A Taste of Summer in February: Dry Rub Oven Baked Ribs

Hey Sherrill! I made everyone's favorite ribs today. The first time I made these was while we were vacationing in our beach cabin at Kalaloch several years ago. Ever since then, the aroma of these delicious ribs baking in the oven brings back the memories & feelings of August on the beach! The kids love them & ask me to make them pretty regularly, but since one pig only has so many ribs to provide, I try to space out making this dish. We probably only eat them twice a year.

Want to fill your house with the smell of summer? Here's the recipe:

• 2 Tbsp paprika

• 1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

• 2 Tbsp brown sugar

• 1 tsp. salt

• 1/2 tsp. ground celery seed

• 2 tsp. Cajun seasoning 

• 1 tsp granulated garlic

• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper

• 1/2 tsp. cumin

Combine all ingredients so that everything is incorporated together & there are no big lumps:

Rub the mixture on to your ribs (there are about five or six lbs of pork spare ribs pictured here:

Cover your baking dish with foil and allow the ribs to sit for up to 6 hours. Goodness knows I hardly ever plan ahead far enough in advance for this, but at least a couple hours will help get all that yummy flavor into the meat! 

About 4 hours before you want to eat, place the pan in a 300 degree oven & bake. Your house will fill with the heavenly aroma of summer while they cook!










Since the oven was already on, I went ahead and served our ribs with baked potatoes... and coleslaw!

I like mine with Sriracha Sauce smeared on top! 

Yummy, Yum, YUM!!

* * * * * * * 

In other news, I repotted my lemon tree yesterday & took her outside to enjoy the warm weather! It's a bit chillier today, though, so she's back in the house!

Don't worry little tree, summertime will be here... eventually!

Ciao sista... where ever you are!

Sharing today at:

Tutorial: How to Foster Chicks with a Broody Hen

Hey Sherrill, I know it's a little early for chicks, but I don't know about you, but I'm getting antsy for spring! Happens every year. The days start getting a bit longer... a few days in January feel almost spring-like... my thoughts start wandering to crocuses and daffodils, garden soil and baby chicks. It's a big tease, of course. It will be cold and wet for at least a few more months... and then just wet for a couple more, but it's not too early to start planning, and I thought now might be a good time to share the steps to tricking a broody hen into raising your feed store chicks for you!

A year ago last summer we found ourselves with some new pullets. One of them was a beautiful Golden Laced Wyandotte:

Such a pretty girl

But by the next spring, our pretty girl had transformed into this!!!

Yikes! Beware of the Broody!

So, how do you know if your hen has gone broody? Here are the signs:

• She sits in a nest box all day without getting out.
• She "hoards" eggs underneath her, sometimes ever stealing the other hens' eggs to sit on!
• She will puff up, spread out her wings and growl and cluck loudly in an attempt to protect her eggs when you approach her. Be careful! She might even try to peck you!
• She refuses to move off of her eggs, and even if you take her off her nest, she'll return the minute you leave.
• She will also stop laying eggs as her body goes further into "brood" mode.

Not all hens are prone to broodiness; many of the more modern, hybridized "layer hens" have had this trait bred out of them, since broody hens are not really a bonus if all you're interested in is a chicken who spit out an egg every 26 hours without fail. If you want to add new chickens to your flock, though, and you don't want to deal with raising chicks under a heat lamp -- a fun, but also messy & kind of smelly project, once the chicks start to feather out and get larger -- a broody hen can be a real asset! 

Heritage chicken breeds that are more likely to go broody are:

• Plymouth Rocks
• Delawares
• Wyandottes
• Brahmas
• Orpingtons
• Bantams

So, if you think you might have a broody hen & you would like her to 

do the dirty work of raising some new chicks for your flock, 

here are the steps to follow for a more than likely successful outcome: 

Step One: Watch her for a week

If you think you have a broody hen and you're considering trying to convince her to foster some chicks, you'll want to give her some time and watch her to see if the broodiness is going to "stick". On a calendar, mark the day she starts exhibiting broody behavior, and make a note each day that it continues. She should be encouraged to get off the nest once a day to eat & drink, but if she's truly serious about setting, she will hop right back on the nest once she's had a bite & a sip. If she continues to brood for a full week, it's time to try moving her to a secure location. 

