Gelato

Forget about ice cream. We have discovered Gelato! We were watching the show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network about gelato. It looked so good I searched for a recipe and found this one from Cooks.com



CHOCOLATE GELATO

4 egg yolks
2/3 c. sugar
2 c. milk
3 1/2 o. bitter sweet chocolate
1 1/2 oz. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp. sugar

In a bowl beat yolks, gradually add sugar. Beat until creamy and pale yellow. In saucepan bring milk to boil, remove, slowly pour yolk mixture, stirring constantly and quickly. Melt chocolate in double boiler until smooth and satiny. Stir. Pour into custard mixture. Add cocoa powder; mix. Pour into large saucepan, medium heat. DO NOT BOIL. Stir until thick and coats spoon. Heat 2 tablespoons sugar with 2 tablespoons water until dark brown and caramel colored. Add to custard. Pour in clean bowl. Chill. Pour into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's directions. Serves 6.


It is not as simple to make as it sounds. I think I used up every bowl in the kitchen, but it was definitely worth it. I found out too late I didn't have the bitter sweet chocolate and it still tastes fantastic. Niko says it is better than store bought ice cream, Deklan thinks it is about the same.

A Rant

I give up, I give up, I give up!

I can't even begin to do justice to the feelings of helplessness overwhelming me this morning.

You all know I have been struggling with the garden. The spring garden was first pillaged by the chickens. We put a temporary, flimsy fence around it to keep goats and chickens alike out. The fence didn't even have a real door, we had to disassemble the fence a bit to get in and out. To keep the goats off the fence we surrounded it with hot wire. It didn't take long to figure out the garden was not going to recuperate in the Texas heat of July and August so I took the hot wire down and opened the fence up for the goats to clear the rest of the garden and get rid of some of the weeds. Well, in this process the goats managed to tear up the fence around the garden.

A week ago I decided it couldn't be put off any longer; I needed to get the fall garden put in. I fixed up the fence with the help of Stef and hooked up the hot wire. I was completely stumped with what to do about all of the weeds in the garden area though. The goats had eaten them down but without the goats they would come back. Let me tell you, these are not just ordinary weeds. These are stickers or sand burrs or weeds from the very depths of hell, whichever you prefer. You simply cannot just pull them up. They grow a foot a day. If you till them they still come back. So after telling Stef then that I give up on the garden and then him telling me I couldn't, I decided to just cover the entire garden with plastic. Clear plastic for any spot that was not growing garden produce and black landscape fabric for where plants would be. Not pretty and I really don't know how practical or even long term it is but I did it. Then I went to the nursery and got plants. Tomatoes, green peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, collard greens, mustard greens, cabbage, broccoli, and my favorite red peppers (I really had to hunt these down). Stef and I got the fence really patched up and I finally get my garden in. Planting in the plastic was not easy. I start watering everything and found that the landscape fabric that is suppose to be water permeable, isn't. At least not enough to water from the top. Ok, fine. I say once again to Stef it is not worth it, I GIVE UP. He said no. He would go out and put down the drip tape underneath the fabric. While he was at it he also put a real door in the fence for easy in and out. Ok,fine.

This morning, after chores, I went for a little peak at the garden....I give up, I give up, I give up.

The new door Stef put on the garden fence apparently didn't have a lock, and the hot wire was apparently not put back up around the fence after installation of said door. The goats had been in the garden. Little tell tale goat berries lay everywhere. Good news is they don't like eggplant (just pulled them up by the stem and left them on the ground)and they also left most of the cucumbers and tomatoes alone. Bad news they do like greens, and broccoli and cabbage and they LOVE pepper plants. Especially, apparently, red peppers. Not one is left.

I can't keep putting this much effort, not to mention cash, into the garden for it to get ruined. I'm not sure what we will do now. I guess I will just be an even more frequent buyer at the farmer's market. Better my time and money go there than into the stomachs of any 2 or 4 legged fiends around here.

Crazy Chickens or Crazy Goat?

Why do the chickens think it is more comfortable to sit on a goat's back than on the ground? Usually Awkward, the chicken, is sitting on Lil Bits back. I saw this and went in to get my camera and when I came back they were on Big Momma's back. It's not like they just sit up there for a second and get down either. They hunker down and stay on for quite awhile.

Goat pics

Just a couple pics I took while doing chores tonight.

Woodpecker

I have been trying to get a picture of these woodpeckers all summer. They are wiley suckers though. This is the best I could do tonight ( you can see it's outline at the top of the pole). We think he is an Acorn Woodpecker. They live in families of 15 or so and hoard acorns in trees and utility poles. They are pretty big too. Sometimes they will swoop low in the woods and it looks like a giant squirrel.

Big puppies

Here are some pics of the puppies some of you were asking for. This first one is Jake. Jake is the best puppy. At dinner time he just lays near his bowl and waits for me to come and hook him up to the leash. He is very calm.

The next pic is of DeeDee. She is also a very good puppy, not quite as laid back as Jake, but still pretty good. She will follow us around and during mealtime will follow me while I get everyone ready and then calmly waits to be fed herself.


The last puppy is Taco. Oh Taco. Right now this pup is the bane of our ranching existance. He is the reason for all of the scratched legs and arms you will see around here right now. He is very hyper and NOT laid back at all. He cannot lay still to save his life. I am working with him on not jumping and being a little calmer during mealtimes, but boy is he testing me. He has the sharpest dang claws too. He caught me off guard tonight during chores and I about kicked him accross the yard, (sorry Grandma, I really didn't mean to).

