Cinco De Mayo lite

Normally Cinco De Mayo would be a big deal and a spectacular post for me, but once again, life has got in the way. Time is limited and funds even more so. I usually push for a big potluck for Cinco De Mayo at work, and had planned on bringing Posole this year. It just wasn't within the realm of my pocket book this year, and most of my co-workers felt the same. So, I wondered last night, what can I do to still have Cinco at home? Hmmmm... well, I just happened to have chicken thighgs, Dona Marie mole' sauce, refried beans, rice, peas, chilie powder, peanut oil and onions at home. That could make Chicken mole' with a side of refrieds and Mexican rice. All I lacked was tortilla's. I picked up tortilla's on the way home, and managed a dinner of chicken mole', which turned out just fine. It wasn't as good as my homemade mole' but it still hit the spot!
Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Potato Chip Oven Baked Chicken and more

I was feeling like some comfort food on Monday and this is what I came up with. Potato Chip Oven Baked Chicken:

I crushed one medium bag of Kettle Salt and Pepper potato chips into very fine crumbs and added about a tsp of garlic powder and a half tsp of dried sage and mixed that all together. I took 6 chicken thighs and brushed them with milk and rolled them in the potato chip mixture. I placed them in a baking dish and baked them for 55 minutes. There is no need for salt or pepper because there is plenty on the potato chips. They turned out crunchy and yummy!

Then there was the fresh chard from our garden. The same plants we've had since last year! I chopped them up, removing the stems, sauted them in some olive oil for a bit then added 2 tbsp water and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and cooked until wilted. I sprinkled kosher salt to taste as the last step. This was fresh and light. A nice contrast to the chicken.

I also boiled a half pound of bow tie pasta, then melted a tsp of butter and drizzled with olive oil parmesan cheese and a pinch of kosher salt.

While I was getting all of this ready I grabed 1 1/2 lbs of the sandwich bread dough I had made a couple of days before and baked a loaf of whole wheat bread. I think I over warmed the milk and messed up the yeast a bit. The bread didn't raise as expected, but it did come out pretty good. I enjoyed a slice for breakfast the next morning with some of my homemade apple butter. Yum! More soothing comfort food before a long day at work.

There hasn't been time to post much of anything. Work is crazy, kids are busy, when not sick, and goats are being born, but here are some pictures of the monster 18 lb ham I baked for all 15 of us on Easter. Even after feeding everyone and insisting everyone leave here with a baggie of ham I'm still feeding my family ham and struggling with new ways to cook it and get them to keep eating it! Tonight, I made shepherd's pie with ham! Seems sacralige, but it was good.

Too pooped tonight to blog about much. I'll have pictures of our monster 18 lb ham we had on Easter when I have the energy to load the pictures. I'm just excited to know that we're going to eat at Moonstone Grill in a couple of days. You can check out their menu here: http://www.moonstonegrill.com/menu.php
Yum yum!
The view from the restaurant.....Moonstone beach at sunset

Blatz Beer Ads

A friend of mine brought up a much forgotten beer called Blatz. The mention was a most hilarious one, and I'm still snickering about it. A few days ago, my curiosity got the best of me and I googled Blatz Beer and check out these old ads I found. My how the times have changed!

Buttered Eggs

I ran on to an interesting article at Gourmet.com called No Cook Buttered Eggs. I've never really looked into preserving eggs. The Thousand Year Old eggs I've seen in the Asian Market scare me. I haven't yet been brave enough to try them. Don't worry, I'm sure I will eventually. But I haven't really had a need to preserve eggs yet. The leghorn chickens we had were prolific layers and we had fresh eggs coming out our ears. Then, the fox came, and we had to start out with new chickens. We decided to try some different breeds. The New Hampshire Red, Black Astrolopes and the Auracana's laid a plentiful amount of eggs, until the short days of winter arrived and we ran out of eggs for the first time in a very long time. Just a few months earlier, we were giving them away because we had more then we could consume, and I found myself wishing I had away to extend the life of those eggs so we wouldn't be completely out during the winter months.

In the County Cork, Ireland where butter is king (I'm sure you've heard of Kerry Irish butter) the Irish came up with a way to extend the life of eggs. They would gather the freshly laid eggs, still warm from the hen, and rub them in butter. Apparently this only works when the egg is freshly laid. The porous shell absorbs the butter and the egg will keep for much longer, although I'm not sure for how long, since I can't seem to find that information anywhere.

It's said that the egg takes on the taste of the butter and is most delicious when it's poached. According to Chef Darina Alien of Ballymaloe Cooking School the eggs were kept by the farmers wives and were theirs to sell for "hat pin money". This butter method was also a way to preserve enough eggs for the Easter Sunday egg buffet.

I'll have to spend some time out by the chicken coop this weekend and try this out. Wish me luck!

The gathering instinct from my hunter gatherer ancestory is starting to emerge. I'm starting to see salmon berry flowers bloom, and I'm hoping I can get to the fruit this year before the county comes through and mows them down.

This is a section of the road full of stinging nettles. I'm trying to get brave enough to harvest a bunch of this and make soup, lasagna, and other things with it, as I've read that the nettles are very high in calcium and iron. I may even try making nettle wine, if I can get my act together.
If anyone out there has recipes for stinging nettles I'd love for you to share them with me, and any tips on how to safely gather the mean little plant. I've had my fair share of burns from this stuff while picking black berries and hope to avoid that pain.