Sunday, April 28, 2013

Egg Candler Winner

    One of the winners of the Egg Candler giveaway was kind enough to send me a picture of her and her prize and I thought maybe you all would enjoy seeing it too.

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Destiny W. from Oklahoma and her Egg Candler she won from our giveaway!
   If you were also a winner and would like to send in a picture of you with your egg candler, please send me a photo and I'll add you to this page.




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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Gravitt's Goulash

   I don't know about your family, but my family LOVES goulash.  It's one of those "feel good" kinda meals.  It ain't fancy but it sure is delicious and filling.  Anyhow, here is how I make it.





Gravitt's Goulash
 
                                                  2 lbs. hamburger meat        
       1 T. garlic powder          
3 c. water
  2 cans tomato sauce (15 oz. ea.)   
         2 cans petite diced tomatoes (15 oz. ea.)
 2 T. soy sauce      
      1 T. seasoning salt         
 2 cups elbow macaroni/macaroni shells

   In a large pot, brown the hamburger meat.  When fully cooked, do not drain off the fat.

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    Stir in the chopped onions and cook the onions for a few minutes with the hamburger meat.  Stir in the tomato sauce, tomatoes, water and all the spices.  Cook over low heat for 17 minutes.  As the sauce cooks, cook the macaroni according to the package directions.  Once the macaroni is cooked, drain and pour in with the sauce.  Let the flavors "meld" together for about 10 minutes and then serve.  
 




We love to serve this goulash with a side of Au Gratin Potatoes and some Homemade bread.  They go so well together!!!
 
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This recipe was featured on:  Home to 4 Kiddo's "Try a new recipe Tuesday"

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Orange Chicken

Orange Chicken

6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate (Do not add water)
                                              4 T. brown sugar
                                              1 tsp. white vinegar
                                              1/2 T. salt
                                              3 T. ketchup

     Mix all the ingredients together and pour into your crock-pot.  Now take 2 large cans of chicken and drain the liquid out.  Put the chicken into the crock-pot and stir so all the chicken pieces are fully coated with the orange sauce.  Turn the crock-pot onto high and cook for 2 hours.

     Serve over a bed of brown rice with a side of vegetables. I also love to sprinkle on some chives! Yum!


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I shared this recipe on the following blogs:
Little House in the Suburbs

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Freezing Eggs

    Our hens are egg laying machines.  We have a few hens that will even lay twice a day.  They are just really happy girls and love to lay eggs for us every single day and we really do not have that many hens.  Anyway, we always have an abundance of farm fresh eggs.  We give some away, we sell some, we pickle some and we eat a lot but we still pretty much have eggs coming out of our ears!  What to do, what to do?  Freeze them, that's what!

How to Freeze Eggs

         Freezing eggs is really quite easy.  What we do is take 10 farm, fresh eggs and crack them all into a bowl.  Next, whisk them up really good or use a fork to mix them up like you would do if you were making scrambled eggs.  
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The eggs all mixed up.

Once they are whipped up good, pour them into a quart sized baggie.  Try to get all the air out of the bag and label it.  
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10 eggs in the baggie ready to go into the freezer.

We did 4 packages this way for a total of 40 eggs in 4 bags.  We laid the 4 bags flat in a large cake pan and put them into the freezer.  The next day, after they are all frozen completely, you can remove the cake pan and just put the baggies back into your freezer.  
      To defrost a bag, we just put it the refrigerator overnight.  To use, we generally just scramble up the whole bag but if you just want to use a few eggs at a time, 3 T. of mixed egg equal to 1 egg.  It is great to take on camping trips.  Once defrosted, use the eggs within 2-3 days.



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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Praying for Boston

    Once again, our great country is experiencing an act of terrorism.  My heart is heavy and sad.  It is this week, 18 years ago, on April 19, 1995, that the OKC bombings occurred.  Then there was 9/11.  Our country is strong and our people are supportive but I hate that things like this are what often pulls us all together.  Our country is indeed united in praying and caring for all affected by the Boston bombings.  God be with you.  God bless us all!


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Friday, April 12, 2013

Our 1st Time to Home Butcher

   We butchered our first raised animal yesterday.  We butchered a pig we purchased when he was just a few months old and have fed and raised him for over a year.
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This is about the size he was when we got him, around 9 weeks old.
 The whole purpose of getting the pig was to raise him to be butchered to feed our family.  We all knew it but this is the part of homesteading that is not easy.
     That pig was ornery.  Numerous times he caused us problems.  We got angry over him soooo many times but in the end, it was still hard to do.  I am not a totally "soft" person.  I have worked in the medical field and have seen many things (surgeries, autopsies, death).  I did animal rescue for over 10 years and have had to put animals down ourselves for humane reasons.  I know that meat comes from animals and the pig will serve its purpose by providing meat for our family but still....
     I guess I just got sad because I was so used to seeing that pig every single day.  I made sure that I was not the one responsible for its care because I knew I would be the one to be attached and not any of the men folk in the house.  But still, every time I went outside or drove up to the house, there was that big pig squealing at us.  I didn't get attached...I got used to him.  Will I miss him?  In a way.  Will I enjoy eating the meat?  You betcha!  Am I not cut out for this type of life?  Sure I am.  I do not think there is anything wrong with showing compassion or having a heart.  I think when one loses their compassion and has no regard for life at all is when there is trouble.  All life has value and his value was to feed our family.   Thank you Mr. Pig.  Well done.  Well done!




