recipe for fresh eggs

This will not be your typical recipe sharing today! :) Where do I start? Well, for starters, it has been a few years of this "recipe" brewing on my mind. 

A few things you should know as you follow this journey with us... one- I was raised a farm girl. 100% mid-west full-time farm family in the heartland of the good ole' USA. Animal life-cycles and harvest time were the patterns that my life revolved around as I went about being a typical little girl, adolescent, and teen gal in the 80's and 90's. Being a farm chic wasn't all that cool for me at times, but I sure did learn lots from my farmhouse mama and my hard-workin sunrise to sunset dad. For many years I couldn't wait to get off that farm, but as I grow, I find I yearn for those quiet and simple farm ways of life. Second- I loved animals as a kid, but as I found town life to suit me well in college, I decided I didn't even want a dog in my house. Well, married and 3 kids later...I have two lap dogs :) Third- I have always been fairly health conscious about what I eat and as I started having kids paid even more attention to what I was buying and from where. Fourth- My middle son came out loving cars and animals. He actually is what convinced me we needed a dog. Then he got me with two. Dang kid. However, through his eyes I have come to see how animals can really have a very positive effect on people. Especially pets. And I remembered how much I enjoy animals too, most the time. Fifth- I love to cook or bake for people. I love breakfast food. I love farm fresh eggs. I love things made with farm fresh eggs. There truly is a huge difference, research to prove it. And last- I really have wanted some sort of "chore" or "thing" my kids could do. Something where they could do the work to care for something, learn about basic animal care and responsibility, and then use their efforts to understand the concept of working and getting paid at this young age.  Okay- that is a lot of background, but it will be helpful to know those things as you follow this crazy chick loving journey!

So back to the beginning. I have been following some backyard chicken farmers for a couple years and love what their journey has brought to their kitchen table. Last spring I was ready to jump on board, but the crazy looks from my husband and the baby about to be born at this house convinced me to wait. Winter time this year I started seeing chickens in my head again. Crazy lady laying in bed dreaming about chickens, I know! I do not want to even tell you how many hours I have read about and researched on chickens. Pretty sure I could be a chicken judge at this year's county fair in the poultry department, but that is a number I will keep to myself to save a little embarrassment (and my husband's!). All the reading and researching had me pretty excited and convinced that THIS was our spring to dip into the backyard chicken business. I narrowed down my choices as to where to find such lovely girls and found the perfect place on-line, MyPet Chickens. After saving some money (not much, chicks are low costly!!) and a couple wonderful informative phone conversations with Les at My Pet Chicken, I had hand selected our flock with just the right mix of breeds I wanted and put an order in for our girls to arrive mid-April! The kids and I were pretty excited! I knew they would be arriving (7 total) via post-office sometime the week of April 16th. Tuesday we got the call. The girls were here! Check out the pics below to catch you up to where we are now...

Before the girls arrived the boys and I had to come up with some rules. We also spent a little time preparing the brooder with a heat lamp, having fresh water ready, and food available. Did you know chicks can survive the first 48 hours of their life with no food or water? They live off the yolk they swallow right before hatching. These chicks would arrive just a day old and ready for some food!

Tuesday morning our wonderful postal service called that our chicks were here. They offered to bring them out early for us and the boys jumped with excitement when they knew they were in-route. Both boys met him at the little postal car and heard the little cheeps for the first time. Their smiles were priceless.

We opened the little box and there they were...2 white silkies, 2 black silkies, and 3 Rhode Island reds. I chose the silkies because they are a very docile laying hen that are also very winter hardy and do well with children. Their calm gentle personalities were exactly what I wanted for all the little hands around here. The Rhode Island reds are classic all American laying hens. They lay a beautiful brown egg and are one of the most reliable chickens for laying purposes. They are here for practical reasons, aka, egg source. They also are very winter hardy and if raised with people, become good pets as well. Not all 7 girls get to stay though. As they get bigger we will choose 3-5 to keep around here and the other ones will find new homes at my family's farm and their flock. Aren't they cute?

First step, get those gals some water! I read that they eat much better if given water first. I had the boys on watering duties within minutes of opening and greeting the girls. Jaxon did a great job helping them figure out how to hold their heads back to swallow.

My original plan was to keep them in our house for the first week. They got adjusted to their little box very quickly. I also read you could just use tuna cans for feeders or opt to buy a $3 feeder to attach to a mason jar. I also read conflicting research about using newspapers vs. pine shavings. I again chose the free newspapers I had laying around here, at first. Since I wanted to do this for as cheap as possible I skipped the feeder and the pine shavings before hand. The girls were here 2 hours and I was already at the feed store buying my $3 feeder piece and $4 pine shavings bag. Those gals are not that smart and kept pooping and standing in the tuna can feeder and the newspapers were too slippery for their weak little legs and made it so they fell often. I had one arrive with a bum leg and wanted her to not have to walk in pain on slippery newspapers. Plus, the shavings are much easier to clean after. Anyways, as I returned from the feed store I walked in my home and smelled...wait for it... chickens. Weird, huh? The girls got moved to the big good-will wood box in the garage in about 30 minutes after that experience.

