A few recipes and a King Snake

I've made a bunch of delicious things over the past few days so I figured I'd just do a recipe post, plus a few pics of a couple massive King Snake's that I've caught in the eggmobile lately.  This one had a cool orangey red belly.  The other was the biggest I've seen, it was as long as I was.  And I've decided that my camera hates my husband, it never takes decent pictures for him...

This one managed to bite me, the jerk!  Though it was my fault, I was trying to grab my camera with the same hand that was holding his head and he managed to latch down on my finger, man that hurt!  They have bunches of little tiny needle sharp teeth that curve backwards, so getting him detached wasn't easy.  I hauled them down the road a couple miles and dropped them off next to an old cow barn, I imagine they'll find plenty of mice in there.











And now to food, the best part!!!
My freezer is full of blueberries and we're fixing to butcher a couple pigs and a bull, so I needed to use them. And I was getting tired of the same ol' same ol' for breakfast so I decided to make something special.  It turned out absolutely delicious, I ate two bowlfuls and then helped the kids finish theirs off.  And then I started thinking about how I've been eating way too much fruit, as I chopped up 4 gallons of peaches to put in the freezer.  This time of year is awesome, but I've got ulcers on my tongue saying, "stop with the fruit already!!!"
Even though I had my camera sitting right beside the oven, I still forgot to take pictures... Oh well, take my word for it, it's as beautiful as it is delicious :)

Blueberry Crisp
4 cups ripe blueberries
1/2 t. cinnamon
1 cup blanched almond flour (store-bought or homemade)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup raw honey
Preheat oven to 350F.
Rinse blueberries well, then place them in the 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Mix almond flour with sea salt and baking soda in a large bowl, until well mixed. Stir in the unsweetened shredded coconut and walnuts. Melt the coconut oil, in a small pan over low heat, (heck with that, my house never gets below 76 this time of year, my coconut oil is always liquid) then add the honey to just barely melt the honey enough to mix it in. Stir the melted mixture into the almond flour mixture until well-blended, then crumble the almond flour mixture over the berries.
Bake for about 30 minutes until topping is golden brown.

Tomato Zucchini Casserole

This is ridiculously good, I ate so much I could hardly move afterwards.  This is a perfect meal to use up the abundance of tomatoes and zucchini everyone has this time of year.  Speaking of tomatoes, the garden up the hill from me is over run with tomatoes and he just posted on FB that he'll deliver for free.  So if your in need of a bunch of tomatoes to put up check them out, their organic (not in the government sense of the word, but in the real sense of the word) too, and only $1.00 a pound. Of course they have many other yummy veggies as well.  Check them out on FB http://www.facebook.com/upickitfarmgarden.winslowar

1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano or a bunch of fresh
1/2 teaspoon dried basil or a bunch of fresh
2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
salt and pepper to taste
2 medium zucchinis, thinly sliced
5 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly butter a 9x9-inch pan.
In a large bowl, combine Cheddar, Parmesan, oregano, basil, garlic, and onions. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.
Arrange half of the zucchini slices in the pan. Sprinkle 1/4 of the cheese and herb mixture on top. Arrange half of the tomatoes, and top with another 1/4 of the cheese mixture. Repeat layers.
Bake in a preheated oven for about 45 minutes.

I actually remembered to take pictures of this one, though I was a little late on the "finished" shot.

Pineapple Banana Pie

A super quick and easy yummy desert/snack/breakfast, I used to make this all the time when I was a kid, then I forgot about it until today when my brother emailed me and asked for the recipe.  I used to use a graham cracker crust, instead I made an almond flour crust, which turned out delicious and tasted almost the same.

1 can crushed pineapple (or fresh if your so lucky as to have one)

3 super ripe banana's

Slice banana's and dump into a sauce pan with the pineapple, simmer for a few minutes til it starts to thicken a bit.  Stick it in the freezer to chill, or fridge if your not in a hurry.

