California - Northern

[capayvalleychick]

Hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday! I got to be with 2 out of 3 of my kids, which was nice. Haven't had the entire family together since 2006, so I keep hoping for that.

I'm a fairly good cook, but pie crusts frustrate me. I tried making them, using lard, for the first time. They still didn't work. Maybe I need to double the recipe because I have trouble getting the dough rolled out to a large enough size without tearing. I flour the board but the dough doesn't come off it easily. DH said he knew how to do it, but he just took the dough and pressed it in the pan.

Oh well, my pumpkin filling is excellent, so they didn't mind the crust.

Cooper, I've been thinking a lot about hawks and your situation. I keep wondering why I don't have attacks when there are hawks in the sky here every day. We even have eagles that have moved in the valley.

I have one neighbor, about a mile away. She raises lots of poultry & livestock like me. We are the only ones in the area that are not having losses of livestock & poultry to predators. I read her blog and discovered something that we do in common. She thinks it keeps the raptor birds from killing her chickens. I do the same thing but never thought of it as being a deterrent for hawk attack.

We both kill ground squirrels and put them out in a specific place. My neighbor says she does this to train the hawks/eagles to prefer squirrel instead of chicken. I always put them over the back fence so the dogs won't eat them. Any dead varmints that I don't want the dogs to eat get tossed there.

So maybe if you provide the hawk with a different food source, they will leave your chickens alone.

 

[lawatt]

Hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday! I got to be with 2 out of 3 of my kids, which was nice. Haven't had the entire family together since 2006, so I keep hoping for that.

I'm a fairly good cook, but pie crusts frustrate me. I tried making them, using lard, for the first time. They still didn't work. Maybe I need to double the recipe because I have trouble getting the dough rolled out to a large enough size without tearing. I flour the board but the dough doesn't come off it easily. DH said he knew how to do it, but he just took the dough and pressed it in the pan.

Oh well, my pumpkin filling is excellent, so they didn't mind the crust.

for future reference, my hungarian grandmother's pie crust recipe has never let us down, and it's delicious:

3 cups flour
2 sticks butter
2 tsp salt
14 tbsp (~3/4 cup) orange juice

break up butter into flour (plus salt) until crumbly. Add OJ gradually until moist all over. bring into a ball & roll it out (freeze extra)

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
Jeremy could help. I have not heard from him in a while. Yes, some threads are funny. Someone new to the a breed posts a picture of their pet and someone judges it and finishes with would make a good pot of soup....

. It cracks me up.

If I see a post with a not perfect chicken picture and the person has 100 posts and joined this month, I am a bit more gentle.

Amy Beth, your BOs look very healthy! It will be nice to see what they look like next year after the first molt. That is when you are supposed to judge an Heritage Breed.

 

[waititout]

Hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday! I got to be with 2 out of 3 of my kids, which was nice. Haven't had the entire family together since 2006, so I keep hoping for that.

I'm a fairly good cook, but pie crusts frustrate me. I tried making them, using lard, for the first time. They still didn't work. Maybe I need to double the recipe because I have trouble getting the dough rolled out to a large enough size without tearing. I flour the board but the dough doesn't come off it easily. DH said he knew how to do it, but he just took the dough and pressed it in the pan.

Oh well, my pumpkin filling is excellent, so they didn't mind the crust.

I feel the same way about crusts. It's always a hit/miss at my house too. This year I bought Trader Joes crusts (the ones that you roll out) just let them come to room temperature and they are easy as pie. It was not only large enough, but tasty as well. Have you tried them?

 

[PetRock]

I don't think that they are sick or anything like that. I'm not an Orp person, but I checked the SOP and that artwork shows the underline as being like a bowl. The chest/breast is a rounded curve.

There's a judge that I'm always bugging with questions. I gather, from what I've heard from him, that chickens should have a flowing shape, instead of sharp angles, straight lines, or parts that look like they don't fit with the rest of the bird. I can't remember his exact words and I'm having a hard time explaining it. Debi, you were there- do you know what I'm trying to describe?

I remember him saying that from the side, they should look like an upside down bowler hat. No straight lines down the front or I supposed no big bumps, either. A perfectly rounded chest/breast and matching rounded bum is what most breed SOPs call for. When choosing which of my SPPR boys to keep last weekend, that was one of the primary things that I looked for. I really want to start my breeding program with as wide and deep a body as possible. I can always breed to improve feather color and comb shape later.

 

[waititout]

What to do with extra eggs and an extra pie crust!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Amy - there is nothing wrong with those girls. Orps are a large breed, they eat more. My 2 English Orps get big crops like that too. My son calls them the "fat girls".

 

[PetRock]

Amy - there is nothing wrong with those girls. Orps are a large breed, they eat more. My 2 English Orps get big crops like that too. My son calls them the "fat girls".

That's funny! We have all kinds of nick names for our girls. We have one BW Ameraucana hen that we call Dumb Blond. She is just a step behind all the other birds. I know that's probably not considered politically correct but I was a blond so that's okay, right? We also have a young white Polish named Marshmallow who is just Ditsy. She is one of our favorites because she is always getting into strange situations and having to be rescued. One time I found her with her head wedged into the bottom of our Palm Tree. She was just sitting like that and not trying to get out. She is so entertaining! We gave her crest a drastic feather clipping and hoped that it would make a difference if she could see her world. It does seem to have helped. The rescues have dramatically decreased since then! I do have to look for her every night when I shut the birds up. She is often on the outside of the run and bedded down right next to the hardware cloth wall. Silly girl!

 

[ronott1]

Hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday! I got to be with 2 out of 3 of my kids, which was nice. Haven't had the entire family together since 2006, so I keep hoping for that.

I'm a fairly good cook, but pie crusts frustrate me. I tried making them, using lard, for the first time. They still didn't work. Maybe I need to double the recipe because I have trouble getting the dough rolled out to a large enough size without tearing. I flour the board but the dough doesn't come off it easily. DH said he knew how to do it, but he just took the dough and pressed it in the pan.

Oh well, my pumpkin filling is excellent, so they didn't mind the crust.

I made two pie shells from this recipe:






It will make enough for a single pie with a top too. I replaced the butter for chilled lard in the recipe. Great pie crust.

Use this to roll out the pie dough: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/pie-crust-bag-14-inch#5228#

When you get the dough out to the outer circle, it will be the perfect size. You unzip the bag, gently remove the top and the flip the dough over onto the pie pan move the crust down into the pan a bit and the carefully remove the top. Bake and prepare as usual after that.

 

[NanaKat]

Oops...wrong state.
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.