Archives for January 2012

Muddy

Well we certainly have been having peculiar weather this winter here in Connecticut. Finally some snow on Saturday, and then lots of rain on Monday. The farm does not like rain, particularly in the winter. Wintertime is boring enough when there’s no grass growing or other yummy things to forage for, but when it rains there’s really nothing to do. They lay around and sleep a lot and stare out of their stall doors and coop windows. I found myself giving them lots of little snacks yesterday just to get them up and out a bit in between the raindrops. It really was a sea of mud by the end of the day.



Kiki tried hopping from rock to rock to keep her little hoofs clean.



And then today it got close to 50 degrees! It’s January — typically the second coldest month of the year here. The farm started to dry out today and the light was just beautiful when I was feeding them dinner.

Princess Kate enjoying dinner in the beautiful early evening light.


Melina Lends a Helping Hand

Melina may be the grumpiest goat I’ve ever met, but she’s not above helping out a friend in need. Actually, it surprises me how well the chickens and goats get along. The chickens may get an occasional head butt from a goat when they think it’s eating food that belongs to them, but other than that they co-habitate in the nicest way together.

This is a favorite farm photo of mine. That’s Cissy, Kiki & Grace’s mom, with one of my old silkies, Kiev, on her back. It was feeding time so they were all keeping an eye out for me, and Kiev wanted a better view.


The goat house has always been a favorite hangout for the chickens, and now that it’s winter some days there are so many chickens hanging out in the stalls that it’s a wonder there’s any room for the goats to go in there. The hay racks have always been a favorite laying spot for the chickens, and I find far more eggs in the rack or underneath it than I ever do in the nesting boxes. Because the goat house was so popular, I built a double nesting box to hang in the goat house in Melina and Princess Kate’s stall. I built it just as a flat, deep box, kind of like 2-compartment baking dish, rather than a typical enclosed box. I don’t know why I did this, and at first it was a complete failure and nobody would even go in it. Now, next to the hay racks, it’s the favorite laying spot for the chickens.

Yesterday I was so happy I had my camera around my neck when I went out to bring the goats some fresh water. I caught Melina giving my White Plymouth Rock hen a boost up into the nesting box.



Sparrow in the Snow

This little sparrow was waiting in the snow for the chickens and goats to finish the snack of scratch grains I’d thrown around so she could go down and eat the leftovers. I’ve become the favorite neighborhood feeding grounds for lots of birds, and they always seem to be there waiting at feeding time.

The Farm in the Snowstorm

The farm woke up Saturday morning to a snowstorm.

I have never had such a bunch of snow sissies as the crop of chickens goats I have right now. Last winter Melina and Cissy literally lived in a large doghouse from December until May and frolicked in the abundant snow we got all winter long. One snowstorm was so big that I was out there at 2 in the morning shoveling out the front of the doghouse for fear that they would get snowed in and die of suffocation. This year I guess they’re used to the comforts of their fancy schmancy goat house and seem loathe to even touch a hoof in the fluffy white stuff. Gracie seems to be the only slightly adventurous one. Kiki tries, but it’s usually just for a quick dash through it and then right back up to the porch. Poor Princess Kate was fainting all over the place today the snow had her so anxious.

And there has never seen so much traffic in and out of the chicken coop during the day. Normally they come out in the morning and, except to lay an occasional egg, don’t venture back in until bedtime.

Look how fluffy Grace is! She ventured out to watch Maia sled a bit. The other goats watched from the porch.

And the chickens watched from under the coop.

Kiki the fluffy butterball.

Pardon me while I shove copious amounts of hay in my mouth.

Bullet the mighty snow warrior.

Beyonce in the snow.

The farm looks pretty covered in snow.

Earlier in the week I was taking some pictures and decided I am officially obsessed with Corn Flakes, my rooster. He’s very photogenic.




I’m also mildly obsessed with two of my barred rock chickens that appear to actually be roosters. Every day their feathers get more beautiful, and thankfully not a peep out of them yet.

Look at all the different shapes and textures of feathers on this barred rock.

Catching Snowflakes

Evan was helping me shovel out some paths for the goats and chickens in today’s snowstorm and I caught this shot of him taking a break.

Skillet-Fried Chicken

The cover of this month’s Bon Appetit claims this is the only fried chicken recipe you’ll ever need. Mighty lofty claims I thought. I figured I’d better try it out and report back. Since Jim was going to be out of town tonight (he’s not a big fried chicken fan), I decided tonight was the perfect opportunity.

