It's On!

This past week we did not leave the house. At all. We prepared for the snow, we got snow, so we enjoyed being snowed in together. All except "The Kraken" who got a little cabin fever towards the end, she actually looked forward to going back to school.
That made for a short update this week. We seriously doubt anyone cares that we watched TV and did laundry.

We did capture a picture or two, and we broke down and started planting seeds for the coming year. That alone excited us as much as the big snow last week.

We started the year off with planting rhubarb seeds and ground cherry seeds. We have several rhubarb plants now, but we always bought the root kits, and planted them in the spring. We had never seen rhubarb seeds in the stores, but we did find them on our new favorite seed group on Faceplace.
Their name on Facebook is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. If you're on the Facebook, stop by and give them a "like". If you want to browse their selection of seeds, check them out here.
Baker Creek Seeds
Tell em Arlee's Acre sent ya by.
Getting back to our seeds, we bought a half dozen or so peat pot starter boxes that contain 36 starter pods. We think that will get us through until March at least? We will keep you updated. Ground cherries are one of the new this year items on our "to plant" list. We hear that they spread out very well, produce a lot of fruit, and the fruit comes in pods which are supposed to be chicken proof. This sounds like just what we need. So we planted two dozen rhubarb and two dozen ground cherry pods. They are soaking up sunshine, we will be sure to share the progress.

And speaking of birds, our guinea birds have been having a battle of wits with a large hawk all week. We guess since the big snow, hawks are looking for an easy meal. Our little watchbirds have been taking to the top of the coops, and flying in to the trees. We can only guess that they are on combat air patrol overwatch, they've never done all this before so we're learning as we go too.

"Diet Chirp" got in on the action as well.

Cupcake shot a couple of melting snow pictures this week.

Future home of our ground cherries

And we did have one food related note. Last week we posted our German chocolate pound cake. Pound cake as a general rule dries out pretty quick. Ours did, because we lack a container large enough to keep a pound cake in. Big Man, being the highly trained problem solver that he is, decided to try our regular mayonnaise chocolate cake, and use the German icing to top it with. Now we're on to something. We managed to keep it covered, and not a bite of it went to waste. We don't know why everyone doesn't make their own frosting.

We ended the week with wings. But we almost didn't. We switched up from the packs of Perdue wings to a brand that the local Kroger sells. There is not quite as many wings in the pack, but the ones in the pack are meatier and have a better flavor, we think. So we have been popping in on Saturdays after our date nite, and picking up a couple of packs.
This week we stopped in, and got behind a family headed to the chicken section. We patiently fell in behind them and waited as they looked at the chicken like a cave man discovering fire for the first time. We've never seen such thought put in to a cooler of meat. Once the decision was made, they started loading up every pack of wings in the cooler. Apparently they have invited a heavy weapons platoon over for Superbowl Sunday? Big Man started to panic, but as the chicken Gods would have it, they left two packs of wings in their wake. All is right with the world.
K&K

We Asked For It

Last week we said we were waiting on the big one. This week it came. We got to experience the Sheeple coming unstuck at grocery stores, weathermen fighting over predicted amounts, and endless memes on Facebook predicting the end of times.
We pretty much just did business as usual around The Acre. We ate really well, so most of the update this week is food related. Nothing says beating mother nature better than eating well.
We ended up with around 18 inches all total. The wind picked up Saturday and drifted it around quite a bit, so measuring was not an exact science. Big Man has rubber muck boots that are knee high, and the snow was at the top of the boots. So there.

When the pundits started with the forecast models, we started planning our meals. The first thing Cupcake requested was a throwback to Big Man's baking beginnings. Peach cobbler. We canned several quarts of fresh peaches in the spring, but with the expanding menu of baked goods around here, we've gotten away from cobbler. We fixed that.

Then just before the storm hit, Fed Ex arrived with an early birthday present for Cupcake. We could have baked any cake for her birthday, but Big Man went a little outside the mainstream. Cupcake loves here some bleu cheese and we have been buying chunks of it at The Bread Basket in Floyd. One day when surfing Amazon, Big Man ran across an entire wheel of bleu cheese from France, some town where the stuff was invented? There wasn't much research into the origins of the cheese, but there was an order for a five pound wheel. It arrived a few hours before the snow started to fall. Big Man sliced it up into around half pound chunks, bagged it and froze it, except for the block Cupcake is currently snacking on.

That same day, we offered a whole brisket to Thor. Cupcake has gotten as bad as Fraidy Mutt, she just couldn't wait for the picture before she had to dig into the first slice.

Then on the first day of the storm, Cupcake whipped up a batch of her grandmother's potato soup from the fresh taters we have stored up in the basement.

And while she was doing that, she pointed out a Facebook recipe for a German chocolate pound cake that she thought would go well with the soup. Since cake is in the Big Man's wheelhouse, we spent the day in the kitchen together.

Nailed it

Big Man knocked this one out of the park. We might have to bake one of these for the family reunion this year.
Saturday we couldn't get out for our regular Dude's Drive In, so Cupcake put on a pot roast and we slow cooked it all day. We are truly blessed.

Then Cupcake fried up a batch of potatoes to go with the roast.

Being trapped in the house gave The Kraken a chance to experiment in the kitchen. She came in Saturday and asked to make a batch of snow ice cream. She enjoyed making it, and eating it.

Then Sunday, Big Man found a recipe for scratch made chocolate chip cookies. We had all the fixings. We will never buy cookie dough again.

