Spiced Apple Chicken Recipe

I made this dish a few nights ago as an experiment and it turned out AWESOME. Heres my recipe:
Spiced Apple Chicken
Chicken- About 1-2 pounds any type of chicken
1 medium onion, preferably purple or sweet finely chopped
3 cloves garlic minced1 stalk celery finely chopped
1 apple choppped in small chunks
1 1/2 C apple sauce
1/4 C raisins
1/4 C dried cranberries
1 TBL balsmic vinegar
1-3 TBL maple syrup to taste
1/2 tsp salt
1/4th tsp corriander
1/8th tsp allspice
Saute onion, garlic and celery in olive oil until soft, add apples and saute 5 min more. Add ALL remaining ingredients and saute 5 min. Lower heat to medium low add chicken and cook covered for 20-30 min depending on type of chicken. Serve over rice. Yum!!!

Tick, tick, tick.......

......and the count down continues! Less than 2 weeks until we have baby bunnies and more ducklings. And my ewe is pregnant, I am hoping for twin lambs!!!

Cabbage Patch

I have about 40 heads of cabbage growing that are doing really well and pest free. I guess I planted some brussel sprouts, that I forgot about, they are HUGE. The plants are already close to 5 feet tall and still growing. They look like trees!

My garden

Mystery plant.....

I have another plant growing that I have never seen. I have chicken runs I rotate and I let the grass grow in one while they scratch up the other. Well in one of the runs this strange plants started growing. Its now over 6

feet tall, has a pungent "meaty" smell. It starts with buds, then white flowers, then those turn into these horse chestnut looking green pods with spikes all over. Anybody have a clue????

Fruity!!!

I have been getting alot of fruit from various sources. Over 100 pounds of pulms and some figs. This week we will be picking blackberries, MORE plums and some apples. I have been dehydrating and making jam......

Party at my house???

Yesterday we bottled up the Blackberry wine from last years picking and some Cider-Mead. About 40 bottles total. For my first attempt at Blackberry Wine I think it turned out fairly good. We will be picking again soon for MORE wine. This year I am making Asian Pear, Blackberry and my first attempt at Raspberry.......

Coconut Flour Banana Muffins

I am LOVING baking with coconut flour. This weekend I made THE BEST banana muffins, you seriously cannot tell they are gluten, dairy , nut and sugar free. Yum!!!!

Gluten-free Banana Muffins:
2 mashed bananas

4 eggs
1/4 cup agave
3 tbs liquified coconut oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
I made muffins, they cooked at 350 for 20 min

MORE berries

Its amazing how you can pick a HUGE bowl of berries and after they are dehydrated you are left with maybe a 10th of what you started with! I dehydatred another 5 lbs of currants to add to salads, trail mix etc.....

Roasted Red Peppers

I spent an hour or so making roasted red peppers this past weekend. I cut them in 1/2, cored them, smashed the flat with a pototo masher and roasted/blacked them in my toaster oven at about 400. It worked great! Store in sterilized jars covered with olive oil. You can actually freeze the jars until you are ready to use them. I also added a garlic clove to each jar, yum! I used some in our pasta last night and I will be adding some to some GF Focaccia bread I will be making this week.

Pea eating monster!!!

I picked a bunch of peas this morning and set them on the kitchen table, went back outside to feed the animals and this is what I found when I came back in! My house is inhabited by a pea eating monster!!!!

Ummm.........

.....yum!!!!

Red Currants

I literally have close to 10 pounds of red currants to pick off of 3 bushes I planted only 2 years ago. They are seedy and a little tart. I am thinking I will make some jam. Any ideas? Maybe some wine??

The GIGANTIC Turnip

My son has a book called The Gigantic Turnip

http://www.amazon.com/Gigantic-Turnip-Aleksei-Tolstoy/dp/1841481572

Its a story about how it takes a whole farm of animals and people to get a giant turnip out of the ground. Its a really cute story. So this morning I let Noah pull up the turnips for me. He was thrilled and told me he was pulling GIGANTIC turnips out of the ground and going POP when he pulled them up!

Making tinctures

I just started making my own herbal tinctures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tincture instead of spending a small fortune buying them all the time. You put vodka and herbs in a glass jar for about 6 weeks and its ready to use!. Right now I have a batch of feverfew (for headaches), St Johns Wort (monthly moodies) and an all purpose allergy tincture that has about 7 herbs in it. They should be ready soon! The daisy like flowers are feverfew and the yellow ones are St johns Wort.

I just discovered coconut flour!

Most of you know I am gluten free and frequently play around with gluten free baking. I decided to try out coconut flour and LOVED the results. This morning I made a batch of cinnamon coconut pancakes and Carob brownies and they both turned out great!

Pancakes http://www.starchfreerecipes.com/2008/11/05/coconut-pancakes/

Brownies http://www.tiana-coconut.com/coconut_flour_recipes.htm

In the brownies I subbed cocoa powder with carob and sugar with agave.

Garden Pests

I spent part of the morning gardening and discovered I have a few pest problems going on. My cabbage is being eaten by little green catepillars and I found a few moths hatching out. I am assuming that they were the green catepillars. What are they and what can I do to keep them from feasting on my garden?

The second problem is once again I have wire works in my turnips. How can I naturally keep them away?

One last issue. All of my tomato plant leaves are peppered with little yellowish holes. Last year I had blight but this is something I have never experienced. Any ideas????

Muscovy ducklings......

My Muscovy hatched out 14 ducklings almost 2 weeks ago. We kept 5. Mom, dad and babies roam around the yard all day....

My Katahdin Sheep

Most moms get flowers, chocolates or cards for Mother Day. I got sheep! We picked up a wether (fixed boy) that we will keep until the fall and a 3 month old ewe that we will keep as permanent breeding stock. I named her Daisy and my son named the boy Dandelion! =) They are both all white and super cute!