Chickens

 So we got a few chicks.  When I say a few I mean 31.  In a small way they inspired the following deviled eggs, but the main inspiration came from something I saw on Pinterest. 

 I got tired and the kids were hungry before I got done so the eyes have a small problem.

And this one ended up with no eyes at all.

When I was cutting open the eggs I came across a white yolk! This is caused by a really rare mutation in the digestive system of the chicken.  Now that I know that this is a possibility, I am hoping we end up with a mutant chicken that provides us with all white eggs.

St. Patrick's Day

 We started our day off with a stack of rainbow pancakes.  Bananas were added for clouds and we counted the pure maple syrup as our pot of liquid gold.  To make the rainbow I added food coloring into my favorite pancake batter and cooked as usual.  For next time I might find a way to flavor the pancakes different flavors.  That way we can have a rainbow of flavors too! We had our traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage. This year I tried roasting the cabbage instead of steaming it.  I used this recipe of Martha Stewart's, except I used fresh rosemary instead of the caraway or fennel seeds. I will definitely cook cabbage this way again. We ended the day with a drink of lemon lime soda with a scoop of lime sherbet floating in it.

Salad Dressing Snob

Oh, for a salad.

Oh yeah! Now that's a salad!

I love a garden salad.  It is one of my very favorite foods.  Ranch is my favorite kind of dressing but I have a problem with store bought varieties.  I think it's the preservitives I can taste but I don't know.  I know I don't like it though so I make my own.  This is what I have been putting in most recently:

Ranch Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup Greek yogurt

oregano

onion powder

dried parsley

minced garlic

paprika

ground red pepper

salt

pepper

I just start putting spices in the mayo and yogurt blend until it tastes good.

Pumpkin Pancakes

I used the rest of the pumpkin patch pumpkin to make divine Pumpkin Pancakes. They were really unbelievably good - and I don't always care for pancakes.

The recipe came from ALL NEW Square Foot Gardening Cookbook by Mel Bartholomew.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I used my pumpkin patch pumpkin to make enough of Jennifer's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III from allrecipes.com to eat as many as I wanted and have some leftover to freeze for another day.

Yum.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III

Ingredients

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Wild Oats

I found a big bag of oats. I mean big. 50 pounds big. And it was less than $20. I had my husband with me and asked him to grab it for us. He looked puzzled, got a little crook in his smile and said "What are we, horses?" He's seen big bags of oats like that were indeed, for horses. It's all right. He'll appreciate these oats. We will use them often not only for oatmeal but for a couple of our regular recipes: Magic Meatloaf and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I'll share the recipes later. Now I'll share how I handled this big bag of wild oats.

Yes, that's right. I tamed those oats into Ziploc bags and they are patiently waiting in our pantry to be eaten. I'm looking forward to it.

Making the Most of a Pumpkin

In the spirit of Halloween, we went to a local pumpkin patch. I'm talking about an actual pumpkin patch that is just a big field of pumpkins. We tromped through the plants to find a couple of our favorites. We ended out with two that had already been picked.

We got one large orange pumpkin and one medium white pumpkin. The owner of the patch was so nice. She sent us home with two brown bags of mini pumpkins that didn't have stems so she wasn't going to sell them. I was so happy! We spent an evening carving and having a wonderful time together. We only had one carving tool so when it wasn't my turn, I toasted the seeds and boiled the parts of the pumpkin we cut off. So we ended out with these:

and toasted pumpkin seeds

and pureed pumpkin

that will be frozen and eventually turned into something delicious and the inside goop and outsides

 will be turned into compost. Oh, and I saved a few seeds from each of the pumpkins to plant in the spring.

I'm not sure what else a can be expected of a couple of pumpkins.

Have a happy Halloween!

Applesauce

A neighbor gave me a big box of Red Delicious apples that either had worm holes or the birds had tasted so they couldn't be stored. I kind of helped my sister make and bottle applesauce before so I decided I wanted to try. Eight hours laster, four calls to my sister and some help from my husband, I had almost eleven quarts of applesauce. Next time will got smoother because I will know what to do with the tools I have. All ten jars sealed so I am calling it a success.