Family Funnies ~ Maple-Dijon Cod with Spinach and Home Canned Beets

Conversation early in the morning, prior to the school bus arriving.

"I'm thinking about applying for that cook job at the jail house," I said nonchalantly.

"No Mommy, NO!" whined my 10 year-old. 


"I don't think you have anything to say about it," added my 16 year-old.

"But she would be serving prisoners," cried my 10 year-old.

"So," added my 16 year-old.

"Yea," added my 13 year-old.

"She'd probably sneak in her spices and mix up the recipes."

(Giggles)

And the conversation continued from there.  Ha ha ha ha! 

I do have a reputation for getting wild with my spices and herbs.  Last night, I made them Maple-Dijon Cod in a bed of spinach and green onion, and home canned spiced beets.  Dinner isn't always like that, but they love this fish recipe.

I regret not taking a photo.  My husband took a moment prior to eating and said, "now this is worth taking a picture of."

I haven't applied for that job, as I haven't spoken to hubby about it, but here is the recipe for the cod, if you like fish:

Maple-Dijon Cod with Spinach

 I don't have the date for this issue, but I believe it came form Clean Eating Magazine March 2012.  

If you can't read the recipe, post a comment and I will type it up on another post.

I typically have to buy 3 packages of wild caught cod to feed my large family.  I buy it when it's on sale and stash it in the freezer.   And they fight over the spinach, so next time I will have to buy even more spinach.  I never thought I'd get them to like a dish like this.  
  
Now....I just need a miracle in my freezer for tonight's dinner.  I wonder what I will find. 

(Click to see Dark Day's Challenge on Nancy's blog)

Update:  I pulled 1 frozen package of mark down organic chicken thighs, 1 frozen bag of garden tomatoes, 1 frozen bag of blanched corn, opened 1 jar of home canned salsa, and 1 freezer container of of kidney beans (from dry).  With some fresh ingredients (and dried) on hand, I am creating a spicy chicken soup. 

Doggie Dreamland

Jesse is sporting new bright green bandage tape on his paw today.

Jesse took nice long siesta, after his trip to the vet.  Just before my son left with him, I put Jesse's Thundershirt on him.  

You'd think this jacket had drugs in it.  He's so calm when he has it on, and he slept like a baby.

Poor guy.  His foot does have an infection.  He's on medication for a week.  Whatever he stepped on outside really did a number on his paw.

Progress of Projects and Morning Rambling

(bottom two right drawers are only primed)

...still painting kitchen cupboards, and putting old knobs back on for now.  More to paint....

...I haven't had much free time to work on my knitted shawl, but it's down to the last 20 or so rows and then the fringe.

 ...weather has not been conducive to putting up outside Christmas lights - rain, rain and more rain.  It's not helping me dry my laundry either.  

...finally started a variegated blue set of pot holders for my Mom.

..the search for jobs has become a tedious headache.  Unless I want to be a truck driver or dancer, there isn't much out there right now.

...Tiger or Jasper got another mouse in the house (not sure which cat got it, but they are both getting treats.  

 ...my son's most current drawing, and soon to be for sale.

...my son took our youngest dog (Jesse) to the vet today for me.  He suffering from two puncture wounds on his paw that won't heal.  We have no idea what happened to him either.

  

Knitting Basket Christmas Tree Ornament

These are one of my favorite handmade ornaments to make at Christmas.  It's not really made from "scraps" so I decided to post it here.

What you need:

Here is Nellie

 

She is the one that is black and white.

She's a bit difficult to photograph.  Hence her name "nervous" Nellie. 

Chicken Succotash with Gingered Sweet Potato Toss

I'm sharing this recipe, that I found in a November/December 2010 issue of Clean Eating (so I am very behind in reading through magazines I bought at a library sale many moons ago.....).  I did look on-line but the recipe was not on Clean Eating's site.  So here you are.

It's a penny pinching recipe too!  

Chicken Succotash
With Gingered Sweet-Potato Toss

4 4-oz boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
8 oz. green beans, trimmed and rinsed
1 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped into 1-inch cubes
3 cloves garlic, sliced into thin rounds
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 tsp. ground ginger
8 oz. frozen corn
Pinch sea Salt
Sweet Paprika, to taste
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste.

One:  Remove any visible fat from chicken, cut breasts into 1-inch cubes, and set aside.

Two: Fill 2 medium pots halfway with water and bring to a boil.  Add beans to 1 pot and turn heat down to medium.  Simmer beans for 5 minutes; drain and set aside.  Add potatoes to second pot, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 8 minutes; drain and set aside.