Carson LOVED his first sight of the chicks. He just calmly stared and smiled back at them and me. I think I have another animal lover on my hands.

Austin has done just what I need him to do. I want these gals to be tame and able to be around kids. Lots of early exposure to kids and handling is just what they need to fulfill those goals. And Austin is my man for the job. He has spent hours already holding each one, talking to them, and watching them. Once the girls got settled into their semi-permanent home in the garage, under the "sun", and with clean bedding they have been the entertainment for this boy especially. Day 1- so far so good. 6 healthy girls, 1 with a bad leg, and a mom with her sanity still.  This recipe is going well so far... stay tuned for day 2!

Baked Parmesan Potatoes

Okay, I started this post with "my favorite time of year for cooking...", but then I remembered I love fall food and winter food and I just can't decide which season I love cooking in best! I do love grilling season too though and I believe it is here to stay! Ya-hoo for early grilling on the back deck! I love to marinade a meat of some sort all day and throw it on the grill quick once we settle in from the outdoors for the day. Some nights though, I just don't have time to cut up veggies to get on the grill in time to be done with the meat.  A quick fix to add to any grilled meat are these yummy and easy potatoes. If you have a cooking stone, even better!

Baked Parmesan Potatoes
3-6 red potatoes (I usually slice up as many potatoes as people I am feeding, 4 mouths to feed means 4-5 potatoes cut up)
fresh grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil
garlic salt
fresh ground pepper


Simply slice potatoes the long way and place on a cooking stone. Sprinkle olive oil over potatoes, shake some garlic salt and fresh ground pepper over each potato, and then sprinkle with fresh grated parm cheese. (This really makes it!) Bake in your oven at 400 for 20-35 min.
Serve hot! And like always, enjoy with your loved ones!

Homemade Playdough

Some of you may know I was a preschool teacher before a stay home mom. I loved teaching the preschool aged little ones and as I did I came across many things I knew I would use with my own kids some day. One of them was this awesome play-dough recipe. I tried many recipes before I landed on this one... it's perfect! Make some with your kids this week and head out to the back deck for some fun finger play time!

Play-Dough

3 cups water

3 Tbsp oil

food coloring of choice

Mix this together in stove top pan and bring to boil. Then in a large bowl have the below mixture combined...

3 cups white flour

1 1/2 cup salt

3 Tbsp Alum (spice)

Pour water mixture over flour mixture and stir. Add 1 Tbsp lotion and knead together until forms soft ball. Store in air tight container and use for a few months!

Have fun!

PB + Kix= happy in my mouth

If you love:

And you love:

Then you will love this easy snack mix! Did I mention it is EASY? This is one of my kids favorites and I also can hardly keep my little hands off of it when my snack box is full of a fresh batch. Throw this together in, seriously, like 15 minutes! A go to snack for my afternoon snackers around here. (and special request from my snacking friend, Emily!! :)

PB & Kix Snack Mix


1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup cooking oil
3 cup Kix cereal
3 cup Rice chex cereal
3 cup wheat chex cereal
1 1/2 cup pretzal sticks
1/2 cups peanuts (optional)

Melt peanut butter with oil over low heat in large roasting pan or large stove top pan. Add cereal and cook 5-10 minutes, stir often. Stir in pretzels and/or nuts. Spread onto cookie sheet to cool or eat warm. Pretty tasty served warm! Store in an airtight container.


*note- I often use a variety of cereals. I usually double the kix and take out the rice or use crispix instead of the rice cereal. Whatever you use, just be sure you use 9 cups cereal of your choice. And like always, Enjoy with your favorite people!

Friday night Pizza!

 For a handful of years our family has used Friday night as a pizza and movie night. I know that the days of having Friday nights at home with all my family members is really not that far off... makes me kind of sad how fast it goes. I wanted to establish some of these family nights sooner rather then later. I know the time will come when we have one kid with a football game and another with a cross country meet and we're all going different directions. It will feel really normal and needed to gather on those few Fridays we have left in between all the games, places, and things that will fill up our Friday nights soon enough. I love having my family home most nights now and making Friday's a special pizza and movie night has been so great. The kids really look forward to it, I don't have to think twice about dinner plans, and I am ready for a good snuggle time around the ole big screen. I love when we all land at the end of the week in our cozy little family room. It's one of my favorite days (and meals) of the week! I say no to many things outside our home on Friday nights, simply because I already have some pretty important plans right here under my own roof. I think it's good to build traditions for your kids and I hope our home will be the place our kids will be bringing their friends for pizza on Friday nights before the big game or after a day at the pool. Until then, I will capture these years with my little clan of Hansen men surrounding me and be ever so thankful for good pizza, good movies, and the best Friday night companions a mom could ask for!!

