Cake and chickens

I bought these really really cute cake pans in Mexico and was just itching to use them as soon as I got home. 

I also did a quick inventory of my freezer and pantry and noticed that someone needs to eat a LOT of Saskatoons in this house, what was I thinking last fall? So I cruised my favorite recipe site here http://www.tastespotting.com/category/food/27   

And found a recipe for a Raspberry Chocolate Coffee Cake that looked like it would change up easily. I turned it into a Raspberry (had some of those too) Saskatoon and not so chocolate cake. Of course by the time I was done altering the recipe it didn’t even resemble the original anymore. I always have to mess with a recipe, I can’t help myself. I always use whole wheat flour and I always use brown sugar instead of white and I always use less sugar (a lot less) Then it said to grease and flour the pan first, usually I will grease and then dust with powered Vanilla but I had none (forgot to bring some back this year) so I decided to dust with cinnamon, then I had too much batter and the pan over flowed making it look like I would not be able to get the cake out, at this point I thought maybe the cinnamon had been a mistake (serves me right) but when that moment came to tip it over, I held my breath and it came out in one piece and the smell of hot cinnamon floated out of the pan...oh my! Wonderful. Brilliant idea! Sometimes I get lucky. What I a pretty pretty cake to take to a friend’s house.

I held my breath when I tipped this over.....

whoooo, can you smell the cinnamon? 

Whipped cream would have been nice as well

I love going grocery shopping in my freezer; this is why we gardeners go through allllll that work in the fall. So we don’t have to go grocery shopping. It thrills me to make a meal and not have to got to the store for anything. My first meal at home was a crock pot of pumpkin soup. I took a jar of frozen pumpkin, a baggie of frozen tomatoes, a little container of frozen chicken broth, a head of garlic from my pantry (they wintered well) and a handful of little onions, put it all in the pot, added a little bit of dried peppers. After it was cooked I stuck my hand mixer in there and pureed it making it all creamy. 

Today I took out some chicken breast, ( organic homegrown chicken) cut it up and put it in a casserole dish, added a baggie of frozen tomatoes, a baggie of frozen green beans, some onions, a few cubes of chicken broth, some frozen chili sauce and soon I had this....and just cooked up some homemade noodles and there was another meal that didn’t require anything from the store.

Shopping in my freezer is the best

Yummm yummm

Speaking of not going to the store, member how I often talk about my fantasy of having chickens in my backyard, that may soon happen. Imagine my excitement when I read in the local newspaper that the town has given a resident permission to have 3 chickens and some rabbits in her back yard....IMAGINE! I was so excited and raced over to the town office first thing. Turns out there are a few hoops one must jump through first, well ...I’m an athlete from way back and am willing to do the jumping. I must also go to the council meeting and plead my case (and jump through hoops in front of them like a circus...I guess). Next council meeting is on April 24^th, I am ready. Can you imagine....one more thing for me to go on and on and on about on this blog, chickens! And eggs! I can’t wait, oh the chiffon cakes we’ll bake in my new cake pans, because one cannot afford to make chiffon cake unless one has ones own chickens....you need a gilzillion eggs. (at least) In the mean time we should figure out what we will name our 3 chickens because that’s most important you know. Of course I have to stay true to my geekness and so I have been cruising the web looking at all kinds of house options for my chicks...they will have only the best you know. Like this;

Or this;

There are many beautiful ideas on the web for making very attractive chicken coops. 

These chickens are going to be an enhancement to the community, not like some people’s shittin, digging, messy, barky dogs....not saying names or anything, just sayin is all. I have nothing against dogs I just think it high time dogs and chickens were given equal rights. .....I can see that this will require a few trips to the hard ware store, ol’ Blue will be so excited, he loves going to the hardware store on Saturday morning, throw in a trip to the dump and it’s a Saturday we both remember for a long time. Ok now I’m just talking crazy talk.