Here a Chicky, There a Chicky, Everywhere a Chicky

Wow, you might want to start calling our house Old Macdonald’s Farm… LOL

So you remember a while back when we had the unexpected chicks show up?

Well if you’ll also remember, Pokey and Earl said if we’d get an incubator, they’d give us some eggs to hatch out.

So that’s what we did, the exact same day the chickies showed up.  Go figure :).

Well we weren’t sure how many eggs they’d give us, we wound up with 37 eggs.  Wow, really?  Yup!

The first batch they gave us had I dunno probably 15-18 eggs in it.  Well we didn’t know that was it so we ordered a few more eggs to hatch out when Earl texted and said they had another bucket of eggs for us.  Oh boy!  Then on top of that we got 12 duck eggs and my mom and husband wanted some peacock’s so we have a few of those eggs as well.  Needless to say we had to get a second incubator and BOTH are full!

2 weekends ago when our daughter was with us one of the batches of ordered eggs showed up so PC allowed her to help put them in the incubator.  At first I was worried because they have to stand on end, small end down, for 24 hours when they arrive.  They sat on egg crates on our coffee table and she just about knocked them over more than once.  That would have been a Nasty mess to clean up but we luckily didn’t have to.  {God was looking out for us!}

So anyway, a point to my rambling… This weekend, the first set of eggs we placed in should be hatching.  Chick eggs take 21 days.  Then next weekend our second set of Chick eggs should be hatching.  The next weekend that Tbug is with us should be the duck eggs since they take 28 days and the following weekend should be our Peacock’s.

OH. MY. GOSH. our house will be over run by birds!

Not to mention the first batch that showed up to us alive.  When we went back and re-counted we’d had 16 but the cold snaps a few weeks ago took 2 away from us 🙁 so we’re down to 14 but they are alive and thriving and sprouting feathers like crazy!

Well you’ve heard of the crazy cat lady, please don’t call me the crazy bird lady 🙂

Have a fabulous weekend and trust me, if I can catch it on camera, you’ll have cute little chicky/eggy photos come sometime next week 🙂

Flying into the weekend,

My Husband is Sweet!

It kind of sounds like a line out of a movie… but it isn’t, it’s from MY Prince Charming to me 🙂

“There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be a day that I’ll ever regret marrying you.  You may get annoyed with me and I may get annoyed with you but Baby, I love you with all my heart.  I would marry you every day of the week if I had to just to prove my love for you.”

I think I got myself a keeper, No, I know I do!  I am one lucky girl!

Good Friday

Good Friday allowed me to cross off number 95 on my Day Zero project… Attend a Local Farmer’s Market.

I’m a member of a women’s organization and at our April meeting they had the head of a local farmer’s market come visit us and tell us about the market.

Wow, just Wow!  The one where I live I’m fairly certain you just show up at the court house on the respected day and sell your produce, but this one is much more in depth!  They have to contact the head lady about selling their product.  Then she comes and does a farm visit.   She tries to do a farm visit 1-2 times per year, so she knows if you are selling something you didn’t grow, and if you are, you are banned for life!  Life!  So anyway then the market is open on Tuesday’s, Friday’s and Saturday’s.  There was so much more that I can’t even begin to share… and you may not find it nearly as impressive as I did but I sure did!

The opening day was on Good Friday.  That is the opening day for summer.  They have the market open year round with different things, plus they even have a day for artists, I think it was the 2nd Saturday of every month.

Then they have food that is prepared in a USDA certified kitchen but then different groups and organizations volunteer to serve the food the day of the festivities.  The money is then donated to different organizations around the area.  And Oh. My. Gosh. was the smell of the food to die for!  I’m not even sure what they were serving, I was trying not to get run over.  There were people galore!  Nope, never been there although it’s only like 7 miles at most from my work… What can I say, I’m a slacker.  I have been to the one in our town but it’s not much!

This is the entrance although it’s in a pole barn so you can pretty much enter anywhere.

 Right here, I’m standing in the middle of the barn (aka pavilion) holding my camera way over my head.  It was nuts!

They (the sellers) set aside so much money every year for a band to perform.

The radius is 80 miles the way the crow flies (I think she said…)
Here Hubby is purchasing us some tomato plants.  We also got some fresh maters 🙂

They had cheese vendors, bread vendors, vegetable vendors, plant vendors, flower vendors, fresh egg vendors and so much more.  We are SO going back 🙂  I’m all for agriculture and promoting local farmers so hey it’s a 2 for 1 deal for me!

**see I didn’t share a recipe 🙂  This might be why I haven’t done my Easter post yet ;)**

Quick & Easy Recipe

Who doesn’t love cream cheese?

Who doesn’t love crescent rolls?

Who doesn’t love sausage?

Maybe throw some cheddar cheese in there??

Ok if you are ready I’m willing… um… or something like that. haha

Boy that sounded dirty!

I’ll just present you with:

Sausage Crescents 🙂

Ingredients
2 Pkg Crescent Rolls
1 Pkg Cream Cheese
1 pkg (1lb) sausage, browned and drained
1 pkg Cheddar cheese (about 2-3 cups)

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
  2. Brown your sausage and drain the grease.
  3. Then add your cream cheese to the mixture and stir in.
  4. Roll one crescent roll out over a 9×13 baking sheet.
  5. Place your sausage mixture on the crescent roll.
  6. Top with Cheddar Cheese
  7. Top with the remaining crescent roll
  8. Bake for 30/40 minutes.

And of course… with all the photos I take of food, I forgot to get pictures of this start to finish! Or even the finished product.  Oh well… You make it and then you’ll know what it looks like!  And when you do, send me a photo for this post why don’t you 🙂

Ok tomorrow I won’t post a recipe 🙂

Sausage Crescant

by Nicole
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 30-40 Minutes
Ingredients
  • 2 Pkg Crescent Rolls
  • 1 Pkg Cream Cheese
  • 1 pkg (1lb) sausage, browned and drained
  • 1 pkg Cheddar cheese (about 2-3 cups)
Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
2. Brown your sausage and drain the grease.
3. Then add your cream cheese to the mixture and stir in.
4. Roll one crescent roll out over a 9×13 baking sheet.
5. Place your sausage mixture on the crescent roll.
6. Top with Cheddar Cheese
7. Top with the remaining crescent roll
8. Bake for 30/40 minutes.
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Chicken & Rice with Whiskey Cream Sauce

So the other day I was looking through the refrigerator wondering what on earth to make for dinner…  I had chicken that needed to be used before it went bad.  I had an onion, that’s always good.  Then I had some half & half that needed to be used before it went bad.  Hmmmmm I thought.  I really wanted steak… and that whiskey cream sauce… but no steak lived in my fridge at the time… hmmm… So the husband and I got the bright idea to make Chicken with the Whiskey Cream sauce and add some rice to it.  Oh. My. Gosh.  That hit the spot!

Chicken with a Whiskey Cream Sauce & Rice
ingredients:
Chicken (check)
Onion (check)
Whiskey (check)
Chicken stock (check)
Heavy Whipping cream (half and half… won’t make it as thick but also less fattening, check)
Rice (check)
Butter (check)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (check)
Seasonings (check)
And we’re off!!!

Saute up the onion in the extra virgin olive oil.

In a separate pan cook up the chicken in some extra virgin olive oil.

Once the onions are cooked then remove from heat and add 1/4 cup Whiskey.

Once the Whiskey has cooked out return to the heat and add 1/4 cup Chicken stock.

Whisk in a tablespoon of butter.

While that is all mingling go season up your chicken before it burns!!  We used Garlic & Pepper Powder.

Oh and then realize you turned the wrong burner on for your Whiskey cream sauce so switch the heat to the correct burner.

Once your butter is all mixed in add 1/4 cup cream (in my case half & half.  Using half and half sometimes you have to use a touch more)

Once the sauce has thickened up add it to the chicken.  Then drain your rice you were making and add it to the mixture as well!

And dish it up.  YUM!

Hope everyone had a fabulous Easter weekend and remembered the true reason for the season! 🙂  The hubs and I went to church and then later went to my grandma’s house.  It was a very relaxed weekend and a very WET weekend!  Oh well we can always use the rain but sometimes I wish it would spread out through the summer when we’ll be dry… but it is what it is and I won’t complain!

Happy Monday

Touching Story

This is a very touching story, very hard to read, about two brothers who were separated at birth.  It’s a story of Life & Death, and the cruel twist of fate.

It’s certain to stir your heart and touch your soul.

This is something I couldn’t help but share with my friends.

Easter Bunny Story

A man is driving along a highway and sees a rabbit jump out across the
middle of the road.
He swerves to avoid hitting it, but
 unfortunately
the rabbit jumps right in front of the car.
The driver,
a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulls over and gets out to
see what has become of the rabbit.
Much to his dismay, the rabbit is the Easter Bunny, and he isDEAD .
The driver feels so awful that he begins to cry.
A beautiful blonde woman driving down the highway sees a man crying on
the side of the road and pulls over.
She steps out of the car and asks the man what’s wrong.
 “I feel terrible,” he explains,
“I accidentally hit the Easter
Bunny with my car and KILLED HIM.”
 The blonde says,”Don’t worry.”
 She runs to her car and pulls out a spray can.
She walks over to the limp, dead  Easter Bunny; bends down, and sprays
the contents onto him.
The  Easter Bunny  jumps up, waves its paw
 at the two of them
and hops off down the road.
Ten feet away he stops, turns around
 and waves again,
 he hops down the road another 10 feet, turns and waves, hops another
 ten feet, turns and waves, and repeats this again and again and again
 and again, until he hops out of sight.
The man is astonished.
He runs over to the woman and demands,
“What is in that can?
 What did you spray on the
 Easter Bunny?”
The woman turns the can around so that the man can read the
 label.
 It says..
(Are you ready for this?)
(Are you sure?)
 (Last chance)
 (OK, here it is)
 It says, Hair Spray Restores life to dead hair,
 and adds permanent wave.”