Step Two: Move her to a "brooding pen"

In our case, Mama Hen (as we now refer to her), removed herself from the coop after a week or so of setting. Where did she choose to brood? The wood shed! This girl was so committed to brooding, that she sat on an empty nest for another week before we finally decided to move her and purchase some chicks for her to, hopefully, foster and raise. Before you run out and buy those adorable puff balls, though, be sure you have a secure area for your mama to raise her babies. We already had a small fenced area near the chicken yard to use; all we had to do was block any gaps in the fence the chicks might squeeze through & put straw in the old unused dog house we use for temporary quarters when we're transitioning new hens into the flock.

Your brooding pen should have the following elements:

• A fence to keep the mama & chicks in a secure area away from the other hens! This is very important! It is quite likely that your other chickens will try to kill the babies. They need to be kept away from the other grown hens until they are fully feathered out and large enough to protect themselves. 
• A small dog house, wooden crate, or other small "house" that will keep mama and her babies dry and warm. Fill the bottom of this container with straw or wood shavings.
• Food and water-- for mama until the chicks "hatch", and then for all of them! You can go ahead and purchase a bag of "chick grow" feed and give it to mama before the chicks arrive. It won't hurt her any at all.
• Some way to secure the box at night. For us, this meant putting a piece of plywood in front of the dog house opening and placing a large rock in front of the plywood at night so mama and chicks were safe from the unlikely prospect of a neighborhood dog or a stray raccoon getting in to our fenced yard. If you live in an open rural area where predators are more of a danger, you'll need to construct some type of latching door or other system to truly protect your little feathered family at night. You might even consider housing your whole brooding pen in a garage, out building or barn that can be shut up at night. Mama will do her best to protect her babies, (and it's quite a sight to see!), but keep in mind that she's only a chicken & she can only do so much! It's truly up to you to make sure those babies don't become some random animal's lunch!

Step Three: Continue to count days & watch mama

In general, it takes three weeks for chicks to hatch, so you'll want your hen to sit for at least that long. You can place real eggs under her or fake ones such as Wooden Eggs, golf balls, or even plastic easter eggs stuffed with tissue! In our case, we put some real eggs under her, and she continued to sit for the full three weeks, so we knew it was time to smuggle in some chicks!

Step Four: Acquire some day old chicks & wait for the dark of night

It's important that you buy the youngest chicks you can find. I wouldn't recommend ordering them through the mail, as they may already have feathers growing in by the time they arrive! Your local feed store is really the your best bet for brand new chicks that you can hand pick. Find out from your store when their chicks are delivered and go that day! What you're looking for are balls of fluff with no wing feathers growing in yet. It matters not at all the color or breed of the chick, in fact some people have their chicken mamas raise turkey poults!

You will, of course, need to have all of the materials on hand for raising the chicks yourself, just in case mama decides she doesn't really want to raise babies. This can happen & it's vitally important to the survival of the chicks that you are prepared for this possibility!

Okay, so you have your chicks & you are understandably very excited about putting then in with their new "mama"! Wait, though. Keep your babies warm in their box until a couple of hours (or more) after the sun has set. Then, sneak out as quietly as you can and gently remove the eggs from under your sleeping hen, replacing them with the chicks, making sure they are tucked snuggly under her wing for warmth. The chicks are naturally attracted to warmth & should snuggle right in. Secure mama & chicks in their box and wait with your finger's firmly crossed until morning!

When you go out the next day, if all has gone well you will be welcomed by 

the adorable sight of your proud mama hen and her new fuzz butt: 

Unfortunately, even if you've followed all of the steps above, your hen may not take to mamahood, and you may have to rescue your chicks and bring them inside to raise; there's just no telling. This was the first time we'd ever tried to have a hen raise purchased chicks, though, and it worked like a charm for us! I think the most important step is making absolutely sure that your hen is truly committed to brooding. This takes weeks of observation on your part, and no amount of hoping and wishful thinking is going to turn a fickle brooder into a dedicated mama.

If this process does work for you, though, you now have an invaluable treasure in your flock: a reliable mama hen to do the hard work of raising chicks for you! Yay! You can say goodbye to heat lamps, chicken dust is the dining room... and random chickens jumping out of the brood box and wandering around the house! 

This one turned out to be a boy!

