Undercover Chicken

Catty is not impressed.

She is not a chicken.

But I think she is such a cute chickie!

Do you think she's laying an egg for me?

(Imagine me rubbing my hands together in anticipation.)

Hmmm, I don't think so.......

But she's so cute!

I'll keep her, I guess.

Daring Cook's November Challenge

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

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I want to thank Audax and Rose for the challenge.

It truly was a challenge!

The recipe is really, really long.

I didn't post it, because I wanted more room for my pics, but go to Audax or Rose's blog to see the step by step directions.

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Before this, I had never tasted sushi (or wanted to taste it).
And now that I've tasted it-

I hate it.

Let's just get that out of the way.

The nori tastes and smells like a stagnant lake.

The rice is sticky and sweet. And not in a good way.

Although, you might remember I said here in my Pumpkin/Bulghur post
that I wasn't crazy about white rice.

It also seems like a lot of work and mess for pretty, but inedible food.

~

First, the spiral sushi roll with baby corn, coconut black beans*, fried red and yellow pepper.

Ta da!



I like wasabi and peppers so I ate that.


See below for the fate of the sushi.
Bwahaha! (evil laughter)



The dragon roll.


So cute!


And so yucky!





I used fake crab sticks and fried peppers inside.


Avocado on top and red pepper for the flames.



Black beans for the eyes.




And the nigiri sushi.
I thought I might like these, because they don't have any nori.


But it's a huge chunk of rice with toppings.


I ate the tops.


Yum! Smoked cheddar cheese, rum/ginger/cinnamon syrup raisins and kiwi slices.










I ate some of the rice with coconut black beans and topped it with avocado.

It was tasty.


What did I do with all of that sushi?




My girls had a sushi party!

They didn't like the nori.

Or the rice.

Too sticky for chicken beaks.

They picked out the fillings.

Silly chickens!

They usually gobble up rice.

*Coconut Black Beans

1 cup dry black beans, rinsed

1 can coconut milk

1 small dried chile

1/2 tsp dried onion
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger powder

salt to taste

Rinse beans. Add beans and 6 cups water to med. saucepot. Bring to a boil and boil for 10 mins. Remove from burner, cover and let soak for 1 hour.

Drain beans and rinse (again).

Add rinsed beans, coconut milk and spices to the saucepot.

Simmer at med./low heat until the coconut milk volume has been reduced in half.

About 1 hour.

Beans should be tender by now, but still holding their shape.

Add salt to taste and serve.

Update On Chicken-sitting

I have been taking care of my friend Carol's chickens while she is in London.

It has been so much fun!

I collected 13 eggs on Saturday, 9 eggs on Sunday and 11 eggs today.

Since I added the golf balls there haven't been any broken or eaten eggs.

Yay!

Like my girls, her hens are starting to be really friendly.

I pet and hug each hen, every night, before they go to sleep.

Some are starting to want to be cuddled and a few are still ambivalent.

Hopefully I can break down their standoffishness and make them snugglers.

I love a snuggly chicken!

Cuddliness: really the best reason for having chickens.

Butter and Pixie

Poor Butter.

On Monday, when I visited the girls

I thought that something had attacked one of them.

There were feathers everywhere!

But I couldn't see any injuries,

so I though perhaps a neighbor chicken

had jumped the fence

and gotten the sharp end of Lavender's claws.

Tuesday there were even more feathers in the run.

It's official: Butter is molting.

And really hard too.

As of today, she has a solitary tail feather loosely hanging on.

She looks so rough - poor baby.

And she is really crabby.

She wants to be held,

but she doesn't want me to touch her.

I suppose the new feathers

growing in are strange feeling and poky.

Well, she ends up pecking

me on the head to get held

and then complaining when I hold her.

Very frustrating.

~

And Pixie is growing up into a pullet.

She squatted for me today. Twice!

It's the first time she's ever squatted.

I see silkie eggs in the future.

