Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Herb popovers

Last night I started the process of making herb popovers. The cooking time was far too long to finish them last night, so I just let the batter chill in the fridge over night. 

It was pretty easy to make, only a few ingredients. 















The herbs needed for this bread was Thyme, Sage and Basil. Although, if you fancy you could add other types to it. I didn't add the Celery Salt to this recipe, as I do not prefer celery.












All mixed up, just a few more stirrings! 












I didn't have the type of pans the recipe called for, so I used these mini bunt bake pans instead. It didn't work out the best, but it was still very tasty. 















 - The girl being, Me

Easy trail mix

Last night I made a very simple trail mix to enjoy for today and tomorrow. I just mixed a few things together from the pantry, and it turned out fairly nice. 










In my trail mix I have popcorn, chocolate chips, honey cheerios, pretzels, raisins, and mixed nuts. 

Other wonderful things to add into a trail mix are yogurt covered cereals, flavored popcorn, and assorted dried fruits.

Most of the trail mixes from the store have items that are high in salt content. They also contain more "fun foods", than healthy things. Making a trail mix at home gives you the power to choose what goes into your mix, it also yields more, and for less money. Even if you buy all organic, it's more than likely still cheaper to buy your own ingredients separate, and mix them up at home. 

- The girl being, Me

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

It's all in a days work

 So, today was spent taking care of the many chores around the yard that needed taking care of. Two just so happened to be on my week’s chore list… I spent about twenty minutes tending to the rabbits before getting my shovel. I left the gloves behind though! 

I cleaned up the manure/compost pile, and I’ve gained almost two whole feet of space. I basically just took what was from the front of the pile and moved it all to the back of the pile. It was pretty vigorous work, but more than worth it. 

Here are the before and after pictures. 



It's a compost/manure pile, so of course it's not the prettiest thing on the "farm", but I must say it looks better after. 
I also de-leafed a part of the herb garden, the only part with leaves in it actually. It was the Sage, Peppermint, Lavender, and Chamomile. 

Before and after:




Now all that's left is to clean the cages. I think I'll add some more things to the list, since I checked these two things off on the first day.

1. Clean rabbits cages
2. Cull 2 rabbits
3. Tattoo 5 rabbits

I'd also like to make some home made teething biscuits and some trail mix this week. 

That girl being, Me

Cake Decorating

Yesterday I spent the day making a cake for part of my cake decorating  4H project. One thing I learned was that I don't have much patience for something I am not very good at, Lol. I made it through though and managed to learn how to make a semi decent basket weave design. 

Learning how to make simple cakes is a great way to save money. Even if you take a short class, the cost of buying a cake from the store adds up with every birthday, holiday or special event. Plus you control what goes into the cake if you make it yourself. 

Most libraries supply many books on cake decorating, and how to get started. It's really easy to get a hold of them, and the supplies. It's cost effective too.


The process 

The recipe


The batter


The many tips we currently own


The 4H book explaining the proper ways to handle the frosting bag(s).


The finished product. My first attempt at the basket weave. Pretty much the entire cake was covered in it, because I wanted all the practice I could get from one cake.

I plan to practice with text(s) soon. For Easter I've been talked into making a basket cake for the family. We'll see how that works out, Lol.



- The girl being, Me

Monday, March 22, 2010

Banana bread



So this weekend I ended up being busier than I planned and I never got around to making bread. I did however find a  few older recipes in the cabinet I intend to try throughout the week!

Today, I did get around to making some banana bread for a friend. He recently gave us a large amount of bananas so to repay the favor I made his family a few loaves of bread. I used the same recipe I use to make my farmers market bread. The recipe only yields one loaf, so I had to do the batch separately. I've found that double batching makes it turn out really badly. So I just take the extra short amount of time and make the batter separately.

Here are some picture's of the process.












The recipe is a very important part of making the bread, of course!










Everything ready to be mixed together, with the bananas on the bottom.












Ready for the oven. 55 minutes at 350 degrees














Finished product! The one of the top is banana oatmeal bread, and the bottom is just plain banana bread.
Today I have also been busy working on another 4H project, which is cake decorating. I am making a two layer chocolate cake. I’ll post picture’s on that tomorrow as currently it’s in my kitchen waiting for the icing to soften a bit more. I should most likely take me all night, seeing as this is my first attempt at ever doing anything slightly fancy! 
Things I am going to try and get done this week are
1)      Clean rabbit cages
2)      Rebuild compost pile
3)      De-leaf the herb garden













Rabbits

It's now spring, and rabbits in our barn are being bought, being sold, and being born (yay!)
We’ve got someone coming to pick up some rabbits this week. 4 Mini Rex to be exact. We also sold our foundation herd buck to someone living in Canada on Friday. We’ll miss the little guy, but he’s done so much work in our barn over the years, practically everything I have comes from him. It’s bitter sweet to see him go, but I know he’ll be just fine in Ontario. 

