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August 27, 2007

Quite the weekend

I've been reading about chickens and half-way planning to get two or three laying hens for the yard...something I've always wanted to do, but always made up reasons for why I couldn't. On Saturday, I went to Western Farm in Santa Rosa to pick up some other pet supplies, and also see what they had in the way of backyard chicken equipment.

I found a whole little room full of racks of chicks and posters of what the various breeds would look like when they were full grown. More importantly, I found a man working in the room who was happy to tell me all about the different breeds and what I would need to take care of them. He also told me that the chick season was ending and they wouldn't have them much longer, which I conveniently decided was reason enough to get them now.

He agreed that the Barred Plymouth Rocks were good laying hens, but he recommended the Light Brahmas as extremely good "pet" chickens that would also produce eggs nicely. Since mortality is so high among baby chicks, he suggested getting five now...if all five live, he'll buy the extras back from me and pay a premium price for them (that includes any that turn out to be roosters...they're all supposed to be hens, and they're usually about 90% sure of that).

So we've got two Plymouth Rock and three Light Brahmas. Already I've decided that the Plymouth Rocks are smarter (they spend less time pecking the sides and floors of the box to see if that tastes good) and the Light Brahmas are sturdier. All of them survived lots of handling over the weekend and we hope they're on their way (three of them, anyhow) to a long happy life in our yard!

We also had lots of fun with Ben and Maddie over the weekend, including setting off Uncle Steve's rocket ship!

Posted by terrie at 10:43 AM

August 13, 2007

Adventures in No-Knead Bread

I finally tried this bread recipe that I've been eager to try ever since reading the accompanying article, The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work.

I couldn't believe that homemade bread would be that easy! Just mix flour, yeast, and water, let the yeast grow for several hours, fold it over once and let rise a second time for two hours, then bake. Too easy, right?

So I didn't have high hopes at the start...but as soon as I took the finished whole wheat loaf out of the oven, I was estatic. It was beautiful!

I immediately formed big plans to make a loaf of bread for us once a week...it was easy, and, unlike most recipes, it didn't make three or four loafs (which would be much too much for us, and I dislike making fresh bread only to store it!). I finished up the rest of dinner and we sat down to eat.

What a disappointment! The bread had no taste! In retrospect, it makes sense...it has nothing but flour, yeast, salt, and water...and it pretty much tastes like flour.

Terrible!

Posted by terrie at 08:47 PM