I have not made a ton of fried chicken in my life, but I’ve certainly made it a few times. It always seems very complicated. Lots of buttermilk, lots of soaking. This recipe wasn’t like that. There’s one cup of buttermilk used in the dipping liquid. The spices you marinate the chicken in overnight weren’t complicated. You didn’t even need a ton of oil. And for once I didn’t change, increase or decrease a single ingredient – I made the recipe exactly as it was printed.

Skillet-Fried Chicken

To learn the best way to cut a chicken into ten pieces and see a video of the recipe being prepared from start to finish, go to bonappetit.com/go/friedchicken.

4 Servings

Recipe by The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen, published in the February, 2012 issue.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons kosher salt, divided
2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 3–4-lb. chicken (not kosher), cut into 10 pieces, backbone and wing tips removed
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Peanut oil (for frying)

Special Equipment:

A deep-fry thermometer

Preparation:

Whisk 1 Tbsp. salt, 2 tsp. black pepper, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, and onion powder in a small bowl. Season chicken with spices. Place chicken in a medium bowl, cover, and chill overnight.


Let chicken stand covered at room temperature for 1 hour. After marinating in the spices for a day, the chicken was already looking tasty. Whisk buttermilk, egg, and 1/2 cup water in a medium bowl. Whisk flour, cornstarch, remaining 1 Tbsp. salt, and remaining 1 Tbsp. pepper in a 9x13x2″ baking dish.


Pour oil into a 10″–12″ cast-iron skillet or other heavy straight-sided skillet (not nonstick) to a depth of 3/4″. Prop deep-fry thermometer in oil so bulb is submerged. Heat over medium-high heat until thermometer registers 350°. Meanwhile, set a wire rack inside a large rimmed baking sheet.

Working with 1 piece at a time (use 1 hand for wet ingredients and the other for dry ingredients), dip chicken in buttermilk mixture, allowing excess to drip back into bowl. Dredge in flour mixture; tap against bowl to shake off excess.


Place 5 pieces of chicken in skillet. Fry chicken, turning with tongs every 1–2 minutes and adjusting heat to maintain a steady temperature of 300°–325°, until skin is deep golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of chicken registers 165°, about 10 minutes for wings and 12 minutes for thighs, legs, and breasts. I was pretty impressed with how close I got to the perfect internal temperature!


Using tongs, remove chicken from skillet, allowing excess oil to drip back into skillet; transfer chicken to prepared rack.


Repeat with remaining chicken pieces; let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.



So what’s my verdict on the chicken? I think Bon Appetit was right and you can throw out all of your other fried chicken recipes. It was easy, crispy, a little spicy but not too much. My son, who for some reason hasn’t had much of an appetite lately, ate three pieces and claimed we should from now on have “Fried Chicken Friday’s”. When I said I didn’t think that was probably going to happen, he said that he at least needed to eat this every week and a half.

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Fabric Covered Retro Suitcase

My stepmom has been diligently working at cleaning up their lives and getting rid of things. Simplifying. Not leaving piles of unnecessary things for the kids to go through some day. While slightly morbid to think about, it’s completely practical. Having to clean out my aunt Eleanor’s estate a few years ago with my sister, whom I don’t think ever threw a thing out in her entire life, I can appreciate this philosophy.

As a part of this purging she brought over two old suitcases for me to look at. One I decided to keep, and the other I told her to continue on to the junkyard with.


I had seen a pin on Pinterest recently of a really cute retro suitcase and I thought I could do something similar to this one.


As I’m sitting here writing this post, I went onto Pinterest to find the photo on my board, and clicked through to the link for the first time. It was on a cute blog called Sew Can Do. She did it a little differently, but the end result seemed to be the same. I think her suitcase was a little cooler than mine was, and her fabric was terrific. She used Modge Podge to adhere the fabric to the case, and also sealed it with matte Modge Podge. This is a great idea and I think I’m going to do that tonight to mine.

First I cleaned the suitcase up using 409 cleaner. Then I roughly measured fabric for the front, back, and sides and ironed on a medium-weight fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric. Then I used some craft paper and drew a pattern for the top and bottom. These were the easy parts. The sides were much more difficult because of all the hardware. I used Beacon Adhesives Fabri-Tac glue to adhere the fabric to the suitcase.





I thought it came out great. It’s a cute way to store things, or maybe even use it as a suitcase again? I’d be the most stylish person at the airport.


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Moose in a Snowstorm

After Christmas when I was bringing Amanda to the airport very early one morning, I continued up the road towards Yellowstone. I came across this pair of moose. Apparently the cow (female) wasn’t quite ready to get up yet for the day, but her bull moose partner was quite handsome.