So, Sherrill, I'll let you know if mama hen gets broody again soon... 

maybe she can raise your new chicken tractor tenants for you! 

Ciao!

Snapshots: Knitting Meetup 1.26.13

Birthday sachet from Miss Sherrill.

Hand knit hand spun cowl on Miss Sherrill.

Spring green socks!

Spripey Socks!

Gauge swatch for a new project I'll be sharing next week. As usual, two needle sizes down!

Never ending moss stitch shawl. An iPhone. A basket. Some keys.

A gorgeous finished object!

Oh, and karma. Somebody's been teasing me about forgetting things... 
somebody also walked off without her coffee grounds... 
Gotcha!

Until the next meet up, my friends, keep knitting! (Sorry my camera missed you, Jieun!)

Tutorial: Fix Your Stinky Towels!

Hey Sherrill! Assuming you're back in the 21st century today, I wanted to ask you if you've ever had this problem: funky towels?! Yuck! Last year, after trying different types of detergent & oxyclean & bleach & all kinds of other solutions & not being able to get the funk out of our bath towels, the man finally told me to throw them all out and buy new ones. I did (thank goodness he paid for them!), and they were great for awhile. 

Fast forward to today & guess what? The funk is back. Listen, I like new towels as much as the next person, but it seems incredibly wasteful to go out spend money on towels every year, don't you think? I did some searching around the other day & I decided to try out a possible solution... and of course, as often turns out to be the case, the fix has nothing to do with fancy products with colorful packaging & an ad campaign. the solution is good old white vinegar and baking soda! Is there anything vinegar and baking soda can't do? Well, I guess it can't fold the towels & put them away, but I'll bet if you added a little borax...

Anyway... defunk steps are below the photo...

Defunk Procedure: 

1. Turn washing machine to the longest wash cycle and choose hot water. Turn it on. Do not add detergent.
2. When the machine is about half full, pour in two cups of white vinegar.
3. Once it's filled, add your funky towels to the water. 
4. Allow the machine to run through its wash & rinse cycle. Do not remove towels.
5. Dump 1 cup of baking soda into with the wet towels. Do not add detergent.
6. Run the machine through another hot cycle.
7. Once the second wash is all finished, put the towels in the dryer on hot & run them until they are 100% dry.
8. Take your towels out & bury your face in them & breathe deep!!! 
9. Ahhhhhhhh! Enjoy the smell of absolutely nothing!
10. Fold towels. Stack in closet. Bask in the glow of your adoring family as they comment on the lack of funk in the towels. 
11. Shake the fantastical reverie out of your head, dump your clean towels on the couch with the other unfolded laundry & go about you day, which will now be funk-free...
12. Repeat this process once every couple of months or so... or when your towels start gettin' down & gettin' funky again!

 unless you want THIS  kind of funk (and, really, who doesn't??):

Come share your projects with the:

Tutorial: Michelle's James Beard Bread in a Pot

Hey Sherrill, remember a couple of years ago when everyone and their dog (including us!) was making this recipe? Well, I've moved on to another recipe... actually returned to an old one! The original recipe for James Beard's "French Style Bread" appears in the book Beard On Bread, which was first published in 1973. I've made this recipe off & on since my college days, but recently I've adapted it to the "in a pot" baking method used in the ever-popular no-knead bread.

Why? Well, a couple of reasons. One, I like a recipe that can be ready to serve, start to finish in 3 or so hours. For the wet dough, no-knead bread, it's necessary to plan ahead a day... and planning ahead on my busy schedule is not always my strong suit. Two, the kids (and the man!) seem to prefer the softer texture of this bread. Unlike the no-knead bread, this recipe results in a tender bread instead of a chewy bread-- a consistency much preferred by little ones and, apparently, fussy men. Baking the bread in the cast iron pot still yields a bread with a nice crunch crust, but it take decidedly less jaw strength to bite & chew this bread! 

The drawback, of course, is that this is not a no-knead recipe. But if you're anything like me (and I think you are!), you probably use your KitchenAid Stand Mixer to do most of your mixing & kneading for you anyhow. You could, of course, knead this by hand, if you're in the mood to be a purist! 

Stuff you'll need. You won't need the spoon if you have a mixer, but this one was my grandma's-- isn't it cool? :)

Yield: 1 very large round loaf !
  

