Decision time!

The two logos below are what we've come up with for our farm.  We want to get an egg license from SC so that we have the ability to sell eggs off of the property, then subsequently become a "SC Certified Farm Product".  Part of the licensing process is that we have to submit a proof of our farm's "logo" with all required information that would be placed on labels for the egg cartons.

Please let us know which one you prefer -- we'd love to hear feedback!  Colors?  Fonts?  Anything?  readability?  This will have to fit on about a 3" x 4"  sticker.

Logo 1:  Woman scattering scratch for chickens

Logo 2:  Ribbon banner

Tour of Fifty States: Indiana's meal

Indiana's pork tenderloin sandwich consists of a deep-fried breaded pork tenderloin cutlet placed on a soft hamburger bun. The meat spills over past the edge of the bread. The sandwich is dressed with a variety of condiments usually eaten on hamburgers, including ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pickles and onion.  The sandwich appears on many Indiana’s restaurant and diner menus, having been introduced to the state as wiener schnitzel by German immigrants in the 19th century. Nick Freinstein sold the first breaded pork tenderloin in 1908 from a food cart in Huntingdon, laying the foundation for Nick’s Kitchen, which opened the same year and still stands today. "Gourmet" magazine called breaded pork tenderloin more popular than hamburgers in the state.

Hoosier Pie appears to have originated in Indiana with the Shaker and/or Amish communities in the 1800s as a great pie recipe to use when the apple bins were empty. Similar pies are found in the Pennsylvania Dutch County and a few other places in the United States with significant Amish populations. This pie was also known as “finger pie” because the filling was sometimes stirred with a finger during the baking process to prevent breaking the bottom crust.  The pie is also nicknamed “desperation pie” because of its lack of ingredients from outside the basic pantry.

Menu:  Pork Tenderloin Sandwich, Indiana Corn Casserole, Hoosier Pie

Outcome:  The pork pieces were enormous after they were pounded!  I cooked them as they were, but when it was time to put them on the buns, all of us cut our portion in half to make a more manageable sandwich  and we ate the rest of the patty on the side.  The sandwiches were very good, and we dressed them as we would hamburgers with the traditional toppings as we liked (see the first paragraph.)  The corn casserole was a very nice side dish to the sandwich and was flavored nicely with the bacon and sweet corn. 

On the other hand, none of us were fond of the Hoosier Pie … it was cloyingly sweet, sticky and rather plain and boring.  Very easy to make, but not one that we’ll attempt again. 

Next up:  Brandi’s turn!  She chose Michigan!

Indiana's meal!

Tour of Fifty States: Illinois' meal

For the state of Illinois, I knew I wanted to try making Chicago-style deep dish pizza.  I have never had it before, but it seems to be as popular as “New York” style pizza (thinner and hand-held) and hey, I just love pizza! 

The horseshoe sandwich originated in Springfield, Illinois and is served, it seems, in all of the local restaurants. It begins with thick-sliced toasted bread, most often Texas toast and hamburger patties, or ham, topped with French Fries and cheese sauce. There is also a "breakfast" horseshoe that uses ham, eggs and hash browns. A smaller portion, with one slice of bread and one serving of meat, is called a "Pony Shoe".  It is considered a local Illinois delicacy since 1928.

Since Illinois is the #1 producer of pumpkins in the US, I had to make some kind of pumpkin dessert…but pumpkin pie in March isn’t right!  That is for fall!  I ended up combining pumpkin pie with cheesecake and dump cake for one dessert, and pumpkin pudding parfaits for another dessert.