Mix 1.5 cups almond flour

3 tbs melted butter (or coconut oil)

a touch of stevia or a bit of honey

1 tsp cinnamon

Press into a pie pan and stick in the oven for about 10 minutes, then stick it in the freezer or fridge to chill.  Once everything's cool dump the filling into the crust and enjoy!  You can also throw some shredded coconut on top, though for some reason I prefer it without.

The Eggmobile, and Bocconcini with Pesto

Isn't it beautiful!  It's finally done, and in use, and I LOVE it!  The egg mobile turned out great, I threw up a bunch of roosts inside that need a bit of finish work, and was in such a hurry to get it into use I used sticks for the nest box entry, but for the most part it's awesome.  I've been moving it about every three days, I don't want so much poop to build up underneath that it kills the grass.  The chickens have been staying in the pen very nicely, we do have a hawk or two and an owl or two that like to perch in the trees and panic the chickens.  I managed to find some goslings locally that hopefully will grow up fast so I can put them out with the chickens as guardians.  I hate to loose my chickens to predators.

The first few days they laid their eggs everywhere, on the floor, in their food, out in the yard, and they broke and ate several.  This made me panic a bit, it would be awful if my chickens became egg eaters from the stress of moving, but they settled down after a couple days and are now laying 100% in the next boxes, and not eating any.  I put mats into the boxes instead of straw, and go down in the afternoon after they are done laying to gather eggs and pull down netting over the boxes so they can't roost in them.  So this has completely curtailed my egg washing chores, which is wonderful.  But I do have to walk all the way down to the bottom pasture several times a day, which is a pain, and the last time is after dark to lock them up.  Last night I forgot to lock them up, and I knew I had to move the house today.  I realized this at 2:30 this morning, so I had to get up and go down there, that wasn't much fun at all.  My plan is to train the kids to go down and shut them up, I need to work on that.  Right now I'm moving it every three days, it'd probably be better every two days but it's a bit of work, especially since the grounds so dry it's hard as rock and I have to hammer each fence post in.  Oh how I wish I had enough acreage that I could dispense with the fence.  But those stupid chickens will just come right back to the house, oh how I hate them sometimes, there are four that have been getting out and hanging out up here.  I carry them down and they are back again in minutes, I don't know what to do with them, other than wring their necks, but they are worth too much for that.

I have been craving some fresh mozzarella cheese lately, and have been too busy to make any lately.  But I finally got around to it today, I had a couple gallons of milk that was getting old and needed to be used.  I also have a wealth of basil in the garden, and fresh mozzarella and basil is just too good.  First I made one gallon's worth, then ate it all by myself, so then I made a 2nd gallon and the rest of the family shared that.   I'm not going to write out the cheese recipe, Google 30 minute mozzarella, it's super easy and the best cheese you will ever eat, well, the best fresh cheese for sure.  After the cheese was done I ran up to the garden and picked a ton of basil, which of course, when all was said and done, was only about 2 cups of leaves.  And all the ripe tomatoes I had, which wasn't very many, out of almost 50 tomato plants I'm not doing very well.  I don't know what's wrong with them.  Then I ground them up with some olive oil, supposed to be 1/2 cup, I didn't measure, about 1/2 cup of pine nuts, about 1/2 cup of Parmesan, two big cloves of garlic, and about 1/2 tsp salt.  Then I sliced up the tomatoes and pigged out.  Oh my goodness it was the yummiest thing ever, as evidenced by the fact that I ate a gallons worth of cheese...  Hmm, I'm writing this thinking about the two lonely balls of leftover cheese that's sitting in the fridge, maybe those need to be eaten right now, there might be room in my stomach by now, I haven't eaten anything it at least 10 minutes.  Oh, and I'd like to give a shout out to my friends at U Pick It Farms and say thanks for the lovely veggies, I hadn't been by there in a while and one of the boys brought me down two bags full of vegetables, tomatoes, squash, fresh herbs, banana peppers, and the most delicious carrots ever.  Since I've already eaten all the tomatoes I could find in my garden, theirs will provide a lovely addition to supper!

