Chai Coconut Ice Cream

I recently mentioned how I had ice cream on the brain, so to get my fix I made a batch of chai coconut ice cream from one of my favorite food blogs, Cookie + Kate. This recipe first caught my eye last year because the base is coconut milk, not dairy milk. I don't digest dairy very well, but I still love ice cream, so I just make my own with coconut milk since it's easier on my tummy.  

Kate's recipe calls for mixing spices with black tea, but since I already had chai tea bags in my pantry, I just used those so I didn't have to mess with all the spices. Honey is added to sweeten up the ice cream, another reason why I really like this recipe. I try to use natural sweeteners whenever I can and honey is a favorite. Hopefully this year we will be able to harvest some of our own honey from our bee hives to use in future batches of this ice cream!

The ice cream is perfectly delicious as is, but this time I decided to add some mini chocolate chips and walnuts on top and found that it was such a good combination. I like different textures in my food, so the chocolate chips and walnuts added a satisfying crunch to the luscious, smooth ice cream base.

Have you ever made your own ice cream?

~Tammy

DIY Muddy Boot Tray

Last week our weather warmed up enough to melt all the ice that had plagued us earlier this month, so things have been quite messy around here. I'm happy that the dangerous ice is gone, but now there is a thick layer of mud to deal with. Which apparently can also be dangerous, as I've found myself sliding and nearly falling on my way down to the chicken coop several times!

Due to the muddy conditions, I knew it was time to bust out the muddy boot tray again.

Photobombing Gizmo strikes again.

Our boot tray is simply a tray filled with river rocks. That's it! I found the plastic tray at Target a while back (it's actually a food serving tray) and the rocks are repurposed from our wedding reception way back when. They were used in the centerpieces on each table and we loved them so much that we saved them after the reception to use again in the future.

By placing the rocks in the tray, the boots can drain and don't just sit in a wet muddy pile all day long. When the river rocks and tray start to get dirty, I just give everything a good scrub down. I put the rocks in a bucket, fill it up with water, and swish the rocks around a few times to remove the caked on dirt. Hose the tray out then place the clean river rocks back in and it's good to go. Easy peasy!

Our tray is located in the entryway right inside the back door, so we can take our dirty boots off right away and not track the mess throughout the house. Even though I do sweep the floors daily, this cuts down on the frequency of mopping. And that is one of my least favorite chores, so I count this simple muddy boot tray as a big win!

~Tammy

Feathered Friend Friday: Random 5

As I've done in the past, today I thought I'd join my friend, Nancy, for a random 5 post about my feathered friends. Today's random 5 is all about eggs!

1. This week two of our hens started laying again after their winter break. Isis (Easter Egger) lays green eggs and Summer (Welsummer) lays dark brown eggs dotted with speckles. It's so thrilling to find the first mint green egg of the season in the nesting box!

2. We sell our eggs for $2 per dozen. For interested potential customers, we like to provide a colorful half-dozen starter pack to try and get them hooked. How could you not love these pretty eggs?

3. Collecting eggs from the nests at the end of the day, bringing them inside and writing the date in pencil on the end of each egg, and arranging them in cartons is one of my favorite things ever.

4. Since we always have access to delicious fresh eggs, you might expect that we eat them at just about every meal. In reality, we don't eat eggs very often. I do bake with them, but we only eat egg dishes every couple months or so.

5. Right now we collect up to seven eggs each day, and I usually put them in my coat pocket for safe keeping until I get back in the house. Several times over the past couple weeks I have accidentally crunched eggs in my pocket. It makes for a pretty gooey mess. Yuck!

~Tammy

Chickpea Curry

You know those recipes that you try once and keep making year after year? This chickpea curry is one of those recipes for me. I recently came across it in the very back of my recipe folder and couldn't believe that I had totally forgotten about it! I hadn't made this curry in forever, so I quickly remedied that by cooking up a batch over the weekend.

Chickpea Curry
Slightly adapted from The Kitchn
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
1 clove of garlic
1/2 t peppercorns
1/2 t whole coriander seeds
2 T vegetable oil
1 T red curry powder
2 cups sliced potatoes (sweet potatoes work also)
2 cups sliced carrots
2 cups water (or stock)
2 cups cauliflower florets
14 oz can fire roasted chopped tomatoes
14 oz can full-fat coconut milk
14 oz can chickpeas
2 T tamari (or soy sauce)
1 T fish sauce (optional)
1 T honey or agave
2 cups cooked brown rice

Directions:
1) With a mortar and pestle, grind the garlic, peppercorns, and coriander seeds into a paste. Heat the oil in a dutch oven on medium high to high heat (you want the oil very hot when you add in the paste). Fry the garlic mixture and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add curry powder and fry another 30 seconds.
2) Add the potatoes and carrots and stir to combine with the spices. Pour in the water and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the cauliflower, tomatoes, coconut milk, chickpeas, tamari, fish sauce, and honey.
3) Bring mixture to a simmer and continue cooking until the vegetables are done, about 15 minutes. Serve the curry over brown rice with a good bit of Sriracha on top for added heat.

The balance of sweet and heat in this dish is what makes it so delicious and interesting. If you can handle it, I suggest adding plenty of Sriracha on top for even more heat! Even more than the flavor, what I love best about this curry is that there are plenty of leftovers to eat for lunch the rest of the week. The mixture gets even better as it sits, so the curry tastes great for up to five days after it is cooked. I haven't frozen it before, but I think it would freeze well. Such a versatile dish!

And a side note - do you have a rice cooker? I have always botched rice when cooking it on the stovetop (too sticky and gummy - yuck!) so I decided to get a rice cooker and I love it! The brown rice for this dish was cooked perfectly and I didn't have to mess with another pot on the stove. I'm hooked!

~Tammy