Scallion Meatballs with Soy-Ginger Dipping Sauce


My life has been so busy lately that I feel lucky if I get to eat a meal, and getting to sit down to eat it would feel extra luxurious. Except for dinner, I always with sit down with the family for that. Often I go weeks without having a moment to check out some of my favorite cooking blogs, as was the case on Monday when I finally took a moment to visit Smitten Kitchen. I’ve always loved her site, and her recipes always work. When I got on the other day, I printed out 3 of the first 4 recipes I scrolled through, and I am proud to say that less than 48 hours later, I had made all 3 and they all were terrific. I’m starting with this recipe for no particular reason.

As I was assembling the ingredients for this I realized I had a bit of a brain lapse while in the grocery store. I was standing there looking at the ground turkey that the recipe called for and was just getting so grossed out at the way it looked, that I wandered over to the ground pork and decided that, this being an asian-style recipe, using half turkey and half pork would probably be an interesting and appropriate substitution. But, when I was gathering my ingredients today I pulled my ground pork and ground beef out of the fridge — I accidentally bought ground beef instead of the ground turkey; I guess I really do have an aversion to it. So I used 50% ground pork and 50% ground beef, and they tasted great. If you’ve got a similar aversion, you can substitute the same. I’m going to write the recipe exactly as I used it, but the original recipe called for 1 pound of ground turkey. Deb had reduced the cilantro and ginger from what was originally called for. I increased mine a bit, since I adore both ginger and cilantro. You can use less if you prefer. I also reduced the dipping sauce down significantly so it would really cling to the meatballs.

Scallion Meatballs with Soy-Ginger Dipping Sauce

Original recipe from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from Canal House Cooking, vol. 3

Note: This recipe is gluten-free if you use a soy sauce that is labeled gluten free. There were many options on the shelf at the store.

Yield: The original recipe suggest 24, Smitten Kitchen got 34, and I got a whopping 51 meatballs, but I happened to have a tiny ice cream scoop that measures exactly 1 tablespoon that I used, so my meatballs were very uniform in size.

Sauce

  • ½ cup dark brown sugar
  • ½ cup water
  • ½ cup soy sauce, preferably Japanese or reduced sodium
  • ½ cup mirin (sweet rice wine), or
  • ½ cup sake with
  • ¼  cup sugar
  • ¼  cup peeled, chopped ginger  (I probably used a tad more than 1/4 cup, but that’s a lot of ginger)
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 4 whole black peppercorns (no, I did not count how many I put in there)

Meatballs

    • ½ pound ground pork
    • ½ pound ground beef
    • 4 large or 6 small scallions, finely chopped
    • Half bunch cilantro, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup) (the cilantro-averse can use flat-leaf parsley)
    • 1 large egg
    • 2 tablespoons sesame oil, toasted if you can find it
    • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
    • Freshly ground black pepper
    • Vegetable oil

Make sauce:  Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar melts completely. Reduce heat to a medium-low and add soy sauce, mirin, ginger, coriander and peppercorns. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced by half, about 30 minutes, though this took me a bit longer to reduce it until it was syrupy enough that I thought it would coat, and not just dribble off the meatballs. You can keep it on a back burner, stirring it frequently, while browning the meatballs in the next step. Once it has reduced to your satisfaction, strain through a sieve (I actually chose to not strain the sauce, but go ahead and follow the recipe.)


Make meatballs:  Mix ground pork and beef (or turkey), scallions, cilantro, egg, sesame oil, soy sauce and several grindings of black pepper in a bowl. You can mix the meatballs with a fork; it seems to work the ingredients into each other well, but growing up making swedish meatballs, I always use my freshly washed hands to mix my meatballs.


Roll tablespoon-sized knobs of the mixture into balls. I used a tiny ice cream scoop that I have, and first scooped all the meatballs and then I rolled them with slightly wet hands. The mixture is pretty soft, so you can try rolling them, or gently toss the meatballs from palm to palm until they’re roundish 


In a skillet over medium-high heat, generously cover bottom of pan with vegetable oil. Working in batches to avoid crowding, place meatballs in pan and cook, turning, until browned all over and cooked inside, about 8 minutes per batch. I drained mine on a paper towel slightly before putting on a serving plate.


Arrange on a platter (a heated one will keep them warm longer), spoon a little sauce over each meatball, and serve with toothpicks. Alternatively, you can serve the glaze on the side, to dip the meatballs.


Do ahead: The sauce can be made up to 2 days in advance and refrigerated until needed. If needed, you can rewarm or keep the meatballs warm in a 200-degree oven until ready to serve.

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An Iowa Barn

An Iowa barn. I loved the yellow color.