towel with a cardboard ring around to keep them inside.  Ohh...those were the days! :) Now, we can barely keep them contained with a 6 foot tall fence around the coop!  Yes, that is right.  They are finding ways out of the run.  I had an interview on Wednesday and when I got back 5 of the little girls were free ranging in the yard.  Naughty little girls.  (P.S. I did get the job, its for a local grocery store!  Not quite the job I was intending to get, but it'll help get me through school for the next couple of years!  And give me a good excuse to get out of the house and meet people!)

Today, however, is an extremely exciting hatch day...not like the others.  Because, this morning, when I went through my regular routine of looking through the nesting boxes to see if they had left me any presents, I actually found something!  I tried to take a picture of it where it was left, but it was just too dark in the coop to do that.  Yes!  You've got that right!  We got our first egg this morning!!! What an exciting day!  

I love the speckles, which is probably just moisture or something that is dried, but I really like it! And I love how dark brown it is!!  It would probably be darker brown if I rinsed it off, but I didn't. 

Here it is next to a tape measure...its about 2 inches...

Aww...its so cute!  And here it is next to a regular large egg from the grocery store.

I don't think it is a bantam egg, its a little too big for that.  I'm pretty sure its from one of the red sex links, but I can't be sure. I know there isn't really a difference at all in the actual egg, but I'm really excited to have brown eggs again!  I don't know what there is about them, but I just like them!!!  Not enough to spend the extra money specifically to buy brown eggs, but I'm still pretty excited!  We only have 2 girls that will lay large white eggs (the 2 brown leghorns) and the rest will lay brown eggs. 

Since it is their hatch day, I should probably not post pictures of only the egg.  So here they are this morning!  Here is a group picture!! :)

The two buff brahmas, little red in the back, billie the blue next to her, and a golden laced cochin...

The two brown leghorns, the two red sex links, Basil, Parker, a golden laced cochin and Ella!

Here's little red, I can't believe she is still so tiny...I'm really wishing I would have kept the other little red hen...

Basil, standing up tall and strong...and the other 2 golden girls...

Parker...he's so pretty! ...I mean, he's a good looking rooster!

Here is Billie...one of the blue cochins...I can tell her apart from Ella now because Billie is a lighter gray/blue than Ella, she has a smaller comb, and her feet are blue (not yellow! Weird!).  Ella has a slightly bigger comb, is a little bit smaller than Billie and has yellow feet.  All of our chickens have yellow feet, which is why its so weird that she has blue.

Ain't she cute!  They are so darn feisty and have some attitude, but I just can't resist them!!  

Whenever I go out to see the chickens they all run to me and are so excited to see me! (I know its just for food and not my wonderful motherly presence, but it still makes me feel like they love me!) So, this morning I took a little video of it....I wish I would have kept it on a little bit longer so you could hear the hen noises, I love the hen noises they make! :) 

OH!  And I saw my first living, moving possum the other night!  It was so weird how it moved through the grass and it was pretty ugly!  Need to do some research on the little critters.  I'm not too worried though, because I keep my chickens contained at night so nothing can get to them.  

I better get dressed... :)  Have a good one!

xoxo

c

Mole patrol: a little bit less outsmarted and Halloween

In honor of the pending holiday, I present a few holiday appropriate pictures.
Hagrid's Hut lego set with his giant pumpkin garden...

 Graveyard duel lego set...

Those are pretty much the only things I have related to Halloween.  They're old pictures, but I think they are holiday appropriate.  We aren't really holiday type people (for any holiday, really), so we don't decorate very much, if at all.  Which is just fine with me and the hubby!  I did think about making something for Halloween decor but I didn't end up doing it.  My sister-in-law makes some pretty cool pumpkins out of scraps of wood!  I'll have to ask her how she made them and then maybe make some for next year!  However...I AM very excited to get out my owl-urkey for Thanksgiving!  I'll show you later, have to wait until Halloween is over!  It's sooooo cute!

In other exciting news, I caught a mole last week!!!  All by myself!  Can you imagine the adrenaline that was pumping through my veins when I saw that little bit of dirt moving?  And then, I saw a little tail.  I put the hose where that was happening and then it crawled up out of the ground and I used the hose to push it in the bucket.  Oh my gosh...it was just craaaazy!!  I didn't take a picture of this one, but here's the picture from one of the first ones just for effect.  I still feel bad, it's kind of a cute little thing, but it was really making a mess of the yard!  Not to mention it was teasing us and making us crazy!  I am not sure if we have more, but I am hoping this was the only one that was running around out there.

It has also been pretty exciting because they finally cut down the beans in the fields around us.  It was pretty exciting to watch, so naturally, I took a couple of pictures!  Here is the soybeans up close...

Here is the combine out my window as I was peeping...

This is after he went by...

And this is down the field...kinda exciting.

We also had something really odd happen with the chicken run...All of a sudden there was this hole in the door.  And the little pieces of plastic were cleanly cut and sitting next to the opening.

