Friday Food Porn

It was a gorgeous day, and I spent most of it outside in front of the oven.  I baked a few loaves using a recipe I found at Farmgirl Fare for Farmhouse White.  I love this recipe, and I'll be using it again very soon.  The bread is soft, chewy, and moist.  I also branched out a bit from my regular thin crust masterpieces and baked a Sicilian style pizza.

Getting her all fired-up

I love, love, love my new infrared thermometer.  It let's me know when my baby is ready to go.  Not too hot, not too cold.  It's super-helpful  See the tiny red dot inside the oven?  Neat, huh?

Bread goes in, door goes on

Loaf #1

 I couldn't help myself, and I immediately tore into loaf #1.  Delicious.

Check out that beautiful bread bottom.

Loaf #2 went to my favorite neighbor.

 This was my first try at Sicilian style pizza, and it turned out beautifully.  I put the sauce on top of the cheese, and it kept the thick crust from getting soggy.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a pic after I baked it.

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 This was dinner last night.  Ben's co-worker gave us a dozen eggs from his backyard hens (our chicks arrive in about 10 days!), so I made a special quiche.  Homemade crust, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, mozzarella, goat cheese, parsley, sage, rosemary, oregano.

On days like this, I dream of all the canning of tomatoes and drying of herbs I'll do this summer.  I didn't get a chance to put up much food last summer, but this year will be different.  We've been using our mud oven a lot lately, and we can really cut down our food costs by using all home-grown ingredients on our pizzas and such.  Also, it will just plain taste better.

Dog, Toad, Chicken

Weekend Recap

We worked hard, and we played hard last weekend.  Two of our good friends came down from the mountain for a visit Saturday.  We fired up the mud oven that I built last summer (she still needs a name), had a pizza feast, and went on a little adventure on the Kubota.  On Sunday Ben worked on the hen house while I prepared some vegetable beds.

 

Today in the Kitchen Garden

We have a personal kitchen garden in the backyard between the dog's yard and the woods.  It is my new favorite place.  Ben and I moved into this house last June, so we put in all the beds last fall, and this our first time planting a kitchen garden at this house on Memory Lane.  We used to grow miscellaneous vegetables in the asparagus field, but there won't be enough room there this year.  It will also be a lot easier to manage the garden now that it's in our backyard.  I had so much fun today.  I planted Amish Snap peas, Mokum and Scarlet Nantes carrots, and Detroit Dark Red beets along the fence.

Thurgood Morsel kept me company.

 

It Happens Every Spring

My heart skipped a beat as I flipped up my shovel at the very end of the last bed I sowed today.  Up with the scoop of dirt came a huge toad.  He was at least eight inches long from toe to toe.  Too bad he only escaped with three feet intact.  I didn't think he would make it at first, but I'm too squeamish to perform a mercy killing, so I abandoned that particular piece of earth to allow Mr. Toad to gather his bearings.  A few moments later, he crawled out of his hole with great determination.  I hope he survives, but if not, he'll make a great meal for some other farm or forest friend.

I try to make light of the situation, but maiming an animal or taking a life is not something that I can just brush off.  I still remember the toad I stabbed with a pitch fork last spring.  I was mulching blueberry bushes and the poor guy wasn't as lucky as this year's spring toad.  Instead of destroying a limb, I forked him in the heart.

See the lower right foot?  No you don't.  Toad, I apologize.

We Have THE Best Neighbors

Our next door neighbor used to keep Rhode Island Reds.  His coop is now vacant, and he has passed the torch to us.  We are now the CEOs of the Memory Lane Egg Production Association.  Too cool.  He gave us our first coop accutrement.

I briefly mentioned our intentions to can a lot of food this summer, and the same neighbor gave me these jars this morning.  Eleven of the twelve have never even been used.  Thank you!