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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Happy 1 Year Anniversary

   Wow!  It is so hard to believe but one year ago, I started this blog.  I cannot believe how quickly time flies.  There has been many times that I have neglected the blog and for that I am sorry.  Writing it and having the Facebook page and visiting with you all has helped me more than I am sure has helped you.  I have met so many wonderful people and you all mean the world to me.  And the stuff I have learned!  Man, oh man!  Thanks for hanging with me for the past year and hope we will grow and learn more from each other this next year.
   Here are some facts from the first year of my blog and FB page:
              In one year (365 days), I have written 129 posts.  That equals to me writing one post every 3 days for a year.  Not as bad as I thought.  :-) In those 129 posts, I've received 1459 comments.  Gee whiz!  Now that is impressive.  Do you know what that tells me?  It tells me how engaged and responsive my followers are.  I average ELEVEN comments per post.  That is so amazing and wonderful.  Thank you for communicating with me and being interested in what I have had to say.
    Again, thank you everyone!




Monday, April 8, 2013

Homemade BIG Biscuits and Chocolate Gravy

       If you are from the South, more than likely, you know EXACTLY what chocolate gravy is and have found memories of your mama or your grandma making this for you as a child.  If you're not from the South, you may be wondering what it is.  Well, it's exactly what it sounds like...chocolate in gravy form.  You use it like you would sausage gravy or pepper gravy.  Some prefer it over toast, some over bread, but at our house, my men folk prefer it over big homemade biscuits. I was going to take a picture of my hubby and boys enjoying the breakfast but my camera shutter doesn't move as fast as they were shoveling the food into their mouths.  It was truly a site to see.  
 
 



Big Homemade Biscuits
                       
 
3 c. flour
2/3 c. milk
1/2 c. shortening
 1/4 c. butter, softened
1 egg
3 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda 
                                        
                                                                                   

            Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Sift your flour with a flour sifter.  Add all your ingredients into a large bowl and stir with a spoon.  Do not use a mixer.  Once it is stirred up, dump onto a floured surface and knead the dough about 20 times gently.  Roll out the dough to about 1/4-1/2" thick and cut with biscuit cutter. 
 
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Place on an ungreased jelly roll pan or cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes.  Take a stick of margarine and using the end of the stick, smear butter over the top of the biscuits as soon as they come out of the oven.  Makes 12 big biscuits. 

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Chocolate Gravy

2 c. milk
1 c. Splenda (or sugar)
1/4 c. cocoa 
3 T. flour
1 T. butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla

                                                          
             Whisk the dry ingredients together in a small sauce pot.  Add in the milk and whisk until there are no lumps.  Cook over medium heat, stirring gently constantly, for 7 minutes.  Remove from heat and immediately stir in the margarine and vanilla.  Serve over biscuits with a dollop of butter on top of them all.  Makes 3 cups of gravy. 

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Biscuits with chocolate gravy and a dollop of butter on top.

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Biscuits with chocolate gravy!  Yum, yum, yum!


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Sunday, April 7, 2013

New Additions to Our Homestead

    It has been a busy past week or two at our homestead.  We have added to our farm by leaps and bounds and are so happy with the additions and improvements.

    Our first two new additions are American Mammoth Donkeys.  We got "Minnie" and her foal "Jasper".  They came from Greenwood, AR and had a 2 hour trip to arrive at our place.

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"Minnie" right after coming off the trailer.  



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"Jasper"


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"Minnie" and "Jasper" hanging out and getting used to the place.

    We have a Boer nanny goat named "Bo" who we plan on mating with our Pygmy Goat "Patches".

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"Bo"


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"Patches" checking things out.

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"Patches" rockin' his "do".
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10 baby chicks

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Our duckling.  Don't you just love his "fro"?  ;-)

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Duckling swimming.
And if you missed the post on our baby Nigerian goat, please read it here.  He is so TINY and darling!

  

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Another blog you might enjoy:
The Chicken Chick
The Gathering Spot

Winners of the Give-away

   Winners of the Ovaview Egg Candler giveaway  are:

  1. Lisa InFallbrook
  2. Helen Cates
  3. Destiny Wright
  4. Angie Napier Giddens
  5. LuAnn Braley
  6. Brandon Dee
   Congratulation to each one of you!

  I have sent an email to each of the winners with instructions on redeeming the prize.  If you are a winner, please check your inbox of the email account you used to enter the contest.  Be sure to contact me soon via email or our Facebook page.



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Monday, April 1, 2013

Mondays with Countrified Hicks #8

   Just a reminder, the GIVEAWAY is still going on.  We will have 6 winners who each will win an Ovaview Chicken Candler worth over $45 each.  Click the link and enter while there is still time.
    Also, be sure to check out OUR STORE.  We have lots of rare and beautiful flowers and GREAT prices.


    The most clicked on posts for last week were:











Feel free to grab a featured button (found below) if you were featured. 


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How to Make a Classic Christmas Rainbow Poke Cake

            This recipe has been around for a LONG time and to me, it never goes out of style.   It is colorful, festive, moist and utterl...