In Memorium

Boobs McGee, aka Barbie.

A surprisingly good egg layer and an excellent mother.  The smartest and most individual hen I ever met.
Silky X, 3 1/2 years old.

 

Three of the seven Blackies

Three of you survived to 12 weeks of age: early adulthood.  You three showed great promise as young adult chooks.  All of you had excellent form as members of our chicken community.
Australorp X Silky cross, 12 weeks.

 

Bess and Pat (White chooks in middle of front row and slightly to the right)

Mother and daughter, you were sweet natured, docile, friendly and layed lovely white eggs.  You were friendly and always close to my feet when I brought the scraps – in a good way.  You never made a fuss when you were handled and you were both very pretty hens.

Light Sussex Bantams, 2 years and 1year.

 

Richard aka Benny Hill (White Silky Rooster, far right)

Richard you were the very best of roosters.  You were valiant, compassionate, brave, wise and a little bit silly.  You took good care of your hens and babies.  I know you did not make it easy for those foxes.  I will miss your crow in the morning.  I would be lucky to ever have another rooster like you.

Silky, 4 years.

Rest in peace my lovely chooky friends.

Got No Eggs?

When I wrote Chooks in the City I included a bunch of recipes in the back for the inevitable shock the new chook owner gets when eggs are rolling out of the fridge.  I should have included a bunch of recipes for when the buggers are on strike, like my feathery female fowl are.  I hate resorting to buying supermarket eggs, even if it only happens twice a year.  And I growl and grumble at the chooks as they leg it to greet me with the steamy food scraps on a foggy cold morning.  I can’t really blame them for choosing to fatten themselves instead of laying eggs in the cold wintery weathery.  On the other hand, I CAN quite righteously hurl abuse at the Crows and Currajongs who hang about ghoulishly on low branches around the run.  For all I know, THEY are pinching the eggs, warm from the hen’s bum and well timed for their breakfast.  Regardless, it’s handy to have a couple of no-egg recipes aside from Scones for when the neighbours pop round, or for kids lunchboxes.  Here are two good ones:

No-Egg Banana Bread

3 mashed bananas
3/4 cup honey
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1   1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or ground ginger (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. In a large bowl, mash up the bananas with a fork. Add the melted butter. Add bicarb soda, flour, and honey. Stir until everything is mixed together. Pour the mix into the oiled loaf tin. Bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour.

Easy Eggless Apricot & Date Slice

1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup coconut (or almond meal)
1 cup chopped apricots
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup skim milk

Soak chopped fruit in hot water as you go.  Put dry ingredients in bowl and mix.  Add milk.  Add drained fruit.  Mix well.  Pour into greased slice tin and bake in moderate oven 30 – 35 minutes or until golden brown.

This slice can be altered almost beyond recognition and it will still turn out yummy.  Any dried fruits can be used.  My mother substituted ground almonds for the coconut, and glace ginger for the apricots to make the nicest slice she’s ever baked.  If you use wholemeal flour just add a tiny bit more milk to make the mix more liquid.  Too easy.

Eggs!  Who needs them?

 

OK, I take it back.  But you girls better come up with the goods or else!  Errr or else I’ll…stop putting hot water on your brekky scraps!

Are you laughing at me?!

Brace Face

Speaking of teeth…it was somewhat of a shock to the system when my good eating (i.e. he is a good eater; he does not make for good eating, I’m assuming) teenager with his brand new braces, said it hurt too much to chew on Day 2 of having them on.  Particularly because on Day 1, he chawed his way happily and smugly through three packs of gum in front of his banned- from- gum-chewing siblings (that is a whole ‘nother story right there, but I’m not ready to laugh about it yet)!  No reason to panic though because I had soup recipes galore.  We had French Onion Soup from scratch on Day 1, and good ol’ Chicken Soup from scratch on Day 2 and creamy Smoked Cod and Potato Soup from scratch was planned for Day 3.  Still he looked a little glum.  He’s a big boy, I figured, he’ll say something to me when he needs to.   Indeed.  Instead of saying something, the ratbag just went and fainted!

What I hadn’t realised is that through a normal weekend, when I leave his weird body clock to do its own thing he steadily grazes all through the day.  Being quite adept in the kitchen, he makes his own food and because it often resembles a pregnant woman’s pica cravings, I leave him to it.  But, it seems, he didn’t have any recipes for sore mouth food.  So except for the soup dinners, he wasn’t eating.  Bad mother!

We sat down and sorted out a battle plan.  It only needed to be short term because the mouth pain was certain to settle down within a week; still, fainting and malnutrition were undesirable.  School days were a particular worry because the kids have a long day with two hours of bus travel.  I generally send them with lots of protein: meat, cheese or egg sandwiches when possible, a piece of fruit and a muffin.  For Brace Face “Up & Go” were expensive but convenient and they travel well.  Bananas were preferable for fruit until an Apple Slinky peeler could be bought, and sandwiches were still OK, if a little dull, without fibrous protein like fillings.  Obviously, yogurts and jellies were good treats for home.  Rice and pasta weren’t as good an idea as I would have thought because they seemed to clog his braces up and everyone was getting sick of soup. 

A brochure from my work in the canteen Bananaland.com.au  gave us a bunch of smoothie recipes, including the one below which, naturally, can be altered beyond recognition to suit tastes.  The clever bit is the Weetbix!!  Perfect for getting him off to the bus with something substantial yet sippable in his stomach.

Banana Breakfast Smoothie

1 banana
200ml low fat Milk
1 Weetbix
1 teaspoon honey

Add all ingredients to a blender and mix well.  Add ice for a chilled smoothie.
(Vit. B6, Protein, Fubre, Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Vit.C, slow release carbohydrates)

Perfect!  He added Milo, more milk and another Weetbix and it’s now a family favorite, particularly for those ‘oh bugger, we slept in’  mornings.

And to avoid the soup stupor the family seemed to be falling into, I found this great recipe on the interwebs  at Food Editorial.com , real comfort food that the kids (and particularly the braces wearer) love!

 Baked Ham and Egg Hash Browns

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Ingredients:
3 cups frozen shredded hashbrown potatoes, uncooked (I used hashbrown triangles)
3/4 cup grated cheese
1 cup diced or shredded ham
4 eggs, beaten
1 can evaporated milk
1/8 teaspoon salt.

Grease a 2 quart casserole.  Spoon shredded potatoes (or diced hasbrown triangles) on the bottom, then top with cheese and ham.  In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, tinned milk and salt.  Pour over ham mixture in casserole.  Bake for 40 – 45 minutes or 55 – 60 if made ahead and chilled.  Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.  Serves 6.

Braces Boy has no difficulties with food now, and his braces are bright green which gives me no end of pleasure saying to him “You’ve got something green in your teeth!”.  He rolls his eyes at me lot more than he used to.