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Chance's 1st batch of Chicken sausages.

        

 I came home yesterday from a very busy day at work to the yummy smell of sausages cooking.Chance had spent his day at home cooking ,baking and making up a whole storm of food. Chance made us this lovely pile of chicken,sun dried tomato and basil sausages,it was his first try at sausages and all I can say is,he had better make some more because they were a huge hit.

Besides making the sausages he made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies for lunch boxes and a pot of squash soup.The cookies of course were half gone by this morning when I packed the lunches and the soup was slurped up at dinner.

  Although our summer garden did not produce as much as last years our fall/winter garden is looking hopeful.All 10 of our Broccoli plants now have blooms on them,the Kale and Pac Choi are both coming along as well.The fall beets are slowly growing but I think we have lost the carrots.The Swiss Chard from the spring planting is still putting out and will last at least until a hard frost comes.
  The hens are slowing down on their laying, way to early if you ask me. The slowing of the egg laying is making me think it is time to thin out our flock a bit.We have 3 older birds who I know are no longer laying which means they have become extra mouths to feed with no benefit to feeding them.There are 2 other hens who I am not sure about as well and since they are only 1 1/2 years old I may wait a bit to decide what we will do with them.
  The 100 pounds of Apples we ordered will be here in the next couple of weeks.After looking back through my homestead journal* I think this year I will can more apple sauce and less apple butter only because the boys inhale the sauce so fast and I'd like to have it around longer this winter/spring.
   * Do any of you keep a journal of gardening and canning? I started ours last year to help me keep track of what I planted,where I purchased or how much I purchased and how much it yielded. I also have a section for the chickens,their "birth-dates" ,breed,temperament and their laying habits. And I have a list in my journal of the u-pick places I went to with, what and when I bought from them and the price per pound.Some households have their coupon files I have my homestead journal.(speaking of coupons,have you ever noticed how useless most of them are when you cook from scratch?)
  I feel as if I have not had any great things to share here in a long time.With the growing year so slim and me returning to work it's all so different this year.We have settled into my work routine but are still figuring out how to fit in the homesteading projects.Months ago one of the readers here asked me how I do it all.My answer was I am home full time.I am now seeing why she was asking her question.How I will mange it all is yet to be seen.I am lucky that Chance and the boys are great help with work around home.But it has always taken the whole family to keep a homestead running smoothly so I suppose we are just returning to the roots of homesteading in yet another way.
  Long ago my Grandfather said to me "When you see something beautiful or something that makes you stop and smile,that is God reminding you He see's you and is watching over you.Never feel alone in the world." I have been thinking of that lately, often and with pleasure.The weather here has been story book perfect,cool and crisp in the mornings followed by crispy sunshine by afternoon.The leaves are starting to turn a rainbow of colors and I can smell the wood smoke drifting in the neighborhood.Apple weather. I am not a church kind of person but have a deeply seated belief in a higher power that has many names.These days I find myself feeling greatly loved and blessed by the world around me,even if the garden was slim and there are no eggs.

Rois

YouTube - The Ten Commandments of the Native American Indians

Today I honor my Great- Great Grandparents who walked the Trail of Tears. I am fortunate to be able to say that ancestors on both sides of my family made this horrible journey and lived to carry on.
Rois






YouTube - The Ten Commandments of the Native American Indians: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Mushrooms and A Chantrell-moblie in the kitchen

 Today was a beautiful sunny fall day and Chance and I spent it in the woods mushroom hunting.It is not often we go on this kind of trip just the two of us and Sol left for school this morning with a very disappointed face.
   We spent around 3 hours poking through the woods and we saw lots of interesting mushrooms along our way. I am hoping Farmer Deville will stop here and name some of them from the photos.

I think someone once told me this is a Cauliflower Mushroom.

This is the same mushroom as above just poking out of the soil.

I have never seen this one before.It was amazing.

Check out that funky green that did not show up until I shot the photo.

