Babies on the Homestead!
Babies on the Homestead
Warning. You are
about to be overwhelmed with cuteness…..
We got chicks
today! Eight chicks to be exact. We were going to buy our chicks from
mypetchicken.com, but we found out that Tractor Supply sells live chicks in the
store for pick-up. Buying chickens from them meant that we could not only get
the chickens sooner but that we also didn’t have to pay $45 in shipping.
We did run into
a slight hiccup in the plan in that Tractor Supply (the store that is) can’t control
what chickens headquarters send them. Last week when we went, they only had
straight runs. For you non-chicken people (or yet to be chicken people!) that
means that they weren’t sexed. We didn’t know if we would get male or female
chicks. Not a good plan if you want eggs and can only keep one rooster per
flock. At least, not a good plan for us. Through the power of google, we
discovered that you can sex Rhode Island Reds by their coloring, and luck would
have it that they had Rhode Island Reds in last week when we checked. However,
as we are not around the age of five, the store people wouldn’t let us hand
pick the chicks out. Also, when we went to get them anyway, they were out.
Fast forward
three days, and I have a gut feeling that we aren’t going to get chickens
today. I walk in and man was I wrong. Not only do they have ALL FEMALE Rhode
Island Reds, but they have all females in four different breeds. So we got four
Americaunas (they lay either green and blue eggs or green or blue eggs.
I can’t remember which).
Two Cuckoo
Marans (they lay chocolate colored eggs!)
And two Rhode
Island Reds (tan eggs).
We brought them
home and scurried to get their coop together! We finally got them in, only to
discover that the heat lamp that we had gotten wasn’t strong enough. Notice how
they are all huddled pathetically under it? So sad.
So Sam and Lily
made a rescue trip into town to pick up a new lamp and bulb while I did homework
and Jacks guarded the chicks.
Look how happy
they are now! Nice and toasty with the new lamp (that you can't see).
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Switching topics…..Remember
the bread I made the other day? Well here is the finished outcome. I love this
bread so much that I wanted to share the recipe with you! It’s a no fail bread
for sure, and perfect for busy people. Compared to other homemade breads, it is
easy breasy, quick, and requires so few dishes!! A definite winner in my
opinion.
I modified the
recipe (ever so slightly) from the book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a
Day.
Ingredients:
1 medium sized
bowl with a lid (that doesn’t seal too tightly)
3 cups of warm
water
1 ½ tbs coarse
salt
1 ½ tbs yeast
6 ½ cups of
unbleached bread flour
Directions:
Add
yeast and salt to water in a medium bowl with a lid. The lid should not seal
tightly
Stir
in 6 ½ cups of flour. Mix until there is no dry flour remaining
Knead
forever and ever. Just kidding! This recipe requires no kneading. Yeah…it’s an
awesome recipe
Allow
dough to rise for about two hours.
At
this point you can either remove a piece of dough to make a loaf immediately,
or you can store the bulk dough in the fridge. The bulk can be stored in the
fridge for up to two weeks. Once I’ve used up all of the bulk dough, I make a new
batch in the same bowl without even washing it out. This gives my bread a sort
of sourdough component that I enjoy.
How do I make an
actual loaf?
Short
answer, this bulk dough can be turned into SO many different types of bread
loaves. I’m only going to give you instructions for two.
Artisan bread:
Sprinkle
bulk dough with a handful of flour before removing a grapefruit size portion of
dough.
Tuck
and roll the edges under and towards the middle until you have formed a smooth
ball
Place
the ball on a cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal and allow to rise for 40
minutes.
Twenty
minutes prior to baking, preheat your oven to 450. Place some sort of pan in
the bottom (a pan that can hold water) and allow to warm up with the oven.
When
it’s time to bake, slide the baking sheet in.
Pour
1 cup of water into the pan you put in the bottom of the oven.
Bake
for 30-35 minutes.
*You can preheat
a pizza stone in your oven and bake the bread on that instead of a baking sheet
for a crunchier crust on the bottom
* You can make
your loaf look fancy by slicing designs into the top prior to placing in the
oven. Try making a box, or a cross, or three horizontal slices.
Sandwich loaf:
- Sprinkle bulk dough with a handful of flour before removing a cantaloupe size portion of dough.
- Tuck and roll the edges under and towards the middle until you have formed a smooth ball.Try and form the ball into more of a loaf shape.
- Place loaf-ish shape of dough into a lightly oiled bread pan
- Allow to rise for 1 hour and 40 minutes.
- Twenty minutes prior to baking, preheat your oven to 450. Place some sort of pan in the bottom (a pan that can hold water) and allow to warm up with the oven.
- When it’s time to bake, slide the bread pan inl
- Pour 1 cup of water into the pan you put in the bottom of the oven.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes.
Aaaaand
as requested. Here is the ketchup recipe. It is actually less sweet now that I let it sit over 24 hours. I still
think it could use less brown sugar. (I actually modified it too. It’s adapted
from the Hillbilly Housewife).
HOMEMADE KETCHUP
Ingredients:
12 ounces tomato
paste
½ cup brown
sugar
½ tsp dry ground
mustard
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
2 pinches of
ground cloves
2 pinches of
allspice
1 good sprinkle
of cayenne (red pepper)
4 tbs apple
cider vinegar
2/3 cup of water
Directions:
- Leaving out the water, mix everything together in a medium sized bowl.
- Add the water a little bit at a time until you reach your desired consistency. I believe I added almost all 2/3 of the cup of water.
- Refrigerate overnight prior to use (I used it in a recipe straight away, though).
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