The Chooks now have a chook house

Finally the chooks are out of the garage and into their own house.

We found a great little shed/coop for them at Bunnings. I really don’t like construction projects, but given two and a half hours, we had unpacked all the bits and put them together. At the end we did have one piece left over (which we didn’t notice) and were scratching our heads with how to attach the door frame.

DB put two and two together and got the door frame on and with B1 operating the electric “screwdriver” for the whole construction, we now have a shiny new house for the chookens that is vermin free. They are now safe and happily scratching in the pea straw and doing whatever chookens do. Now, how long before they start laying eggs…………..

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RIP Drumstick and Terriyaki

We thought we had the temporary chook  accommodation safe for the (now) 5 week old chickens. Unfortunately in the last few days we have seen a hawk and a feral cat and some evidence of something else stalking the chickens. Yesterday we lost Terriyaki and then Drumstick this morning, to an unseen predator.

The chickies are now safely housed in the garage and this weekend will be a building bee to try and get the chook house built so we don’t lose any more of the little ones. Fingers crossed the rest of them survive.

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(Christmas) Potato Salad

B1 absolutely loved this potato salad and said that it tasted like Christmas and requested it be made for Christmas Day.

 

 

Ingredients:  (serves 4)

12 small sized potatoes (I used pink eyes)
3 eggs
4 bacon rashers
60g whole-egg mayonnaise
40g sour cream
1 garlic clove, crushed
30g drained gherkins, roughly chopped
¼ cup loosely packed dill, roughly  chopped
4 green shallots, ends trimmed, roughly chopped
2 tablespoon capers
Salt and Pepper to season

Method: 

Boil the potatoes, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until tender when pierced with a skewer. Drain, then set aside for 30 minutes to cool completely. Cut in half and place in a large serving bowl.

Meanwhile, soft boil the eggs.  To get a perfect soft boiled egg, I place them in a saucepan, covered with cold water. Bring to the boil and boil for two minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to cool. Once cool, drain, peel and set aside.

Fry the bacon until crisp. Remove from heat, cool and then dice.

Combine the mayonnaise, sour cream, gherkin, capers, dill, shallots and garlic in a food processor and process until combined and a lovely green colour. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Cut the eggs into quarters and arrange on top of the potatoes. Drizzle over the dressing and serve.

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We can haz Chookens

We went to my parents today and B1 got the long awaited hand reared cockatiel that she had been wanting. We also finally got chickens to grow up to be egg layers.  They are all named and are from left to right

Butter
Satay
Sunday Roast
Drumstick
Honey Soy
Terriyaki
Crispy Skin
and Lemon

In a month or so there will be some Frizzle chickens available. They have already been named Barbeque and Burger. We were only allowed to call the chickens these names as long as we promised we were not really going to eat them. Promise given….. no fingers crossed so the chookens are safe.

On another note, I have never seen a hypnotised chicken before but witnessed it a couple of times as B1 demonstrated on Butter and Satay for us. Squawking chickies are calm and content by simply turning them on their back and rubbing their tummies…… who’d a thought!

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Blue-eye Trevalla with Olive and Pine Nut Crust

This recipe is Margaret Fulton’s and comes from the MasterChef magazine Issue 4. This Blue-eye recipe was very simple and easy to cook. The wine, lemon and olive gives the fish a lovely tangy flavour and the bed of spinach and red onion works wonderfully together. I have amended the original recipe by cutting down the olives a little, as I thought there was a little bit too much.

Ingredients:  serves 2

20g pine nuts, roasted & finely chopped
25g panko breadchrubs
30g pitted kalamata olives, finely chopped
1 spring onion, finely chopped
½ teaspoon dried tarragon
40ml olive oil
2 x 200g pieces blue-eye trevalla fillet, skinned and pin-boned
½ lemon, cut into 4 wedges
2 sprigs thyme
30ml dry white wine
½ red onion, thinly sliced
125g baby spinach

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Combine pine nuts and breadcrumbs in a bowl, then season with salt and pepper.

Combine olives, spring onions, tarragon and 30ml oil in a bowl to form a paste.

Line an oven tray with baking paper and place the fish on the tray and place the fish on the tray. Spread half the olive paste on top of each piece of fish, then press half the breadcrumb mixture on top of the olive mixture.

Squeeze the juice from the lemon wedges on and around the fish, then add the wedges to the tray with the thyme. Drizzle over the wine and bake the fish for 10 minutes or until the crust is golden and the fish is just cooked. Stand for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile heat remaining oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally for 2 minutes or until the onion starts to soften. Add spinach and cook stirring for a further 30 seconds or until the spinach starts to wilt. Season.

Divide spinach mixture between two plates and top with fish and lemon wedges.

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