What's Cookin - Week Ending 3/9

Well, I missed last week. I learned an important lesson and that's that I need to keep this post running all week then post it at the end of the week rather than trying to remember all the stuff I looked up. I remember cooking something from a recipe I found online early in the week and thinking, "Oh man, I have to share this, this is fantastic." Guess what? I completely forgot what it was by the time the weekend rolled around. So sad.

I've been pouring all my spare time into building out the chicken coop. We are getting so excited to get chickens but their home still isn't ready. I'm hoping with the time change I will be able to take advantage of more of the time after the kids go to bed.

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Oh sigh, and now it's already Thursday and I've been trying to write this post for days but have been out in that darn chicken coop every night until late late late before falling into bed (late late later).

I'm going to cut my losses and post pictures I took a few days ago of where we are with the coop.

We got the posts in the ground for the chicken yard and then I framed it and added the roofing:

The inside is coming along nicely too. I'm trying not to spend much money on this since we have building materials and paint coming out of our ... never mind. Anyway, I picked up a free can of paint at the Ace free paint event on Saturday but that was just a little quart so it essentially served as primer for the white low odor / no VOC semi-gloss we had in the other shed. It'll be easier to clean with the semi-gloss on the walls than if we left them unfinished.

Here's a shot of the whole thing from the garden side (you can see the pvc structure to hold the plastic that the tomatoes will grow under in order to keep them warm and happy in our cool NW weather). The vertical stripes on the back of the shed will eventually be painted over. There was some trim there that got in my way so I ripped it off and repurposed it inside the coop.

I think someone wants to know when we'll be done with this latest project. I think he's eager to try his first egg. Thus far, he's been about 98% vegan but I think once we have our chickens settled, it'll be time to see how he feels about eggs.

Now I'm going to work on some posts for some stuff I've been making in the kitchen. I think I've perfected my waffle recipe and am ready to share plus I made some peanut butter that the family devoured in a week. What's cookin' in your home?

Thank you for reading,
Julie

What's Cookin - Week Ending 2/23

I can't believe February is nearly over. Time sure flies when you've got 15 projects going at once.

First of all, I'd like to post a picture of how well the seeds, er, seedlings are doing. I can't believe they sprouted and grew this much in a week:

After getting all my plants set up on the work bench in the garage, I realized they still weren't warm enough, even on the warming mat. I knew I had to warm up the air around them in order for the warming mat to get the soil warm enough (it claims to warm the soil 10-15 degrees above air temperature). I ended up laying down a mylar emergency blanket on the work bench then put the warming mat and all the plants on it and then I built a structure out of pvc pipe and covered it in mylar blankets. I added a work light to the inside and another warm light shining from the outside and the temperature inside my little greenhouse rose to a comfy 75 degrees where the plants obviously were very happy.

Here you can see the grow light suspended inside the little benchtop greenhouse 

over the hot house as well as the soda bottle greenhouses. 

Once the seedlings are stronger and I can peel back the mylar blankets a bit, I'll do a post on how I created the larger structure. I was in a hurry to get it built though so I didn't take pictures along the way.

The next order of business is to tell you to go make these AMAZING cookies right now!! From the Post Punk Kitchen, it's Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles. I didn't have enough canola oil so I substituted in coconut oil. Coconut oil gets really thin when it is warmed so I will say that my cookies weren't as thick as hers and got a bit crispy but the taste was to die for. I can imagine that following the recipe exactly as she writes it would be wonderful. You would never know these are vegan, they're rich and delicious (you'd think they were full of butter).

If you follow BSR on Facebook, you might have seen my note that Home Depot had their 8 oz paint samples on buy one get one free sale through their website. This offer included free shipping so I ordered 16 little pots of indoor/outdoor paint samples. They arrived this week and I'm already thinking of all the paint projects I can do with so many colors.

(oops, watermark fail)

The Snickerdoodle invented a dangerous but very rewarding game.

