Chickens!

Guess what we got over the weekend?? That's right! Chickens!! We are one super excited family over here. We had an incredible opportunity that we just couldn't pass up. We originally weren't planning on getting chickens until we moved to our new house, but Craig's uncle and aunt were moving and couldn't take their chickens with them, so they let us have them. The best part is that they included a deluxe model coop with the chickens, so all we had to do was pick it all up and take it home. We've already got 5 eggs and we've only had them for a day. Although, one of the chickens is having a hard time getting the egg in the nest, as you can see. I've started feeding them flax seed so the eggs will be full of omega 3 fatty acids. 

I think my kids are more excited than anyone. Our first morning with the chickens, they woke up early and checked for eggs. When they found one in there, they ran into our room and woke us up to tell us. They didn't even do that on Christmas or Easter! Since that morning happened to be Mother's Day, I called dibs on that egg and Craig cooked it up for me to eat for breakfast. It was delicious! I can't wait for more chicken adventures!

Pizza

Who does not love pizza? My kids love it when I make pizza. It's one of the few meals they do not complain about. I try to make everything from scratch, including the dough and sauce. I haven't gotten around to making the cheese myself yet. The ultimate goal is to make an entire pizza from my garden. For now, I will be satisfied with fresh ingredients. I've been experimenting with ways to make the sauce. I didn't like that the majority of my homemade sauce came from cans in the form of tomato sauce and tomato paste. Then it dawned on me. Why don't I just use sliced tomatoes and fresh herbs for the sauce. Easier than mixing a bunch of stuff to spread, so the other night I tried it and was very happy with the result. Here's how I made this awesome pizza:

Dough:

4-5 c flour (I try to make at least half of that white wheat flour)
3 1/2 t yeast
1 1/2 c warm water
3 T olive oil

In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 c flour, yeast, and 1/2 t salt. Add warm water and oil. Beat with mixer for a couple minutes. Stir in as much remaining flour as you can, and then knead the rest in until you have a somewhat stiff dough that is smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 2 balls. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. This will make 2 large pizzas.

While the dough is resting take 2 pizza pans, spray with cooking spray and then dust with cornmeal. I love having that little bit of cornmeal on my crust. Spread the dough out on the pan and cover with thinly sliced tomatoes. I added some fresh oregano and basil from my herb garden and sprinkled it over the tomatoes.  I tried to slice the mozzarella, but since our cheese slicer was broken, I wasn't too successful. For some reason it seems more authentic to have sliced mozzarella on top. Then I topped the pizza with our usual toppings: green bell peppers, mushrooms, red onion, and italian sausage. Then I sprinkled some freshly grated parmesan on top and some chopped parsley, also from my garden. I bake 2 pizzas at the same time, so I baked them for 10 minutes at 375 and then switched racks so they would cook evenly. I baked them for another 10 minutes. When you pull them out they are done to perfection!

I usually make 2 pizzas so there are some leftovers, but this time we only had 4 slices left, as opposed to an entire pizza, so I guess we'll be doing the tomatoes again.

Eggs in a nest

 I found another delicious way to use swiss chard, or any other weird leafy green! I originally found this recipe in the book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, but I've adapted it a bit.  It's pretty simple to make and packs a ton of nutrition. Last night I wanted to use some of the greens I bought from the farm before they started to wilt, so I made this. My kids really liked the way it looked, because it literally looks like eggs in a nest when it's done cooking.

Here's how you make it:

Chop 1 medium onion and as much garlic as you like. I used 4 cloves, minced. Saute them in 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil until the onions are tender and are starting to brown. Add chopped carrots and beets. I used 2 carrots and 4 small beets. Saute these for a few minutes. Coarsely chop one bunch of swiss chard, and to be adventurous, I chopped the beet greens too. Throw these in your pan and cover for a few minutes. The greens should wilt as they cook. When they are cooked to your liking, make 8 little holes, like a clock, in the greens. Crack an egg into each hole and cover. Let the eggs poach in the nest for a few minutes. I like to cook the eggs until they're not quite done, so the egg yolk is still a little runny. That way, when you mix it all together, it has that rich, velvety yolk spread around. If that's not your cup of tea, you can cook them all the way through. Serve on a bed of cooked brown rice. I made 3 cups of cooked rice to feed my family and it seemed to be just the right amount.

Like I said, I like to mix mine together with my rice, so it looks more like the first picture. It's filling and good for you. Enjoy!

The first tomato!

Finally!! I went outside to water my plants and found this little guy growing on one of my tomato plants. I was so excited. I had seen several blossoms, but no tomatoes up to this point. I have to say I was a little worried. Last year I had a huge tomato plant that blossomed like crazy and never produced a single tomato. I was hoping this year would not be a repeat of that, and now, I can be assured that it won't.

Stir Fry

The beauty of stir fry is that anything goes. When I was at the strawberry stand a few weeks ago, the guy manning the stand told me that their snap peas are so good with the onions that they grow and sell. He said it was the perfect combination, so of course, I tried them together. I put 1 chicken breast, 2 carrots, 1 red onion, 1 bag of snap peas, ends and strings removed, 4 cloves of minced garlic, and 1 bunch of coarsely chopped kale. I threw them all in my skillet and sauteed them in some olive oil. It was pretty delicious, especially when I added some sweet and sour sauce that someone gave us. I was actually happy to be eating this many veggies. (I'm kind of salad'd out) It did make me feel better about all the cookies and cake I've had this week! Yay for stir fry!

A new take on red velvet

As you know, yesterday was my birthday and I made my own cake. Can you guess which cake I had last year? If you guessed the one on the left, you are correct. I can't blame my husband and kids. They get an A for effort for trying to make me a nice cake. I guess they weren't aware that the cake has to cool before you frost it. And also, 1 and 3 year-olds are not good at frosting cakes, or putting candles on, for that matter. (Notice the one upside down candle.) So this year, I was happy to make my own cake, especially because it meant I could experiment with ingredients. I made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and strawberry jam filling. I had read on the internet, and you know the internet does not lie, that red amaranth used to be used as a dye to color things red. I had some extra amaranth sitting in my fridge and thought it would be a great experiment to see if it really worked. I made the cake as usual, with the exception of adding 1 cup of white wheat flour and blending the amaranth with the milk and vanilla in a blender. It ended up being about a cup of leaves and I don't think it was quite enough. As you can see, the cake was more of a brown velvet cake.

It tasted like a normal red velvet cake, so we weren't disappointed flavor wise. And now I know what it looks like with out dye! I would like to try it again sometime, using more leaves, or maybe including more of the stems to see if I can get the red color without artificial dyes. Have you heard of any way to do this?

Peachy Presents

 Today is my birthday. For several weeks I've been watching this peach on our tree, wanting to pick it so bad. Look how it's weighing that branch down. It NEEDS to be picked. These peaches are supposed to ripen late April, but I thought it might need a little more time. For my birthday, I decided to pick it.

This is the biggest peach we've ever gotten off our little tree, even though it is small by most standards. So I cut it open and ate it with my kids. I think it could have used a little more time on the tree or some time on the counter to ripen some more, but I was still excited to be eating something I grew. Hopefully, summer will bring me some more little presents to eat. :)