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February 2010 Chickens in the Road Newsletter
IN THIS ISSUE:
*Story: Sailor Hen
*Kitchen Extra: Black Pepper & Cream Cheese Biscuits
*Embarrassing Photo of the Month: Dead Hanging Baskets
*My Favorite Thing Right Now: The Daily Dozen
*Recent Highlights: Beer Bread, An Old-Fashioned Egg Basket, Brown Sugar Scrub, and More
*Sneak Peek: Homemade Corn Tortillas
*Blast from the Past: Betting on Water
*Newsletter Sponsors:
*Story: Sailor Hen
So the other day, I was coming in from the back porch with something in my hands and I didn’t quite shut the door all the way. Next thing I knew, a rooster was strutting around inside my house.
I screamed.
Which accomplished naught but to inspire said rooster to run around the back of my dining room table.
I made chase, and trust me, there isn’t much that makes you feel more ridiculous than chasing a chicken around your dining room table. Except maybe screaming some more, and I did that, too. Luckily, when he came back around the table, he headed for the door.
And then, thank goodness, OUT the door. And that’s when I realized….. OH YES, that’s when I realized that it was far worse than I’d imagined.
Because there was the Crooked Little Hen with him, and I knew just what was going on. She doesn’t just have a rooster on the front porch. She has another one–a completely different one–on the back porch.
SHE HAS A ROOSTER IN EVERY PORT!
*Kitchen Extra: Black Pepper & Cream Cheese Biscuits
Lots of coarse ground pepper and the richness of cream cheese make these a delightfully different biscuit experience. You can use a store-bought baking mix and cream cheese or try it with my Quick Mix and some fresh, homemade cream cheese! I’m also including the scratch recipe if you don’t want to use a baking mix at all.
How to make Black Pepper and Cream Cheese Biscuits:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons coarse ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup milk
Note: To use a baking mix, replace first 6 ingredients with 2 cups baking mix plus the 2 teaspoons pepper.
Place first 6 ingredients (or 2 cups of baking mix plus pepper) in a large bowl and work in the cream cheese with a pastry cutter. Add milk and stir then knead the dough lightly, adding a little extra flour if needed to keep from sticking. Roll dough out onto a floured surface and cut out your biscuits. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Really good with eggs for breakfast!
*Recipes makes one dozen biscuits.
Note: Review from 52: “These make a sturdier biscuit, easier to butter.” Cream cheese does make a sturdier biscuit because when you use cream cheese in place of butter or lard for the fat, it doesn’t melt into the dough the same way. If you have a hankering for a “sturdier” biscuit and the black pepper is too much for you, you could make these biscuits with cream cheese without the pepper. (But they’re really good with the pepper!)
*Embarrassing Photo of the Month: Dead Hanging Baskets
Another seriously tragic revelation.
I have this bad habit every year of leaving my hanging baskets just….hanging. Full of dead stuff. I just stop watering after the first freeze and leave them there, dry and dead and frozen, until I pull it all out in the spring and plant new stuff. I can’t wait to plant new stuff!! The old stuff sure looks bad…..
*My Favorite Thing Right Now: The Daily Dozen
I’m up to sometimes a dozen eggs a day.
The chickens are out of control!!!! If I can’t call them lazy anymore, what will I do? Who will I be? Where will I go?
*Recent Highlights: Beer Bread, An Old-Fashioned Egg Basket, Brown Sugar Scrub, and More
Get caught up in my Active Imagination when I can’t understand Clover’s behavior. See how The Crooked Little Hen Saves the Day and think about Keeping Chickens. Find all my farm animal stories here.
Try my Beer Bread then learn How to Freeze Eggs, and dive in with me to my old-fashioned recipe motherlode in Treasure Trove. Don’t miss a thing in my kitchen! Get all my recipes.
See snow, farm animals, and more snow in Winter in the Country, what happened when you did all my chores for me in My Day Off, and a gift of an Old-Fashioned Egg Basket. See all my country living stories.
I’m getting ready to make homemade soap! Get ready with me! See Getting Ready to Make Soap: Part 1. Also check out how to Make Your Own Brown Sugar Scrub and Vanilla-Scented Body Mist. Browse all my posts in crafts.
See what I dug up in Death in the Garden. (It was NOT one of my animals!) Be sure to see all my garden stories.
*Sneak Peak: Homemade Corn Tortillas
I have the press AND the flour now! Want to make homemade corn tortillas with me? They will be SO GOOD.
*Blast from the Past: Betting on Water
Hard to believe it was two years ago that we were witching for wells and making bets with drillers in a desperate attempt to get water to our new farmhouse.
Read the first part of the story in Water, Water, My Kingdom for Some Water, more witching in You Have to Believe, and the crazy, ridiculous ending in Betting on Water.
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Thank you for your comments, your support, and just for being there. Here’s hoping to see you on the Chickens in the Road Forum (make friends, have fun, come join us!) and every day on the farmhouse blog!
Love,
Suzanne
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