Sunday, January 10, 2010

Wood Stove Biscuits And Raking Leaves

Click on photo to enlarge.


The chickens came to help me rake! Well, no they didn't, they came to check out what I was doing and stayed to see what pickings I uncovered that they could eat. Kinda interesting how they got lined up in a row like that. I hope they found some good things to eat.

Then Morgan came over to check out what the chickens were doing which ticked off the chickens and they left Morgan all alone. Sometimes I wonder if Morgan thinks the chickens don't appreciate her and all she does for them. I guess not. Morgan doesn't seem at all bothered at being ditched. She is more interested in spotting squirrels.

I'm having trouble figuring out where to move the photos in relation to the text because what you see in the editor as far as spacing goes is not what you see when the post is published. I found that four lines of text justified next to the top photo will post as seen.

Kristine has been asking me about biscuits, so I finally broke down and decided I would make another attempt at biscuit making on the wood stove in a dutch oven. First thing I made sure to do was have a trivit for the dutch oven to sit on on on the wood stove and I put the dutch oven (with the steamer inside and a lid) on the trivit on the wood stove to heat up while I mixed up a batch of scratch biscuits. The trivit will keep the bottom of the dutch oven from getting too hot and burning the biscuits. I didn't have any shortening and substituted butter which worked out well. The biscuits tasted nice and buttery.

I had to look up a measurement conversion table on the internet because since the pan was so small I decided to halve the recipe. It took twice as long to cook the biscuits as in an oven at 450 degrees. I set the timer and checked every 10 minutes, but only peeked once after 20 minutes and then let it cook for another 10 minutes.


I was happy to find that the bottom of the biscuits cooked as flaky as the top. I used a long fire place match stick to test and see if the middle was cooked.



Kristine wanted to eat her biscuits with the homemade cranberry sauce made with our Placer County mandarin oranges.

I suppose using this editor will get easier as I work at it, but the old editor was pretty brainless and quick compared to messing around with this not knowing where the photos are going to show up or the text. I guess I will eventually learn how many lines of text I can type next to a photo and exactly where and how far apart they should be. It was a lot easier just centering the photos and typing above or below them. I think Blogger needs to work a lot more on the WYSIWYG.



[1 egg today]
I locked the broody hen out in the pen today
with the feed and water.

Smiles
~:>

7 comments:

Toni aka irishlas said...

They look delicious! Seems the woodstove cooking is working out for you. It's something I'd like to try, but, our woodstove doesn't have a flat enough surface.

Tina Marie the Willow Witch said...

Oh, boy those look so yummy... Love the rake on the nose :)

Chicken Boys said...

Mmmmm....homemade biscuits. Makes me think of my great-grandma Lucy. She'd spend most of the day in the kitchen cooking...that is if she wasn't out in her strawberry garden. She had no A/C and heated with a wood stove, so summer or winter, it was always blazing hot in her house. Great granddaddy Dave was usually out fishing with nets or working his fields. Some memories you brought up for me. Thanks!
~Randy

Joanna@BooneDocksWilcox said...

we went for awhile not getting any eggs, but production is starting to pick up again. The biscuits look great.

DayPhoto said...

Yummm! You are a very good cook!

I enjoy having the 'girls' work with me also. The dogs and cats like to hang out, but the chickens are right in there helping.

Linda

Gus, Louie and Callie said...

Mmmm those look so yummy.. We will be right over...

Big Sloppy Kisses
Gus, Louie and Callie

Becky's Barnyard said...

The chickens probably don't apprecitate what Morgan does for them; but she is a good dog to be taking care of them.