Thanksgiving Update

Any holiday that involves food is going to be a big event here at The Acre. Thanksgiving is the Super Bowl of cooking for us. We are truly blessed and that did not escape us this week. We fried a turkey, Cupcake had never had fried turkey before moving in, and she loves it. This year we broke in a new frier pot, since last years fried turkey ended in an "incident".

The bird turned out crispy skin, tender juicy meat. We had all the trappings of the holiday, mashed potatoes from our canned potatoes, home made cranberry sauce, stuffing in cast iron bake ware and from scratch pumpkin pie.

Cupcake used leftover crust dough to make the artsy fartsy leaf designs for the middle.
While we were cooking Thursday, we also took time to winterize the windows. Uncle Billy built the house, and he left plenty of ventilation around the windows, doors and between the logs. I've been four years sealing drafts and still have plenty to find. Yay us!
Back to the winterizing, Cupcake saw "window quilts" on one of her Facebook sites, and I remembered I had several hand made quilts my grandmother made and gave me years ago. These add a old country feel, plus has made a big difference in the temp in the 'great room' where the thermostat is located.

Big Man, being a geek at heart, added a geek touch to the bedroom window.

Being as blessed as we are, we always try to find an older person to fix a plate for, or Cupcake for years would fix an entire meal for the Sheriff's Office. This year we found a new way to give back to the community, and Big Man is working on it while this update is being written. Details on the next posting.
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.
K&K

All Food, All The Time

We are truly blessed here at The Acre. We have a roof over our heads and shelves full of food. With our first winter storm bearing down on us this week, all the hard work we put in to stocking the shelves is about to pay off. Let them eat cobbler!

Actually one of the things the big man has recently found is pie crust. It really isn't that hard to make, and the spirit of the old folks who had no idea what a store bought pie crust was lives on through our mixer. This weekend we made a crust and instead of a regular pie, we made mini pies, with cherry pie filling we canned last spring, and applesauce we made a month or so ago, for Speedy. Deadshot prefers hers empty, so we made a few fried crusts for her.

Another treat we have, every weekend, is chicken wings. A while back we posted a question on the wall to see if anyone would want to see how we make what we make. Both regular followers must have responded yes, so we try to give the masses what they demand. Big Man is going to share how he makes his chicken wing sauce. It's not a recipe because we dont use a recipe, but we can show you whats in it, and general amounts if we can.

We start off with two tablespoons of butter, melt it in a pot, then we add about a half bottle of Crystal hot sauce and about a quarter bottle of Tabasco Buffalo sauce. Then its a dash of this and a dab of that. Paprika, parsley, garlic powder, Slap Ya Mama, poultry seasoning. The we add some liquid stuff, just a splash of A-1, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, liquid smoke. We also used a hand full of fresh herbs from Cupcake's herb garden that we moved in doors this fall. It's really adding a nice homy scent to the living room, and fresh herbs year round rocks out loud.

Fresh Rosemary, basil and oregano, bruised then toss it in the pot. We finish off with two secret ingredients (at least they were, probably still will be) which is bourbon and honey. Actually we ran out of bourbon last Sunday and we had to substitute Scotch this weekend. Our usual flavor is Red Stag from Jimmy Beam. The second secret is honey. Our sauce has a sweet taste when you first bite the wing, then the heat hits for the finish. We are ruined on anyone elses wings/sauce we fear.

As for the wings themselves, we use Perdue, and cut them in half prior to cooking. We let them warm to room temp, then drop them in a deep frier at 375* for 27 minutes. This makes them crispy without drying the wing out. Dump the wings in the bowl with a lid, pour the sauce over the wings, do the Elvis 'Hippie Hippie Shake', uncover and enjoy.

Our last treat of the weekend was home made caramel. Big man does not like caramel, but he nearly ate the whole jar of this batch. Caramel chunks stick in your teeth and take forever to chew, but this way of making the caramel gives it the consistency of a thick pudding, and you just cant beat it on a fresh sliced apple.

So that was our weekend. This week is geared toward Thanksgiving, and we have a long list of things to be thankful for this year. We hope everyone is ready for the first storm of the year, and look forward to fried turkey updates in a few days.
K&K

One Week Till Turkey Day

This past week was another slow one. I got to smoke a couple of meals with the smoker, deer proofed the fruit trees in the garden and baked a cobbler for a neighbor one night.

