Its Chicken Soup Season!

Only the birds are surviving this winter weather.  Everyone else I know is either sick or has a loved one that is sick, so I thought I would share a basic chicken soup recipe then add variations, for those of you who have been sick for awhile and are getting tired of regular chicken soup.

I make chicken soup every time I buy a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store.   We have one or two meals from the chicken, pulled off the bones and the rest goes for the soup.  I do take time to remove the bones after the soup is made as my boys, including my husband, doesn't like to worry about the bones.  That way they can inhale the soup without worry!

Basic Chicken Soup
1 TBSP Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
 3 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 chicken carcass, with a fair amount of scraps left on the bones
1 TBSP salt
1 TBSP black peppercorns
1 package of frozen classic mixed veggies
2 cups cooked, small size pasta, or rice.

Add the oil, onion, carrots, celery, garlic and salt in a stock pot and sauté and let the onions sweat a bit, until tender.  Then add the chicken carcass, black pepper and 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours.  I then add the mixed veggies and simmer for another 15-20 minutes.  Before I serve the soup I place a small amount of pasta or rice in a bowl.  I don't cook the pasta or rice in the soup because it gets mushy. Always cook it separately.

Now, you can make variations upon the recipe above:

Thai Chicken soup:
 Add 2 more cloves of garlic, 2TBSP of minced fresh ginger, with the onion carrot and celery. Add Hunan chile with the stock and substitute one can of lite coconut milk for half the water. You can also add mushrooms & kefir lime leaves for even more umami.

Mexican Chicken Soup
Add 1 TBSP chili powder to the vegetables at the start of the recipe, right after the onions are tender.  Then add a can of black beans and 1 cup of medium salsa and 1 can of diced tomatoes to the soup with the water. Reduce the water to 4 cups. I also add a bag of frozen corn and sprinkle fresh chopped cilantro when serving.

Lemon Saffron Chicken Soup:
Same recipe as above but add 1/2 fresh lemon to the pot, 1/2 TSP Saffron threads and 1 TSP Turmeric and simmer.  It gives it a bit of an Indian flare. I have even added 1 lb. of diced Swiss Chard  to this as well. Glorious and healthy.

Korean Chicken soup:
Add 1 cup chopped mushrooms, 1 TBSP diced fresh ginger, 2 Cloves garlic at the beginning with the onion & veggies, then add  1/2 cup of soy sauce and 2 TBSP Fish sauce to pot with the water, reduce the water to 5 cups.  In a separate pan, cook some rice noodles and when serving, place rice noodles in the bottom of the bowl, add soup then sprinkle fresh basil, bean sprouts and 1 TSP sesame oil.  Yummy!

Crazy Chickens!

So I get a text last night that maybe one of my chickens has gone to live across the street at my neighbors chicken coop!  Really?  What can I say, you will never believe half of what goes on with those crazy birds.  They are most adorable, very sociable and entertaining.  Better than watching TV for sure.
So, my neighbor texts me a photo and it sure looks like our  Churchy Chicken.  She is an adoptee from our church.  Our church used to have a chicken coop with chickens, along with their community garden.  However, some of the neighbors said they had a rise in rodents and wanted the chickens gone.  Don't they know a chicken will eat rodents, that is after they play with them for a while.
Anyway, the church found a good home for the 4 chickens down the road, away from the complaining neighbors, but this one bird kept escaping and coming back home.  After the third time  this happened, we were asked if we could take her home with us.  Of course we said yes and before we knew it , a box with the chicken in it was waiting at the back of the church.  After mass, we drove her to her new home.  Now she's had a bit of a time blending in with our old girls but the baby chickens (5 months old) have no problem sharing with her.  But Churchy has decided she wants to sleep in the barn with the ducks.  Birds of a feather....not this gal, she is a rebel!
So I thought maybe she wanted a home a bit farther away but this morning when I went out to the coop to let the girls out, all my chickens were accounted for, even Churchy!  Go figure!
I don't know where that chicken came from but she is not one of ours! 
Another day, another nutty story!
Stay Warm, Stay Close to family and Happy Holidays to you all!

Pears Picked before the Polar Vortex Arrives!

