Wordless Wednesday- First Hatch of The Season...

Bread Bowls and Chicken & Dumplings...

It is cold and rainy here today so I decided to make chicken & dumplings to warm the house up and give it a yummy smell.

And these recipes taste even better if you have raised the chickens that contributed the eggs and donated their lives to these dishes :)

(The nasty rooster that was harmed for today's food was warned on several occasions to stop attacking Maddy. Obviously he did not listen.)

Bread Bowls:

Ingredients-

• 2 (.25 ounce) packages of active dry yeast


• 2 1/2 cups warm water


• 1 tsp brown sugar


• 2 tsp salt


• 2 tbsp vegetable oil


• 3 cups all purpose flour


• 4 cups whole wheat flour


• 1 tsp cornmeal


• 1 egg white


• 1 tbsp water

Directions-

1. In a large bowl dissolve yeast and brown sugar in the warm water. Let stand until frothy (usually about 10 minutes).


2. Add salt, oil, and the 4 cups of whole wheat flour to the yeast mixture. Mix well. Add the all purpose flour 1/2 cup at a time mixing well.


3. When the dough is well mixed, place it on a lightly floured surface and knead the dough until it is smooth.


4. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turn to lightly coat in oil. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and allow to rise until doubled (usually about 40 minutes).


5. Punch down dough and divide into 8 equal pieces, kneading and forming into a ball shape. Place the loaves on a lightly greased cookie sheet that has been dusted with cormeal.


6. Allow to rise until doubled (~30 minutes).


7. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make egg wash by beating the egg white with the tablespoon of water.


8. Brush each loaf with egg wash. Bake in oven for 10 minutes.


9. Remove from oven and brush remaining egg wash on each loaf. Return to oven and bake an additional 10-15 minutes until brown.


10. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. When you are ready to serve cut a 1/2 inch piece off the top, scoop out the insides, and fill with a hot soup.

Chicken & Dumplings:

Ingredients-

• 1 (2 to 3 lb) whole chicken


• 1 cup chopped carrots


• 1 cup chopped celery


• 1 cup chopped onion


• 2-5 cloves of garlic, chopped


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 2 cups all purpose flour


• 1 egg


• Any seasonings you would like

Directions-

1. In a large stockpot cover the chicken and vegetables with salter water and simmer until cooked all the way through.


2. When tender removed chicken from pot and cool. Once cool add pieces of chicken back to the broth.


3. To make dumplings: Sift 2 cups of flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Pour in 1 cup of the chicken broth. Use a fork to mix well. Add a whole egg and continue to mix with fork.


4. Once totally mixed place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.


5. Seperate the dough into 4 or 5 parts and roll into a thin strip. Cut the strips into 2 inch pieces.


6. Bring chicken broth to a boil and drop dumplings in (be careful you do not want boiling broth to splash on you). Simmer 10-15 minutes and serve hot.

Spring Is In The Air...

Well the sun has been shining for the past 2 days and the temperatures have been in the low 40's. I might have even seen some snow melt.

The increase in vitamin D in my system is making me cheerful, and even a little hopeful that Spring is on its way!



My chickens and turkeys are taking advantage of the sunny weather to peck around and the roosters are even showing the hens a little love!



When I checked the seeds I planted under the grow lights today, I even found one of my hollyhocks and my basil had sprouted!!! I just planted them this past sunday.

Hopefully this evening I will get around to planting some more of my slow growing flowers.

Wordless Wednesday- Snow Chickens...

A Good Day...

Moose, Lilly, and Ash
I woke up with a bad cold this morning. Then my rooster, R.J., was stuck in the turkey pen and it took me 30 minutes to get him out. While I was outside chasing R.J. the dogs ripped up shredded a stuffed animal so I came back in to little white tufts of stuffing everywhere.

I really thought this would be the theme of my whole day.

But then Moose brought Candi and her daughter Lilly over. It was so nice to have a friend to chat with and to watch Ash get to play with someone a little closer to her age. We had a nice dinner and the girls took a bath together. Now the little ones are sleeping and I'm going to dope myself up on some Nyquil.

But all in all it turned out to be a good day.

A Look Around the Farm...

I realized its been awhile since I put up any pictures from around my farm, so what a better way to spend the evening then taking pictures of my chickens?

One of my growing pumpkins, I can't believe they are this big already...

Two of my baby turkeys (the white are Broad Breasted Whites and the others are Standard Bronze)

My baby's are learning to strut

Ash's Rooster Bubba and his little girlfriend

One more shot of Bubba because he is so handsome.

Fresh Meat

Well we have completed the first half of our first time run of raising CornishX meat birds. It was time for our 6 oldest birds to be processed. Our babies were 9 weeks old this past weekend and definately big enough for "Freezer Camp". I didn't want to wait much longer because we ran the risk of losing some of them to either broken legs or heart attacks. Although I do not feel bad for raising them to be slaughtered, I would feel bad if they suffered at all. I was very proud of Maddy and Ash for not freaking out. They both watched with awe on their face as the birds were dispatched and bled. Maddy even helped plucking and somehow enlisted her friend Shannon's help.

It is very important to both me and Jay that our daughters are not sheltered, and that they understand and appreciate where their food comes from. Maddy is a little more sensitive and I worry sometimes that she will be upset, but so far so good. The more and more we get into this homesteading the better I feel.

One of the CornishX chicks at 1 week old (sorry about the sideways picture)

CornishX at 6 weeks

My baby on the chopping block

Maddy & Shannon plucking

More plucking fun

Food For Thought...

I am really enjoying turning our little 10 acre lot into a farm. This idea of homesteading really makes me happy. Returning to our roots a little bit is not only good for myself, my daughters, but also for the earth. We are reducing our carbon footprint a little more everytime we learn to do something "the old fashioned way". (Although I'm sure Jay ruins that idea every time he races). Just this morning when I was making breakfast for Jay it dawns on me how great it is to walk out to my chicken coop grab a handful of eggs from chickens that I raise and make breakfast for him. These beautiful eggs are produced from chickens that get to roam anywhere they want on 10 acres eating bugs, grass, and any other tasty tidbit that they find.
This fall we will be processing our own pigs so then there will be bacon and ham steaks to add to the table too! Now I just need to learn how to bake bread and we would have breakfast all set.


These are two of my beautiful Black Australorp hens (Trudy & Ida):

They produce these beautiful eggs:

Which I then cook up:

Making an awesome tasting breakfast for my hubby: