Hi there from Houston TX!

[Tai-abolical]

A little bit about the Tai-abolical clan:

My fiancee and I are scientists/foodies/pet lovers currently residing in Houston, TX. We have 1 pug, 1 dachshund, 2 fat cats (1 evil and 1 nice), 2 sun conures, and 1 umbrella cockatoo.

We currently do not own any chickens right now however I have been doing a LOT of research (part of my job description really...) and decided that a couple of silkie hens would fit our needs perfectly. Why chickens you asked? Well, we throw away copious amounts of nutritious homemade parrot food daily; which irritates me. Therefore I came up with the idea of keeping a couple of "biological recyclers" in the form of chickens to eat the parrot leftovers. I am also excited about the idea of collecting homegrown eggs from my backyard and perhaps enter in a couple of poultry shows for giggles.

In our spare time we really enjoy volunteering at our local parrot sanctuary, making pastries (I've been obsessed with cake balls lately), and hanging out with our pets.

That's about it on our end, looking forward to extending a cyber space handshake to the rest of the members.

 

[Leia's Chickens]

from Oklahoma!

 

[LostMindPleaseFind]

what in the world are "cake balls" and can you write up the recipe?

Oh yes, and

 

[3goodeggs]

 

[ghillie]

 

[wava1vaughn]

Hi from Ga. Good Luck Maybe the chickens can teach your parrot how to cackle.

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama. Glad you joined us. I love cake balls, too

We made some red velvet ones a few weeks ago

Good luck with your birds

 

[Tai-abolical]

Thank you for the warm welcomes! As for what are cake balls, well they are essentially delectable bite size balls of cake that is extremely simple to make and something fun to do with the kids.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/cake-balls/detail.aspx

http://www.austincakeball.com/wedding-cake-balls

Basic recipe:
1. Box cake mix according to instructions (we like Duncan Hines white cake mix when we're not making cakes from scratch).
2. Let cake cool overnight.
3. Completely deconstruct and crumble cake (i.e. with hand, fork, potato masher).
4. Mix frosting in with cake crumble, then cake is like play doh consistency.
5. Roll cake into balls and freeze for 30 min minimum.
6. Dip in confection chocolate until hardens. I just use the dolci frutta microwavable chocolate in the grocer's aisle.

So as one can imagin there are a gazillion different flavors and combinations.
Starting with inserting a stick and making it into a "cake pop".
So far we've made orange/dark chocolate, spice cake with cinnamon sugar coating, and lemon/raspberry with streusel coating.

Our next project will probably be making macarons (french pastry; not the coconut cookie).

 

[Urban Chaos]

yum...cake balls

and

 

[NonnasBabies]

&

from Louisiana!