Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream

Recently I had purchased some heavy whipping cream and bought too much. With having extra sitting around I had wondered what to do with the remainder of it and set out on a google search. I should say I am not big on cooking as I usually try to make quick and easy meals and have to admit that I probably only used heavy whipping cream maybe once or twice in my life. After scrolling through the results I found I could use it in just about anything. However, my kids were looking over my shoulder and saw ice cream. We checked out a few of the recipe but settled on a chocolate one.

The recipe:

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Mix the sweetened condensed milks, vanilla, and cocoa together in a medium sized bowl. In a large bowl beat the heavy whipping cream until you get stiff peaks (DO NOT OVER BEAT). Then fold in the chocolate mixture. Transfer to a freezer container and freeze for at least 6 hours.

This was a big hit in my house and it came out pretty good. The consistency was a cross between a mousse and soft serve ice cream.

Girls bedroom make over

It has been long overdue for our oldest (who recently turned 12) to finally have her own room. We had the space, I just never seemed to have the time until recently to do it. I wanted to remove the popcorn ceiling we have in the house and figured her room would be the perfect start. The room is not very big, 10 x 11, with a small closet. I had done a little bit of research on how to remove  the popcorn ceiling, making sure we didn't have any asbestos in it. Some sprayed water to saturate it, while others used paint, and a few others (who knew what they were doing) using a special sander. I went with the saturating with water route, doing a small area at first to see how easy it would be to take off. After waiting 5 minutes, I used my paint scrapper and making sure not to gauge the drywall I scraped off the popcorn ceiling.

Popcorn ceiling being removed

It is highly recommended to plastic sheet the floor and walls if you can do it, so that clean up is a simple clean up. I only covered the floor and used a waste basket to put the big chunks in. I also used a paint pan to catch the big sections in 1 hand while scraping with the other. A full garbage bag later and tired arms I was finally finished. It didn't look pretty as I was crunched for time and really wanted to get painting. So I left to ceiling as is so it had a more rustic look, primed and painted it a white color and the walls got the same treatment. Due to being a small room and having some large furniture in it we chose white to be the best color to make it look as big as possible.

The room finished being painted.

We chose a grayish purple color for the trim. My daughter really wanted a rustic kind of room so instead of the doors getting a plain coat of paint I chose to do a wood grain technique. She originally wanted the walls to be the same wood grain however after testing out a small area around the closet doors, I found that it does not work on lightly textured walls. The wall around the closet doors ended up being painted the trim color to offset the doors some.

Barn door look using wood grain brush and trim color.

I also repainted her desk with attached hutch, as we wanted it to match the color of the room. I really liked how it turned out and looks a little more sophisticated with the desk drawers painted the trim color.

She also has a dresser that needed a new paint job, so we scrapped off the old and sanded it as best we could before adding the paint. We chose the rustic white wash look for the dresser since the wood underneath was beautiful but too dark for the room.

Of course her bed had to be customized to fit the room with having her desk and dresser taking up so much space. We had a bunk bed set already, figuring it would be perfect with some modifications and a white washed look as well.

She loves her new room and she still has some space for additional bookshelves and a small seating area for her to read, however that will be another day. I am glad this turned out as nicely as it did and we won't have to redo it as she gets older since everything is pretty plain and not childish.

Chicken Marsala

I had a frozen box dinner put out by Bertolli, Chicken Marsala. It is delicious and of course I wanted to find a way to make this same dish, or at the very least as close to the same dish as possible. I had come across a recipe and tried it only to dislike what I had made. It didn't look or taste anything close to the box dinner. It got me thinking as to what was actually in the Marsala sauce. As it turns out it's beef broth, go figure!

For this recipe I used the one I found on The Food Network, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/marsala-sauce-recipe.html We do not like onions so I didn't add them but followed the rest of the recipe exactly. For the chicken part I used boneless, skinless chicken thigh strips cooked in olive oil on the stove seasoned to taste. Drained, and then added the Marsala gravy I cooked up prior to cooking the chicken. I cooked it til the gravy and chicken were heated up. You can serve this over rice, or even do up mashed potatoes and a veggie, or however you like.

Incubator and Baby Chicks

As if only 1 incubator wasn't enough, I got a 2nd one. Our current one only holds 18 but we end up only using 16 as the thermometer and humidity detector take up too much space. Not that this is a big deal. I like that we can see all the eggs, anything that happens with the eggs, and it turns the eggs for us. It was a tad costly but it is what we choose at the time.

I had been searching Craigslist for an incubator and came across a Hova-bator that came with a turner, plus it held 42 eggs, all for $40. It was such a good deal, almost too good to be true. We went prepared when we picked it up and checked to make sure both the incubator and the turner worked, they did! It needed to be cleaned, but who doesn't clean stuff they get 2nd hand? We plugged it in and had such a hard time getting the temp to hold. After a week of trying I gave up and threw in the eggs we had planned to hatch. As the days went by I had to keep adjusting the temp (no fan for circulation) due to the house temp changing with the weather outside. It didn't help it was located in the dinning room just off the kitchen, hot central!

We have tried to candle eggs but never get a good view but figured out a new contraption and was able to see something but what we were seeing was hard to figure out as we are total beginners at it. It looked like the eggs were right where they needed to be after searching the web for a chicken embryo development chart. Day 18 came, I took out  the eggs, turner, filled the trays, and replaced the eggs. Now it was a waiting game. The next few days pasted slowly, I say slowly because in the small incubator we would always have chicks trying to hatch out on day 19. Day 21 came, or so I thought and still nothing. By late afternoon I couldn't take it anymore and tried candling a few eggs. What I thought I saw was a chick that quit, I cracked it open and what we found was a chick breathing with a lot of yolk left. I had opened a viable egg and was heartbroken that I just killed it. Yes, it died. After that I checked the calendar to make sure I had my days right, nope was off by 1 day. It was only day 20. Of course 30 minutes after cracking that 1 egg, we had a chick pecking it's way out. I wished I would have been more patient and just waited or at the very least checked the calendar first before cracking the egg, lesson learned.

By day 22 we have 33 chicks out of 42 eggs with a few more still trying to break out. I tried making sure that I didn't take out the chicks right after they hatched but to wait until a had a decent bunch to grab out so they weren't knocking the rest of the eggs around and put them in the brooder. By waiting I didn't let the humidity escape too much and possibly ruin the rest of the batch.

I really like this incubator but will see about installing a fan to help air circulation and maybe find a better humidity/thermometer. I should note that we never once knew what the humidity was in the incubator as we had nothing to put in it at the time, but did follow the directions that came with the incubator. It was risky but it worked out. I won't be risking that next time either.

Update on chicken hatches

It's been some time since I have posted. After the last batch of chicks that hatched out last year we took a trip to visit both our families. By the time we got back our youngest babies were already getting big. I decided right then and there that I would never plan a trip for at least 4 weeks after a batch is born. The reason being, we did not get to see what chick turned into which chicken. As you can tell from the pic below, of the 21 eggs we had set to hatch under Spice, we ended up with 14 little fluff balls. This was a much better hatch as we had two-thirds viable chicks as oppose to the last 2 batches that only half made it.

Here is the last batch we hatched out, only a few days old.

 As if these little ones couldn't be cuter, here they are at 4 weeks old.

Leghorn/EE cross

(leftside)- Cochin/EE cross (rightside)-Langshan/EE cross

Australorp/EE cross, Ancona/EE cross

Leghorn/EE cross

Australorp or Ancona/EE cross

 

 

Silver-Grey Dorking/EE cross

 As you can tell by how different they look at 4 weeks compared to days old, can you tell who is who? I surely cannot on all of them, but a few. The time went by so fast, it was a blast watching them grow up from little things to adults. The days were filled with anticipation as the time got closer to them laying. I finally found eggs from these hens and was totally shocked. The first batch we hatched out all ended up laying the same colored eggs they came out of. Which made me think our EE rooster did not carry the blue gene. I am however glad to say I was wrong, as the eggs I found from these chicks were various shades, a brown, light tan, blue, and different shades of green.

 Of course you are probably wondering what these chicks look like as adults.

These ones we sold, as we do not need a flock of roosters.

These are the remaining ones.

With all this hatching we did and the chickens we have now, I see new coops in the future.

New Additions

It's finally here, or I should say "They are finally here!" A few weeks back we had yet another broody hen who we decided to try hatching out eggs. I was a little worried as this was her first time and if things did not work out I would have to bring any chicks that hatched into the house to care for them. However, I am happy to report that Spice and her new babies are doing wonderful. We lost an egg early on, so our 21 eggs went down to 20, then we had 1 hatch on day 20 that did not survive, 4 hatched on day 21 and another 4 have hatched today on day 22. There are still 11 more to go so we will give it a couple more days.

We do have some idea of what hens these came from but will wait until they are all hatched and can get some good pics of each chick. Hopefully we aren't doomed with the magic number 8 again, Fingers Crossed!

 

As for Thumper and her chicks, they are doing wonderful. After this photo was taken she gave up on caring for them as they were able to handle their own with the 1st batch of chicks that we hatched out, which are about a month older. It is too cute to watch the sexlink boys bump chests with the older boys and win. Thumper was accepted back into the big flock but still does not roost with them. I figure it will take a little more time. She will definitely be a good choice to use again if we ever decide to hatch out more chicks.

 These Easter Eggers are getting huge! The one we know is a male has started to crow, which sounds like a party horn. The jury is still out on who is a male or not. Of all the chicks we have ever had, the females never had their comb change color until it got old enough to start laying, but a lot of these are a slight red tint in their combs. Obviously only time will tell for sure.

Chickens and Produce

An Ancona in our 4-in-1 Pear tree.

I didn't plant a garden this year as I had a lot going on with chickens, projects going on around the house, and not being home as much. There are other reasons as well that I thought it best not to do one; mending the soil, eradicating weeds and blackberry bushes, plus trying to figure out how much sun the garden gets now with the 2 big pine trees gone. We have had an unusually dry year so far. Yeah it has rained some but not enough to keep our other fruits, flowers, and trees wet enough. We did get some strawberries from our patch but now there are none and no new flowers. All our fruit trees still have no fruit and the 2 that we bought that should had started to set fruit, we lost. Our Meeker raspberry canes are starting to get fruit ripening.

I checked on my kiwi cuttings and it looks promising for 3 of the female plants and at least 5 of the self-fertile ones. Even our fig tree sapling is looking really good! We also have Jerusalem Artichokes growing in many pots. I am super happy that my Calla Lilies are doing very well and even have a bloom on one. I moved the butterfly bush again to a semi sunny location. It gets a few hours of sun now unlike the other place it was where it got almost no sun. However, originally it was in full sun and did not seem to be growing at all. We plan on adding the Stinging Nettle by it, along with moving the Foxglove from the opposite side of the yard to this same location, plus moving the fuchsia bushes as well, and adding some milkweed. We are going to try and make this location around the butterfly bush a place for hummingbirds and butterflies to hang out. I see Caterpillars in our future! The kids will love that!!

Our Globe Artichoke is finally growing. I guess removing that tree sure helped. Yes, I realize I could have just moved it but the tree was coming down regardless. The Horseradish is also growing better now too! I cannot wait until our garden is finally fenced in, mended, beds added, and everything is ready to plant. There are so many things I want to grow. Probably a good thing the garden is going to be 4,000 sq. ft.

 This year we bought 6 new blueberry plants to add to our 2 that we already had. Every plant is full of berries and they are starting to ripen. 4 of the plants will ripen July/Aug and the other 4 will ripen in August. I have a good feeling that I won't get to freeze any or use them in recipes. Not with 3 growing kids around, but I am okay with that! I love the fact that they would rather eat their fruits and veggies than junk food any day! Plus the love it more when it comes from the garden, it just taste so much better.

Now for the chicken updates! If you read the previous post our Silver-laced Cochin, Spice, decided to go broody on us and it felt like such a waste not to let her hatch out chicks since we already hatched out 2 batches of chicks via the incubator. We have never done it naturally with a hen before, so this will be a first. We collected the eggs over the course of 3 days, made sure they were as clean as possible by wiping any bedding or poo off with my hands. Since our nest boxes are relatively clean there wasn't much to do. All the eggs were marked with the corresponding day they were collected. Normally we put them in the refrigerator and then warm them back up before incubating but I wanted to try it differently since a hen would be doing the work. Trying to make it as natural as possible. The eggs were left out at room temperature until it was time to put them under the hen. I sat the eggs under her on Wednesday the 19th. She is doing good so far. I am a little worried that we put too many eggs under her, but she fluffed herself up a lot to cover all those eggs. I have not seen any eggs uncovered, which is a good thing. Waiting is so hard. The only question remains.. Will she be a good mom or will she turn on the babies? Only time will tell and we have some time before that happens. When it gets close to hatching day we plan on setting the brooder up in case she doesn't do good for caring for the babies.

 

As for Thumper and her 8 chicks, all are doing really well. It is so funny how the Black Sexlink boys look like Barred Rocks. We have never seen a Black Sexlink rooster before but have had females in the past. One of the Rhode Island Red pullet does not seem to be growing at the same rate as everyone else and I think it is because of her deformed toe. Her middle toe was curled when she hatched out and I currently have it splinted to help straighten it out. It is so crazy to think they are already 3 weeks old.





As for the other 8 chicks we hatched out. These Easter Eggers are getting big fast! When they first hatched I thought we had all males with only 3 being females, as time progressed I changed my mind and thought we only had 1 rooster. Now I am reverting back to my original thoughts..lol

Seeing their combs changing colors and noticing their feathers are becoming more pointed, it is looking like there are definitely more males. Only time will tell what we have exactly, but it is still fun to keep guessing.