My Baby Chicks

Here's my little flock of chicks. They are less than a week old and everyday it seems as though they have gotten bigger overnight. So far it has been a breeze to care for them. We keep them in a large rubbermaid tub in the laundry room and change their water and add more food a couple times a day. Today I dumped the shaving in the compost and gave them fresh stuff, that's why they are playing in the grass in these pictures.  They are great little pets and come to my hand when I put it down among them. Lyla loves to visit them too and we practice being "gentle!" when she helps hold them. We are looking forward to watching them grow! 

Check out the feathers that are already growing in on their wings!

CHICKENS!!!

I'm so excited that I just have to shout it from the rooftops that "TOMORROW IS BABY CHICK DAY!!!" I've done a lot of research and decided that Buff Orpington Chickens would be a great breed for our needs...super mellow, good egg layers, don't mind small spaces, don't fly...perfect. So, tomorrow the baby chicks arrive just-hatched at the co-op and I'll run over first thing to pick up a few of them. The Great Backyard Chicken Project is about to begin!
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This is what they will look like when they are grown...I'll post pics of my own little chicks after I have them moved into their box in the laundry room tomorrow.

Compost Maintenance

If you aren't composting, you should seriously consider starting. All your kitchen scraps break down into great soil for your garden, and then you're not filling up the landfills with unnecessary material. It's as easy as setting up a holding space with cheap chicken wire. Several people have complained that they don't want a smelly compost bin in their yard, but our bin doesn't smell a bit! It's not surrounded by flies or crawling with critters either. The trick is to make sure to add plenty of dry yard clippings...the rule of thumb is 1 part kitchen stuff to 4 parts dried leaves, grass clippings, or other yard waste.

My "soil circle" has been doing a great job composting our kitchen scraps and yard clippings. Last fall we collected several bags of dried leaves that have provided a lot of the necessary dry material. I decided it was time to expand the soil circle and turn all the material (turning the material every once in a while will help it break down faster, it's not necessary though) Check out how dirt-like the material at the bottom of the heap is!

Here's Nick expanding the tube for me. It is now a couple more feet across.

True confessions: I'm not always good about running the kitchen scraps out to the bin...you would be shocked how quickly this stuff accumulates. I had no idea how much food scrap we produced until we started to compost it...what a waste to just throw it away...go get your compost bin today!

Pillow-Soft Dinner Rolls

These are the softest, melt-in-your mouth, die-happy-and-fat rolls I've had in a long long time.


I'm always so impressed what yeast can do.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup warm milk

1 egg

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tsp salt

3 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 pkg active dry yeast

butter for top after baking

Directions:

Combine water and yeast and a sprinkle of the sugar, let set.

Add everything else...except only one cup of flour. Keep adding flour until dough pulls away from the bowl.

Knead until satiny and smooth.

Let rise until double.

Divide into rolls, place in greased dish.

Let rise until double again.

Divide into 12 small balls and arrange in a glass 9 x 13 casserole dish as pictured above.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes (my oven = 12 minutes).

You know they are done when they sound hollow if you tap them.

Spread tops with butter to keep them soft and moist. Let rolls sit in the pan to cool a bit...until they aren't so fragile, then you can flip the whole pan out onto the counter. I think the taste and texture are much better when they have cooled all the way.

See this link for the original recipe.

The recipe directs you to roll out the dough into a big flat circle, cut it into slices like a pizza and then roll those triangles into crescent rolls. As you can see, I just cut the dough blob into 12 pieces and arranged them in a glass dish...much faster and just as delicious. (Nick says they get "complete husband approval"...he just ate 3.)

Starting Garden Seeds

I recently received my order of home-grown, home-harvested seeds from a friend of a friend. I think his seed packaging is especially aesthetic...very appealing to me.


So, this year I plan to harvest my own seeds from my garden, so I am making sure all my seeds are "open-pollinated", which means that they were not pollinated under artificially controlled conditions, aka "hybrids". Hybrids are deliberately bred for specific traits, and their future generations will not necessarily carry on those traits...so your have unreliable and unpredictable results your following season. You can assume that if your seed packages are hybrids unless they specifically say "open-pollinated" or "heirloom".

Although I am planning a full garden of lettuce, spinach, onion, garlic, carrots, potatoes, beans, peas and squash, I am going to put a lot of work into my tomatoes. I'm planning on about a dozen varieties and want to do a lot of experimenting with canning sauces and harvesting seeds. I'm also looking forward to learning everything I can about how they grow, and plan to have a porchful of container pots and hanging baskets all along our south-facing wall.

Planting my first seeds!

I'll keep you in the loop as my "Great Tomato Project" continues...

Rag Doll Project - Part II, Mary Janes

My rag doll project is coming together little by little. As I mentioned before, I want to develop my own patterns for everything...doll, clothes, shoes, and other accessories. Here's a quick tutorial for my Mary Jane shoe pattern:

Begin by cutting shoe pieces from felt.


Align the back of the sole with the center of the main shoe piece.


Start stitching pieces together...I just use a whipstitch.


Once I've stitched around to the front of the shoe, I start from the back again on the other side. I found that sewing the pieces from back to front in two steps kept the pieces aligned the best.