Well, the world is coming to an end, at least that's how it sounds if you listen to the weather reports. Today it will be a high of 67 and tomorrow morning it will be 30.  With highs in the 30's expected all week, I had to get out and pick more pears. With an abundance of pears and apples I whipped up a fabulous crumble for dessert last night for dinner:

APPLE, PEAR, CRANBERRY CRUMBLE:
3 cups each, apples and pears, peeled and cut up in bite-sized chunks
1 cup fresh cranberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Place ingredients in a large pan, heat to medium and mix until cranberries become soft and pop
pour ingredients in a buttered 13X9 baking pan.  Pour prepared topping over the fruit and bake for 35 minutes or until topping is golden brown.  Serve with vanilla ice cream.


Topping:
1/4 cup flour, for gluten free, use almond  or oat flour
1/2 stick of butter, hardened, cut into small slices
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup old fashioned oats

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, cut in butter until ingredients starts to clump together and becomes small pea-size clumps. Sprinkle over prepared fruit and bake.

Fall Harvest of Fruit At The Farm

We were lucky enough to spend a week in Connecticut, during the peak Foliage Color time.  Everywhere we drove, we were dazzled by the colors.  The photo above is from the field behind my Dad's yard. Spectacular!  I had not seen the leaves in the Northeast for about 20 years.  What a treat!

Then we came home to totally full apple and pear trees and an abundance of veggies waiting to be picked.  With the wonderful cooler weather we have had this summer, our cucumbers and watermelon are still producing.  The apples are big and crisp.  Apple sauce prep this week for sure. We have picked about 40 lb. of apples so far and at least 50 pounds of pears and have hardly made a dent.  If you want a nice Sunday drive, come on out to pick some and take them home.  Bring your own bag, ours are all full!

The baby chickens are now out of their brooder and doing well. They are small but fast and staying away from the adults who try to manipulate them away from the food. They certainly are holding their own and have made friends with the ducks as well.

The kittens are keeping us busy in the house.  A few items got broken and drapes destroyed, but they will soon be spayed and hopefully calm a bit.

I will take new photos of Peekachoo, as his adult colors are coming in.  He now has bright green across his back and his neck and head are royal blue.  He is blazing with color and we are so proud of him.  Later this week I will post some photos of him.

On October 31st, it hit a full freeze.  All the summer plants are gone, now its just a few fall plants left, cabbage, turnip, cauliflower and Spigarella.  I'll replant lettuce and spinach in my cold frame  boxes now. Leaves have come off the trees and Steve is busy with winter clean up.  He will be cutting firewood soon.  Winter is just around the corner.

New babies on the farm!!!

New babies have arrived!  Two 6 week old kittens, we call them Tom & Jerry. So tiny we have to be careful not to step on them, but man, do they have energy.  They run around like mad for an hour and next thing you know, they are sound asleep somewhere. Great entertainment to watch them for sure.

19 new chicks have arrived.  18 day old chicks came in the mail to keep Fuzzball company.  Fuzzball was hatched by our chickens, Mr. Gray is his Dad and the little White and Black chicken is the Mom.  Fuzzball is two weeks old and not too excited to share her food.

Steve came home with a new baby convertible two weeks ago.  This Crossfire has a Mercedes Engine and Steve has wanted one for quite a while.  He's been searching and finally found one in Columbia MO.  He and our neighbor, Bob, drove off in Bob's Crossfire to go pick it up. Boys night for sure.  I am a bit miffed to give up my spot in the garage.  He better clean the other half before winter.

And now the garden: wax beans and cucumbers are going crazy!  I pick about 30 cucumbers every 3 days.  Every weekend I have canned 8 quarts of pickles.  We take cucs to work for lunch everyday.  Too bad this doesn't last all year.
Tomatoes are doing well also.  I planted on 16 tomato plants this year, half as much as last year, because we had so much waste.  I couldn't keep up with them.  I also have fennel, Oriental long beans, still have beats and turnips, but I will pick them this weekend.  Its getting too hot for them now.  Tomatillo's were planted from seeds so they are a bit behind this year.  Hopefully I'll be able to make a batch of green salsa to freeze for the winter.  Eggplant is still doing fine.  I grew oriental eggplant, the long skinny ones for stir fries.  I also picked my first melons, cantaloupe and watermelon.  Fantastic.  So sweet and yummy.

