I took this photo this evening in Colonial Williamsburg. We didn't arrive until about 5:00, which was just in time to check in to our hotel and run to our early dinner reservations. We walked around after dinner. It was a stunningly beautiful day here and the flowers and trees are all blooming. This robin was sitting on a branch in front of a house for so long I thought he was fake. He seemed to be enjoying watching all of the tourists pass by.
Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia
I will bring laptop and files down with every intention of posting at least something every day, so keep checking back.
Flamingos are such unusual birds. At the San Antonio Zoo in March they had 3 different varieties of flamingos, but this group was the most photogenic. Look at their knobby little knees — they are practically magenta in color!
My stepmom told me a few weeks ago that she’d made chicken scarapiello because my sister was coming down for dinner. I hadn’t heard of this dish before, but when she explained what it was I hit the internet and found a few recipes for it. One just called for chicken in it, but Donna said that the one she’d made had sausage in it too. The recipe from the New York Times that I found seemed to be more like the one she had described, but the Rachel Ray recipe that I found had a delicious-sounding lemon orzo that you served it on. I combined the two recipes and fiddled with them a bit and came up with the following. Do take the extra steps and make the lemon orzo — the combination of the slightly spicy chicken with the lemon infused orzo was really taste.
Original recipe from the New York Times, which was adapted from ”Rao’s Cookbook”. Adapted again by Crafty Farm Girl, 2011.
The original NYT recipe created 6 servings. I fiddled around with quantities since I knew I wanted to create dinner for 2 nights. I would say that this recipe would serve 10, but you can adjust quantities down to serve less if you would like. The original recipe also called for 1-1/2 cups of vegetable oil. Short of deep frying the chicken, I couldn’t possibly imagine why it called for so much oil. I used about 5-6 tablespoons to brown everything and found that to be plenty. If you find things dry or sticking to the pan excessively, then add a little more oil. The original recipe also called for potatoes, but since I knew I wanted to use the lemon orzo, I eliminated this.
YIELD 10 servings
NOTE: This is even better if prepared a day ahead. Prepare until the chicken has cooked through, then let cool and refrigerate. Reheat, covered, until heated through. Uncover and continue simmering until sauce is reduced slightly.
Ingredients
Please note that the hot cherry peppers are not in this photo. It took me 3 grocery stores to find them, so I added them the next day after I found them and before I re-heated the dish to serve.The onions also aren't in the photo. I forgot them.
Preparation
Heat the oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. In batches, brown the chicken, about 5 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken and drain on paper towels.
Add the sausage and sauté until brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain. In the same pan, sauté the bell peppers, jalapeños, onion and garlic until soft and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. As I typed this up I realized that I forgot to add the onions! I had them sitting on the counter, but must have missed that step in the directions and omitted them. I would certainy add them the next time, although it was delicious without it too. Remove and drain. Drain any oil from the pan.
Pour chicken broth, wine, vinegar, oregano, salt & pepper into saute pan and heat on medium, whisking to stir up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Place the sausage, chicken and vegetables into a large dutch oven (or a crock pot if you prefer). I don’t often use a crock pot, but several of the recipes I looked at called for using one, so I decided to try it. I quickly abandoned it as it wasn’t cooking things quickly enough for me. I then switched everything to a large dutch oven and used the oven. After cooking I cooled it down, put it in the fridge overnight and ate it the next day for dinner. Letting is sit overnight certainly does improve the flavor. Pour the heated liquids over the chicken, sausage & vegetables. Add the hot cherry peppers. Cover and simmer on low until chicken is cooked through, about 15-20 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking until the sauce has reduced slightly, about 10 minutes. Alternatively you can place in a 275 degree oven and cook for an hour. Serve hot over the lemon orzo.
Cook orzo in salted water about 12 minutes, to al dente. Drain orzo well. Do not run under cold water. You want the cooked pasta to remain hot. Transfer pasta to a serving bowl. Drizzle orzo with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add lemon zest and parsley and toss to combine the flavors with the pasta.
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Yesterday it was such a beautiful day that I decided it was time to move the chicks from the basement into my brooder coop. Evan had cleaned it out for me over the weekend, so it was all ready to go.
My Brooder Coop
They were pretty nervous when I first put them in there.
The chicks all moved into the brooder coop
And tonight it’s a little chilly outside so we put in an extra heat lamp to keep them extra warm.
The next big step will be for them to venture down the ramp to the outside (fenced in) world. I’ll hate to wait for a nice warm day for that though.
The eggs in the incubator are due to hatch on or about this coming Thursday. I’ve had good and bad luck with hatching eggs myself in my incubator and I stink at “candling” eggs (a process where you hold a light up to the egg to see if anything is developing in them), so I’ll just have to wait for the date to roll around and see if anything pops out.