Stitch up the front seam.

I do not turn the shoe in-side-out to hide the stitching at this point. I like the ridge along the sole that is visible when the stitches are on the outside.

Position the strap while it is on the doll foot to get the right angle and sew.

Voila!

Grinding Wheat Flour

My mom has a wheat grinder so in the spirit of trying to eat more healthy food (mentioned in my organic produce post) I thought I'd grind some wheat into flour and bake homemade whole wheat bread.

The grinder is amazing. So fast and such fine flour!

I thought the bread turned out pretty well, although it took about 5 hours to rise and the dough was WAY to tough for my Kitchen Aid. I felt like I was trying to knead a ball of rubber. It tasted just fine in the end though. See the recipe I used here.

Organic Produce Delivery

Nick and I have been studying a lot about how to live a self-sufficient life. We are dreaming of hobby farms and homesteading...looking forward to the day when we might have a few acres. As we roll into Spring you will start to see posts about our chicken project, my beekeeping class, the vegetable garden, and more.

Recently we watched Food.Inc, a documentary about the food industry. Of course we were appalled and disgusted. Before when I would try to avoid meat or high fructose corn syrup it was more for my own personal health, but now I see how purchasing those products is supporting a horribly corrupt system and I just can't be a part of it.

So, my first step was to start ordering produce from a local farm. They deliver organic produce all year round, so of course they don't grow it all themselves, but we love that we are supporting local business and buying organic.

Check out the Klesick Family Farm here. They have wonderful customer service. I feel like I am part of their family already.

Our first box of produce arrives! It feels like Christmas!

Rag Doll and Dress

I've spent a lot of time lately working on a rag doll pattern. I wanted to figure it out myself without relying on someone elses pattern...so after several attempts (head too flat on top, shoulders to boxy, arms stick out funny, feet too bubbly, etc) I've finally got a pattern I like pretty well.


This morning I started working on clothing patterns. I crafted this pattern after a baby pattern I have for Lyla.

The back of her dress still needs a button and loop at the top.

I plan to work up patterns for shoes, more dresses, and some fun extras like a backpack, apron, and tutu. I'll make all my patterns available when the whole project is finished.

Brazilian Rice and Beans

I lived in Brazil for 18 months while serving a mission for my church. The local members of the church invited the missionaries to dinner every day so I got really familiar with the local cuisine...rice and beans. They ate this EVERY DAY...you would think that one might get bored of such a simple daily meal, but I got so used to it, that on the rare occasion that we did not have a dinner appointment my body would go into withdrawal and I would crave it...after just one day!

So here is how to make authentic Brazilian rice and beans...although each region prepares their beans differently, this is what I learned:

You will need:
Pinto Beans
White Rice
Garlic
Onion (I prefer sweet onion)
Salt
Oil (they use corn oil in Brazil)

The following measurements makes 3-4 servings:

Pour boiling water over 3/4 cup pinto beans and soak for one hour.


The beans will plump up to about 2 cups of beans. Transfer beans to pressure cooker and add water...3 cups water to each cup of beans, so in this case 6 cups of water.

Cook beans in pressure cooker. When steam starts to pour out in a steady stream, set the timer for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, prep your rice by rinsing it until the water runs clear, then leave it to dry thoroughly...you want your rice to be pretty dry so that the grains don't stick together. 2 cups of rice is just about right.

You should also chop your onions and prep the garlic...I use about one cup onions and 3 cloves garlic.

Once the beans have cooked you are ready to cook the rice and season the beans.

I do both these things at the same time. Pour a little oil into 2 pans.

Saute half the onions in each pan...then add the garlic to whichever pan you'll be using for the beans.

Pour your cooked beans with all their liquid in with the onions and garlic and leave to simmer. This will thicken the sauce a bit. Salt beans to taste (it might take more than you expect...they taste really bland, then all of a sudden when you've added enough salt the flavor really pops).

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Then add your drained rice to the other pot and stir it around in the oil and onions for a minute or two.

After the rice has a quick saute, add boiling water to about 1/4 inch above the rice level. I heat this water in a kettle while I'm cooking the onions. I also salt to taste at this point.

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Cover the rice, reduce heat to low, and let cook until all moisture is absorbed...10-15 minutes.
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In the region where I lived, the people usually threw some salad on top...just thinly sliced lettuce and tomato with a fresh squeezed lime for dressing so while the rice cooks and the beans simmer I prep the salad.

Finished! This meal brings back such memories!!!

Piggybank Dragons...work in progress

So, I decided I'd like to have a booth at the local Christmas bazaar this December. I have nearly a year to prepare stuff to sell. I thought I'd start by making a collection of my clay piggybank dragons. Here's what I have done so far...


They all have wide open mouths waiting for coins to eat.


Here are the 8 banks I've made so far...they still have to be fired, then glazed, then fired again. When that is all done they will look shiny and smooth. I've had fun thinking up ways to make each one unique.

I bought the block of clay at a local art supply store for $17...this will be enough to make about two more banks. Each one has taken 2-3 hours so far. I'll post again when they're finished!

To visit previous clay dragon posts click here and here.