Chopping, Plucking, Butchering

We killed and plucked and butchered 6 or 7 chickens yesterday. I caught some of the roosters and put them in the chicken tractor overnight so they wouldn't be full of food and they would be easy to retrieve the next day. When Stef got home from work we started. Stef chopped their heads off and bled them out, soaked them in hot water and brought them to the boys. The boys plucked and then brought them to me. I, after Stef showed me how, butchered them. I was pretty proud of myself. A year ago I would have let the guys do all of the dirty work. Now, I'm pretty confident I could do it all on my own. I still "let" Stef chop the heads off, though, I think I will do it next time. I got pretty good and fast at eviscerating them though.

Some of the chickens were pretty skinny. The types we have are dual purpose breeds so they are not overly meaty. I am looking into getting more meat birds. They will grow out faster but not be good layers. I am going to go with either of two french breeds; Marans or Freedom Rangers. Cornish Xs are the usual meat bird for large scale and a lot of smaller scale operations, but they are very sorry birds. They gain weight at such a fast rate the rest of their body can't keep up and they are prone to broken legs and heart attacks. They also do not forage, basically they don't act very chickenish. I read somewhere someone called them Franken-chickens. That is a good name; very unnatural.

Jealous much??

Okay, this post is directed at Misty. I made focaccia bread yesterday! It was so yummy!!! I made it the same as at the farmers market, with tomatoes, goat mozz, and fresh basil. My basil came out a bit crispy though. I think they may have sauteed theirs. I also added some fresh rosemary to the actual bread. OOh, it is good. For dinner last night, and I admit, for breakfast this morning, we had cheese raviolis, with tomato sauce, fresh mozz, and fresh basil with the focaccia bread. Good, Good, Good.

Herd Reduction

Stef and I have decided that we are going to get rid of our meat goats and focus on the rabbits and chickens for meat and just dairy from the goats. I have been struggling with what to do with the animals, eat them or try to sell them? Today we were invited to a bbq at one of the boys' friends (they live up the road a bit). They are fencing in their land and will be wanting meat goats in a couple of weeks and wants us to hold the goats for them. I think this is the perfect solution. The boys were very upset at the news of loosing these goats, but now they can still visit.

Mozzarella!!!

I made mozzarella!!! I honestly did not think it would turn out, so now that it did I am super excited. It tasted so good! I guess the next cheese to try is cheddar. Cheddar needs to be pressed and aged and all sorts of new stuff, so it might be awhile before I do it.
This is a picture of the pizza I made today. For the crust I used tortillas that turned out too hard, tomato paste for the sauce, and topped it with cherry tomatoes, basil leaves, and red peppers. Oh boy, was that good!

I got the idea for the whole basil leaves from a foccacia bread Misty bought at the farmer's market yesterday. I am thinking that when I get better at this bread and cheese making I might start selling at the farmer's market. Stef is building me a very large solar oven that I could bake several loaves in at the same time.

Baking

I baked and baked and baked some more today. I baked 3 loaves of bread today. One whole wheat, the other 2 white with oatmeal. The oatmeal bread is the boys favorite, of course it is not as good for them.

Here is the recipe:

3 cups bread flour
1 cup rolled oats
2T butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
3T honey
1 packet active dry yeast
1 1/4C lukewarm milk (goats milk of course)

In a large mixing bowl combine all of the ingredients, mixing to form a shaggy dough. I knead dough by hand 10 minutes till it's smooth. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and rest it for 1 hour.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled surface, and shape it into a log. Place the log in a lightly greased 9x5 in loaf pan, cover the pan with greased plastic wrap. Allow dough to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, til it's crested 1 to 2 inches over the rim of the pan.

Bake the bread in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes, until a thermometer in the center reads 190 degrees.

It is really yummy. I don't have the whole wheat down to perfection yet. It is very good with goat cheese for breakfast though. I will post that recipe when I get it down better.

I also made two batches of tortillas for fajitas tomorrow night. One batch was made with goats milk and vegetable oil and one batch with whey from cheese making and shortening. There isn't much of a difference in how they taste at all. The second batch was easier to work with, but I let that dough rest longer than the first and I think that made a big difference. Still trying to find the perfect tortilla recipe for whole wheat tortillas.

I made the beginnings of mozzarella cheese yesterday. Today I tried to finish it but it wasn't quite ready yet. I will try again tomorrow.

I also made spanish rice for fajitas tomorrow. I would usually get Rice a Roni rice, but not any more! It smells super good!

While I did all of my baking and cooking I watched the Design Star that my mom taped for me. I was able to watch the entire series in one setting.

Feather Foot

I can't believe I forgot to post about our new rooster, Feather Foot, that we got from Fran! The boys just fell in love with her feather-footed chickens so she sent a rooster home with us. He is so sweet, but still a little tentative with us. We are keeping him and Mr. Tibbles as our roos. This is the best pic Deklan could get of him. He was scared of the camera.

Bun Buns

It is really tricky to get picks of these little kits. They are still real skittish around us. There are 2 of them in this picture, but we have 3 altogether.

Flower

This is our new girl Flower. She is an Alpine dairy goat. She is the goat we traded Fran for the dog. She is our first papered goat and is from a good milking line. She not only looks like a deer, she jumps like one too. We have had to beef up our fencing. She was a bottle baby and VERY friendly. Because all of the old goats are mean to her she keeps jumping the fence to come hang out with us. She hangs out with the new babies when Big Momma is out foraging, but it seems today everyone else may have been a little friendlier towards her. I hope they get used to each other soon, I feel bad for her.