Yummy food, Squash, and Geese

Well, life has just been too busy, or rather, as most of you know, I'm pregnant and therefore most of what I do is lie on the couch moaning about how crappy I feel, and then getting up to rush through what I have to do so I can get back to the couch.  I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself, not that I have any real reason to, I know people who have much harder pregnancies than me and deal with it much better, but it's my pity party and I can cry if I want to!  Anyways, after not cooking my husband supper last night and feeling awful about it, I forced myself to get a decent meal cooked today.  I picked a couple absolutely beautiful yellow squash from the garden today, that brightened my day quite a bit, I'm so in love with my garden, I just wish I didn't feel so sick when it comes to food.  Right now vegetables are on my "do not talk about or I will vomit" list.  But I love squash pie, that's not really a vegetable dish so I'm making it.  I usually make it like a lemon custard, but after scouring my cupboards and not finding any lemon extract, I found another recipe, for a Squash Coconut Custard.  Sounds good!  I'm also having absolutely horrible carb cravings, so instead of making a healthy grain free meal as usual, I decided to make a cornbread.  My husband loves cornbread and has been asking for some for a while, so no time like the present!  It's only got 1 cup of cornmeal, and tons of other yummy stuff to make it healthy, so I won't give myself a hard time about it.  I also whipped up some Heavenly Eggs, (Deviled Eggs, for the unenlightened) to add a bit of protein to the meal.  Yes, I know, that's quite a strange mix of foods for a supper, but I'm weird like that.  Who cares if they go well together, as long as it's all yummy that's all that matters.

First I made a crust, I usually don't bother with crusts for custard but I figured, why not go all out.  I just mixed 2 cups almond flour with 2 tbs coconut oil and an egg, pressed it out in a bowl, and threw it in my preheating oven til it was pretty and golden.









Then I chopped up the two squash, threw them in a pot with a bit of water to steam for about 5 minutes until soft. Then put it in the blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until super smooth.

Finished product, and it was yummy, though I ate so much of the Heavenly Eggs and cornbread that I couldn't eat much of it, oh well, it'll make a good breakfast.  I completely forgot, again, to take a pic of the cornbread, take my word for it, it looked good and tasted better.  I had several servings it was so good.









On the farm side of things, I let the goslings out of their pen today, the garden is fenced to keep out chickens, so I figure it'll keep the goslings in and safe, I think they are big enough that the cat's won't think they're edible, or at least I hope.  They have been doing such a good job of eating weeds wherever I've moved their pen, I've had to move it three times a day to keep them fresh greens.  I've not raised geese before and I read that after 6 weeks they can forage for 100% of their food, that's awesome!   After having chickens which eat a ton, this will be a nice break for my feed bill.  Not that they will really produce anything, but I've hopes that they will protect the chickens from the huge owl and hawks that keep hanging around my chicken pen.  Actually, I guess they will produce more goslings hopefully next year, that'll be fun :)

 And then I've just got to show off my squash, this has been a wonderful year for squash for me, I don't know if normal people's squash are this good, but to me this is amazing.  My plants are huge, and loaded with squash, there are 5 yellow squash of differing sizes on this plant, and I already picked one off this morning, plus tons more blooms.  I'm so excited :)  Last year my squash were devastated by Vine Borers and millions of Squash Beetles, I probably got two squash out of 10 plants.  I even bought a Shop Vac and spent hours vacuuming up beetles off my plants, I filled that vac
up several times with bugs, it was ridiculous.  So far this year I've only seen a few, those *((*&^$# bugs had better stay the heck away from my garden.

And then I just had to show off my cute little pumpkin, this is the first year I've planted pumpkins and I'm so excited.  I sure hope they turn out well, I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin smoothies, pumpkin custard, pumpkin pancakes, um, basically pumpkin anything, though the pumpkin soup I made once was just okay.  Chris really liked it though.













