For anybody paying attention you’ll have noticed that I haven’t posted any recipes in a loooong while. There are a few reasons for that. First one, I simply haven’t felt adventurous in the kitchen so I haven’t tried anything new that I wanted to share with you all. You know how it goes, or at least I know how it goes with me, I go gangbusters trying new things and then bam! – I don’t feel like cooking at all so I revert to tried and true favorites.
This isn’t good for a food blog, in which ideally should have new content seemingly every 5 minutes. However this blog is my own little personal project, not a monetized venture and I, like many of you I suspect, tend to rotate between a handful of easy, go-to recipes. I’m just not prepared at this time to devote the time every week to come up with new recipes.
So tonight was Jalapeno Popper Chicken, a relatively new favorite. I really like this recipe because much like my Chicken with Lemon and Olives, I can pretty much throw it together with my eyes closed and I almost always have the ingredients. I tossed dinner together quickly so I could get back to work on another creative project.
Okay so speaking of chicken, and creative projects, the second reason I haven’t been in the kitchen is because I’ve been spending an extraordinary amount of my time since the spring on my latest garden project. Backyard chickens!
I’ve thought about raising chickens a few times but have never actually bit the bullet, until now…
For whatever reason – too much time on my hands I think – I once again became a bit obsessed with the idea of having some chickens.
It is entirely possible that I have lost my mind, but the bird bug bit me and I spent considerable time in the early spring choosing a coop and run design and researching raising backyard chickens. Once my design (I’ll tell you about that in another post) was chosen, the coop was laid out in the garden and my lumber was loaded into the garage where I began putting my plan together. The coop was framed indoors and then taken in sections out to the garden to put it all together.
It was a s*#t ton of work since I did most of it by myself (with a bit of heavy lifting from Steve and a helping hand from a friend) but it turned out really great.
My Chicken Fantasy
Why, oh why would I want chickens? Well, I’ve got a few reasons. Firstly, I like birds, and chickens happen to come in a wide variety of pretty, and practical, designs. I had visions of enjoying my summer being amused by a small flock of avian friends. Ones who will eventually put breakfast on the table, bringing me to my second reason.
I like the idea of producing food on my own property, even if it is just some eggs. We are what we eat and by raising my own chickens I know exactly what they are eating and therefore what I’m eating. I’m not exactly prepared to turn my acreage into a ‘homestead’ per se but I do like the idea of using my land to produce some protein, at least for our own family and friends, and eggs seem like an easy place to start. (BTW, I tried to get the Big Man to agree to raising 30 birds so that I could raise meat birds but my plan was met with some pretty serious lack of enthusiasm 🙂 Maybe next year…?)
Anyway…I found myself 4 chickens and the adventure began!! It’s been an interesting ride so far. I’ve been highly amused by them, have learned lots about chicken behavior and such, and I’ve also had one untimely death already (the cute little mottled one who I don’t think was well right from the get-go).
Just this week I collected my very first, home hatched eggs, which I made into a delicious spinach omelette.
Life is a circle people, life is a circle.
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