Bandages and Butternut Squash

Butternut squash, cutting board and knife, check .... bandages, peroxide and cell phone for call to 911 if necessary, check.

What am I doing? ... well isn't it obvious?  I'm getting ready to roast butternut squash for a pesto, squash, caramelized onion pizza.  Doesn't everyone get out the first aid kit when peeling Butternut? 

Most of the time, I just make mashed Butternut squash, cut it down the middle, remove seeds, put cut side down in shallow glass dish with just a splash of water, cover with foil and bake. Once done, I remove the flesh from skin and mash it like potatoes... but sometimes I need to peel it before it cooks, for times when I want it diced into cubes and roasted.  If I weren't trying to be frugal, I would just go to the grocery and buy it peeled and cubed, and pay a premium price, and chastise myself for spending the extra money (when I could have applied the upcharge to a better bottle of wine).

Recently, I was boiling potatoes for potato salad, and it dawned on me, boiling makes it easier to peel a potato, why not try it with on squash?

I cut the squash into big chunks and removed seeds.

Then I boiled a pot of water, once boiling rapidly, put the chunks in and boiled for a few minutes, frequently checking to see how "fork tender" the skin was.  Once I was able to pierce the skin easily, I removed it from the water. The squash was still hard, I was just interested in the skin   ( ... this disturbs my husband, but every time I say "skin", it makes me think of that part in Silence of the Lambs "the lamb puts the lotion on it's skin"...except in my head, I substitute lotion for whatever I'm doing at the moment. In this instance, I'm sure I thought something like "the Lamb pierces the skin with it's fork"...it's odd I know, but it just makes me giggle).

Once cooled enough to handle, I peeled  the skin (see, I just did the whole "the lamb.... " thing in my head as I typed this)  just like I knew what I was doing !  Worked great, no cuts, no missing appendages.  Check out that sexy knife my BFF gave me !

Wala!  Diced squash, no injuries !!!!

I will say, this whole precautionary peeling process added about 1/2 hour to the ordeal of peeling the Butternut, but for me, it was worth it, as it  usually takes that long for the bleeding to stop when I used to cut myself.  In the future, I'll probably try to do a "pre peel" a day or two before I actually need to roast the squash.

Hope someone else finds this useful!  .... and if there's a better way,  for the love of fingers, please share !!!!

 It's Tea Time!

<><>

My little helper

I felt kinda bad making hard boiled eggs in front of Chicken Little, but with company coming for a weekend barbeque, didn't waste too much time crying over spilt milk, or cracked eggs, as it would be.

Egg is the perfect Chicken Fruit ... everyone knows to cook with eggs, but you can find just as many things to do with the shells.  After making deviled eggs, I whirred the shells in the blender, fine enough to put into the spout of an empty vinegar jug.

 


              Used a paper plate as a funnel,
   filled the jug to the top with warm water
  and let it sit for a week until it was STINKY Egg Shell Tea!

With the help of Cheep Labor

I put the egg shell water in one of my plant beds, for a dose of calcium.   Calcium helps plants form a sturdy cell structure and assists in fighting off disease.

..... and yes, it does stink right at first, but fades quickly.

I'll keep adding new shells to the jug and keep the batch of "tea" going thru fall.

Ahhhh, all this egg tea talk makes me want a cocktail :)

When Life gives you lemons ....... Make Limoncello !

I like looking at this stuff in the bottle just as much as I like to drink it.   When  I open the freezer and see the bottle of  thick, frosty, lemony elixir, with the vanilla bean specs sticking to  the sides of the bottle,  it brings back the excitement of the neighborhood ice cream truck … but instead of a bomb pop …. this is a  "Let's get Bombed" pop …it's a pretty stiff drink !  …. but enjoyed as intended, as an after dinner "digestif",  it's practically good for you !  (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it).

           di·ges·tif 

        (noun) : alcoholic drink, drunk after a meal, supposedly to aid in digestion of food

There are many recipes for limoncello. I enjoy the milk based Crema de Limoncello the best.  Limoncello should always be served cold, preferablly right out of the freezer in small cordial glasses.  It can also be mixed with tonic water to lighten it up a little.

Plan 2 weeks in advance, you need to make your vanilla sugar first ( takes 2 weeks) and ferment the lemon zest in Everclear ( takes 1 week).

Do yourself a favor, have a recipe for your favorite lemon meringue pie ready, you'll have 10 Meyers lemons to use after zesting the rinds  :)

The key ingredient in Limoncello, is of course, lemons !  Fermented lemons.  Because the rind is what you'll be using,  please make sure to use organic lemons in your recipe. 

I purchase swingtop bottles from www.specialtybottle.com. I always double the recipe above, to yield five , 34 oz bottles, of Limoncello (a few for my freezer, a few to share !). 

This is fun to serve to dinner guests, a great presentation to pull your homemade frosty treat from the freezer … and it makes a great hostess gift !

Crema de Limoncello

Ingredients

• 10 Meyer lemons  (*make sur they are organic.  I suppose you could just use ordinary lemons, but Meyers are known for their strong fragrance).
• 1 (750 ml) bottle Everclear  (some use Vodka, but it does give it an "off" flavor, you really should use Everclear because it's flavorless)
• 8 1/2 cups of milk  ( NOT CREAM, cream will curdle)
• 5 c sugar
• 1/2 vanilla sugar  (make your own bu putting a split vanilla bean in a mason jar of sugar and let it sit for at least 2 weeks  … don't get crafty and substitute vanilla extract, it's just not the same).

Instructions

1)   Make your vanilla sugar, as referernced above, let sit 2 weeks

2)  Using a fine grater, zest lemons.  Place zest in jar with Everclear and leave at room temperature for 1 week. 

3)  After lemon zest ferments one week, strain into jar or large bottle or container.

4) In saucepan over medium heat, warm the milk, being so so  so careful not to scald it !

5) Add the vanilla sugar and cook, stirring freqently, until disolved.

6) Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
7) In a large pitcher, combine the milk mixture with Everclear lemon mixture, and funnel into bottles.
8)  Store in the freezer for up to 6 months

Aren't you just dying to know how often a chicken lays an egg?   I knew it .....

A hen will lay an egg every 25 - 27 hours .... but only during sunlight hours.  So if a chicken has an egg ready to lay, but it's 1:00 a.m. and dark, she will hold it until it gets light outside, at which point the 25 - 27 hours starts again. 

How Awkward ...

One of the hens were laying this morning, I could tell by the cackling in the coop ... I snuck down to look in one of the nesting boxes, to see which girl it was, and up pops Ebby's head, and she looked at me like "HELLO, kinda busy here" ... I felt embarrassed, like I'd just walked in on someone in the bathroom .... now it's all awkward between us, she won't even look at me anymore .......

My New Business Partner ... cheep labor

Chickens Changed my Life!

My entire working career, I've spent time in a corporate environment doing something I didn't want to do, just to make money.  I used to justify the trade off by telling myself "it pays the bills and allows me to afford the art supplies that I covet, the red wines that I like to drink, the dinner parties I like to throw " … and that was true for awhile … but lately I've had a change of heart. 

My corporate job was sucking the life out of me, I had no creative energy to paint anymore or participate in artist circles as I once used to do,  the wine I drank would put me to sleep, instead of inspire me to menu plan for parties.  It got to a point that I was working for money, but not enjoying life.

One of my lifelong dreams is to have farm animals.  I knew this would be a hard sell to my husband ( he's not interested in any hobby that doesn't include a golf club).  I wanted to start with something that he may not whole heartedly disapprove of,  so that the next species acquisition would be easier.... it's all in the presentation and planning :)  Aside from the start up costs (because neither of us is handy, so I had to buy the coop, instead of being able  to make it), chikcens are inexpensive to maintain AND they pay their own rent in farm fresh eggs every day !

I started with 7 chicks last year … and they have given me new perspective on life !  They are so relaxing to be around, these big yard birds meandering over the lawn, making little clucking sounds and other amusing noises I didn't know chickens made.

Wanting to treat my girls led me to begin putting vegetable scraps into a bucket during dinner prep,  pilfering through the refrigerator to feed them leafy greens, fruits …. this led to composting ( which has become an obsession , to the point that I used to bring home coffee grounds from my workplace every day).  Composting will lead me to actually putting a garden in next year instead of just talking about it.  That will undoubtedly lead to canning and food preservation.

The chickens like yogurt, but I couldn't justify the expense of a $5.99 container of Greek Yogurt for chickens, so that led to making my own yogurt … my dogs get the whey over their food from this process.

The conversation about homemade yogurt with a girlfriend led to her introducing me to Kefir, and now a newfound interest in Probiotics is born.

 A year after getting my chickens, an opportunity to purchase a neighborhood business presented itself .. the existing owner of  this business is a former chicken owner  … so that helped open lines of communication …. and now I'm in the process of buying the business …. and not just any business …. a wine business !!! 

 Now, instead of being tired and lethargic due to being disinterested in what I'm doing, I can't sleep because my mind won' t shut down.  While my precious chickens sleep,  I'm up all night, my mind running like a hamster on a wheel. I can only Repin so many things, research so many things, post on Facebook so many things … so … I started this blog in hopes it will help me stop talking to myself, stop writing notes on grocery receipts and napkins, and slow me down to sleep, if only for a few hours … at least until the rooster crows, at 4:30 a.m.  ...every ..... single ..... morning.