Countrified Hicks: July 2013

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Demographics

It has been awhile since I went and checked out my blog's demographics. Demographics for a blog are just the statistical data letting the blogger know the types of people who visit the blog. It lists the top countries, cities, age range, etc.
    For the past month, here are some the blog demographics:

    The countries whose citizens visited most often were:
        1. U.S.
        2. Canada
        3. France
        4. Russia
        5. Germany
        6. Iran
        7. Poland
        8. Ukraine
        9. United Kingdom
      10. Phillipines
      11. Australia
      12. Netherlands
      13. India
      14. Brazil
      15. Japan

   Here are the U.S. cities whose citizens visited most often:
        1. NYC
        2. Houston
        3. Chicago
        4. Atlanta
        5. Midvale, UT
        6. Dallas
        7. Los Angeles
        8. Austin, TX
        9. Charlotte, NC

I found the data really pretty interesting.   It is kind of amazing to think that people in all those other countries are actually reading things I write. Thank you so much to each one of you. Hugs!!!

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Homemade Hamburger Buns

Hamburgers are a summer staple. Nothing tastes better than a burger cooked on an open flame on your BBQ grill in your own back yard. And what is the perfect compliment to that burger? A homemade hamburger bun!

Hamburger Buns

3 1/3 c. flour

1 1/2 c. warm water

1/4 c. honey

1/4 c. melted butter

1/4 c. vital wheat gluten

1 pkg. yeast (or 1 tsp.)

1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put the warm water into a mixing bowl and add in the honey. Stir and add the yeast and mix gently. Place the bowl in a warm area and let it rest for 15 minutes. Once the 15 minutes has elapsed, stir in the butter, gluten and salt. Stir in the flour and stir it just until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Gluten can be found in the baking aisle of your local grocery store. Gluten is what makes the bread product rise so high and be light in taste and not all heavy.

Now, place the dough on a floured surface and knead the dough about 20 times. Butter a bowl and placed the kneaded dough inside and let it rise until doubled. Once it has doubled, punch the dough down and pinch off some dough and roll it into a golf ball sized ball. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Butter a cookie sheet and place the ball shaped dough pieces on it to rise again. As they are rising, mix together 2 T. milk with an egg. When the dough has doubled in size, brush each one with the egg/milk mixture.

Bake them for 27 minutes. Pull out the buns, brush with melted butter and slice in half. Enjoy these hot and delicious hamburger buns with a side of homemade french fries and a piece of corn on the cob and some Blue Ribbon winning baked beans! Or instead of having hamburgers, try my Dr. Pepper Shredded Chicken on these buns!

Also check out my Sweet Pickle Relish recipe. This relish goes so good on a hamburger! And when make the burger, serve it with some homemade onion rings. Yum!

This recipe and post was shared on the following blogs:
Cornerstone Confessions
Home to 4 Kiddos
Carole's Chatter

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Homemade Chicken and Dumplings Recipe

My family loves Chicken & Dumplings. If they had their way, they would eat this 3-4 times a week and never tire of it. I know everyone makes theirs differently but this is the way I have been cooking mine for years and people always swear this is the best they've ever tasted. Hope you'll try it out for your family and they love it too.

Homemade Chicken & Dumplings

2 c. chicken

32 oz. chicken broth

½ tsp. seasoning salt

1 tsp. celery flakes

2 chicken bouillon cubes

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can of peas

3 carrots, chopped

½ tsp. thyme

½ tsp. pepper

½ tsp. dill

1 tsp. parsley flakes

2 tsp. onion flakes

1 tsp. basil

1/8 tsp. turmeric (gives it a lovely color)

½ tsp. rosemary

For the dumplings:

1 ½ c. flour

2 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 c. milk

¼ c. cornmeal

1 tsp. parsley flakes

First, to prepare the broth of the meal, combine all the ingredients together in a large pot. Cook on medium heat about 15 minutes. The liquid needs to be nice and hot and bubbly. As it cooks, prepare the dumplings by stirring all the dumpling ingredients together in a bowl.

Once the liquid is nice and hot, drop the dumplings into the liquid by small spoonfuls. Be sure to leave space in between each dumpling because they will swell up as they cook.