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 TBS  granulated sugar
2 cups  warm water (~110 degrees)*
1 TBS  salt
5-6 cups unbleached white bread flour (hard wheat flour)
The best really is King Arthur!
approx. 1 TBS olive oil

*trick for getting the water to the correct temp-- bring water to a boil in kettle. Add one 

cup boiling water to bowl. Add one cup cold water from the refrigerator pitcher to the hot water. You can use a thermometer to measure the temp if you want, but this method has 

worked perfectly for me! Using the finger method, the water should feel unmistakably 

warm, but not hot. 

Directions: 

Into stand mixer bowl, pour 1 cup boiling water & one cup chilled water from the 
fridge. Add the 1 TBS sugar & the 1 1/2 tsp of dry yeast. With the dough hook, mix 

ingredients a bit, just so all the yeast isn't sitting on top of the liquid, and let the mixture 

stand until the yeast dissolves & starts to bubble a bit.
If you need to provide a warm place for you dough to rise, while you're "proofing" the 
yeast, turn your oven up to 200 degrees. Once it's preheated, turn it off again & prop 

the door open.
After 10 minutes or so, the mixture in your bowl should look something like this:






If there's no foaming going on, either your yeast is bad or your water was too hot. Dump 
it out & start over!
Okay, if everything's a go with your yeast, add 3 cups of the flour and the salt to the bowl & mix on the lowest setting for two minutes or so or until it looks like this:







Add the remaining 2 cups of flour and continue mixing on low for about 5 minutes, 
allowing the machine to rest every minute or so (Yeah... learned this tip the hard way! I'm 

on my second mixer!). At some point, the dough will start to pull away from the sides of thebowl and form a ball, like this:  








Touch the dough with your finger. It should feel springy, but not sticky. If the dough is 
still sticking to your fingers or to the bowl at this point, add a little more flour, about 1/4 

cup at a time, and continue mixing until the dough is firm & springy, and not sticky. 






Brush the inside of a bowl with olive oil.
Remove dough from the mixer, form into a ball, and place it seam-side down in the bowl.






Cover the bowl with a plastic bag or a plate or a damp cloth towel and place it in your 
favorite warm place (or the oven that you warmed up & turned off while waiting for 

the the yeast to proof). Let the dough rise for 90 minutes or so. 






When the bread is done rising, it will almost fill the bowl, and when you poke it with 
your finger, the indentation will stay in: 

Punch the dough down to deflate it:


 Reform it into a ball, coating the outside with a teaspoon or so of olive oil with your 
hands. Place the dough in your cast iron pot. 



Slash the top of the dough with a sharp knife-- a crosshatch looks nice. I totally forgot to do it on this loaf!
Put on the lid and place the pot in your oven on the highest rack possible that will still 
accommodate the height of the pot and turn it on to 400 degrees. (Do not judge my dirty oven!)

If you have one of the bakelite knobs on your pot, you'll want to remove it! 
The dough will rise inside the pot while the oven is heating up, trust me!
Bake with the lid on for 30 minutes. Here's what it will look like when you take the lid off
(Be careful! There will be HOT steam in that pot!): 




Uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the crust is a dark golden 

brown, like this:


Luckily the loaf did not split! (Slashing the top will prevent splitting.)

Allow the bread to cool on a rack for 20 minutes or so before cutting into it. 

Voila! Slice, butter, and eat! Serve with dinner... or just wash it down with a 
High Life! 

If you make this bread, Sherrill, let me know how it turns out for you!

ETA: I made this bread again... here's  a photo of  tonight's loaf, 

and the girlie... and her silly face!

P.S. I don't know what's up with the formatting in this post, but I'm sick of dinking with it! I'll come back later & fix it when Blogger isn't being a b*tch.

Fun with Spreadsheets!

Hey Miss Sherrill, hope your Monday wasn't too brutal. I'm just glad to be home... and glad I had a cold beer waiting for me in the fridge! Got my flu shot this afternoon. Only took two tries-- the first Walgreens I stopped at didn't have any. They were also sold out of the product for *this great deal, but the second Wags had flu shots AND plenty of stock! Even the cashier was like, "Wow! You just got back more money than you spent!" My reply? "Yup. That's how I do it!" (Cue theme song.)