WhY?

My whole life everyone has told me, don’t rush things… they were referring to relationships, families, kids, etc.  So I didn’t.  Partially by choice and partially because I didn’t find the right guy at the right moment… the right moment being God’s moment.  I believe he has a set time for everything (or fairly close…) And no I’m not going all religious here… This is my belief, I’m not pushing it off on you…

So When you start dating someone the first question you hear is:

So when are you getting engaged?

Doesn’t matter if he is the right guy or not… it’s all about that engagement…

So then you finally decide yeah, maybe this is the right guy and you make it official, you become engaged, the next question you hear is:

So when is the wedding?

It could be the exact day of the proposal and you haven’t even had a chance to think/talk about it…

So then Once the wedding has come and gone it is:

So when are you having kids?

Seriously?  I just got married {a day, a week, a month, 6 months, a year} ago… Can I not enjoy some hubby/me alone time first?

So finally you bring in the first child, then it is:

So when are you having the second?

Everyone always says don’t rush things but then they immediately start in on these questions when something monumental happens.  Why is there such a rush?  I hear kids are the greatest thing but you know… isn’t it better to build a solid foundation for your marriage before adding children and that stress?  And don’t get me wrong, we all know we stress about kids, are they sick, are they healthy, do they have enough to eat, clothing, school, and the list goes on and on.

But why not allow Newly weds to be newly wed before hounding them about children?  I came back from my honeymoon (I’ve now been married just shy of 8 months) and people were already hounding me about when am I going to have kids.  1 week people…  It made me want to look at them and say “NEVER!”

My usual smart a$$ remark is, “I have a step-daughter and a pup (now 2 pups), I have all the kids I need for a while.” 

Which come on, seriously, that’s the truth at 1 week married.  My opinion, that’s the truth at 1 year married.  Solid foundation people!!  Now some people don’t have that luxury because the only fool proof option is abstinence… a friend of mine learned that… 5 months married and she wound up pregnant.  and 5 months after she had him she realized she was pregnant again.  There’s 13 months between her kids.  Would she trade them for the world… NOPE but would she have liked to have waited just a bit… I’m fairly certain.

Ok so I’m 27 years old… I’ll be considered an older parent than probably most of my kids classmates but you know, my mom was 28 when she had me and my dad was 32.  I was their first and only.  I asked them one time why my parents were so much older than other’s parents and they told me that they were settled in their jobs and their finances.  They faced struggles yes but it wasn’t nearly as hard as some of my friends parents stories I heard about.  Granted I wasn’t there during my parents struggles or my friends parents struggles, just going off stories both my parents told me and my friends parents told me.  I liked the stability my parents had and don’t tell but my parents were (and still are which you can tell them) both really cool! 🙂

If you don’t have that solid/stable foundation for your marriage, it’s similar to the old High School school of thought… a girl thinks she’s losing her boyfriend so she sleeps with him so hopefully she’ll get pregnant because he won’t leave her if she has his baby.  And HELLO… it doesn’t work that way 99% of the time…  Or the girl who is getting abused by her significant other and a friend says, “Oh if you have his baby he’ll love you both and he’ll quit beating you up…”  Again HELLO… kids aren’t the answer.  They are just a fabulous addition so why not get that fabulous foundation for them to be added to?

But if you’ll notice, a lot of Hollywood people are having children later in life, so I guess I won’t have the ONLY kid with older parents when it comes time in our life to add that addition, but you know, there is absolutely NO rush!!!

The first year presents it’s own troubles, why add a kid into that mix?

But I just want to know why there is such a push when everyone says… DON’T RUSH THINGS?

This Could Be What's For Dinner Tonight

So a few weeks back when I shared about the oooy gooey cheesey potatoes I also mentioned Chicken Cordon Bleu.  YUM!

I bet you thought I forgot about the recipe huh?  NOPE! 🙂

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Ingredients:
Chicken
Mozzarella Cheese
Ham
Philadelphia Cooking Cream (or mix cream cheese with sour cream and spices)
Bread Crumbs (plain or Italian)
Toothpicks

Directions:
Butterfly open your Chicken breast and beat out until evenly thin.

Place some Mozzarella cheese on the chicken breast

Then top it with ham.  We used 2 slices due to the size of the chicken and the size of the ham.

Next spread your Cream Cheese mixture on top of the ham.

Then fold over

And secure with toothpicks

Place a layer of bread crumbs in the bottom of your baking dish, then place your Chicken breasts in the bread crumbs.

Once all your chicken is in the dish, cover with a layer of bread crumbs.

Once you have your chicken covered in bread crumbs, place in a 350 degree oven for 40-50 minutes or until your chicken is cooked through.
And while the Chicken is cooking, you get to play with the baby.

Or Uncle gets to play with baby too 🙂

Once the chicken is cooked, let it rest a few minutes and then serve it up.

YUM

See I didn’t forget 🙂  I’m hungry and it’s just morning 😉