I Heart Faces - "Yellow"

This weeks I Heart Faces photo challenge is "Yellow". I knew I wanted to enter a pic from the dandelion field, but which one???
This one of Ethan is one of our favorites! It shows his playful nature so well!

Check out the other yellow photo's at I Heart Faces!

A Mother Daughter Tea Party, Scones, and Clotted Cream

We had such a fun time last Saturday at out church attending the Mother Daughter Tea! It was great to break out all the fancy tea pots and cups and actually use them not just look at them!!

Along with our tea we enjoyed scones, tea sandwiches and lovely desserts! Here Mollie and Emmy are enjoying their snack with Mimi:

Emmalie did well and stayed pretty clean!

Mollie on the other hand was a different story!!!

Here the girls are posing with Mimi, only Mollie was too interested in smooshing her face to smile pretty!

And pulling her hat over her eye's!

Emmy wanted to ham it up a little too!!!

We were able to get this photo of 4 generations of my family together, the only one missing was my sis who had to leave early! I was so nice to spend the afternoon with them.

These are Glazed Orange Currant Scones!
I chose to bring these to go along with our tea, it's a great recipe I got off the back of a wheat germ label. I love the light orange flavor in the scone itself and the glaze!
Scroll down for the recipe:Scones
1/2 cup currants
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 to 1/2 cup fat-free milk as needed
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup wheat germ any flavor
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. orange peel
6 Tbsp. cold butter
1 Egg lightly beaten

Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp Orange juice as needed

Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly spray cookie sheet or baking stone with cooking spray.
In small bowl, combine currants and 1/4 cup orange juice; let stand 10 minutes. Drain and add
enough milk to orange juice to equal 1/2 cup.

In large bowl, combine flour, wheat germ, granulated sugar, baking powder and orange peel; mix
well. With pastry blender or two knives (I find it works best to just use your fingers) cut in vegetable oil spread until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In small bowl, combine egg and juice-milk mixture; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir with fork just until dry ingredients are evenly moistened. (Do not over mix.) Gently stir in currants.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead gently 8 to 10 times. Pat dough into 8-10 inch circle
on cookie sheet. Cut into 8 (or more depending on how big you want them) wedges; separate wedges slightly. You can also use the drop method by using a large scoop or spoon to drop them onto the cookie sheet. Sometimes it depends on the consistency of your dough, very soft = drop, soft to firm = pat and cut.

Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire rack to cool. In small
bowl, combine powdered sugar and enough orange juice for desired consistency; stir until
smooth. Drizzle over warm scones. Enjoy!

After attending a tea at a friends church and trying clotted cream for the first time I knew I really wanted to try to make it to go along with the scones! The recipe sounded easy, it just needed quite a bit of time. We started off with 2 quarts of Sherman Farm heavy cream in a big kettle.

You then let that sit in the oven for 10 -12 hours on the lowest setting possible (mine was 170 degrees). Then you remove it from the oven and skim off the strange looking yellow skin layer and place it in the fridge covered with a towel for 8 hours. At that time you should be able to skim off the "clotted cream" layer from the liquid layer below.

This is what we ended up with, not a lot for each table but just enough for everyone to try on their scones. It was a big hit!

It reminds me of the way heavy cream tastes if you beat it past the whipped cream stage but not quite to butter. A little sweet, a little buttery, and a little creamy!This is where I got the recipe from if you want to read more about making clotted cream:
The Cupcake Project

Check out the Grocery Cart Challenge recipe swap and Foodie Friday for more yummy recipes!

The Chicks are Out!

It was such a nice day on Tuesday that we decided to give the chicks a little fresh air. We opened the little door and this is what happened:

At first they weren't sure about the walkway...

...slowly but surely they made their way out!

As you can see they have grown a ton! They are now 6 1/2 weeks old and are looking more and more like little chickens not fluffy baby chicks! I am so glad the kids don't grow that fast!!!

