Three Country Acres

You'll notice I've personalized the blog header. It's no longer the generic Blogger header.

Since we've settled into a house that I don't intend on ever moving from (queue the realtors and potential purchasers), I'm changing my blog name. I'll be renaming my blog to Three Country Acres. The web address will be threecountryacres.blogspot.com
You shouldn't have to do anything except update your reader feeds. I'll be slowly working through posts to make sure the links still work.

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Meals week of 10/29

This week, I went out of town for a conference for work for a day and a half... I knew I would be gone for part of the Hub's birthday, so I made his cake on Sunday. His cake was carrot cake with coconut pecan icing.

For dinners this week:
Tritip roast on the grill
Tortellini with asparagus
Pinto beans with Ham (crockpot)
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Crockpot roast with potatoes, carrots and onions

My lunches:
Sauteed kale and mushrooms with carmelized onions, roasted chickpeas and white cheddar. Make this chickpea recipe!!! I could eat this instead of popcorn!

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Crock Pot BBQ Ribs

About last night's dinner.... I meant to photograph the ribs, but we ate them all. I had about a 2 lb package from the half hog we bought awhile back. The original recipe may be found here.

Crock Pot BBQ Ribs

• 
  
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp mustard
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• 1 tsp Sriracha
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 rack spareribs, cut in half as needed to fit in crock pot
• 1 cup your favorite barbecue sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)
• 1-1/2 c water

Preparation

In medium bowl, mix all the ingredients.

Add the ribs  to the crockpot  and top with the sauce, turning them to coat. Cover the crock and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

I added water to the recipe because I knew I would be away from the house for 12 hours. Last time I made fajita chicken in the crockpot, I didn't add water, and the chicken was really dry and almost burnt. I didn't want that to happen with ribs!

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Chicken Fricassee

I made this recipe for dinner Sunday night.The original recipe may be found here.

Chicken Fricassee

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
Seasonings: salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 onion, diced
2 handfuls of baby carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
chicken organs: liver, gizzard, heart, diced
2 Tbsp flour
2/3 c dry white wine (I used Chardonnay)
4 cups chicken broth
2 sprigs fresh parsley
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 large egg (original recipe called for 2 egg yolks)
1/4 c half & half (original recipe called for heavy cream)

Season the chicken pieces with the spices.

Melt the butter in a large dutch oven. Then place the chicken pieces in the butter until lightly browned. Remove chicken and put on a plate; you may need to cook in batches depending on the size of the chicken and pot.

Add the veggies to the dutch oven and saute until tender. Stir in the flour until incorporated. Stir in the wine and cook until evaporated. Stir in the chicken broth, chicken organs and spices. Bring to a boil.

Add the chicken pieces back in and simmer for 25 minutes, or until chicken reaches correct temperature (165).

Remove the chicken pieces to a plate again....

In a heatproof glass, or a coffee mug, mix together the egg and half & half. Stir in 1/4 c of chicken liquid at a time, until mug is full. This is to prevent the egg from scrambling when it hits the broth in the dutch oven! Slowly pour the egg mixture into the veggies, stirring constantly. When all egg is in the pot, add the chicken back in.

Serve!

We ate this on top of mashed potatoes.

You'll notice the original recipe included mushrooms, which I forgot to buy even though they were on the grocery list... How does that happen?

I used one of our freshly butchered roosters for this meal. The rooster was one of those that ran wild in the cow pasture eating bugs and grass all day, and he had the darkest "dark meat" I've ever seen! Very tasty though!

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Freddy Fred Fred

Friday, Freddy's registration papers arrived!!!

I've never had a registered dog, so this is all new and exciting to me. The papers show his lineage for four generations back, including the dog and owners' names.

Freddy is getting pretty big, but not too big to get carried around by my brother, or to sit in my lap.

He'll be making a vet visit soon to get his rabies shot and to get neutered. Which I almost feel bad about since he's registered. If we weren't going to neuter him, we'd need to identify a female border collie for breeding...

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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

The original recipe for these Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins may be found here.

The recipe makes 12 muffins. 

Cream cheese filling:

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 c sugar

Mix together with a fork or hand mixer and put in the fridge until needed. 

Muffins:

3/4 c sugar

1/2 c vegetable oil

1 c pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1-3/4 c flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1-1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

Mix together the sugar, oil, pumpkin and eggs. Then mix in the flour, baking soda and spices. 

Place 1-2 Tbsp of the batter in the bottom of a muffin pan, either lightly oiled or lined with paper cups. 

Then place about 1 Tbsp of the cream cheese in the muffin pan. 

Then cover with the remaining batter, about 2-3 Tbsp per muffin. 

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. 

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Meals for week of 10/22

This coming week we're having:

Chicken fricassee - made from one of the roosters we butchered last weekend

Enchilada casserole

BBQ ribs in the crockpot

Goulash - made by the Hubs

Chili - if we need another meal - we need to perfect our recipe so we can win the chili cookoff next year!

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