Now, I won't lie...some nights we splurge and pick up a yummy Papa Murph's pizza, but most the time we make our own. Dough and all! Here is a tried and true pizza dough recipe. Just choose your favorite toppings and enjoy! If you haven't ever made homemade bread, don't let this scare you off. You can totally whip this up!

Mama's Homemade Pizza Dough

I like to use a large ceramic bowl for this. 

1.In your bowl put: 2/1/4 tsp active dry yeast, 1Tbsp brown sugar, 1 1/2 cups warm water. Let this sit for 10 minutes (should be slightly "bubbly").


2. Stir in 1 tsp salt and 2 Tbsp olive oil.


3. Now add 2 1/2 cups flour (sometimes I replace one of those cups with 1 cup whole wheat flour, don't use all whole wheat flour or you will have very heavy dough). This will be a sticky doughy consistency. I prefer a wooden spoon.


4. Here is where it can get tricky. I like to slather up my hands with tubbed margarine, sprinkle flour on my counter, and dump my dough onto this. Sprinkle flour over your dough and start kneading. (you may very well add up to another 1 1/2 cups of flour as you sprinkle more flour and knead). You should knead away until the dough is no longer sticky and you can roll it into a ball.


5. Spray your same big bowl with pan spray and set dough in there. Cover with a tea towel and let raise. Could take anywhere from 1-3 hours...depends on air temp in your kitchen. (really, you can let sit for a short time, but you just won't get a nice light crust and the flavor is better, I think, with complete raising time.) Dough should rise until doubled in size.


6. Punch down your dough and roll it out or push it into your pizza pan.


7. Cover dough with your sauce of choice and toppings. I also like to sprinkle a little garlic salt on dough before I spoon sauce on it.


8. Once pizza is put together, bake at 425 until golden brown cheese appears!

 Get your kids in the kitchen and make it a fun cooking night for all!

 Dough ready to rise

Dough that has risen for about 3 hours

Roll dough out (I prefer to use a stone pan) and cover with toppings. My fave- bbq chicken, my boys fave-pepperoni, my hub's fave- anything meat!

 

Yum! Cook pizza in preheated oven at 425 for 20-30 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

(oh, and I like to take a stick of butter and brush the crust edges the last couple minutes.....mmmmmmm, so good!)

Bran Muffins (your kids will eat!)

I'm always looking for recipes where I can sneak fiber in for my kids. Sometimes it tastes pretty good, sometimes not! I came across this recipe on the back of a cereal box, none the less, and they were a hit! I just changed the white sugar to brown sugar and my boys gobbled them up. A great breakfast muffin...one I make when we are hitting the road early in the morning. Just add a banana or an apple and go!

Cinnamon Streusel Bran Muffins
Topping:
3 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp cold butter or margarine (I use butter, naturally :)
Mix together in small bowl and set aside to sprinkle on top of muffins before baking.


Muffin:
1 1/4 c flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 Bran Flakes cereal
3/4 c milk
1/2 c brown sugar
2 egg whites
1/4 c veg oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c raisins (optional...I leave them out)


In a large bowl combine your milk and cereal and set aside. This needs to get nice and soggy. In another bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. In your large bowl add brown sugar, egg whites, oil, vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir until all combined. Spoon into sprayed muffin pans Sprinkle topping over each muffin and bake at 400 for 18-20 min. Best served warm! (makes 12 muffins)

Chicken Marsala

Valentine's Day is approaching and that means I will be making this special dish for my love. This is Dave's favorites dish at the Brown Bottle, our favorite restaurant that we usually only visit for our anniversary anymore. I've attempted to copy their dish for one similar at home. Need a special meal menu for your sweetie? You should try this! Too easy, really! We enjoy it with a side of twice baked potatoes, homemade rolls, and steamed veggies.

Chicken Marsala

1 package Brown Sauce (brown gravy packet)- make as package instructs but use milk and Marsala cooking wine for liquid instead. Cook in heavy pan until thickens, then refrigerate.

In a baking pan place 2-4 fresh chicken breasts, handful of fresh mushrooms, pour sauce over chicken and mushrooms, and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. 
Bake at 450 uncovered for 25-30 min.