The eggs are due to hatch on or about next Thursday
This morning Cloudy stepped off of her chicks for a little while. She didn't really leave them, she was just standing off to the side. Maybe since it was a pretty nice day she wanted them to get a little fresh air. I ran and got my camera, wrenched Maia's painted-shut window open and got this photo. There are three of them and they are so cute!
This is what dinnertime looks like around my house.
Around 5:00 I hear the goats bleeting outside the back door. In goat speak they are screaming and yelling at me about how they are about to starve to death.
If I don’t respond quickly enough to their urgent pleas Melina will gather up some of the chickens to join in the pleading and then she will hop up on her front feet, standing at the back door and start screaming a little more loudly through the window, certain that I couldn’t possibly be ignoring their urgent needs.
When I can’t take the noise anymore I’ll get their food together; Goat feed and ground fresh vegetables for the goats, and scratch grains and lots of ground fresh vegetables for the chickens. They are so spoiled.
Luckily my mom was around tonight to get a picture of me walking to feed them. I’m like the pied piper – goats and chickens running as fast as they can from every part of the yard when they see me with the food bowls. Of course most of them have gathered close to the back door at this point.
Once I’ve scattered the food around I’ll gather the afternoons eggs and lock them in their enclosed area for the night. Then once it gets dark I’ll just go into the coop and lock up their door to keep them predator-safe for the night.
It’s not the life for everyone, but it sure is the right one for me.
This is Cloudy. She's a morning dove that has nested outside our window. We can see her from the window on the back stairs and you get an even better view of her from Maia's window. Last year we had a morning dove in the exact same spot that Maia named Sky. She is convinced that this is Sky's baby come back to hatch her own eggs. I think it is still Sky, but I call her Cloudy. Isn't she beautiful? She has sat on her eggs through rain and wind and flurries and her eggs finally hatched the other day! Now we can see her feeding her babies.
I love this time of year. Watching all of the birds gathering nesting material and checking progress on the nests around the yard. Inevitably I get a phone call or two from friends and neighbors with injured or abandoned baby animals every spring and I've stocked up on sall of my supplies in anticipation.
Pioneer Woman's Pig Cake
Today while I was briefly waiting for some photos to download I clicked onto Pioneer Woman and saw this recipe for Pig Cake. It looked delish and seemed very similar to a cake I’d had at my parents house at a party in the last year or two. As PW says, it’s a great pot-luck or general party cake. Since the smell of vinegar seemed to be permanently stuck in my nostrils from 2 days of pickle-making, I decided at 8:00 tonight that I needed to make this pig cake. I needed to get my house smelling like something other than kosher dill pickle brine again. I needed to eat a piece of pig cake. So I did.
Now I’m not going to show you step-by-step photos of me making this cake because I didn’t take any. I spent my whole day working on paper mache trophy heads and pickles. If you want to see some beautiful step-by-step photos of how to make this cake just click on the link above and see Ree’s beautiful directions.
I can, however, show you what the cake looked like after I took a big ‘ol piece for myself. I assume that is why they call it Pig Cake?
Pig Cake after I helped myself
Prep Time: 10 Minutes • Cook Time: 30 Minutes • Difficulty: Easy • Servings: 16
INGREDIENTS
For the Cake:
1 box (18.25 Oz. Box) Yellow Cake Mix
1 stick Margarine (softened)
1 can (14 Oz. Can) Mandarin Oranges, Drained, 1/2 Cup Juice Reserved
4 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
For the Topping:
1 package (4 Oz. Box) Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix
1 can (20 Oz. Can) Crushed Pineapple, Juice Reserved
½ cups Powdered Sugar
4 ounces, fluid Frozen Whipped Topping (such As Cool Whip)
Extra Mandarin Orange Slices, For Garnish
Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For the cake, combine cake mix, margarine, 1/2 cup juice from the mandarin oranges, eggs, and vanilla. Beat for four minutes on medium-high. Add drained oranges and beat again until pieces are broken up and small. Pour batter into greased and floured 9 x 13 inch baking pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown and set. Remove from oven and cool completely. If desired, turn out cake onto a large platter.
Once cake is cool, blend juice from drained pineapples with the vanilla pudding mix. Add powdered sugar and mix, then mix in whipped topping. Stir in drained pineapple. Spread on cooled cake and refrigerate several hours.
To serve, cut cake into squares and top each square with a mandarin orange slice.
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Today I finished my first batch of pickles for the year. It always feels good to start canning again after a long winter. I've loved sitting here tonight working on my computer and listening to the lids pop down as they cool.