Menu:  Breakfast Horseshoe Sandwiches, Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza, Pumpkin Dump Cake, Pumpkin Pudding Parfait

Outcome:  I ended up using our large heavy lasagna/roasting pan for this pizza.  The crust recipe below covered the bottom of the pan and about 1 inch up the sides.  So if I had used a round pan, maybe a cast iron skillet, the crust would have come higher up the sides.  The way it was though, was perfect for us.  The oiled pan and the very high temperature almost seemed to fry the crust, leaving it very crisp and crunchy, even under all that sauce.  I thought it would be too much sauce, but followed the recipe as written.  I’m glad I did.  This pizza was GOOD.  It was hearty and delicious and reminded us of a pizza casserole.  All the kids and Bill said this was a winner!  They want to have it again next time they come! And we even have leftovers.  J

The horseshoe sandwiches were a huge hit as well.  I could only eat one of mine (Pony shoe for me) so I boxed up the leftover – and then I remembered to take a picture!  Haha oh well.  I did pretty well with the other items this weekend (except getting a picture of a slice of the pizza on a plate!)

Up Next:  For this round, we did a simple dice roll…highest went to Paula and she chose Indiana!

Tour of Fifty States: South Carolina's meal

For our gorgeous Palmetto state of South Carolina with SO MANY wonderful food choices, it was hard to narrow it down.  So here's what we ended up with: shrimp, shrimp, shrimp!  MMMMM shrimp!

Speaking of which, I can't find the paper that I wrote the Shrimp and Grits recipe on...it's here somewhere and I'll post an update when I find it!

Menu:  Lowcountry Boil, Shrimp and Grits, Benne Wafers
Outcome:   News flash -- Bill LIKED the grits!!!!  Maybe because they were loaded with cheese and bacon and shrimp?  Who cares, he said he liked it!  Ben, not so much.  That's okay, he ate the Caesar Salad that accompanied it.  The girls and I are big "grit fans" and we're looking forward to the World Grits Festival that will be held next month in our new home in Saint George, South Carolina!
(also, the Benne Wafers were packaged...sigh.  Just didn't have time to make them.  But they were still good!!)
Next up:  Paula's turn!  She chose Illinois!

Lowcountry Boil

Shrimp and Grits

Tour of Fifty States: Alabama's meal

Menu: Barbecued Chicken served with White Barbecue Sauce, Creamed Corn, Cheese Biscuits, Blackberry Cobbler
Outcome:  First, we didn't have the cobbler.  I forgot to buy the frozen blackberries!  It's a dessert that we will make in the future; I may just wait until the fresh ones are available.  The white BBQ sauce is surprisingly very good!  I doubt if I will give up my beloved SC mustard BBQ sauce, but this is quite tasty.  If you have a Jim 'N Nick's BBQ restaurant near you, you just have to try their cheese biscuits.  They are simply heavenly and the "copycat" recipe I found on the internet is perfect.  Very easy to whip up and very light and fluffy, like muffins.
Next up:  Bridget's turn!  She chose South Carolina!  Woohoo!

Alabama's meal

Tour of Fifty States: Georgia's meal

The meal for Georgia, sadly, was on 11/14 of 2015!  Just after that was Ben's, followed by the girls' birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!  it seems we are busy all of the time and I just haven't been able to write up my blog posts!

Ah, well...here's the original Georgia writeup, which will VERY soon be followed by two more states!

This week’s meal was from Georgia…Southern food galore!  What could be more Southern than fried chicken, mashed taters,  and gravy???

Menu:  Southern Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, Corn on the cob, Peach Pound Cake

Outcome:  Well, I have to say this honestly -- there is a REASON that KFC, Popeyes, Bojangles, Church's, Bi-lo, Walmart, etc. sell fried chicken:  I don't do a very good job of it.  I love fried chicken, but I either mess with it too much while it's cooking, or it's not cooked correctly. Maybe it's their deep fryers or pressure cookers or whatever.   I have officially made my very last batch of fried chicken.  I will continue to buy it!  (Church's is the best in my opinion,)

As I was impatiently and repeatedly turning the chicken pieces (LOL) I heard this loud bleating coming from the pasture.  Knowing something was wrong, I turned off the burner, moved the skillet, and dashed outside to find Miss Gracie (the younger goat) with her head stuck in the fence.  She'd grown just a little too much and she could no longer get her horns through the fence wires to get to whatever she wanted on the other side.  After I freed her, I returned to the fried chicken to find it .... well, let's just call it "dark brown".  I did serve it, with profuse apologies.  Oh, and the mashed potatoes were boxed.  Sometimes you have to improvise!