Once they were out they enjoyed pecking around their coop and exploring! These are the two Golden Laced Wyandotte's. You can see how pretty they are going to be with all their golden feathers coming in! In fact the one in the back is the chick that Ethan has chosen for his own, he named her "Golden Feather", go figure!

After a time of exploring, it was time to round them up and put them back inside the coop (the outside run is not finished yet). The kids enjoyed trying to catch them and then wanted a pic with the chick they caught! Here is James and a RI Red:

Ethan and his precious "Golden Feather":)

Emmy wanted a pic too...even though she couldn't catch one!

It is going to be such a nice weekend hopefully we can get their outside run completed! Stay tuned!!

I Heart Faces - "Faces and Flowers"

This weeks I Heart Faces photo challenge is "Faces & Flowers". Here is a fun one of Emmy with one of the beautiful Tulips in our yard!

Happy Mother's Day Pic's

Happy Mother's Day to All!

But especially to my mommy who is far away!!

Sorry we can't give you these in person, but we know you are relaxing and having fun like you should be on Mother's Day (you wouldn't be if you were here!)! We thought this might be a good way to give you a gift without being there in person! Hope you enjoy these pics of the kids!! We love you!!!

A Dandy (lion) of a Day!

We had a great time the other day collecting dandelions to try our hand at making jelly! I have had a recipe for Dandelion Jelly in my "want to try" file for several years now! My friend decided to make it and it came out yummy so we were off together to make another batch (or 3)! It was a beautiful day and the kids really enjoyed gathering the flowers and running through the field!

We then all went home to face the important task of cutting the flower petals away from the green stem so that none of the milky white stuff ended up in our jelly ( it is very bitter).

The kids were such great helps! They cut and cut and cut!!! They had a blast pretending to have a dandelion barber shop!

Even Emmy sat and diligently snipped away.

The jelly came out tasting so yummy! Like a lemon honey!! Here is the recipe that we adapted from this one at Recipe Zaar:

Dandelion Jelly

Ingredients:

• 8 cups of lightly packed dandelion petals (use only yellow petals and very little green or the milk in the stems will make the jelly bitter)
  
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 7 cups sugar
• 1 (1 3/4 ounce) package pectin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Start by steeping the petals in 7 cups of boiling water for 2 hours, or try the quicker method of boiling for 10 minutes and then let the mixture cool. We used the longer method. When done strain the mixture using cheesecloth. You need to have 6 cups of liquid. In a deep kettle bring to a rolling boil the liquid, the lemon juice, and the pectin. Add sugar then stir and boil hard for 1 1/2 minutes, or until mixture sheets from a metal spoon. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour into hot clean half pint jelly jars and seal. We flipped the jars onto the lid for 10 minutes to seal them and it worked great! This should make about 9 half pint jars.

Check out the Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap and Foodie Friday for more yummy recipes!

A Chick Field Trip and Coop Update

We took a few of the chicks on a short field trip the other day to the yard!

The kids had a blast chasing them around and finding bugs for them to eat!

The boys thought the chicks would like the sandbox so that they could take little dust baths! It turned out they liked pecking in the grass better!!

Mollie thought it was great to grab one and take off every time I turned my head!!!

The coop is coming along nicely! Pat built the frame one day and then put the siding and roof on another day.

The chicks future door to their outside run.

Daddy working on the siding.

The roof went on next and then later that week came the door.

The finished (well, almost) coop! Finished enough to move the chicks in with their heat lamp for warmth. They were running a muck in the unfinished room and needed a new area anyway. The kids would continually wake up thinking there were squirrels chasing the chicks through the upstairs room with all the racket they heard coming from above! They were really just running around (pooping everywhere) and pecking everything in sight!!!

It still needs paint, a couple of windows, the chicken door walkway, and an outside area to safely run around in. The kids are now enjoying checking on them and watching them as usual only without stepping on chick poo!

There is a two foot walk way on one side so we can go in and take care of them without letting them escape out the door! It also provides a place to keep supplies.

The view of the chicks new area.

Emmy peaking in the chicken door.

We will post more pics as the coop is being finished.