~

My friend, Carol, that took in my ladies, has a big barred rock rooster.

He is so gorgeous.

But he loves to chase me!

I have a cut on my ankle he gave me today.

He is so sneaky.

Bad rooster!

~

Another thing I'm worrying about right now:

Last year Carol lost more

than half of her chickens

and all of her ducks.

They disappeared

after some migrant workers were working

in the soybean fields next to her house.

They are back working in the fields right now.

Please don't take my ladies!

Happy Hatch Day!

I am such a bad chicken mommy!

August 1st was the 2 year anniversary of my hens hatching.

It's hard to believe it all started 2 short years ago.....

In this last year there have been many changes: Pippa found a new home, Lavender hatched out 4 chicks and Honey died.

What started out as the flock of five has expanded to a flock of eight and then to a tiny flock of four.

With any other chicks that I add to the flock, I will never feel the same trepidation and excitement that I felt that first night when I went to pick up their tiny cardboard box at the post office.

It was petrifying! It was so easy to order them online, but then to have 5 little lives that depend on you for everything!?!

That was terrifying.

I thought I was prepared, but I had no idea what it would be like to have chickens.

I thought they would be pets, but I didn't know I would love them.

Who loves a chicken?

I do!!

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P.S. Miss you still Pippa and Honey.

Goodbye Pippa

Pippa won a cutest chick contest - here BYC
I am so proud of her.

She was cute as a chick, but she has grown into a beautiful chicken.

Winning the contest is a little ironic, because I just found Pippa a new home.

It's very sad, but Pippa is just too noisy for my suburban backyard.

I found some nice people that have a farm and their own flock of 18 chickens.

It will be nice for Pippa to have somewhere where

she can "crow" to her heart's delight.

Right now when she gets noisy I have to put her

inside, so my neighbors won't complain.

I will miss seeing her pretty little eggs in the nest box.
And her little chirpy voice.


My tiny tough girl.

This is Pippa's goodbye video.

I'm taking her to her new home on Monday.

*sigh* It's so sad. And it was a really hard decision to make.

Rockin' Rollin'

-

When Lavender went outside today

for her potty break ,

I saw one of the eggs

in her nest move!

I picked it up and I could feel

the baby chick moving inside!

Wow!

(It was the egg marked #1)

Mud Wrestling

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Spring is here!

The ladies had a fun time digging in the mud yesterday.

Yum! Sprouted scratch - tasty!

Dirty Beak.

Butter digging her hole to China....
for Chinese fried worms, of course!

Ha, Honey has her eyes closed.

Zela-digging daintily.

Yum, more mud.

Eagle eyes.

"Hmmm, what did I just eat?"

We're All Friends

Catty is mildly interested in Lavender.

Mostly she's wondering, "Why is there a chicken in my living room? And when is it leaving?"

Catty overlooks Lavender's nest.

"Are you done yet?"


This is a pic of Lavender sleeping.
See-her head is tucked under her wing.
Awwww, so cute!
And she is such a good broody.
Nothing bothers her!
I even vacuumed next to her and she didn't turn a feather.
Not impressed.

Go! Away!

Seriously, what are you looking at?!

Boo!

Star of the Day

Today's Star of the Day: Zelandia aka Zela

Zela is an Australorp.

Her breed was developed in Australia from Orpington stock in the 1920's.

She has the Orpington's sweet, loving nature and amazing green/black plumage.

An Australorp set a world record by laying 364 eggs in 365 days without added winter lighting.

Zela very regularly (maybe not every day) lays a large sized brown tinted egg.

She loves to be held and cuddled.
Zela and Honey fight to be the first to sit on my lap.
Zela usually wins.....she is the flock mistress after all!

Gratuitous Egg Pic

Just a pic of eggs from the ladies.

-Left to right -

Pippa's egg, Lavender's egg, Zela's egg and either Butter or Honey's egg (being twins, I can't tell their eggs apart).
From Tiny to Jumbo!