The Peach Pound Cake was very, very good (I used frozen peaches.)  I can't wait until next summer when I can make it with fresh ones!

Next up:  Bill's turn! He chose Alabama!  Stay tuned til 2016...

Tour of Fifty States: Missouri's meal

This week’s meal was from Missouri.  The state that is just about in the center of the US certainly has some unique foods.   The rest of the county serves round pizza “pies” that are cut into triangles whether New York style or Chicago style.  The definitive characteristics of St. Louis-style pizza are a very thin crust made without yeast, the use of Provel cheese, and pizzas cut into squares or rectangles instead of wedges.

All of us are familiar with ravioli and we most often see it served with red sauce, Alfredo, or simply melted butter.  However, in Missouri, the ravioli are fried or “toasted.”  The first toasted ravioli seems to have been made in the 1950s at a restaurant called Angelo Oldani's on the Hill, the Italian neighborhood where both Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola grew up.  According history, it happened this way: ''Angelo was busy and told a new assistant, a German cook, to prepare the ravioli. He had a pan of boiling hot oil on the stove, and the cook thought it was supposed to be for the ravioli, so he dropped them into the oil.'' When Mr. Oldani saw what had happened, he tried to salvage the ravioli by brushing on some grated cheese. The result was local history.

The dessert famous in Missouri is the Gooey Butter Cake, which originated in the 1930s. According to legend, a German baker added the wrong proportions of ingredients in the coffee cake batter he was making. It turned into a gooey, pudding-like filling.

Menu:  St. Louis Style Pizza, St. Louis Toasted Ravioli, Gooey Butter Cake

Outcome:  Well….with the above descriptions of the food, we thought it would be an amazing meal.  We were less than thrilled, however.  The pizza crust recipe -- as written -- states that it will make two 12” pies.  Oh no, not for me!  I rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled and could barely get one 12” oddly shaped crust that was literally paper thin.  So I made a second batch of the dough and had the same results.  The recipe for the sauce says that it is enough for four 12” pies but it adequately covered the two that I made.  We really liked the (imitation) “Provel” cheese blend – the liquid smoke kicked it up a notch.  Real Provel isn’t sold outside of St. Louis, except by mail order and I didn’t want 5 pounds of it, so I went with the substitution.  When we ate the pizza that night, it was super crispy and it was  like eating pizza on a cracker – but the crust just didn’t have a bit of flavor and reminded us of cardboard.  (Next day’s reheating of the leftovers made the crust a soggy gooey mess.)  Sad to say it, but it was an overall thumbs down on the pizza. 

As for the toasted ravioli, I opted to “oven-fry” the breaded ravioli instead of deep-frying them.  NORMALLY when I put food like breaded chicken breasts on a cookie sheet and spray it with cooking spray, it will crisp up and get nice and golden brown.  Not the ravioli…it just couldn’t develop a good crust.  So it as well was just lackluster.

Moving on to the dessert… the Gooey Butter Cake is AWESOME.  Outstanding.  Fabulous.  Scrumptious. Super yummy!  Bill said that I don’t ever ever need to make another kind of cake again.  It was THAT good.  The edges were crisp and chewy, and the center had a creamy, gooey, cheesecake-like texture that was so very, very good.  A real winner! 

Next up:  Brandi’s turn! She chose Georgia!