Speedy killed another buck, but he donated that one to a family who has yet to get any deer meat in the freezer, like we said, he's a good egg.
One of the meals I smoked up was deer backstrap wrapped in bacon. Backstrap is not a very thick piece of meat, so it only took a couple hours of slow smoking to bring it up to temp, but it sure did taste good when I did.

Backstrap and bacon before

End result, mighty tasty

Smoked chicken with a three day rub

Peach and Pear cobbler

We tried a new thing this week, home made pie crust. With the leftover smoked chicken picked off the bone, we were looking for something new to do with the meat. Big man thought, chicken pot pie. We searched the usual suspect pages for a recipe for pie crust, and all the pages called for "two pre-made pie shells. That just wont do for The Acre.
Big man experimented with flour and butter until he hit on a mix that turned out right. It rolled out right, and baked up right. Once again, this was far better than store bought and we look forward to making pumpkin pie with our new found pie crust mixture. The smoked chicken pot pie will be a new addition to The Acre.

No awards for presentation, but no leftovers either

Deer proofing the fruit trees came a little late for this one

This is a pear tree we planted in the front yard for future shade. I never imagined a buck would get that close to the house, especially with two highly trained killers lurking behind each window and door. I was wrong. I expect this tree will be dead as a hammer next spring.  We have six more inside the fenced in garden, and the fence is electric. I thought this would keep deer out, since it has kept the garden safe the past four years. This year do to a lack of acorns, the deer are bold and unpredictable, and have been in the garden all fall going after the corn stalks we didnt use for decoration.
I didnt want the fruit trees in there to end up like the pear tree out front, so I rigged up a quick fix.

The white string is really electric fence wire, and the fence is on. Any buck wanting to scrape our fruit trees is gonna get a shocking experience. I guess we will just have to keep the ones with horns hanging on the wall of the garage?

2012 bow kill in a place of honor

We hope to have a weekend update, if nothing else, we will share chicken wing Sunday.
K&K

Holiday Prep

This week was a slow one until the weekend hit. Not a lot going on and there is only so many ways to flesh out being and shack bitch.  Friday was my cleaning day and  I decided to smoke a rack of ribs while I was cleaning.

Brown mustard and brown sugar rub before

Fall off the bone tender at the end

We are still getting fresh collard greens from our garden so I picked a batch to go with the ribs. Add a pot of my home made baked beans and we had a pretty darn good start to the weekend.
Saturday was a warm day so we took advantage and hung the Christmas lights. I remember as  lad that we had the old school lights with the big bulbs, Cupcake and I found just such lights a couple years ago, and these are the ones we use. They show up really well from the roadway, as we live about a quarter mile off the hard road. We don't turn them on until dark on Thanksgiving night, but it's good to have them up before it gets crazy cold. Cold does not bother me at all, but Cupcake likes to help and I think of her comfort.
Cupcake also wanted to try making from scratch cranberry sauce. We bought a couple bags of berries and gave it a whirl. We know everyone gets tired of hearing it's better than store bought, but this really is. Of course we canned a few jars after we got it made, it's how we do at The Acre.

Two bags of store bought cranberries, orange juice and water

Cooked down, then it's just like making jelly or pie filling

Never buy store bought again

We let Pops try a bit before Sunday breakfast, and he liked it so well we decided to finish the jar with breakfast.
And speaking of breakfast, Sunday was a real treat thanks to Deadshot. I fried up one of the tenderloins from her first deer kill, and made tenderloin gravy. It was a big hit.

Tenderloin and butter, onions and butter

The skillets on the left are the egg skillets. Pop and I like fried onions in our breakfast eggs, while cupcake is an over easy kind of chick.
After breakfast, Deadshot wanted to do some cooking. She found a recipe for a meatball casserole she wanted to try, so the girls had some mommy/daughter time while I deer proofed our fruit trees. Deadshot is carrying on the cast iron skillet cooking tradition.

Deadshot rocking the cast iron skillet

Three words:  Fab  You Less!!