Mexican Cornbread

2 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil or butter
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1 (8 ounce) can cream-style corn (8 oz can? What's that?  I used a regular 14 oz can)
1 large onion, chopped
2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced ( I used a can of chili's as my jalepeno's aren't big enough yet)
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch square baking dish or a cast iron skillet.
In a small bowl, beat eggs. Mix in butter and buttermilk. Stir in 1 cup shredded cheese, creamed corn, onion, and jalapenos.
In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup cheese on top.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until center is set and top is golden brown.

Coconut Squash Custard

1 cup chopped squash, I use yellow, if you use zucchini I'd peel it or the kids will probably flip
1 cup flaked coconut, divided
1/3 cup sucanat or honey

Stevia to taste ( I didn't add this and it's pretty much sweet enough, though it wouldn't hurt to be a bit sweeter)
1 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs (next time I'm going to put in a couple more, it was a little soggy)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1 pie crust (optional)
1 pinch ground nutmeg

Heat 1 inch of water to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add zucchini, cover, and steam until softened, about 5 minutes.
In a blender or food processor, blend the cooked zucchini, 3/4 cup coconut, sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla extract, and salt until smooth. Pour into the pie crust, and sprinkle with remaining coconut and nutmeg.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about an hour, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

My lovely cows

    I drag myself out of bed at 6am to milk, again, as I have for the past 400 plus days since I started milking.  It's completely worth it, except when I don't feel like it, and then it still is!  My cows decided this morning to make me come get them, instead of coming up to the gate, so now my feet are wet from the dew.  Sweet lovely cows...

Meet Sage, this is her 2nd lactation, Cherry is her calf from this year.  She's a pretty sweet cow, for the most part, well, for a cow.  She still kicks occasionally, and hits me in the face with her tail, but I guess that's just what cows do.

And here's CBC, wanna know what her name means?  Ha!  It stands for Crazy B*itch Cow, and she's earned it.  Thankfully she's settled down a lot in the last two years but when I started milking her she kicked me over and over and over again, I had to tie her to the wall to get milking done.  And that was when I hand milked so it meant she'd kick the bucket over numerous times as well.  Oh well, now she's almost my favorite cow, she definitely the best milker, she gives more milk and more cream than Sage, and she milks out twice as fast.  She rarely kicks me anymore, thankfully, though when she does she kicks hard and fast.  I love my milking stand, it protects me from getting kicked, before my husband and I built it I would have to jump when I felt them twitch, now I just laugh, "ha ha, you can't get me".

And then I get to carry the heavy tank, full of 5+ gallons of milk, into the house, sometimes it weighs as much as #60, no fun at all.  I do love having the milker, before hand it was so hard to keep the milk clean, an open bucket underneath a cow is just a bad thing, they aren't the cleanest animal's in the world, and don't even get me started about the flies.  Now I end up with pristine milk every time, and no carpel tunnel from hand milking, it's a win win situation!  I do strain the milk into the jars, just in case, I like to be doubly sure it's perfectly clean, and then I stick it into my freezer, which is dialed down as low as possible.  The thermometer this morning said -6 F, which is great as to have Grade A milk in a commercial dairy you need to be able to cool the milk to 40 degrees F in 2 hours.  I usually can accomplish that, or get very close, which helps the milk stay fresh longer. 

They gave 5 gallons this morning, that's about average, sometimes it's up around 6, depending on how lush the section of pasture is that they're on.  It hasn't rained in a couple weeks, so the pasture is suffering.  I'm trying to go 100% grass-fed, the cows get a handful of grain at milking, only because they wouldn't put their head in the stanchion if I didn't give them some.  Once I run out of grain, which is taking a while at a handful at a time, I'm going to use alfalfa pellets, then they'll be 100%, which is awesome, better milk quality, healthier cows.  Cows aren't designed to eat grain, they have four stomachs for a reason, to digest grass, eating grain messes up the pH in their rumen, and messes up their digestion.  Obviously a handful isn't going to affect much of anything, but think about cattle in feedlots, they are fed so much grain that they have to be butchered around 15 months of age, or they will die of liver failure.  Twenty five percent of feedlot cattle have liver abscesses, but what's great, according to the Beef Council, is that only severe abscesses affect cattle performance, and only about 6.5% have severe abscesses.  So no big deal that 25% of the beef in the store is from a sick animal, as long as it continues to grow quickly and produce as much meat as possible in the shortest period of time, it's perfectly ok!   Vote with your food dollars, that's the only way change will happen.  If you are looking for a good source for grass-fed small farm raised beef, contact me and I'll give you the info for a friend of mine who butchers and sells wonderful meat.