Missouri's meal

Tour of Fifty States: Arizona's meal

This week’s meal was from Arizona.  A couple of weeks ago, we had our state meal from New Mexico, but as I’ve learned, the cuisines are pretty distinct.   New Mexican cuisine is known for its dedication to the chile (the official "state question" is "Red or green?" which refers to the preferred color of chiles) and plentiful corn tortillas.   Arizona's style of cuisine is often called Sonoran after the Mexican state of Sonora that Arizona borders to the south.   During the Mexican Revolution in 1910, thousands of Sonorans fled to Arizona. Because of this, a lot of “Mexican” cooking in Arizona reflects Sonoran cuisine. For instance, in Sonora wheat is a common grain, so wheat tortillas are eaten more frequently in Arizona than corn tortillas. The state’s cuisine also includes Native American customs, such as harvesting fruits from cacti like the saguaro and prickly pear.  These fruits are eaten raw or dried, as well as being turned into syrups, wines, and jams. 

Source:  http://arizona-guide.info/food/

Menu:  Beef Chimichangas, Arroz Rojo, Refried Black Beans, Flan

Outcome:  The Chimichangas were quite good.  I didn’t make them the way the recipe I had originally found – due to Bill and I both being sick for the majority of the week, neither of us were up to preparing a roast and shredding it.  Instead, I used some eye of round quick-sautéed in the skillet and to be a little healthier, I baked the Chimichangas instead of deep-frying as is traditional.  Directions are given for the version I made.  The Arroz Rojo (Red Rice) was Knorr “Spanish Rice.”  Again, we weren’t up to 100% yet and the 7-minute side dish worked out perfectly. (And the refried black beans were canned.) The next day we enjoyed the flan – as you can see in the photo, I cooked the sugar/caramel a little longer to get it nice and dark (although flan is usually much lighter in color.)

Next up:  Ben’s turn! He chose Missouri!

Arizona's meal

Tour of Fifty States: North Carolina's meal

This week’s meal was from North Carolina.  The state is known for two distinct types of barbecue – Lexington style and Eastern style; they differ in the cuts of pork used and the sauces they are served with.  Lexington style barbecue uses a red sauce made of ketchup, vinegar, and pepper.  It is most common in the Piedmont (central) and western areas of the state. This style uses only the pork shoulder section of the pig.  Eastern-style barbecue is a whole-hog style of barbecue, often said to use "every part of the hog except the squeal".  Eastern-style sauce is vinegar- and pepper-based, with no tomato. 

I chose to make the Lexington/Western NC style of pulled pork using a pork shoulder, with a red sauce.  Number one, I didn’t want to make a whole hog, and number two, I like it best!  Of course, a staple with pulled pork is creamy macaroni and cheese and some peach cobbler. 

Menu:  Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Macaroni and Cheese, Peach Cobbler

Outcome:  Well, to be honest, we all prefer other pulled pork that we’ve had – we live in South Carolina (home of the best barbecue you can EVER find) and the vinegar was a bit too much for us.   The sauce was very thin and soaked right through the buns, making us either eat our sandwiches very quickly or give up and use a fork.  I think that we shouldn’t give up entirely on the North Carolina style – when we travel through the state we’ll have to try some from a restaurant and see if it’s different.  The macaroni and cheese was very good, as was the peach cobbler.

Next up:  Bridget’s turn! She chose Arizona!

North Carolina's meal (I added pimento cheese and bread & butter pickles to mine!

Tour of Fifty States: Montana's meal

This week’s meal was from Montana. I’ve never been there, and Bill doesn’t remember much about it when he traveled through the state many years ago.  It’s definitely on our list of places to visit!  When I first thought of what to serve, I thought of cowboys on the frontier and their meal of choice, most likely meat and potatoes.  Instead of regular beef, I opted to get some ground bison (Costco sells it in a 2 pound package.)  For dessert, I went with something that I thought would be relatively easy to find on the prairie -- berries that could be made into a simple cobbler. 

