My Little Naked Chef

Dang my baby is growing up. Here is my baby cooking away in the kitchen. He cooked dinner tonight. Lately this child has been in the kitchen with me every time I am in there cooking or baking. He helps with everything. Tonight's dish spaghetti and meatballs. Num Num!

So here he is my little naked chef. Can't teach them too early can ya? Who needs Jamie when you have a Cole?

Gluten Free Elephant Ears?

Are ya serious can it be done? The one thing I have missed the most since going gf is elephant ears. And not the fair ones the ones hubby and I did nightly after putting the kids to bed. OH how we have missed those times. I have since been on the hunt for the perfect bread dough that would work and some how yesterday I found it? I thought this dough would be PERFECT. So I just had to try it tonight. And IT WORKED. Ok recipe here Kate from Gluten Free Godswacked. Awesome recipe I use all the time around here.

Letting the dough rise for about 45 minutes. You then need to pick up the dough and flour it up well until you can hand roll it out. Once you can handle it you put it into hot oil.

Hot oil as it's cooking away.

After the oil treatment.







All buttered and cinnamon and sugared. Num Num. I will say I just can't get past the taste of gf. I did eat half of mine. Hubby's is gone. So it was successful here. Luckily hubby works nights now and so this won't be a nightly thing. But if you need to pack on the pounds here you go!

Welcome Babies

Well meet Millie and Delphine. Don't ask I don't name them. Russell was asked if we wouldn't mind taking in two goats. To my shock he said yes? How many times have I heard NO MORE GOATS. How many? And the goof says yes?

One is shy and one is very out going. Both where happy to see all the other goats in the pen. I have a feeling with Sierra and Bridget, age 1 and now Millie and Delphi, age 2. We are in trouble come summer?

These girls are cider mill goats. Love their goats but would never pay that type of money for goats. So it is a joy to have them. So yes for those who are counting we now have a total of 11 goats. Luckily the goat house is done and room for all. We have another house planned for this summer and then we will tear down the tiny houses.

Hey sis check out the horns on that goat?

TWINS!

I can't tell ya how excited I am to have TWINS! So Saturday knowing everything at Goodwill would be 40% off and knowing two stores have jars. We first headed North to Olympia to clean them out of jars. But looking up and down the aisles I found it. The twin to my canner at home. I opened it up and it looks like it has hardly been used all the parts were there so it quickly went into my cart. Hubby asked How Much? 12.99$ Oh That is a steal. Because 12.99 minus 40% is 7.79. So yeah for 30 bucks I brought home two cart loads of jars and one canner.

We then headed South and hit that Goodwill where they thanked me for cleaning off the shelves of canning jars. Two more carts later we were heading home with a van full of jars and three kids and my new pressure canner.

I just keep thinking come summer I won't be the one out looking for canning jars now will I? I was smart enough to buy during the winter months. I'll be home canning and tending to the garden.

Canning Chicken

That is something I am in the midst of doing today, is canning chicken. We have ran out it's time to can some more. Now I love how this blog explains it here this blog was the reason I ran into the kitchen last year and canned chicken.

I love canned chicken. It makes for quick meals. As a mom of three, I LOVE quick meals. One meal is taking the canned chicken, dumping into a pan, adding some sauce usually a salad dressing and cooking it up for a few minutes. Well that is cooking away I will cook up two quarts of my potatoes. Well the potatoes are in the mixer after being cooked I start the canned carrots. And boom there you go a quick 20 or so minute dinner. All from jars.

So I currently have ten pounds of chicken in the canner right now. I put the left over chicken all the stuff that is cut away? I put that into a crock pot, cover with spices and water and let that cook away all day long. Right before bed I will jar up the chicken broth and usually can that the next day or two. But hey free chicken broth you can't beat it. And I will say I have had people drive down to my house just to get jars of chicken broth. Apparently it is that good? So I have two crock pots cooking away right now.

Can't beat it. Although I hope chicken goes on sale next week? My freezer is empty and we need more chicken....

Check out the blog here.

More On Canning

Answer some of the comments.

My canned goods are everywhere, under beds on shelves here and there. My son's dresser. He doesn't need clothes does he? But I want to take more photos this year.

Recipes I will try and post as I go this year. I should have more time to a point so I want to post the photos and recipes as I go.

And Penny the world can't handle two of me. (did that come out right?)

2009 Canning Totals

Applesauce 61 Quarts
BBQ Sauce 12 Pints
Blackberry Jam 4 Pints
Bread and Butter Pickles 2 Quarts 17 Pints
Carrots 25 Pints
Chicken 48 Pints
Chicken Broth 19 Quarts 31 Pints
Coleslaw 1 Quart 8 Pints
Hamburger Pickles 9 Pints
My BBQ Sauce 19 Pints
Sauce (pizza, spag.) 39 Quarts
Strawberry Jam 17 Pints 6 Gift Sizes
Strawberry Lemonade 16 Quarts
Sweet Dill Pickles 22 Pints
Peach Butter 5 Pints 5 HPints
Pear sauce 11 Quarts
PF Chang's Chicken 8 Pints
Pineapple 62 Pints
Potatoes 84 Quarts
Zesty Peach BBQ Sauce 17 Pints
Zucchini 7 Quarts
Zucchini Pickles 9 Quarts 3 Pints
Zucchini Relish 14 Quarts 17 Pints
Zucchini Tomato Dish 9 Quarts 2 Pints

These are the total's for 2009 canning season. The plain zucchini was a bust, won't do that again. The Zesty Peach BBQ Sauce is to die for. Potatoes are a BIG time saver. Not enough chicken and the PF Chang's Chicken AMAZING. The Chicken Broth is gone as my mother raided my pantry and took it all. Apparently it's the best stuff around. Carrots are nearly gone. Applesauce should be nearly gone by apple picking season. We will need more potatoes. What I love to do is dump chicken and mix with any salad dressing in the fridge and cook it up. Well that is cooking, cook the potatoes around here two quarts per dinner. Well that is in the mixer get the carrots going. Very quick and easy dinner. The Sauce is a sauce for pizza or spag. or anything. You just spice it up as you cook it. So basically it's a tomato sauce with a few basic spices we like.

For the 2010 canning season I want to focus on more meal type stuff. Our growing should nearly double. OH Gosh Help Me. Hoping I can keep up with myself this year. Now our house is small. I have jars hidden everywhere. Under beds in odd cabinets, under the couch.

Wish Me Luck!

Doughnuts?

Doughnuts anyone? So today I went to goodwill. Just because I needed to get out and away from kids. And there it was a mini doughnut maker. I had talked myself out of it. But hey, I have no job and now I have the time to bake why not? So I brought it home and used Cybele's Pascals' recipe for chocolate cupcakes. Which is an all time favorite here. And went to work. I won't even bother to frost these as these I'm sure won't make it through the night.

Her book is amazing. If you are so many things free like we are check it out. The one book I paid full price for and would again and again. So worth every penny.