Sunday is wing day, and last week we mentioned one of our hens keeps getting up on the porch rail and digging in the planter box. We considered fresh wings to put an end to the digging. This week, the guinea birds flew up in the planter boxes.

 We guess we will have to get good with it.
We ended the week with wings. Store bought.
K&K

A Little Taste of Spring

We had another mini snow event at The Acre this week, but we're still waiting for "the big one" to happen. We are afraid that after all the signs of a bad winter that we documented, and it's yet to happen, that we will be waiting until July to plant our tomatoes. We would rather get winter over with and jump into spring as soon as possible. Tractor Supply had their garden seeds out on display already, so we bought a bag full of seeds. We have the itch to plant.
There was drama at The Acre this week as well. Not so much AT The Acre as we had to go to town for it, but it gets a mention this week.
We were given a gift card for Southern States two Christmases ago. We have been trying to use it, but every time we go in the place, they treat us like they don't need our money. This week was the last straw. Big Man went to town to do some trading, and took our camp stove propane tank along to fill it up. The plan was to fill our propane tanks with the gift card, then go elsewhere for our propane needs when it was used up.
Big Man hit the parking lot and found the store empty of customers. He notified the clerk he needed the tank filled, and the clerk paged "the guy" to come help. Big Man stood around with one thumb in his mouth, the other stuck up his ass playing switch for almost thirty minutes without seeing anyone from the business. This entire waiting period was without other customers coming to the store, so Big Man packed up his tank and notified the people we would be taking our business elsewhere. After a verbal judo match and a request for a manager, Big Man got cash money for the remainder of the gift card. We shall never darken their doors again.
Now on to our regularly scheduled update.  Since seeds are out and garden planning has begun, Big Man felt like bringing a little spring into our lives this week. He thawed out one of the bags of frozen rhubarb, bought a quart of strawberries from the market and made a pie. Store bought strawberries are OK for baking, but we sure miss our fresh from the garden strawberries. We will suffer through until spring.

This batch did not get mushy, maybe we're getting the hang of it?

Tastes like homemade love

It was just what the doctor ordered to get our minds right about the garden. But before the garden gets planted, we will turn our attention to hatching new chickens. We have been doing our research on breeding, and found out that we have the ingredients to hatch "olive eggers." We will be mixing up a brew to do just that. We consulted the Farmers Almanac and found that the best days to put eggs on for hatching will be March 22,23. All we need now is the chickens to cooperate. You can see the difference in the next picture.

We're simple people, excited by simple things

The one on the left is a blue, one on the right is olive. We currently have two girls who lay olive eggs. We want to try and get that number up over a dozen. The blue eggs have become a customer favorite at the roadside table. For the first time in six weeks since we've offered our eggs for sale, we managed to sell out. It seems like our girls are getting a word of mouth buzz going on, so it's time to expand our empire.
We have one bird that defies us at every turn. She insists on getting into the planter box and scratching the dirt out. We are either going to have to get good with it, or have fresh wings one Sunday. It could go either way right now.

The rest of the birds (the ones we don't want to kill on sight) have been getting a morning treat of boil in the bag rice. They look forward to it, and mill around the drop zone every morning patiently waiting.

And speaking of critters patiently waiting, here is Fraidy Mutt on Thor's day, waiting for her taste of steak.

"I sat and everything, now where's my piece of steak?"

We had a new breakfast on the menu this week. Every morning Cupcake takes the Kraken to school and by the time she gets home, Big Man has breakfast ready for her. One morning inspiration hit and a combination biscuit, ham and egg combo was made.
Big Man rolled out his biscuit dough thin, lined a muffin pan with the dough, then added sliced ham and a fresh egg, and then baked it. It was good, and easy to eat with your hands. We recommend it to anyone looking for a new twist on breakfast.

We ended the week with snow, and wings.

Still waiting on the "Big One"

Angry wings, Chapstick and Zantac. It's how we roll

K&K

Beef and Birds

This week we had a little snow. We get excited around The Acre when it snows so even the smallest amount we mention. One of the reasons is, when it snows, we cook like we're snowed in. So this week we put a hurt on some beef. Both of us have a "go to" beef meal. Big Man smokes brisket and Cupcake slow cooks beef roasts.
We start our pictures this week with "Diet Chirp". He has taken to flying up on top of the coops and waking the neighborhood up. We're not sure what has gotten in to him, but we do live on a farm so we are rolling with it.

We mentioned snow, this is the first time the guinea birds have been out in it. They were less than impressed when we opened up the coop.

NOPE!!

And along the lines of birds, we ran out of chicken wing sauce last Sunday, so we had to make another gallon this week. Because we always end the week with wings.

This batch is angry, so "The Beamer" will probably have to stick to brisket next time.
And speaking of brisket, we had some of that too.

Fraidy Mutt comes unstuck when Big Man lights the smoker. She knows there's going to be juicy meat treats at dinner time. She waited very patiently this week for her slice.

Cupcake also does big pieces of meat, and she did one this week in our new cast iron skillet that Santa brought us.

And since gourmet meals don't just cook themselves, some prep work goes in to them. This week we "beat our meat" to prep next weeks Thor's offering, steak.

Big Man had free time again this week. He saw a recipe for scratch made gingerbread. We had all the ingredients, so he gave it a try. The batter fell in the middle, but it had a very good taste. We will probably keep this one around.

Cupcake had her grandmother's recipe for a lemon glaze that she poured over pound cake. We made that to put over the gingerbread. It's a shame "The Outlaw" is batshit crazy and sided with the wrong daughter, he really liked this stuff.

We ended the week with wings.
K&K