Menu:  Bison Burgers, Home Fries, Berry Cobbler

Outcome:  The bison was extremely tender and juicy, even at 93% lean. I thought it wouldn’t be so juicy with such a low fat content.  It has a good, mild and somewhat “grassy” flavor.  We grilled the burger to a nice medium rare and served them on buns with cheese and the traditional condiments.  The home fries recipe is one I’ve made for years and years, and is one of my favorite ways to cook potatoes.  They are excellent with mayonnaise on the side!  The cobbler was served with some of our goat milk cinnamon ice cream, which complemented the tart berries perfectly.  By the way, leftover cobbler was wonderful on our French toast the next morning!

Next up:  Bill’s turn! He chose North Carolina!

Chicken update!

Here are some photos of the chicks -- they have all been named (see table below).
They were 4 weeks old on Tuesday the 16th of September.  Mama Henny Penny is beginning to distance herself from them.  I don' t know how she communicates to them to be independent, but they are venturing all over the yard, sometimes in groups of two or three, and they have been socializing and eating with all of the older girls.

From left:  Franklin, Minnie Penny, Spock, Roscoe Jr, Copper, Picard, Madea

Copper and Franklin

Aren't they the cutest???  

Name of chick	From whose egg?	Description	Who named it?	Why?
Minnie Penny	Betty's	small black/yellow	Andrew	After Henny Penny
General Tso	Betty's	missing from cage	Bill	It was someone’s dinner. L
Madea	Beulah's	black, yellow belly	Bridget	After the movie of the same name.
Franklin	Beulah's	striped with eyeliner	Kirstin	Benjamin Franklin (100 Pennies!)
Roscoe, Jr.	Thelma's	solid gray	Brandi	After Roscoe (daddy)
Picard	Thelma's	striped with black eyes	Ben	Star Trek
Copper	Opal's	yellow/tan/cream	Brandi	Color
Spock	Opal's	black, white/cream behind	Ben	Star Trek

Tour of Fifty States: New Mexico's meal

This week’s meal was from New Mexico.  It’s been a very busy 2 weeks at work and haven’t had much time to work on the writeup … finally! Back in 2012, Kirstin and I took a long car trip and I think that our favorite stops were in New Mexico.  Next summer Bill and I would like to take the kids on a cross-country adventure.  I can’t wait to share Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, the gorgeous White Sands National Monument, and the miles and miles of pistachio orchards!  Bill and the kids like spicy food – oh, I can’t wait for them to try REAL chiles! I had some that were so hot (“mild” they were called) that made my eyes and nose run like crazy! They have to try some enchiladas “Christmas” style, topped half with red and green salsas (salsa rojo and salsa verde.)

Menu:  Enchiladas, Refried Beans, Pistachio Cake and for breakfast, Huevos Rancheros

Outcome:  Yum!  I really love Mexican food – whether it’s called “Tex-Mex” or “Hispanic” or “Latino” or “Mexican” it doesn’t matter to me!   It’s all basically tortillas, beans, meat, and veggies in different combinations.  None of us had ever had huevos rancheros before, and they were really quite good.  (Especially with our own eggs!)  It’s just corn tortillas, topped with eggs and a quick warm salsa … simple but quite delicious. 

And of course, pistachio cake.  Rich and chocolatey goodness! 

Next up:  Brandi’s turn! She chose Montana!

New Mexico's meal!

Learning about chicken hugs

Last night, Bill was mowing the outer pasture that borders the coop.  When it was “bedtime”, I clapped and called the girls, “Time for bed!” and headed to the coop as usual.  They all decided that they were NOT going to bed since Dad was mowing … so I did some other chores and milked Gertie, and when he was mowing not so close to the coop, I managed to get most of them inside.  Miss Ruby, though, thought she was going to be a Big Girl and roost with the rest of the Big Girls.  (The chickens and rooster that came with the farm roost outside of the coop on an old large birdcage, and I can’t get them to stay in the coop at night … yet.  They fly to the top of the tall fence and then down to the ground.)