A Bit Lonesome

It's a bit lonely in the barnyard.The white meat chickens have found their way into plastic freezer bags.I miss seeing them sprawled out on the lush green lawn like picnic'rs in pretty white party dresses.It was a beautiful sight in the early morning mists .But, they were BIG girls! One single breast was 2 1/2 lbs ! Most of these chickens were 9 - 10 lbs.dressed.
Meat chickens are hybrids and will continue to gain weight until their legs break from under them or they just keel over dead. Occasionally they develope green muscle disease-a greening of the muscle tissue , usually on both sides of the sternum. It's believed that is because of the rapid growth rate.These were only 11 or 12 weeks old.

Tradition & Pie Crust Rolls

For as far back as I can remember, pie crust rolls were the traditional thing to make when you finished making pies. What to do with leftover dough ? Make pie crust rolls.SOOOOOOO delicious !! Especially when hot! Here's what you do: Roll out the leftover dough and , with a butter knife, smear piecrust dough with margarine. Then take a shaker mixed with sugar & cinnamon, sprinkle across dough. Cut in strips.Then roll up and bake at 400F for 15 - 20 min.until golden brown.


My mom always made piecrust rolls after making pies at Thanksgiving & Christmas.They are so delicious and never lasted long. The other tradition was the cinnamon & sugar SHAKER. It was my paternal Grandfather's , then my parents ,then mine.My grandson, Brandon, is so very interested in just about everything that has to do with family.He takes in every detail,including recipes.I'm glad, because I'm very nostalgic ( if you haven't guessed THAT already !)

EXCELLANT Chicken Recipe !!

What you need ~

: 1 big roaster chicken. ( FREE RANGE from my farm, preferable)
Olive oil
McCormick "GRILL MATES" LEMON PEPPER with herbs ( Absolute BEST of the lemon pepper shakers.(I bought this in the Dollar General or Weiss Supermarket.)
1/2 lemon

Rub olive oil over chicken
Sprinkle Salt & McCormick Lemon Pepper Seasoning all over ckicken.
Place 1/2 lemon inside chicken ( do not stuff with stuffing)

COOK 10 MIN ON 400f X 10 MIN
THEN 320 F x 2 lb/ Hr Cover and baste periodically

GRAVY: Allow all of juices to come out of chicken.Remove chicken to platter.
Heat juices in roast pan to boiling.
Add 1 can chicken broth (1 pint)
Add 1 chicken boullion cube
Stir well
Mix cornstarch ( a few TBs with a small amt of water to thicken and add to gravy.
Salt to taste

String Bean Time!

Ten & a half lbs of stringbeans were picked yesterday & canned today. My son-in-law & grandaughter picked another big bag this morning.
The garden is water logged today from an additional rain last night. If it doesn't dry up soon I will have to pick the potatoes & store them early.I don't like to do that until the first frost.They stay fresher & last longer that way.
The stream is flowing like a banshee and the pond is completely cured, refilled & overflowing into the back stream thru the overflow pipe.
The corn is very tall but needs sun & heat to develope nice ears of corn.So~ we'll see.
Life is good! God is WONDERFUL !!

Pea Pickin' time

Well, it's over. Pea pickin' is done, at least for now. If we decide to plant another crop for the fall ~~we'll see.The time consuming part is shucking them out of the pods. If you have a nice nearby neighbor to help, like I do, it will go faster.It's especially pleasant to sit at a picnic table under a nice shady tree to do this. Once you have a bowl full of peas, the rest is easy. All you have to do is blanche them in boiling water 1 minute then drain, spray cold water on them, toss them in a freezer ziplock bag,immerse the bag under warm water just beneathe the ziplock- push all the air out, close the ziplock & remove from its' submerged state.Dry off & toss in the freezer.I don't like canned peas- just frozen.

Amish canning kitchen

With the kind of heat & humidity August brings, this is the ideal canning kitchen.Down the basement with the outside door right there , keeping it cool & breezey .The house kitchen stays clean from all the mess that bushels of vegetables bring. I have a steady parade of empty canning jars that accumulate in my kitchen from the days meals & juices.
This stove handles large capacities so that you can work with several canners & one BIG pot !
Also good for cooking down lard after butchering 'piggy sue'.

My ducks thought they'd have a nice peaceful early morning rest on the shoreline.Mama Muscovie duck sat on the duck and her adopted 4 Indian Runner youngins' hung out on the water's edge.Angus, the yellow tomcat, had the idea he could ambush them in the early fog.One quick pounce from behind the rowboat, but the Indian Runners are named so for a reason~ sorry Angus! They're ahead of you! I think they were teasing him to "C'mon out, the water's fine!"hahahahaha! (If you click on the picture it will enlarge so you can see up close).He trotted off into the woods, sullen and muttering to himself.

Chickens and turkeys are stretching their wings from sleep and have started pecking about .Roosters are crowing to awaken the the farm.The morning is foggy & wet but not raining.I have a lot to do.Canning stringbeans & some waxbeans is time consuming .I want to get an early start.