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The dumplings cooking in the pot...

Let the dumplings cook 3-4 minutes or until the dumplings are done. Spoon into bowls and enjoy!

A bowl full of goodness. Doesn't this look delicious?!

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I shared this recipe on the following blogs:
The Gathering Spot
Meal Plan Monday
Claire Justine

Friday, July 19, 2013

Chicken Dorito Casserole Recipe

Lots of people make Dorito Casserole and about everyone makes theirs different than the next person. This is how I make it.

Chicken Dorito Casserole

2 c. of cooked chicken 1/2 bag of Doritos (11 oz. bag)

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese 1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup 1/2 c. milk

8 oz. sour cream 15oz. can petite diced tomatoes

1 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9" x 13" cake pan with cooking spray. Break up the Doritos into small pieces and layer them in the bottom of the cake pan.


The crushed Dorito's in the pan.

In a large bowl, combine all the other ingredients and stir well. Pour the mixture over the top of the crushed Dorito's and bake for 28 minutes. Remove and serve.

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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Red Rangers: Part 2

The small flock of Red Rangers we got from Hoover's Hatchery are really growing fast. They are growing faster than most other chicks we have ever raised. They are also turning into some beautiful little birds. See for yourself!

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Monday, July 8, 2013

With Grandchildren comes much Joy!

I recently got to go and visit my daughter and her family. Two and a half years ago, her and her family (hubby and 1 year old son Phineas) moved 4 hours away. Now they have a 10 month old son named Hayden and my daughter is due with her 3rd son, whom is due to be born the 30th of this month. I have gone to visit my daughter 5-6 times and they have come down here twice in that time. This past visit was actually only the 2nd time for me to see Hayden. He is such a cutie and Phineas (3 1/2) has grown so much.

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Hayden! He has his lip sucked in or pouted out generally. ;-)

Hayden has THE most expressive face.

Hayden crying! He just doesn't know Grandma well enough yet.

Phineas, 3 1/2 yrs. old.

Phineas still knows his Grandma and loves me too! This brings such joy to my heart. He and I talk on the phone at least 2 times a week and I enjoy it EVERY time!

The above video is Phineas singing his "A, B, C's" at the restaurant. He is such a ham, just like his mother is/was. :-)

The best thing is I get to go down for the birth of my 3rd grandson. I will spend at least 3 days there and I get to watch Hayden & Phineas too. I can't wait.
Thanks for allowing me to share my photos!

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Friday, July 5, 2013

Harvesting Blackberries

I love this time of the year. Summer time on a farm is a great time because that is when we harvest so many wonderful things to eat. Today, we were out harvesting blackberries! We have close to 50 producing blackberry bushes on our property.

Don't they look delicious?!

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As you can see by the above picture, we will have to go out and pick the ripe berries several times a week because the berries do not all ripen at the same time. We do not mind though. We love going out as a family and enjoying nature and working as a team.

A nice batch of freshly harvested blackberries!

We could never eat this many blackberries without them going bad so we often dehydrate them. We also make a lot of Blackberry Muffins.

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Thursday, July 4, 2013

Happy 4th of July!

I just wanted to wish each of you a wonderful and safe 4th of July! I hope you get to eat a lot of good food and shoot off lots of awesome fireworks!
Hugs from,
Countrified Hicks

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Mail Order Chicks from Hoover's Hatchery

Today in the mail we received 30 Red Ranger baby chicks from Hoover's Hatchery. All 30 arrived alive and looking really healthy. We are so excited about these new little chicks and recommend Hoover's Hatchery if you are in the market for new chicks.

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The chicks in their shipping box.

These sweet little guys are now resting comfortably in a nice large secure area in my home office. They have fresh bedding, chick feed, a heat lamp and fresh water to help them get a good start in life. We have added a bit of sugar to the water to help them get situated after the stressful trip but have great faith they will do well.
We will be posting updates about these little guys. They are supposed to have a high livability rate and be ready to dress in about 11 weeks. We hear they taste remarkable too. I'll let you know our verdict in the weeks to come!

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Countrified Hicks