Anyway, I thought I might share some of the best free Excel spreadsheets I've found for couponing and paying down debt! 

Grocery Price List

This first one is a spreadsheet for keeping a grocery price list. Keeping one of these is the foundation of successful couponing... and really, successful shopping if you're even the least bit interested in saving money. The idea is to keep track of the lowest price you ever pay for the items that you buy by entering the prices from your grocery store receipts. You can also keep track of the store, the date, and whether or not you used coupons. I update mine regularly and upload it to my kindle so I can access it while shopping. The beauty of this list is that you walk in to the store armed with the information you need to know whether or not a "super duper mega ultra sale!!!" is really a good deal or not. Each item is broken down into units such as ounces or lbs, giving you the ability to compare the cost, whether you're looking at a 2 oz travel size or a 40 oz costco mega jug! Need more explanation as to why you should keep a grocery price list? Go here.

The one you'll download is already pre-loaded with categories & prices, but you'll want to organize yours to suit your own needs. I love my price book. Here's a screen shot of mine, showing how I organized some of my categories. Click on the screen shot below to go to the website from which this free spreadsheet can be downloaded.

Grocery Savings Tracker

The next spreadsheet is also invaluable, especially if you have a grocery budget you're trying to keep! I modified mine to keep monthly records, as it downloads set up to be an annual record of money spent. Since one of my goals this year is to keep my monthly expenditures on groceries, toiletries & household goods at $400 or under, this spreadsheet is crucial to my money-saving plans! The last column keeps a running total of the overall percentage you're saving, which is fun. It's also interesting to see which stores you're shopping at the most and which stores are saving you the most money (although this is kind of a specious designation-- some stores have lower prices overall & so you don't seem to be saving as much... but some stores have such ridiculous "regular" prices that the amount they claim you're saving is highly inflated)! Again, here's a screenshot of my modified spreadsheet. Click to go to the site for download.

Debt Snowball Calculator

The final free excel spreadsheet I have to share helped me pay off over $14,000 in debts in 2012! I honestly don't think I would have been as successful without this tool. Basically, you decide the total amount of your budget you can dedicate to debts, which debt you want to pay off first, and the calculator sets up a payment schedule for you. I used the snowball set up that pays off the lowest debts first, as it was very satisfying to watch the list of paid off debts lengthen as the months went by. It may make more sense to pay off the highest interest rate debts first, though. This calculator allows you to play around with different scenarios and see what your total interest payments will be as well. Really, I cannot recommend this tool highly enough! The most amazing part about it, of course, is that it's free! Go here to read more about this spreadsheet & to download. The vertex42.com website has a long list of free spreadsheets & calculators for budgeting and other needs. This is an amazing resource... and, yes, all this great stuff is 100% free!

Okay. That's it from me today. Keep stackin' them bills, girlfriend!

*The coupon for $2 off Estroven can be found in the Vitamins & Supplements booklet inside of Walgreens where they sell, you guessed it, vitamins & supplements. There were bunches of them there!

In the Neighborhood: Volcano Coffee

Okay, Sherrill. Here is a little photo tour of our favorite neighborhood meet up spot-- Volcano Coffee, which is currently rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on Yelp!

How long have we been having our knitting meet ups here? Two years? More? I'm sure you know down to the day, Miss Accounting Lady. All I know is that after the Austin Chase shut down in Graham, we tried several different spots before we landed at this former Forzas location, which has recently transformed into Volcano Coffee-- same owner & super friendly employees, new name & look!

Lots of rich wood-- love the glass pendant lights!

Comfy couches. Not so great for knitting, though! 

Why yes, this is the bathroom! Such a unique wall treatment in there!

I like this new identity better. Now our coffee place is not just another anonymous store front in the millions of generic corporate chains in the world, it's unique. It's cool. It adds some much needed personality to our "strip mall" dominated end of the world!

And, of course, some gratuitous knitting shots:

Cute tee shirts. Love the new logo. Still need to buy one!

So, Sherrill, I think we both need to hop on over to the Yelp site & give our favorite shop a big thumbs up! :) And if any of you are in the neighborhood, stop in & tell the gals that the Volcano Coffee Knitters sent you! 

My drink-- 12 oz. triple shot Creme Brulee Latte with half the syrup. Yum!