At Full Production

For the past two days, we’ve been collecting four eggs a day from the nesting box. Know what that means?

Everyone is laying! Even little June Wayne and developmentally delayed Agnes!

Here are some recent chicken shots….

Where there's one...

...another is sure to follow.

Porkchop showing off Scout's glorious comb and wattles.

Turning to our inside pet, we recently put up the Christmas tree, and Keetah is overjoyed to have it back. She loves rubbing her back and tail on the lower “branches” (we have a fake tree, thus the quote marks), and she stakes out the tree skirt as one giant cat bed.

So precious.

Have a great week!

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Egg-citing News

Scout laid her first egg today! The first of the flock!

A good egg.

Porkchop found Scout in the nesting box this morning, and then this egg when we arrived home!

Porkchop – and Scout – deserve all the glory. I’m no chicken farmer; while I’m showering in the morning, Porkchop is out tending the flock. Her hard work equals eggs for me!

Butternut Love

I’m still shut out of Facebook, so I’m posting this link here. This link is to my new favorite meal to make…

Butternut Rancheros!

I served mine over whole wheat couscous, and it reminded me very much of Kashi’s Mayan Harvest Bake frozen meal. I have a frozen lunch about once a week, and the Mayan Harvest Bake is my go-to frozen meal. This is a long way of saying, Butternut Rancheros = super tasty!

If you’re looking for a different way to serve butternut squash, this is it!

Metro and FB FAIL

Stupidness on the part of the Metrolink caused me a delay of a half hour this morning, and all because of a communication gap that should not have occurred. Maybe it’s just me, but I think someone should tell people if they need to take the red line to Forest Park in order to catch the blue line. I understand service outages, but not preventable communication gaps.

When I finally arrived at work, I found that my Facebook account has been deactivated! In order to restore it, I’m supposed to upload a scan of government-issued ID or some other crap. So, maybe life would be better without the FB account.

Seriously, uploading a copy of my ID in order to have my account restored when I didn’t do anything? Thanks, Facebook, but I’ll keep my privacy.

I was Wrong!

Dear Mango Ginger Tofu:

You have grown tastier each day that I warm you up for leftovers. I was wrong; I will certainly make you again. You are worth the time.

Other Things

I went for a 40-minute lunch walk today, and I had to ditch my socks and roll up my jeans. While many would be pleased by mid-70s in November, I am not. I want it back down in the 50s! Or at least the 60s! It is November for crying out loud, and I want to switch to a winter wardrobe.

Yesterday, we started dissecting cats in A&P lab. All of the cats exhibit an expression indicating that death did not come naturally to them.

Sadness for the cats.

Found Time

You know what I love? Forgetting about the Fall time change until 7:30 Sunday morning. Because then it’s 6:30 and we have a whole extra hour to do something we might not have otherwise!

Like update this blog with a couple of food items!

Since school started for both of us, Porkchop and I have found we must prepare a big meal or two on Sunday to last us through Wednesday. With me in class until 9:30 on Mondays, and Porkchop working until 7:00 (teaching in the morning, and then managing the UPS Store afterwards), Monday is out cooking-wise. On Tuesdays, we either go to the gym or I meet my knitting group, so that’s usually out too.

Today, our usual cooking day, we’re meeting friends for lunch, and then going to Amanda’s younger brother’s place for a post-birthday dinner. But we still had to cook for the coming week! So yesterday saw a very busy kitchen.

For lunch, I made Mango Ginger Tofu from the Post Punk Kitchen blog, along with some steamed broccoli. It turned out pretty:

Steamy Tofu

But I still can’t decide whether it was worth all the effort. You have to cook the marinade, which I did Friday night. The dish was quite tasty, but I wanted to be really wowed after investing so much time. I might make it again, but maybe not.

Dinner was Chicken and White Bean Chili. This chili is super tasty, and I recommend it with no hesitation! This is our second time to make it, and only because I don’t want to over-make it and grow tired of it. I brought back a jar of New Mexico roasted green chilies from our recent trip, and I’ve been using those rather than roasting my own. Either way, it is tasty.

This photo is from a while back:

Keetah and the Chickens

Porkchop painted wooden cut-outs to customize our door’s wreath. She did a really great job with the chickens (Keetah, too, but the chickens impress me).

In other chicken news, Porkchop is building a permanent run for them this weekend. The time of free-ranging is coming to an end, as a cat tried to attack them earlier this week! Fortunately I happened to glance out the back window and chased the cat away before any harm was done. However, it was rather alarming.

Have a great Sunday! Keep your chickens safe!

One or the Other

With our increasingly busy schedules, it seems I can pick only one holiday in the upcoming marathon about which to be excited.

Last year it was Thanksgiving and Fall in general. By this time last year, I had already roasted two pumpkins and made all sorts of pumpkin cupcakes and pumpkin-chocolate chip bread. The Thanksgiving dinner menu? Already planned by the end of October.

This year, my feeling is more, “Fall? What’s Fall?”

This is due partially to the weather. It was still in the 80s less than two weeks ago, and how can I be expected to get into the Fall spirit when I’m still wearing shorts?

Impossible.

However, this ambivalence is also due to the subliminal Christmas spirit preparation that has been happening at our house since July. Actually, it hasn’t been subliminal…there’s nothing subliminal about Porkchop playing the Pandora Christmas station in the middle of July! No exaggeration. It was July, and we had Christmas carols playing.

Porkchop has been priming the Christmas pump since July, and apparently it has worked!

Christmas! Can’t wait!

Gingerbread, stockings, candy canes, some cinnamon-evergreenish candles going…who’s ready to put up the tree?!

Tea and Toast

My favorite breakfast is a simple one, tea and toast, and one that I can only enjoy on the weekends.

Toast seems quick, but when I say toast, I mean cinnamon-sugar toast. Because, really, is there any other kind of toast?

This toast isn’t for the quick, on-the-run weekday breakfast. First, you melt some butter and brush it on your bread in an even coat completely covering the slices. Next, you sprinkle on sugar in an equally even coating (also, don’t be stingy or greedy with the sugar). Last, you dash out the cinnamon. This doesn’t necessarily have to be evenly distributed, but neither do you want huge clumps.

Once prepared, the slices go into a toaster oven for a length of time that allows the sugar to melt into a crisp shell, but does not allow the slices to burn.

Accompanied with a good black tea, this breakfast is savored slowly, but not so slowly that the toast or tea grows cold.

It’s all about balance.

Other Balancing

I have officially commenced studying for the GRE. Between class and the GRE, I am now studying for something in nearly every minute of free time. Armed with iPhone vocab flashcards (Porkchop presented me with an iPhone for an anniversary gift, and I must admit I’m enjoying having one!), I can study words whenever is most convenient!

Porkchop also partitioned our computer so that I can use the Windows-based practice tests available from a website that I shouldn’t mention.

While my previous scores would be perfectly fine according to the averages reported by various PT programs, my scores are 8 years old and no longer valid! Crikey!

All I have to say to the GRE this time is bring it! I have a study plan and a positive attitude, and the GRE isn’t going to bring me down.