It might have been a possum or something small like that, but I put this board there and we haven't had anything since then.  I'm just glad I lock up my little chickens safe and sound every night! Who knows what might happen to them if I didn't.  Also, I went out to check out the garbage this morning and it turns out we had a critter have a little party in there last night.  Probably should have covered it, but I didn't.  Oh well.

Is it wrong to kill lady bugs?  It sure doesn't feel right...
Gotta go make dinner for the hubby...have a good evening!
xoxo
c

Fencing, garden and some random stuff!

Well, I seem to be having a lot more free time on my hands lately, so I get to blog more! Yay! Except I'm running out of things to talk about! Hmm...  Why do I have more time lately?  Let me explain.  I have been telecommuting to my job in Utah for the last 5 months, some days are frustrating and others are awesome!  But, I was nearing the end of my rope and started looking for work where I could do a little bit of socializing in the process.  Even though I haven't found any work yet (still looking...), we decided that I should quit my job last week.  I worked for them for the last 6 1/2 years, I am super sad and will miss everyone at work, but I think it was for the best. I have learned so much and gained so much experience working there, I can't thank them enough! And it turns out it was at a really good time, and I'm happy that I left on my own terms.  The real estate market in Utah is quite low at the moment, so my place of employment were doing some layoffs anyway, so, really, it was good for both of us.  I have decided that I want to start school in the Spring and finish up my Bachelor's degree.  My plan, so far, is that I want to get a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in finance and a minor in Accounting.  All in all, I think I want to be an accountant.  You can do it all online for the most part, and doing the degree this way can make you eligible to take the Certified Public Accountant exam for the state of Wisconsin.  (I'm planning on attending University of Wisconsin-Platteville, which is about a half hour away if they accept me.  Still waiting....)  Accountants can make pretty good money, and I have always enjoyed playing with money and numbers like that.  And, since we eventually want to start our own farm business and maybe a few other things, it would be nice for me to have some background in business to help us out.  Hubby is thinking about getting his Master's in Business Administration (MBA), but we aren't sure when and where and what not. That would be really good for him and probably help him a lot in his future.  We will see what happens and how things play out though.

We've had some pretty productive weekends lately!  We've been wanting to make a fence to go around the chicken coop so that they could play in my garden and fertilize and things like that.  So, several weeks ago, we got some posts and some 6 foot fencing.  We finally decided to put everything up!  Here is the view from the corner of my garden.

We used the PVC pipe from the temporary run to make the little gates, they are kind of redneck, but I'm just fine with that! :)

Here is the view from the side of the house...

I love that they can just run around if they like and have more fun.  Some day, we hope to have a nice big back yard where they can just run around and play free and be safe!  Hopefully...But they seem to be enjoying themselves! :)

Do you remember that rusty cast iron pan?  Well....on Monday the 14th, we had a large crew of stupid roof people come to replace the roof at the request of the landlords.  I stuck myself inside the whole time because I didn't want to see anyone or anything like that.  So, I finally attacked the pan!  Here it is after my attack!

I used Brillo steel wool soap pads.  It was hard to get all that rust off, but I think it came out pretty nicely!  I also baked the pan the same way as I did the other one, about 350 to 400 for an hour and let it cool in the closed oven.  I think it turned out really nicely, lets hope I can just keep both pans maintained.  I do like cooking with them, it cooks really evenly and browns pretty nicely. I need to figure out some other awesome things to make in them.  I think maintenance will be the hardest part.

Apparently it is the season for raspberries at my house!  I am not complaining, they are soooo good!  The raspberries on the right were picked a few days before the ones on the left.

I can't believe I am getting so many raspberries from the one plant, its incredible.  Funnily enough, we aren't getting anything from the other plant.  Maybe its not as well rooted or something.  By the way, all of those raspberries in the picture were gone within 30 seconds of taking this picture! Hehe...YUM!!!

I went grocery shopping earlier this week and I saw my favorite pumpkin display ever outside a grocery store.

I love how clever they were and made it a really nice display, rather than just throwing pumpkins out.  

Also, I have decided to try to learn how to knit.  Here is my learning swatch.  

The bottom 6 rows-ish is the "knit" stitch, the next 6 or 7 rows is the "purl" stitch, and then the top 7 rows is the "rib" stitch (even though you can't really tell, but you can kind of tell...).  I'm still trying to perfect it and become more consistent, but that will take some time.  Its kind of cool though.  I think its a bit easier because my mom showed me how to crochet when I was young, so I feel decently comfortable around yarn and stuff.  Knitting is a whole different ball game though.  I wanted to learn because I really like the stitch patterns that you get with knitting.  Someday I hope to knit a sweater, but we'll see how things go from here.  Since I don't know many people out here, I'm learning from a book.  I picked this and everything else up at the Hobby Lobby in town.

Here is all the materials that I use/have...(the book said I should get a little kit going, so there we are).

Its kind of fun, but we'll see how it goes, as I've already said.
Well....I think I'll go play with the chickens for a few minutes and see if we received any delicious presents.  :)  Have a good one!
xoxo
c

Chicken adventures: nesting boxes done!

