Thyme Roasted Red Potatoes

I think mother nature feels bad for keeping us stuck in winter so long, because we had the most gorgeous weather over the weekend! It was sunny and warm (in the 70s!) with a light breeze. We were able to get quite a bit of work done outside and around the house on Sunday, and come lunch time we were getting pretty hungry. We needed something filling, but not too heavy because we had more work to do. We had just cleaned out the herb bed and the woodsy scent of thyme was wafting through the air. This inspired me to to use some of the thyme in our lunch and after brainstorming for a while, I had the perfect idea.

I had a few small red potatoes left over from dinner earlier in the week, so I decided to make thyme roasted potatoes. All I did was cut the potatoes in quarters and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and thyme. Drizzled on some olive oil and roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, shaking the pan once halfway through cooking to make sure the potatoes weren't sticking.

I bought some corn on the cob earlier in the week (a little early in the season for corn, but I couldn't wait) so I thought that would be the perfect accompaniment to the potatoes.

It was so yummy! The potatoes got crispy on the outside and had a wonderful flavor from the thyme. And the corn - how can you go wrong with corn on the cob? We paired the meal with some sweet iced tea with lemon balm from the garden which made everything taste even better. This is my favorite kind of meal.

What did you cook up this weekend? Did it include anything from your garden?

~Tammy

Shared with Eco Kids Tuesday, Healthy Vegan Friday, What I Am Eating   

Feathered Friend Friday

Welcome to our series "Feathered Friend Friday." Every Friday I write a post with interesting facts, photos, or funny stories about our chickens and guineas. If you need to catch up, you'll find all the Feathered Friend Friday posts here. 

One of my favorite things to do is take photos of my chickens while they are free ranging. They are usually totally oblivious of me and just go about their business while I snap away. Up until recently everything had been so brown and dead out here that I wasn't feeling inspired to take photos. But now that things are starting to slowly come back to life, I can't stop taking pictures!

One of their favorite spots lately is this patch of weeds up by the house. When I saw them pecking away, I thought it would make for some good shots so I got down on the ground and rolled around to get on their level and get a different perspective.

I had to laugh at this last shot I got of Ellie, head down in the weeds. Definitely oblivious.

~Tammy

Shared with Old Time Party, Farmgirl Friday, Sunny Simple Sunday, Weekly Top Shot, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Tuesday Muse   

The Line Up

Every evening when I get home, this is the scene that greets me.

The chickens all line up at the fence waiting for me to let them out for some free ranging. They know when they see my car pull in the driveway that it's time to free range! Duchess joins the line up, waiting to get out and dig some new holes.

When I walk down to let everyone out, Sylvester follows me so he can join in on the fun. He tries his hardest to get Duchess to play with him, but she usually seems uninterested.

Playfulness doesn't work, so Sylvester tries to be sweet. Duchess usually warms up to this :)

I love my evenings with the animal crew.

~Tammy

In The Garden

Over the weekend I finally had a chance to walk around and see what new growth (if any) was going on in the garden and the woods. We haven't been able to do much work on the garden just yet, but we do have a few boxes laid out for containing our vegetables. We still have quite a few boards left to paint then assemble, a fence to construct, and some stone to place so it's still very much a work in progress. A few weeks ago we did manage to plant some lettuce seeds, so I'm hoping that is what I saw shooting up in the garden.

I have been so amazed with how well our herbs survived and even thrived through the winter months. I haven't checked them out lately, so I was shocked to see how much the thyme had spread.

I noticed the sage still holding strong and the mint just starting to make a comeback.

Excited with the state of the edible plants, I went to see how the rest of the garden was doing. I saw some encouraging signs of growth - shoots of bright green from bulbs popping out of the ground (lilies I think?) and some of our sedum coming back in full force.

Over by the creek I saw a few of the trees were finally showing some green as well.

This winter has been too long for my taste so it really did my soul good to see some signs of spring around the yard. Everything has been so brown out here lately that it is thrilling to finally be seeing some green. I was in such a spring-y mood I decided to give my header an update as well :)

What's going on in your garden lately?

~Tammy

Shared with Eco Kids Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Tuesday Muse, Down Home Blog Hop, Explorers Blog Hop, Home Sweet Home