I also reorganized my spice cabinet. I found these great swivel spice racks on Groupon goods a couple of weeks ago (offer is gone now but apparently they have them on closeout at Big Lots) and then purchased a boat load of new spice jars from Bed Bath and Beyond. On that note, did you know that you can use stacks of their coupons in one transaction AND they can be expired? I was surprised to find I could even use two $5 off $15 coupons in one transaction as long as my total equaled $30+. I picked up 32 new spice jars for around $24 after taxes.

     

I made labels for the jars and was really happy with how they turned out.

I created them in MS Word but because it was fighting me with the bracket graphics, I just created one file of brackets and one with the spice names and sent the clear address labels through twice. I thought about using one of the other printouts available online but knew I had some spices others might not and wanted to make sure I could create my own custom labels easily.

And the last thing to report - and this is the big news of the week: We're getting chickens!! While I would love for the whole family to eat vegan, the Snickerdoodle and the hubs are both hooked on eggs. The best way I can figure to get around the problem I have with supporting the egg industry is to get our own chickens. We are going to convert the back half of the old shed into a coop with nesting boxes and then are fencing and roofing an area just beside the shed so they'll have a safe place to peck and scratch around outside. We also plan to let them free range throughout the yard when we're around to supervise them (at least until we get to know them better and feel comfortable they won't wander off and the neighborhood critters won't hurt them).

Here's Super Snickerdoodle showing off the freshly cleaned out shed.

I added the top vent as well as three windows opposite the dutch door so we can open things up in the summer and get a nice breeze moving through the coop. The brown vertical lines are where I pulled some trim off. I haven't decided if I'm going to put it back on or just paint the stripes to match the rest of the shed but I'll decide after I install the nesting box which will hang below the windows.

We're building a platform inside the shed so we can continue to store smaller items like buckets and hoses under the coop. The chickens will be contained in the upper portion of the 4x6 area. There will be a door and wall made of chicken wire.

 

The hubs started clearing the yard for the chicken run. We will frame it out and add chicken wire walls as well as a corrugated roof. This will give them a space that's safe from predators.

Well, I think that's about everything to report. I've already got some posts planned out for this week so stay tuned!

Thank you for reading,

Julie

What's Cookin - Week ending 2/16

Well, we spent this week with the hubs down and out with what I can only guess the baby had the week before. So, it was another crazy busy week without a lot of culinary creativity. I am working on the following blog posts though:

Vegan Meatless Loaf - Why would anyone want to do this? Well, it's even easier than regular meatloaf and doesn't hurt any animals. After quite a bit of tinkering, I think I finally have a version we all enjoy. Unfortunately we ate it so fast I never got a picture.

Our Free Garden Cold Frame - Adventures in recycling.

DIY Rain Barrels - They're so easy you'll want to run out and get the stuff to make your own!

And finally - I am working on getting our seeds started and will have some tips for creating your own mini greenhouses.

I hope your house isn't getting hit as hard as ours with all the illnesses floating around this year.

Since I didn't have a lot of pictures for this one, I'm going to leave you with this:

Thank you for reading,
Julie

What's Cookin? Week Ending 2/9

Well, sadly, about the only thing cooking this past week was the toddler. That poor little dude got hit HARD by a flu virus and he spent a good part of the week with awful fevers and all the suffering that goes along with them. He maxed out at 104.4 which is the highest fever I've ever directly witnessed and it was scary. He's totally fine now though so we're all so glad that passed.

I guess one good thing that came from his illness was that he took some good naps. After spending hours holding him and trying to console him through the pain, as soon as he went down (still twice per day), I bolted outside to get some work done in the garden.

You might recall that we picked up three yards of cedar play chips to spread throughout the side yard. We were originally going to grow grass but it hit me one day that in 2 years that grass would be infested with clover and we'd be irritated so we got wood chips instead. We worked tirelessly to spread it around then I added in edgers around the granite garden path to hold the wood chips back.

It is really coming along over there. I think it'll actually be ready in time for planting season.

We also decided to cut down a couple of trees in the back yard. It really opened things up but we've got two active boys on our hands so we're thinking room to run is more important than shade.