Renovations continue on the house and out-buildings.  Steve has been replacing windows on the house and ordered new garage doors.  Our garage doors on our big shed have gone to the fire pit, so we will replace the ones on the house and move them existing ones to the shed.  Recycling is great.
We also have finished putting our plastic mulch down in between all of our rows of veggies.  It was free from Steve's company, giant tarps, that now cover all the grass and keep weeds at bay.  Again, recycling at its best.  The company was glad not to have to pay to have them trashed, instead just loaded them in Steve's truck.

We have been eating a lot of salads these days.
My favorite is just a bowl of cut Tomatoes, sliced Red Onion, sliced Cucumber, feta cheese and a lemon  vinaigrette with olive oil,  lemon juice, and Greek seasoning.
Yummy!

Green and Growing! Summer is here!

As I said in earlier posts, we got a later start this year.  But cooler temps and lots of rain and helped everything really take off.  This past weekend I picked the ingredients of the basket.  One week earlier I picked the turnips and the garlic in top photos.  The yellow cucumbers are organic white pickling cucumbers.  I made 8 quarts of pickles this past weekend and 4 jars of plum jam from our plum tree.
We have covered all the paths in between our growing rows with plastic mulch that was free from Steve's work.  Giant sheets of woven plastic are used to cover lumber when being shipped.  These make great ground cover and we have plenty.
My favorite summer salad has been my Mediterranean Watermelon Salad.  Recipe is below.
Mediterranean Watermelon Salad
1 small watermelon, cut flesh into 1/2 in bite-sized chunks (about 6 cups)
2 Tbsp. Balsamic Vinegar
2 tbsp. Olive oil
3 oz. crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves (chiffonier)
Place all ingredients in a large glass or plastic bowl, toss and season with salt and pepper to taste. Done! Chill and serve!

Roasted Baby Turnips and Beets
I usually can't wait until my turnips or beets are huge.  As soon as they start peeking out of the soil I have to pick them.  I made a pot roast a week ago, as it was unseasonably cool and here's what I did.
In a Dutch oven, laid  the piece of chuck or arm roast on the bottom of the pan that was smeared with olive oil, sliced two onions and laid them on top of the meat, then after scrubbing the entire turnip and beet (with greens attached) I lay them over the onions, then sprinkle one packet of dry onion soup mix over the top, pour  1/2 cup red wine and 1/2 cup beef broth in pan, cover and roast for 1 hour at 400 degrees, or 15 minutes in a pressure cooker.  Pull our pan and let sit for 10 minutes.  Fabulous!
You can add potatoes and make a whole meal, but we like to add more veggies and less starch.

A Spring French Feast

 Its Spring and I have an itch to cook up a storm.  We invited a couple of our friends over, who appreciate worldly flavors and cuisines.  First we started with Endive stuffed with Marinated Goat Cheese.  I marinated the goat chees with olive oil, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper.  Below is the fish course.  Baked Salmon with Green Goddess Sauce, which was made with Tarragon, Chives, Parsley, Horseradish and a bit of mayo.  The fresh herbs and horseradish really made that sauce pop! A delight in the mouth.

 I served  radishes and baby endives braised in garlic and white wine on the side of the fish.  If you have never tried them braised, try it.  I would suggest just picked fresh radishes, organic of course, then slice them down the center.  Braised in the wine takes away the bitter taste in the greens and gives them a buttery smoky flavor.

 For the main entre I served Coq Au Vin, which is the classic Stewed chicken in red wine.  It was outstanding.  But the best was my  Crème Brulee, I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it because they were gorgeous!  Sunny yellow with perfectly charred sugar on top with raspberries on the side.  Fantastic experiment.  I never made it with duck eggs before.  And I also made a quiche with fresh spinach, bacon and Gruyere, just to have for quick bites.  I make one about every two weeks.  Quiche is great fro breakfast or a quick lunch at work.