Chickens!

We have had the exciting experience of raising baby chicks!  My industrious husband bravely attacked Craigslist for candidates and found 20 newly hatched chicks for sale not too far away.  He drove several hours to get them and I constructed a fabulously stylish styrofoam home for them, haha.  It was pretty redneckish, honestly and it sat IN OUR LIVING ROOM for 4 weeks (I promise we're not crazy, just dedicated).  But it worked and the baby chicks were sooo cute and funfunfun to watch.  Quite a mix of muts.

We first decided we wanted to raise chickens while we were still living in Los Angeles.  We watched Food Inc. and read You Can Farm, in which, the inhumane and unhealthy practices of the egg business are really laid out.  Yes, it's just as bad for the meat industry, but you have to start somewhere and we decided we'd like to start with eggs.  So, this should be a healthy and educational experience for the whole family.  And hopefully, not tooooo expensive.  It should get easier on the wallet, after we can start growing food for our chickens (corn, millet, oats, sprouts, etc...) But we use a LOT of eggs anyway, so this could be a good way to save eventually.

Since this blog is supposed to be about gluten free food, I'll close with my favorite GF way to eat eggs:
An omelet.  If you don't know how to make an omelet, please go to Youtube and watch Julia Child make one.  She is the queen, in that respect.  But I like to add onions, bell peppers, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese to mine.  Top it off with a bit of fresh salsa and it's even better.  Yes, I do have odd tastes.  It runs in my family like glitter and puff paint on a toilet seat.  :S

Overdue Post

After arriving in the south east,  I tried to start a garden, asap.  Arriving in mid August made my chances of seeing that garden come to fruit, very slim.  Broccoli, cauliflower, brusselsprouts, collard greens, Swiss Chard, butternut  squash, winter snap peas, and two unlikely candidates, donated by my mom:  a tomato plant and an eggplant plant.

Believe it or not, everything came to fruit!  I still have a hard time believing this because I'm still new to gardening and these things all seem like miracles to me.  My tomato and eggplant didn't do so hot, but they both bore a small bit of fruit.  Nothing is more satisfying than cooking and eating your OWN home grown vegetables.  Skimpy as they might have been...

One incredible blessing I've experienced is having my wish to find edible wild mushrooms, fulfilled!  One morning, my oldest son came in and showed me that he and daddy had discovered lots of big mushrooms in the back yard.  I knew what they were when I saw them:  Puffballs!  But I didn't know for sure if they were a safe, edible variety.  After a lot of researching and testing, we were confident that they were indeed edible and delicious.  So, I sauteed  some in butter and garlic and tried a tiny bit.  It was good and I had no unpleasant side effects, so that was the green light to eat more. My favorite way to prepare them was stuffed with mozzarella cheese,  GF breaded, pan fried and served with marinara sauce.   There was a large quantity of them--15 or so, all fist sized.  I shared them with friends and had them fairly often.  I can't wait to find them again next year.
We've also discovered a few places to buy gluten free products locally--Yippee!  Thank you Krogers and Wal-Mart.  But I still miss you, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods!