Halloween and stuff

Things are slowing down in the land of blogs here at Arlee's Acre, but we had a couple things to share, this day of all hallows eve. On the holiday note, we made jack-o-lanterns the other night. The kids picked out their pumpkins and each took a turn at carving their own.
Kattie Grace opted for the surprised look...

While Speedy went with a fire fighter themed Maltese Cross...

And bless her heart, Cupcake got into the geek spirit of things and bought me this to make a Star Wars theme with....

Winter time coming on leads to lots of baking, and we have banana bread and applesauce bread in the works this weekend. We added to our cast iron collection this week to kick baking off right...

And the winter project of the week goes to the birds. Chickens to be exact.  Our egg production dropped off to only a dozen eggs per week. We thought our free rangers had found a spot in the woods and were laying away from the coop. Research specialist Cupcake read up on this and we learned that keeping the birds cooped up for a week or two will bring them back to laying in the nest but our coop is kinda small for keeping a dozen birds in for a week, so I broke out the fence building toys and made a temporary run.  25x5 gives them a little roaming around room.

The girls didn't like being caged the first day, but they have settled down and stopped trying to escape, and egg production is already back up to four or five eggs a day. We have eleven hens, so a few more are expected.
We also speculate the birds know a bad winter is on the way, and this is their way of letting us know it's on the way. "Prepare yourselves, winter is coming"
K&K

Smoker Meat II

This past week was a bit of a battery recharge week. Both Cupcake and I had a touch of a bug that has been going around, so we took it easy in our off time. I did manage to grab a basket full of collar greens from the garden before it rained one day, and canned four more quarts for winter. We now have every quart jar in the house full of something. We either have to stop canning or buy more jars. I see more jars in our future...

While I was taking it easy this week, I spent a bit of time in a couple of Facebook groups I had joined a while back, both were MP related groups. The members were posting their pictures from back in the day which got me motivated to share some of mine. While I was rummaging through my old photo albums, I came across several of me and what they call today my "battle buddy".
I did a FB search, and low and behold, I found him living up in Boston. We reconnected and even had a chance to chat each other up this weekend. I've not yet told him he needs a nickname for blog mentions, so an old pic will have to do for now. KM, if you see this, let a brother know if you have a nickname you use or wanna use.

Since "Speedy" killed his first deer of the season, I took a leg and used a meat pokie thingy to tenderize the leg, then soaked it in buttermilk for five days to break down the meat a bit.

After five days in the buttermilk, I washed it off and gave it a nice rubdown in dry rub, then back into the fridge over the weekend.

This morning I took it out and wrapped it in bacon, and fired up Oklahoma Joe. Fraidy Mutt loves her some smoker time, and since we had our first frost this morning I'm sure she enjoyed having a fire even more than usual.

After a few hours, I brought the internal temp to *145 and took the leg off the smoker, foiled it and wrapped it until dinner. I'm whipping up a cast iron skillet full of roasted potatoes and carrots and a cherry cobbler made from our cherry tree out back to go along with it tonight. That's all the news that is new and improved from Arlee's Acre.
K&K

Halloween Par-Tay

Last weekend, Kattie Grace had a Halloween party. Nothing like seven giggly girls in the house to keep ya busy. After everyone got to the house, the festivities began.

No party is complete without a caldron of witches brew...

Kattie Grace overseeing the wrapping

Mummy Wrapping

Bobbing for apples

Front of the house decorated in home made glow ghosts

And Fraidy Mutt, who refused to dress for the occasion 

After the old folks wound down, the girls retired to the basement where they kept the party going until around 3 AM. We figured they would be asleep all day Sunday, but they were up and going early. May have something to do with the smell of home made biscuits baking and deer tenderloin gravy? All the girls had deer gravy, gotta love country girls.
K&K

Smoker Meat

Much as mountain men did in the past, we began storing deer meat for the winter. When I say we, I mean Jacob, or as he shall be called from now on, "Speedy".

Since my retirement, my knees have kept me close to home, but I always manage to kill at least one deer, usually to make jerky or to can. This year I'm not so sure I will keep that streak alive, but Speedy has stepped up to fill in. We have seven deer (had anyway) that would come out in the yard every evening. They have wrecked Pop's garden and shrubbery and need to be thinned out. I told Speedy I would like to have a couple young ones for tender hams to smoke. Last night he started.

For the non-geek types who read our blog, Speedy is the teenage protege of the Green Arrow. GA taught him how to shoot a bow, and after some time, the teenager could shoot an arrow faster than GA could, hence the name "Speedy".
This is the fourth bow season since I taught JB how to use a bow. I can honestly say the lad is a far better shot than I am, and has turned out to be quite the hunter/stalker. Last night also marked the first time Speedy has processed a deer, from dropping to skinning and butchering. I seriously doubt Green Arrow could be any prouder of his protege than I was last night.
The whole family is looking forward to tenderloin gravy Sunday morning, and I'm sure the smoked deer hams will make an appearance here very soon. Stay tuned
K&K  

Spring preperations

As fall sets in and the garden goes quiet, we have started preparing for next years planting. It seems that all year is geared toward preparing for winter, and we are OK with that. We like to follow in the older generation footsteps when it comes to gardens. It was normal to save seeds from the fall harvest, dry them and replant. One of our neighbors gave us a bag of October beans she said has been in her family for 80+ years. Next year we will keep that tradition alive. Our sweet corn cross bred with our indian corn this year, giving us half silverqueen half blue ears when we picked them. We saved a couple ears and plan on planting the blue ones just to see what we get next year.

Every year since we started a garden we have saved the green bean seeds. We hit on a bean that is very tender and sweet, and has no strings. It's a bush bean, so they dont run. We like that they stay in their rows, which makes tilling and weeding easier. We also save at least one head from our giant sunflower plants, and replant them. Cupcake starts them with wet paper towels, and they do much better than planting the seed out right.

Other seeds we save are pumpkins and gourds, but we do not dry them and store them, we just leave this years pumpkin or gourds in the spot we want them next year and let them rot. We did that last year and were overwhelmed with plants this year.
We also had tomato plants come up volunteer in several places around The Acre, but it was thanks to chicken poop. Our birds love tomatoes, and they ate the low hanging ones right off the vine. One unseen perk was they spread seeds all over the place. Cupcake says if we could teach them to poop in rows we could make a million dollars. Something to work on in the future.
Our last seed plan was jalapeno peppers. This year was a bounty crop of jalapeno jelly, and every time we made a batch, I tossed the seeds out into a flower bed by the garage. We figure you cant eat flowers, but you can eat peppers, so with any luck we will have a big section of peppers near the house for easy pickings.
Like they say, it's never too soon to plan. That is a little insight in to our spring plans.
K&K

Cast Iron Cooking

Cooking is a big thing around The Acre, and we have pretty much completely switched all out pots and pans over to cast iron. I grew up with my grandmother cooking with at least two skillets, now my father uses them. Cupcake and I had one small skillet we used for cornbread at first. When she moved in we went out and bought a complete set of Paula Deene cookware, and it was junk. Junk Deere Junk. The pots faded, warped, the lids do not fit snug and all the Teflon is coming off the surface of the pans. 

This was NOT caused by a dishwasher. We have one, but Cupcake is old school when it comes to washing dishes, she's a strict "by hand" kind of chick. So since the pots and pans started to give out on us, we added to our collection of cast iron.
Myths are that cast iron is bad for food to stick, hard to clean and heavy. Well, it is heavy but that's about the only thing we can agree to. Cupcake is the research specialist, and she read up on cooking and care for cast iron. We learned that pre seasoned pots and pans do just fine as long as you dont use soap to wash them. We use coarse sea salt for grit, and a clean scrubber sponge. Anything left in the pan scrubs right out. We place the pan on a stove eye, heat on low until the pan dries, then add a quick shot of cooking spray, then store the pot for next time. Cupcake brought an old hog rack that she has had for years, and we cut the rack to fit on the wall in the kitchen. This made a perfect cast iron display rack that we think really works with the log home look.

Our pans are so well used now, most times a quick spray from the faucet rinses the pan clean. We also have a small pot for beans or sauces, two griddles for bacon, and a large pot for bigger meals.

Over the weekend we saved our first half dozen eggs from one of our second generation of chickens. We fried them up for Sunday breakfast along with a few fresh green onions.

 And one night we were in the mood for something quick and light, so I made us a couple "combat" Ruben sandwiches with canned corn beef and habanero cheese instead of traditional Swiss, baked in one of our smaller cast iron skillets.

The only exception we make for cast iron cooking is tomato based things, such as soups. It just so happens that today is a chilly, rainy day, and we have a big chunk of pot roast left over from Saturday night dinner. Preparing for just such an emergency, we have a cast iron pot coated in porcelain. The acid in tomatoes will strip the seasoning from a black iron pot (I've seen me do it) so we use this gem for tomato things, like tonight's vegetable beef soup we have slow cooking while I type this.

Every time we cook a meal we ask each other "why isn't everyone cooking with cast iron?" So we thought we would share our findings with the world, and hope that we could convince at least one person to give it a try. We promise you will never go back to non stick junk, and any pot or pan you buy will last generations to come. Start a tradition.
Any brand will do you a good service. We have all Redstone brand, but our good friend "Rhulenbarb" has some Griswold pots handed down that he gets his cook on with. We did see a brand from China that got poor reviews as being cheaply made and the iron was brittle and cracked easily, so stick with American made. China owns enough of our county now anyway.
K&K
 

First October Weekend

This is the first weekend of October, and it would be hotter than Cupcake sitting bareback on a potbelly stove. We didn't let a little heat slow us down any. JB went deer hunting at 0-dark-30 this morning, Kattie Grace was at a lil friends house and Pops was under the weather, so we decided to make a trial run of something different for breakfast today. Buckwheat cakes.

If you've never had them, go out of your way to try them.
Cupcake has had them in the past. She said her father made them one time, she referred to them as "sand paper cakes" apparently they were a little gritty. We decided long ago I'm a far better cook than her family, so she agreed to try them today.
This brand called for an overnight rest of the batter, mixed with whole wheat flour and yeast. I followed the directions and let it rest overnight in the fridge. This morning I mixed the ramaining ingredients and dropped em on the griddle. Cupcake went back for seconds, so I think I dodged the sand paper tag today.

Topped off with butter and backstrap molasses and a cup of Deathwish Coffee, now that will get ya motivated to do some ant family work right there. It will make a return trip to Saturday breakfast.
After we cleaned up the dishes, it was time for another batch of jalapeno jelly. We got our last picking of peppers from the garden, and decided to go with pint jars today instead of jelly jars, because word is out and a jelly jar just wont do when we open a jar up. We got a lucky thirteen pints from our cooking today.

Cupcake put on a roast for dinner, and we used fresh potatoes, fresh carrots, fresh onions from the garden.

After we put dinner on to slow cook, we changed the oil in Cupcake's truck. She was told early on that the oil filter was too hard to get at to change it yourself. Plus Sears at the NRV Mall only charged twenty bucks to change the oil, you cant buy oil for the truck that cheap, so until Sears went out of business we took the trucks there.
I was under her truck earlier this summer and found the oil filter is right behind the front bumper, you can reach it while standing in front of the truck. I guess she was told wrong? It wasn't pretty but we got the oil changed, filter changed, tires rotated and inflated to proper pressure. She is ready for winter.
Dinner is ready, so we sign off. Hope everyone had a great weekend.
K&K