Christmas Morning

We got to bed early Christmas Eve, knowing Deadshot would be up early. We were not disappointed. At 0500 girlfriend was up and going, making sure the rest of the family was too. Speedy came down stairs on auto pilot, we're not sure he woke up for about an hour

But the Chirruns soldiered up and got through their packages pretty quick

Even Fraidy Mutt got a present, and got to play dress up

After we opened our packages, some assembly was required for Cupcake's present

The Chirruns went back to bed, but we stayed up prepping for the family visit. Some baking and some cooking, but we kept to our schedule and got everything done

Around noon, Cousin Eddie and the fam arrived, and a good time was had by all

And to answer the question on everyone's mind....Yes, there was chicken wings on the buffet.
We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Lets get on to this happy new year.
K&K

Pink Eggs and Ham

A short follow up to the smoked ham and chicken post from last Monday. Big man had our country ham in the smoker at the time, and it turned out well enough we thought we should share. The smoker was working just right, just a whisp of blue smoke, and Fraidy Mutt enjoyed the smoke time to grab a nap by the fire.

While the ham was smoking, Cousin Eddie and the family stopped by for a photo op

After some picture shenanigans, the ham hit an internal temp of 140*, so we took it off and gave it a slice

Tender, Juicy and a little salty, just like a country ham should be.  We also whipped up a batch of potato soup for Christmas as well. The potatoes and carrots came from our garden, we even dug the carrots the morning of Christmas eve. Now that's fresh.

And we thought it was funny that we had just mentioned how the ladies had just started laying eggs again, then we found a HUGE egg Tuesday morning. As you can see, a large egg is nothing compared to this egg.

We couldn't even get the carton closed with this one in it. We hope the poor girl who left us this one takes a day off.
..."And now you know, the REST of the story"
K&K

Christmas Eve

We've been taking a lot of pictures today, so we thought we would break up several updates rather than one long one next week.
Deadshot was itching to get at the presents this morning, and Cupcake gave the OK for one package early.

After the package was open, Deadshot wanted to do some baking. Of course we made cookies for Santa.....

Big Man whipped up a pie crust, and we made a strawberry/rhubarb pie

Deadshot got in on the act as well. We had a bit of pie crust left over after we rolled it out, and she got the idea to decorate the pie before we baked it

Kids are off to spend some time with their Paw Paw, more pics tomorrow.
K&K

Last Weekend Till Christmas

We had a busy weekend, last minute gift wrapping and whatnots. We also spent most of our time in the kitchen.
The Chirruns had a death in the family, and Big Man was requested to whip up a cherry cobbler, which we took as high praise.

We also spent the day making cheese balls. Cupcake is like the Big Man when it comes to cheese balls, she does not use a recipe, she goes by look and instinct. These turned out really well, even if it is short on onions (by Light standards).

Deadshot is no fan of onions at all, so we cut out a small ball for her, with no onions

Big man spent the day baking cookies. The new cookie is the cranberry walnut he found a recipe for on the Old Farmers Almanac. They really turned out well, and even had a request for some from Rhulenbarb's parents, which again, was taken as high praise.

After baking, we did a couple outside things, even in the rain. Our ladies had stopped laying eggs over the past month, and we were becoming concerned. Cupcake, being the research specialist she is, found that many people across the country were experiencing the same problem, so we took it as a bird thing. We changed their diet a little, and added alfalfa pellets to their diet, and now we're back to getting eggs. This is one of our second generation ladies, we hatched her this spring, now she's bringing the love to our cast iron skillet on a daily basis.

It was raining, but it was almost 65 degrees out, Big Man changed the oil in Cupcake's truck. Even though she was told her truck was impossible to self change. We are working on the assumption Big Man is a better mechanic than the person who told her it couldn't be done.

Final prep for Christmas, Big Man smoked our country ham. He has never smoked a piece of meat this large before, but we are all standing by for ham biscuits. Follow up report may be in order.

 As always, we ended with "Chicken Wing Sunday" and even Pop came over for a helping or two.
Merry Christmas from our family to yours.
K&K

Christmas Countdown

We're getting to crunch time for Christmas, and The Acre is abuzz with Christmas type stuff, but we also have the usual stuff going on as well.  First off, baking.
Big man has lost his mind in the kitchen lately, and pie crust is the new obsession. It comes in handy for both dessert and dinner. First off, he made a smoked chicken pot pie in a cast iron skillet.

Smoked chicken pot pie before

And after

Pops loves him some oysters, and the local Kroger had them on sale this week, so we bought a quart and made a fish fry one night.

Oyster prep

Fried oysters and fried catfish

 And we made sure canning season is still in, when big man picked a large bucket full of turnips and canned them up during a cold snap. Five and a half quarts will come in handy this winter.

We also made a cherry pie and a batch of cookies for one of our neighbors.

From Scratch cranberry walnut cookies

Cherry pie, with our home canned cherries from this spring

Making the crust all purty

Cupcake has been working on the Mantle 

Fraidy Mutt is exhausted from all the hub-bub

And it wouldn't be the Christmas season without home made fudge. After Sunday breakfast, we whipped up a batch.

And as always, we ended our weekend with "Chicken Wing Sunday". Hope everyone has a stress free countdown to Christmas.
K&K