 What we were hunting for today were Chantrells,our favorite wild mushroom to eat.Last year we found a bumper crop all in one area.Today's journey took us three stops in different areas.We did not bring home as many as we had hoped for but a day spent in the woods is never a waste no matter what.
 . Driving up the road to our final stop we came head to head with a logging truck,ack! Chance had stopped our truck to look at something along the side of the road when I looked up and out the front window I shouted "Logging Truck!" Chance had to back the truck down the road about 3/4's of a block before there was a spot we could pull over.Back road/ logging road tip: Logging trucks stop for nothing,it is up to you to look out for them and you have to figure out how to get out of their way.Loggers are paid by the load,time is money they have no time to stop.
   Last year when we brought our Chantrells home we put them in the freezer.This worked fine but the mushrooms were much more soggy than we really wanted them. This year we are drying the Chantrells.Two of our preserving books say that this is the preferred method of preserving Chantrells.Chance strung the mushrooms on some heavy string.He then took this funky laundry drying rack we have and hung it from the kitchen ceiling.The drying rack has clips that Chance attached the strings of mushrooms to.Both preserving books say to hang the mushrooms above the Aga/ stove where it warm and dry but we don't have the right kind of space there.The books also say that the drying should only take 3-4 days,the books say the mushrooms will look wizened. 

Some of the Chantrells before they were strung up.

Our Chantrell mobile,right in the middle of the kitchen.

It was hard to pull ourselves away from the woods today.The weather was perfect ,warm fall sunshine that will leave us soon,the wind whispering in the trees,the knocking of a woodpecker near by and just each other for company.

Rois

Priceless!

Having a man who can fix just about anything- Priceless!

Having a washing machine running again- also Priceless !

Finding enough lose change in the washers filter to buy a large Latte- Puzzling!


I really am endlessly grateful for Chance's abilities to fix just about anything. There really was enough change in the washers filter to buy a Latte,a grande one at that.The whole filter was full of slime coated coins,ew.No wonder the thing would not run today.


I am off to do the laundry,
 Rois

P.S I later counted the change from the washers filter and it came to $7.23,enough for 2 Grande Lattes.

Overcoming Pie Crust fear and my twist on Mincemeat.

      I started this posting last week and never got around to finishing it until now,better late than never I hope.

    Once upon a time I blogged that I have a fear of making pie crust because I come from a looooong line of amazing bakers,who made these light flaky crusts you can only get with lard.In the past I have left the making of pie crust up to Chance who dose not share this family history with me,who will willingly use butter and just get the job done.
  Even farther back in blog history I wrote about the boys buying me Grand Central Bakery's baking book,smart move boys. I have finally overcome my fear of pie crusts thanks to that book.One day I needed pie crust and Chance was not around so I bit the bullet and made one.Easy as pie,yup now I get the meaning of that phrase.
   The pie crust is made with butter not lard so you don't get the flakes but it is a good crust.The trick is to keep everything cold and you are good to go.The book even suggest to put the flour you will be using in the fridge.Now I figure if I can get over my fear maybe someone else will too having now heard of my brave deed.
  When I was home on Tuesday I went to the store for a few things and right in the middle of the produce section I had a brain storm,"why just make apple pie,I could try and make a meatless mincemeat filling" I knew I had at least most of what I would need.Minus the meat some people put in their mincemeat and minus the suet or lard.(there's that lard thing again,makes me feel fat just thinking of it.)
  Once home I slipped into my favorite apron,I was once again wearing black on a baking day,and pulled out the cook books that would most likely have mincemeat filling recipes.I mumbled over four different recipes and finally came up with my own twist based on what I had at home,how much time I wanted to spend and what I thought made sense.Here's what I did.There is no recipe to it just what I did,lots of handfuls and pinches but hopefully you will get the idea.