The sawsall did not cut through that tree. If we had put the right blade on, that might have worked but ultimately I think my husband got it down with the chain saw. I'm not positive, I was inside icing my shin after I accidentally smacked it with the blunt end of the ax.

So that's what's up at our house. Fevers, yard work, garden building, dreaming, scheming and living life to the fullest.

Thank you for reading,
Julie

What's Cookin? Week Ending 2/2

This is a new weekly post I'm trying out to keep track of the things I cook and craft throughout the week. I do a lot of stuff that isn't worthy of its own blog or is such a close copy of someone else's idea that I don't feel right posting my version of it (unless I can add to the discussion).

I started out the week making a new batch of deodorant. This stuff really lasts for quite awhile. If you haven't tried making your own deodorant yet, please check out my version. It is the first deodorant that has consistently worked for me and I don't have to worry at all about putting strange chemicals on my skin.

Source: buildsewreap.com via Julie on Pinterest

I also continued on my search for a great vegan breakfast sausage that I can make and keep in the freezer for the boys. This recipe from Hell Yeah It's Vegan was a bit closer but still not quite to our liking. I adapted it with my own spices for a second batch and it was pretty good but still not a clear Morningstar Farms replacement. I plan to continue to tinker with it and will surely post my recipe once I get it right. I was thinking of trying out this sausage spice mix to see how the flavor turns out. UPDATE: They don't keep well in the fridge. The baby eats them but I about gagged when I tried one.

Source: hellyeahitsvegan.com via Julie on Pinterest

I made our favorite vegan lunch/dinner sausages at the end of the week. They're so simple and so so delicious. VeganDad makes the version we liked the best after I tried several out on the family awhile back. I find that they're best if you brown them in a nonstick pan before serving. The baby doesn't mind them just steamed but we all like it when I toast up the outsides a bit. They're wonderful with a little spicy mustard.

Source: vegandad.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

Finally, we also had some vegan risotto, also by VeganDad. The family loves this but I do need to remember not to put in the full amount of nutritional yeast. They're not quite used to the flavor just yet.

Source: vegandad.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

The week wasn't particularly inspired, we leaned on a lot of old favorites. I guess it was just one of those weeks. The weekend was packed full of work out in the garden though so I'll be sure to post some of those pictures in a few days.

Thank you for reading,
Julie

What's Cookin? - Week Ending 1/26

I'm going to start trying to keep track of the things I cook and craft throughout the week. I do a lot of stuff that isn't worthy of its own blog or is such a close copy of someone else's idea that I don't feel right posting my version of it (unless I can add to the discussion).

Candied Orange Peels:  http://www.brighteyedbaker.com/confessions101/diy-candied-orange-peel/

Thoughts: These are wonderful. I also rolled mine in powdered sugar while they were still warm just to keep them from being sticky. I had seen where other recipes suggested rolling them in regular sugar but I ran out of sugar (gasp, how did that happen!??!) so I grabbed the powdered stuff.

Vegan Breakfast Sausage: http://www.food.com/recipe/vegetarian-sausage-patties-388968

Thoughts: These are terrible, seriously, nasty. They have a poor texture and taste absolutely nothing like Morningstar Farms breakfast sausage patties.

Happy Baby Breakfast Cakes: This was a recipe I made up on my own. I think I'll post it later this week just to get it in writing. They were very strange but proved to be perfect for the little guy who still only has 4 teeth and an ever-growing appetite.

Bowls of Goodness: Another one of my made up recipes, this one was for dinner. I'll post the recipe later in the week. It was a stir fry sort of meal but so easy and contained ingredients we always have on hand.

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As for projects outside the kitchen, I've started planning our our garden and placed a couple of hearty orders for organic vegetable seeds. This year I'm using SmartGardener to plan out the garden. If you're like me and don't have confidence in your gardening knowledge, this is a great site. I was able to pick all our seeds out from very extensive options. It helped me create a garden layout based on good companion plants, shade, etc. It also created a calendar for me so I know exactly when I need to start seeds indoors, when others go in the ground, how and when to amend the soil for ideal growing conditions, etc. I'm really impressed with this free website and am really eager to get our garden going.


Thank you for reading,
Julie