Okay, so I kind of got off on a tangent there, sorry about that :)

So next on the list of things I need to do today is to make another batch of Mozzarella, I bought some more citric acid yesterday, it's in the canning section at the grocery store, if your needing any.  To save on jar washing, I strained last night's milk right into my three gallon pot and stuck the whole thing in the frig, as I knew I was going to make some sort of cheese today.

And it turned out GREAT!!!  The last 3-4 times I made Mozzarella it just didn't turn out right, it would end up being hard and dry and rubbery.  This turned out super soft and stretchy and delicious!  I taste tested it several times :)  Yum, now I just wish I had fresh tomatoes in my garden to eat it with...  It won't be long.

Chickens, Cows, and Cheese

Wow, life has been busy and I haven't had much time with my computer.  We spent Mother's Day spread out between the three Mom's my husband and I have between us :)  So that meant Monday was "work your backside off day" to make up for having the day off Sunday.  My husband got a bunch done on the chicken house, it's got all the walls and roof framed out, I'm so excited, just wishing it was done.  I finally got sick of having a disgusting yard and locked the chickens up, they have a large grassy pen but still cluster around the door begging to be released to run free.   This picture also shows the shack they live in, I tacked it together without any help as it was supposed to be replaced quickly, unfortunately, it's taken much longer than that.  They don't seem to mind much though, it works.

Hopefully this next weekend we'll get the egg mobile finished and them out where their supposed to be.











The calves came up and wanted their picture taken so I obliged, actually, they wanted their bottle.  The one with the heart on her head was a couple days after Valentine's Day so she was named Valentine.  The other calf still doesn't really have a name, I decided since we couldn't think of a new name to just give her a previous calf's name, one that we sold a while back.  The kids don't agree, but I think it's fine, so I say her name is Cherry.

My Colby is ready to be waxed today, I made it two days ago, completely forgot to take pictures or blog about that...  But I'll document the waxing process at least.  I bought a pan at the thrift store for melting wax, as the pan isn't usable for anything but that for the future.  So when I was done with the cheddar, I just let the wax cool in the pan and stuck it in the cupboard for next time.  

Now I'm reheating it to dip the Colby in. Colby is a washed curd cheese that is simpler to make than Cheddar, and only has to cure 4-6 weeks, instead of the 2-12 months for Cheddar.  And I like Colby so I hope this turns out!  It looks kind of funny as it's got little pimples all over where the holes were in the mold, next time maybe I should leave the cheesecloth on the whole time, but I didn't want the wrinkles the cheesecloth left.  I guess I can't win.  I'm sure it'll still be edible.  I just wish my root cellar was finished, it's too hot to age at room temperature, and the frig is too cold, and I don't have enough extra room in my frig anyway.  But that's where it will go for now, until I come up with a better plan, or my root cellar gets done.  But I'm not holding my breath!  

Ready to age!  My lovely daughter made me the label, now we just have to be patient for another month.  Now I think I'll go make some Mozzarella, I'm ready for some instant gratification, I hate wait!(Princess Bride quote if you didn't notice)  I can't wait for my multitudes of Basil plants to get bigger, I made some Bocconcini, little mozzarella balls, marinated in pesto last year and it was to die for, except my dad stole it and ate it all.  Though I have to admit it was my fault, I accidentally left it at his house.  Oh well, I should have plenty of Basil this year and I'll make a bunch!