Saturday I spend in the barn breeding a few brood does. I now have three castor does bred, and 2 black does bred. I've gout about 4 more does I want to get bred in about 3 weeks though. 

We also acquired some more New Zealand white's on Sunday. I’ve raised them before, but got out about 2 years ago, fall 2008 actually. It being my last year in 4H though I really wanted to raise a Pen of 3, and take some commercial singles to fair. These two does and one buck will be bred next month to produce three month old babies for my fairs Pen of 3.

I’ve shown commercial and fancy at the fair. For recent winnings we took Fancy and Commercial Grand Champion in 2008. We didn’t do a Pen of 3 that year. Then last year (2009) we took Reserve Grand Champion Fancy, and we didn’t take a Pen of 3 or commercial due to my selling out in the fall of 2008. 

Here are the new additions, although the pictures are not great because all three are still very fidgety being in the new barn.


Doe #1     

                                                            Doe #2
 
Buck



I already like them a fair amount, and once fair is over I think I will continue to use them to produce some meat and to sell the off spring. I know the buck looks long in the picture, he really isn’t though. He was having some issues with having his head held. His first time being on my show table, I think he wanted to have a look around! :P He’s a cute little (big) guy! I'd guess them each weighting about 12 pounds or so. Full grown New Zealands. Oh, how I missed having them in the barn. I found it strange last night walking into the barn to see them hoping around. Since the past two years my barn has only been filled with small black and castor rabbits.

Happy Spring!!! It's raining here, but still a lovely change from that dreadful winter we had here. 

-That girl being, me

Friday, March 19, 2010

A little more about "That girl being me"


I am doing this very in depth 4H project this year. I am striving to learn more about organic, greener, self sufficient living. Getting back to basic farming. Hands and shovel kind of deal. Making what you need, and using what you make. My family already gardens organically every year. Herbs, veggies, and fruits, we also purchase a lot from local growers in the summer during farmers markets. However, I find myself wanting more of a self sufficient life style. So for my project, I am trying to locate farmers in my area and am asking them to please, please help me with this in depth project.
I’ll frequently be updating about the process of my project, as this blog is mainly to document my progress and share what I’ve learned from my project.
I’ve made a list of things I want to learn more about, and things I want to change in my life. They are actually listed on the side bar as “things I want to accomplish”. Since it’s Friday, and my family ran out of bread last night. I am going to make some breakfast bread (banana), and some sandwich bread. I might also make some rolls or something. In case you didn’t get the hint, I am starting the “only eat homemade bread” part from my list, Lol. I’ll have to update later this week with pictures and maybe a recipe or two! : )
I think I’m also going to try and get the clothes line put up this weekend, and re-pile the compost pile. It’s quickly traveling outward. Which is not good at all!
In case I never mentioned before, I also raise rabbits. Mini Rex to be exact. I raise and show them. I sold one today to someone living in good ol Canada. I am buying 3 nice New Zealand’s on Sunday though, and the trio will be the foundation to my lines and be the sire/dam(s) of my 2010 Pen of 3 at fair!
I’ll leave you with this quote :
"From breakfast, or noon at the latest, to dinner, I am mostly on horseback, Attending to My Farm or other concerns, which I find healthful to my body, mind, and affairs."
- Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Hello there

So, I am "That girl being me". The name is actually kind of random. I'll tell the story.

I am sitting in our first day of Finance class with all my friends. I've never met the teacher before, although he’s one of my friend’s dads. Class starts, goes on. Half through the teacher asks us to make a list of ways to save money. I’m excited. I put things like “re-chargeable batteries, garden, buy locally”, ect. Eco-friendly type things. I announce what I have after several kids do the same… the teacher laughs and says “ooh, your that girl, huh”. When I asked what he meant, he said I knew, Lol.

So. I'm starting this blog to document my adventure in life, it’s also part of my in depth 4H project. I'll be trying new things, talking about old ones, and in general showing the world how I am choosing to embrace life.

My goal for this blog is to document me trying new things in life, and discovering/leaning about the things I’m interested in.

I'll try to update as often as possible. For now, it's nice to meet you.

I've got finance class tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to seeing my teacher. He's a pretty fun teacher, and well, even though I'm "that girl being me", he actually finds me rather interesting to talk to.

Sleep tight!