Clearing the Camera

I thought David brought home a lot of bananas this time. But last week I came home to find this.

Just under $8 for all these.

I let them sit for a few days because they weren't too overripe (and honestly, I didn't want to peel and chop them all). But last night I got to work and filled up 5 gallon size freezer bags of future ice cream. Took me over an hour but now we'll have plenty of ice cream in the future. In the meantime, I told David not to bring home any more bananas!

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We got our Christmas tree up and decorated last week, and I had to bring some of the Christmas cheer into other rooms of the house.

If I can't see her, she can't see me!

This was the first tree we ever had as a married couple five Christmases ago. We lived in a small apartment in St. Louis and couldn't fit a big tree in our living room. I saw this little silver tree at Garden Ridge and had to have it. I love the retro feel!

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Cleo (she's an Easter Egger) is looking much better than she did here. Her feathers are all back in and still growing and getting longer every day.

Jobin's (she's a Delaware) new feathers are still pretty short (you can see the tiny feathers on her wings). You can see the black part of her new tail feathers though!

Penguin (she's an Australorp) is pretty much in the same boat Jobin is in at the moment. Feathers back in, but some really short still. New feathers are unbelievably soft!

Tubs (she's a Speckled Sussex) is looking pretty good. Her tail feathers are still pretty short, though.

Buttercup (she's a Golden-Laced Wyandotte) is gorgeous! She may still have a little more feather growth, but she's in good shape.

Chickabod (she's a white leghorn) is looking good, too. So fluffy and white!

 

Our rooster, Cam, didn't molt this year since he was just born in April (chickens usually won't molt unless they are over 12-18 months old). But his wattles (those crazy red things hanging from his chin) are getting longer every day! Such a heart breaker!

Of course Duchess is getting a crazy thick winter coat as well.

Hard to believe less than five months ago this is what she looked like!

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David will be home soon and no doubt starving, so I better get dinner started. Tonight we're having this soup with scallion pancakes. Yum!

~Tammy

O Christmas Tree

Last week we marked one thing off David's bucket list.

We went Christmas tree shopping in our own back yard! David had last Friday off, so while I was at work he scoured the woods trying to find the perfect tree. He found three he thought were contenders and let me have the final say. Then he got to work!

Timber!

There's just something about your man carrying the Christmas tree he chopped down for you. Love it.

Of course he didn't carry it all the way back to the house. It was pretty heavy, after all.

The guineas were excited about the tree as well!

Once we got the tree up to the house, we had to drill a hole in the bottom because of the type of tree stand we have. Shavings went everywhere!

We were trying to figure out how we wanted to decorate the tree, and David had the idea of using popcorn. I've always wanted to try this, so we gave it a go this year.

First, I had to pop a lot of popcorn!

Of course all the bagged microwave popcorn you buy has tons of butter and salt on it, so I didn't want greasy popcorn hanging on my tree. I bought a big jar of the plain kernels and popped them in a paper bag in the microwave for a few minutes (thanks to my sis, Kerri, for the tip!).

Then I took a needle and some button thread and went to work while watching Lifetime Christmas movies. I saw three whole movies before I was done!

We added our big bulb retro lights, red ball ornaments, and a big bow on top and called it a night.

I love how it turned out! Jasper likes it, too.

Happy holidays everyone!

~Tammy

The Beauty of Over-Ripe Bananas

If you saw these at the store, would you think, "Eww! Those are some bad bananas!" and look for the blemish-free bright yellow variety?

If so, you'd be really missing out! Let me explain. After school yesterday, David went to the local market and found these beauties on sale. Only $0.19 per pound! He grabbed all that they had left and spent a whopping $0.77. He jumped on this deal because he knows that these bananas are perfect for banana "ice cream!"

I first read about this phenomenon over on The Kitchn this past summer and couldn't believe it til I tried it. Well, I tried it and it was amazing!

First, cut up bananas and place in the freezer for at least a couple of hours.

Once frozen, take the bananas out and let them slightly thaw for about 10 minutes before whipping them up in the food processor or blender. And that's it! Before blending the bananas, you can add in whatever you like. Cocoa powder, peanut butter, and chocolate chips would all be good. But technically, you don't have to add anything at all. You could just whiz up the bananas on their own and it would be great.

I like to add in a little soy milk to make it creamier and a few drizzles of agave nectar for some added sweetness (I tried honey and it tends to glob up in cold foods, so I go for the agave). I also like to put in a few dashes of cinnamon.

If you do this in a food processor, you'll need to let it run for a few minutes to get the right texture. I've never tried it in a blender, but I'm sure you'd need to give it a few minutes that way too.

Got this food processor at Wal Mart a while back for only $5! Best $5 I've ever spent!

Voila! Yummy, easy, cheap, healthy "ice cream!"

The bananas David brought home will be enough for about 8 small servings of ice cream. Since he only spent $0.77 on the bananas, that's less than $0.10 per serving! Blows my mind.

I don't even like to eat bananas by themselves, but I love this ice cream. So even if you aren't crazy about bananas in their natural state, give this a try and let me know how it goes.


Hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!


~Tammy

Settling In

It's getting colder out here, so everyone is settling in for the winter ahead. For the cats, that means lots of warm blankets and naps.

And of course, lots of cuddling (that's for us, too).

The chickens are definitely settling into their winter routine. Buttercup, Chickabod, and Penguin have molted and gotten most of their shiny new feathers in. Poor Jobin, Cleo, and Tubs are in the middle of very hard molts and look pretty funky right now (almost as bad as some of these poor chickens!). Most of the time, they end up staying inside their coop or inside the carport in a cozy little area we made for Duchess (she won't go in there so the chickens have taken it over).

They pretty much only come out for treats (warm oatmeal is their favorite) or cuddles.

Since they are all in the middle of molting or just getting new feathers in, they are not laying any eggs right now. They haven't laid in probably 3 weeks or so. Last year they stopped laying in November and didn't start again until February. So sorry everyone, no eggs for a while!


Around this time of year I pull all my soup recipes back out. I love one pot meals! Thinking of trying this soup tonight. I'll let you know how it turns out! :)
*Update -Made the soup last night and it was delicious! Even David loved it. Definitely a keeper.

~Tammy