 Hrafinstaad's Mincemeat:
 6 medium sized tart apples
  A handful each of dried apricots,apples and some raisins (your choice of color)
 About 1 cup of Orange juice.
 Some cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamon.How much depends on how spicy you want your pie.I most likely used 2 teaspoons of the cinnamon and cardamon and 1/4 of a teaspoon of the nutmeg.
  I cored the apples but did not peel them.Next I cut the apples in to walnut sized chunks.Chopped the apricots into slivers.I then put all of the first list of things into an oven proof pot and baked it at 350 for about 30 minutes.I wanted the apple chunks to be still a bit firm.I gave the pot a stir a couple of times while it was baking.
  Once I had the pot out of the oven I added in about 1/3 of a cup of marmalade. I added marmalade because all of the mincemeat recipes I have called for candied orange peel and I did not have any but wanted the orange flavor. Then I added in 1/2 a cup of apple butter.I added the apple butter to bulk up the filling and to add more spiced apple flavor.I stirred it all together and chopped at the apple chunks with the spoon.I left most of the apple chunks whole.Fill a pie shell and I baked the pie until the top was golden brown,maybe 30-45 minutes.
   The pie was good.Nice chunks of still firm apple, I had worried by pre-cooking and then baking the apples would turn soft but they did not.I loved the spicy orange undertones as well.One thing you might have noticed is I did not add any extra sugar to the filling,the marmalade and apple butter took care of that for me.By not adding any extra sugar the pie was slightly tart but the orange and spices made it rich which balanced out in the end.The raisins were nice little pops of sweetness too.I am going to keep this recipe in my files,it may be a tasty new addition to the holiday season.Next time I would also like to add some walnuts just to see how that would be.
   On page two of the Hrafinstaad News you will find that,Chance has decided to make one of our wine barrels into a smoker for meat.In one of our books there is a how to so he is going to give it a try.Once he has built it I will be sure to post more and the exact reason why use a wine barrel for a smoker.I am sure it has to do with flavor.
  Page three is all about how one of our young poulets is a rooster. I have been watching this fellow for awhile now.What stated me watching was as his feathers grew in I noticed his feathers on his back, right by his tail were laying like a saddle a sure sign you have a rooster.Then I noticed he has longer tail feathers as well and Chance spied spurs growing.I am sure there will be an ad in the Hrafinstaad News Classified section soon looking for a new home for our Roo.
  The final section of news,the Parenting section.Today's advice,always remember what it was like to be your child's current age when issues come up.A wise man once said that to us and it has been the best nugget of information when it comes to raising kids.Even when you are talking about being 16.

Ever notice?

    Have you ever noticed that little box on the right hand side of my blog, the Lijit one.One of the options is to look through the recent readers,I have a habit of when I check in here I check the recent readers list.It can be interesting to see who has stopped by and where they live.It even shows if the person was searching for something.Mostly I see chicken butchering,killing cones-how to make and the other big one is the search for the differences in types of chickens used for cooking.
  Just now I checked that little gizmo and whoa horse what did I read? Paris, France searching for "butchered girls". Oh lord that is grim sounding and kind of freaked me out.Lets all just hope that some how something did not translate the way it should have.

 Today I have been tinkering with my own version of mincemeat for pie.We will be having said pie for dessert and I'll fill everyone in once the votes are in.

 Rois

No steam for a battle

 Today Chance and I made what we thought would be just a couple of phone calls. Easy right? Just punch in the numbers,wait for someone to pick up and quickly get the business at hand done.But no that was not how the cards were stacked and laid out for us today.
  All we wanted was to find out the final sum owed on Issac's hospital bill,we have been waiting 6 months for this answer and to make a doctors appointment.Did we find the answer to our questions? Not really.
  The hospital and the insurance company are still arguing over minuet points concerning why did a 16 year old boy have his gallbladder removed.Geez mister insurance man, I don't know, maybe because the dang thing was impacted with stones and causing great pain.
   I think the insurance company is irked that they keep having to pay out for Issac.The staff knows him by name after all. We can't possibly be the only family with a sick kid on the face of this planet.I know we are not. The last time we were at the hospital right down the hall from Issac they held a Going Home Party for some child.Those parties are extra special,it means the kid going home has been there longer than 60 days.My kids longest stay of 2 weeks is a drop in the bucket compared to 60+ days so pay up mister insurance man!
 Then there's the doctor's office.I know my kid is not the only kid in the world and is just another patient.I know that his Gastro doctors office is one of two pediatric offices in the city.But really I call you telling you my kid is having some issues and not well at all and you tell me 3 weeks until he can be seen? Our regular Pediatrician will bump someone who is just coming in for a well child check if there is a child with a greater need.The last time we had to wait so long Issac ended up in the ER waiting to go to surgery at midnight.
  I have no steam for this battle today. Chance was home this morning helping with the calls so I was not totally alone, a fact I am truly grateful for but none the less I am at a stand still.
 In the past I have kept my chin up and my feet moving forward.This time I just want to sit in a dark corner and do nothing.In my last posting I wrote about Issac giving me so much courage and it is true he does but today there are things I don't want him to worry about or maybe not even notice.I don't want him to think about the money to pay the bills because I don't want him to feel the guilt I do over my own bills.I don't want him to worry about getting to the doctors in time.I want him to believe he can make it through the next three weeks.
  Today there is no way to kiss it and make things better . I just need to find my inner calm so I can build up my steam again,put my chin up and take a step forward.The meaning of Issac's name is laughter, today I will focus on that along with all of the other good things in our lives.

  Rois