Happy Birthday, Ada Belle!

Happy First Birthday, Ada!! You are such a happy person with your twinkling and singing and dancing. We can't wait for you to be back on the farm so we can speak more French! Enjoy your party in Alaska! We love you, Ada Belle! Bisous, bisous! xoxo

Chicken Tacos

As promised...or threatened...here is the end of the roasted chicken turned to tacos! Everyone has a favorite way to make tacos and the truth is: anything goes well into a taco!

Chicken, cabbage, onion, garlic, tomatoes, jalapeños,corn, sharp cheddar cheese, green onions, and corn tortillas.


Corn, jalapeños, and tomatoes were from the garden last summer. I wish there was a fresh bunch of cilantro to go with these vegetables, but the green onions will give a a garden fresh flavor too.


Onion, garlic, jalapeño without the seeds, and butter were combined first, then the chicken was added. Next, tomatoes and the water they were packed in were put into the pan and set to simmer.


Finally, corn and green onions were stirred into the filling mixture. This pan was set aside to rest.


Then the corn tortillas were fried in canola oil. It doesn't take much oil. I started with about 2 tablespoons and added 1 more tablespoon after frying 9 tortillas. These were drained on a paper towel and folded in half while still warm.


The fun of stuffing the tacos was next. Meat, cheese, cabbage, green onion, repeat! We had a few extra sides like avocado, sour cream, more jalapenos, more cabbage and hot sauce.


Of course, there were leftovers, so the roasted chicken will live on for at least one more dinner! How do you make your tacos?

Chicken Pot Pie

Here is the chicken pot pie made with the leftovers from the roasted chicken and vegies. There was so much meat on that bird, but no it wasn't one of our meat birds, Rina. Anyway, one of the drumsticks was big enough for a meal for each of us! So half of the breast meat from this hefty clucker went into the pie along with the leftover turnips, parsnips, and carrots. I made a white sauce with butter, flour, leftover drippings, milk, and water from the home canned corn. I also added sauted onions, mushrooms, and garlic. Once the sauce was thickened everything was mixed together and corn and peas were added. Finally a few sprigs of fresh oregano, a handful of chives and two green onions were chopped and added to the mix.


Here is the pie fresh out of the oven. Pot pies are always piping hot! It was a complete meal and there are once again plenty of leftovers.


For dessert, there was enough pie dough left for a little inside-out-peach-pie! The dough was rolled out and I cut it with a cookie cutter. The little chicks were sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and baked. The peach pie filling was made from a jar of canned peaches from our tree last summer. A little sugar, flour, and a splash of almond extract and then it was thickened and cooled. We dipped the chicks into the pie for a late evening treat!

Roasted Chicken

For dinner last night we roasted a chicken. Here it is ready to pop in the oven with root vegetables. The chicken was rinsed with cool water, salted, peppered, and saluted with the 21 Seasonings from Trader Joe's. Along with the chicken are golden turnips, parsnips, carrots, garlic, onion, and leeks. A tiny drizzle of olive oil was used over the vegies. In the second pan is a whole beet, cut in half and drizzled with a tad of olive oil. They were all set to roast at 375 degrees for about 2 hours.

After 2 hours of roasting this is what it looked like. There was plenty of moist delicious meat for our dinner with the roasted vegetables. The leftovers will be made into chicken pot pie and I think there will be enough for chicken tacos one night this week too. That is a lot meals from one bird! What do you do with your chicken?

Peach Blossoms

The sky was dark and full of energy as we headed out to the Grower's Market. It rained, hailed, blew, and shined all day long. The pretty pink blossoms against the dark sky were so pretty to see this morning.