It was a really good meal, not only can she hunt with the big boys, but she can rattle a pot and pan like a champ too.
Hope everyone has a great week.
K&K

Her Name Is Now Deadshot

Here at The Acre we are over run with deer. Speedy put one down earlier and some of the meat has already found it's way into the smoker. Today marks a proud day for both Cupcake and I, Kattie Grace has joined the ranks of country chicks who hunt.
Girlfriend has her a bow but it's not up to snuff to take a deer (yet) and she has expressed an interest in killing some of the deer in the yard. Today after school Speedy spotted a five point buck in the field near the house and offered his muzzle loader. Speedy loaded it and helped Kattie with the stalk. Girlfriend took a position about 60 yards from the deer, and never hesitated. One shot, one kill.

In keeping with the Green Arrow theme this season, and since everyone mentioned on the blog has a nickname, she shall forever be known as "Deadshot". (at least until she kills one with a bow, then I told her we could change her name to "Canary" )
Back to the story at hand. The rule here at The Acre is, you kill it, you clean it. I must admit I expected a whole lot of dry heaving and the phrase "EWWWW" to be a regular thing, but to Deadshot's credit, she dug right in and got her hands bloody. She was not strong enough to cut through the ribs and Speedy and I helped with the grosser parts of the butchering, but Deadshot took an active roll in the whole process, and her mother and I couldn't be more proud. A extra shout out to Speedy, who took brotherly love to the next level the entire episode. He's growing in to a fine young man and we ain't afraid to say so.

Cupcake and I now have two more deer hams for smoking, and Deadshot even said she was willing to try some of HER deer when I fix it. Sunday morning will now include tenderloin gravy, as is tradition after the fresh kill. Congratulations Deadshot, we're very proud of you!
K&K

A Week of Smoked Meat

This week was a slow week for things to do around The Acre. With free time comes gourmet meals, and by gourmet we mean smoked meat. Big man found a beef roast at the local Kroger and smoked it up one night.

We also did two chickens. The first chicken went for chicken and dumplins (in at cast iron pot, of course)

and the second went for a straight up dinner. But we had a lot left over so there may be another dumplins meal in our future, or another casserole. We are versatile like that.

This weekend Speedy took his cousin out deer hunting and the lad put down his first deer ever. Killed with a bow, so Speedy has passed his how to with a bow on to a new family member. He also butchered the deer himself with no help from the big man. It was a proud event all around.

Katie Grace had all friend over for a sleepover, and there was the traditional Sunday morning breakfast. After we cleaned up it was off to dig potatoes for Pop.

While we were over by the barn we dug out our Christmas stuff from storage, and the next warm day will be hang the lights day. We don't turn them on until Thanksgiving night, but why wait till the coldest day of the year to hang em?
We ended the weekend with Chicken Wing Sunday, as usual. We also had wings Friday night as a special celebration, it was our honeymoon meal. We got married Friday morning.
Hope everyone has a great week.
K&K (The Lights)

First weekend November

We picked up the pace around The Acre this weekend. Pops scored a bag of apples from a neighbor lady who has a fruit stand, so that means more applesauce.

 We added eight more pints to the pantry. I had a little more deer chili left over than I estimated, I figured about three gallons but ended up with three and a half after dinner Friday night. They went into the canner along with three quarts of leftover greens from the week.

We also baked up a batch of banana bread and corn bread. 

Sunday morning we started our usual breakfast, but when we went out to start the grill up, we had a couple unexpected visitors in the yard.

After breakfast there was a quick trip to town to do some trading for the kiddos, then it was on to a weekend project.

When I was a small chirrun, around six or so, there was a small log home in Cambria where I grew up on the corner of our street. We caught the bus to school in front of the house, but on the side of the house there were two large chestnut trees. My neighborhood posse would spend the morning and afternoons after school climbing these chestnut trees, much to the chagrin of the old couple who owned the property. According to Pops, the old man brought him two chestnut trees that had sprouted up next to his big trees and told Pop to plant these for me to climb on our own property, then he cut down the two trees on his property. Forty years later, Pop's trees are about the size of the old guys trees when I climbed them.

So keeping the forty year tradition alive, Cupcake and I dug up two sprouts that had started up from the big trees, and moved them on to The Acre. With any luck, when Speedy is our age his kids can climb on these.

We ended the weekend with chicken wings, as usual.
Hope everyone has a great week.
K&K