Three: In a small nonstick pan, saute garlic in 1 Tbsp. oil over medium-low heat for 2 minutes.  Add ginger and cook for 1 more minute, then remove from heat immediately.  In a small bowl, mash garlic-ginger mixture with a fork until it's a smooth paste.  With same fork, stir paste into potatoes.  Chop cooled beans into 1 inch pieces.

Four: Heat remaining 1 Tbsp. oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat.  When oil is just beginning to sizzle, add chicken and saute for 3 minutes.  Add green  beans and corn and continue to cook for another 2 minutes (The chicken will finish cooking by method of poaching, thanks to the liquid from the vegetables).

Five: Using a slotted spoon, lift vegetable-chicken mixture from pan, letting liquid drain out, and place 1 cup mixture onto each of 4 plates.  Season with salt, paprika, and pepper.  Serve alongside 1/2 cup potatoes.


NOTE:  I did not slice my garlic.  I simply minced it and it worked fine.  I used organic chicken of course, and corn and beans we blanched over the summer and froze.  

Taste?  Well, we thought the main dish was bland in taste, so I minced garlic into it while it was finished cooking (chicken, bean, corn mixture).  You may want to taste test and season with your favorite spices/herbs. I did not measure my corn, I simply pulled a bag that I froze and used all of it.  Same with the beans.


However, my kids devoured this and ate all of their sweet potatoes!  That's a bonus for budget meal, and being able to provide a very healthy meal too.

It is a lot of stove-top cooking, but worth it.     
 

         

From the Gratitude Journal . . .

 . . . I am thankful for wind and sun.


. . . I am thankful that we found Nellie (our lost araucana), and she is safe and sound. I wish I had a photo of her to share.  She is very pretty.  I'll try to do that soon.

 . . . I am thankful that my son caught the owl in the coop before it could kill the rest of our chickens.

. . . I am thankful for beautiful sunsets.

. . . I am thankful for calm weather, so I can turn off my corn/pellet burner to save on pellets today.

. . .I am thankful for honest friends.

. . .I am thankful for God's timely reminders and Love.  

 

 

Locks of Love

I am finally shipping my hair donation, to Locks of Love.  I had to wait for Hubby to get paid.

You can see the length that was cut off. The ruler in the photo is a 12 inch ruler.

Face to Face with a Great Horned Owl ~ The Story

I am sorry to say that I don't have photos.  In the "heat" of the moment, we were more concentrated on saving the chickens.

My son is typically the one to close the chicken coop at night.  Every night the chickens have been putting themselves to bed, but now it gets darker, faster.  The bulb in the heat lamp broke a few days ago too.

By the time my son got to the barn to shut the coop door, and lock my ladies and Sparta in nice and tight, he flipped on the light to discover an owl inside the coop.  And one barred rock chicken had been mutilated.

The kids came and got us, and we tried to figure out how to get it to fly back out.  The dark barn was simply an invitation to it, for a night time snack.  Unfortunately.

We kept all the lights on and as we were on the side of the coop, talking normally, trying to encourage this monster to leave, it flew out and up into the loft.

This owl, was like nothing I have ever seen in the zoo. It was much taller than our chickens, maybe 1 1/2 feet to a bit taller, and very mean looking.  How mean?

Well, this morning, we e-mailed the park ranger to ask if they are protected.  (a portion of this post is now removed due to people flooding my inbox, telling me what I already know - be assured that our family would NEVER kill a protected animal) Hubby did tell me right away that he thought owls are "protected."  

We've never had an owl here, just red-tailed hawks, that we feared would eat our chickens.

We looked up the parks guide on owls in our state, and our jaws dropped.  We had no idea that we were messing with the big kahoona of our state's owls - The Great Horned Owl, who reaches as tall as 22 inches with a wing span of 44 inches, and tallons that are know to go at humans (without hearing them coming at you - Gulp!)

Humans!  Good thing we had long sticks in hand, but then again, we could have been badly hurt.   We had no idea what we had before us.

One araucana is still missing, as she ran out of coop, and to save her life.  Blood covered Sparta (rooster) didn't stick around either, but all are back inside, despite the one the owl killed, and one araucana.  

We shut the coop for the night, but will need to go in search Nellie (nervous Nellie).

The girls told me this morning, my son went up into the loft, opened a window, and got it to fly out of the barn.  He is still in bed, so he has no idea what he was messing with yet.  Gulp.

Being a homesteader/farmer is definitely not easy some days.