This post will be long...just to warn you ahead of time.  But, it will also be full of wonderful pictures too! :)  Well, the chickens are 4 and a half months old, haven't found any eggs yet and just getting them warmed up to the nesting boxes and perch next to them.  That being said, we finished the nesting boxes about 2 weeks ago or so.  That's right, I'm not very good at posting on here because I wanted to get them painted and put straw in there too before I posted the final post about the boxes.

So, here is the process.  We made the base, then put on the sides separately, we also put some sheet insulation above between the roof and the boxes.  Which is where these pictures start.
We framed in the sides so that we could make a front whole piece to put on so that it looked clean and nice.  We used wood stakes as our partition pieces to hold the sides.

This is us putting in the bottom stakes.  We had it stick out about 3 or 4 inches so that we could put the perch on the end of the stakes.

Then, we put in the same stakes up top to help support as well.

Then the sides...we used a nail gun to attach the walls on there.  Having that nail gun really made this a slick process.

Then we made our front piece and nailed that on as well as the perch.  The perch ended up being a long piece of PVC pipe that we had left over from the temporary run.  It actually turned out to work really, really well.  The openings for the boxes are about 10 inches square, I think.  And, I believe, the inside of the boxes is 13 inches from side to side.

 Closer up picture...

The chickens were curious what we were doing, but when we put them in the boxes they didn't like it and jumped right out.

Here is what they did while we worked...play free in the yard.  Yay!

 Someday we'll have a nice fenced in yard that we can let them just run free all the time...

Hehe...here are two of the girls nesting in some holes that they have made in the run.  Hubby hates it when they do this and dig holes.  (I think its so cute!!)

 Then, I painted the nesting boxes and perch.  Broke up some straw and here we are!

Don't those just make you want to crawl in there and lay an egg?  I've been able to convince some of them to stay in the boxes but usually only at night.  I've got most of the girls sleeping on that perch, except for the 2 roosters and the 2 leghorns.  I don't know how I am going to get those leghorns in there, I can barely handle them, they are just so jumpy.  Hmm...I'll have to figure something out.  There was going to be more, but I might take a quick nap before hubby gets home from work.  Don't tell him! :)
xoxo
c

Mole Patrol: Feeling outsmarted

The mole is still teasing us in the yard.  I found this the other day in the back yard...

Then, I found another similar to that last night!  Naturally, we took the hose to all of them and nothing.  This mole is being particularly elusive...And a giant pain in the butt.  It's funny how such small creatures can be so frustrating.  

xoxo

Cast Iron pan fun...

Last year sometime, hubby and I bought a cast iron pan.  We used it several times (it makes amazing steaks!) and then it sat in the cabinet for a while.  When we moved, it didn't have any apparent flaws and looked pretty good, I wrapped it in paper and all sorts of other things to keep it safe during the move.  It survived, and I put it in the bottom of a cabinet.  Perkins family restaurant here makes some amazing breakfast potatoes and we wanted to make some for ourselves.  I pulled out the wonderful cast iron pan because many of the recipes I was looking at called for using a cast iron pan.  Much to my dismay, this is what I found.  (RUST!!! NOOO....)

Look at how much is on the handle?  Crazy!
And...because I am impatient and nervous about dealing with the rust...I purchased a new cast iron pan for $20 at Wal-Mart.  Here it is before I got a hold of it.  I washed it good with dish soap and got it ready for seasoning.

Through more, more and even more research, I decided to use Crisco shortening instead of vegetable oil.  So, after I washed it, I dried it with a towel and applied the Crisco with a paper towel. 

Here it is before I put it in the oven.

Again, with all the research I did, I heard there was going to be lots and lots of smoke.  This really intimidated me, which is why it took me so long to season these pans.  I also found out that the smoke point for Crisco is 440° F. And, on the Lodge Cast Iron web site it says to season it in the oven at 350-400.  So if I did the Crisco at those temperatures I shouldn't have any smoke.  So, I broke down and did it.  350 ish for 1 hour.  I say "ish," because my oven is a million years old and runs hot, and I think I've finally figured out where my temperatures really are on the dial.  Hence why I have stickies on the dial telling me where the 350 and 400 degree marks are.  We also put a pizza stone in the bottom of it to help regulate the temperatures.  Anyway, long story short, after the hour in the oven, I turned it off and let the pan cool in the oven.  I'm happy to report that there was ZERO smoke!  But, it did smell like cooking shortening which is to be expected, but not bad at all.  Like 4 hours later the oven was still at 200, so it definitely was a slow cool down.  Here is the pan, in all its glory after

I did get a little excited with the shortening so some spots on the pan got sticky.  I put the pan in the oven with the opening facing down, so it was sticky where the top was touching the oven shelves. You can see that right in the middle of the top rim if you look closely.

I made breakfast with it yesterday and it performed very well!  I really liked how everything browned and cooked.  Very very pleased! :) Now I just have to do the other rusty one!
xoxo
c