A Week or Two in Pictures (3/12 – 3/27)

We started the week off with a gorgeous – HUGE – full moon.

After a bout of cool weather, Spring hit and the temperatures have been lurking somewhere about the 50-60° range. It’s been so warm that I’ve moved my seedlings outside along with my citrus trees.

One of my lemon trees has been doing especially well and is covered with sweet smelling blooms. I attempted to hand pollinate some of the blooms but after moving it outside, I’m hoping that the bees will take over the job for me. I just realized yesterday that I had an orange tree. My citruses were all left at mom’s for the year or so I was transitioning to Robb’s house and included a lime tree. One tree died and I was so certain it was the orange. I was sad to discover that it was my lime!

Robb and I went down to the beach last weekend and had a great time, depsite the rain. We ate at Two Roads Tavern, picked up donuts from Duck Donuts, and had a fun time at the Manteo Aquarium. For more of a recap and a review of Two Roads Tavern, visit The Edible Coast.

This past Sunday was a great day for outside chores. We messed with the chicken coop (the chickens received new straw under the coop and new pine shavings inside of the coop), planted Swiss Chard and Brussels Sprouts, and generally enjoyed the good weather.

Our newest chicken, Ipsy, is the chicken on the left hand side (below photo). She is a Silver Laced Wyandotte and as you can see, she is missing quite a few feathers on her backside from an overzealous rooster. Since I’ve brought her home, she has already put on a little more weight and I can see feathers starting to grow back.

The straw from the chicken coop gets put into the garden to give the plants an extra boost.

We officially listed our house for sale! We are going by the route of “for sale by owner” and I am confident that I can get the house sold. We are determined to move forward with finding a place with more space so we can grow our homestead.

I tried to get a nice picture with Belle as we were all relaxing on Sunday, this is the one that came out the best. She saw the camera and just started acting like a diva.

I decided to make fish tacos on Sunday, so I made a fresh pico de gallo. Unfortunately none of the produce was from our garden but hopefully the next time I make it – it will have all homegrown items (except for lime… sadly).

Our delicious Alaskan halibut tacos with cilantro, pico de gallo, coleslaw, and a lime crema. What a great end to a busy weekend!

A Week or Two in Pictures (3/4 – 3/12)

The past couple of weeks have been busy! The weather has been halfway decent (up until this week) so Robb and I were able to get out in the yard. In between our yard work and housework, we made it a point to go see “Logan” in theaters (review) and I was able to make a pie in honor of Pi Day (recipe).

Since I love looking at pictures more than reading text sometimes, I thought I would make this primarily a photo post!

Robb readied his part of the garden for broccoli and kale which we planted Saturday afternoon (I think).

Broccoli plugs purchased from a local small business – they had just arrived that day and looked so nice and fresh.

I started my pepper plants back in February – they are looking so good! I’ve never had such a high germination rate for peppers.

My slightly messy looking beds – garlic is planted in one, onions in the other. The dogs, for some reason, like walking through my beds the most.

Belle making sure I don’t go anywhere with her moose.

I got up close and personal with my girls.

I was gifted with 4 duck eggs at the Edenton Farmer’s Market. I’ve never cooked with duck eggs before but am debating a nice cake or custard maybe.

One thing not pictured is the new chicken I picked up on Saturday. She’s a Silver Laced Wyandotte (I named her Ipsy) that’s just starting to lay. She has a huge bald spot on her back from being bullied but I know that her feathers will grow back soon. She’s still checking things out in the coop but so far, everyone is getting along decently well. I’ll post of picture of her soon, once the weather warms up again and I can spend more time in the coop.

[Movie Review] Logan

When the first trailer for “Logan” aired, my boyfriend turned to me and said, “We are seeing that the minute it comes out.” Well, it didn’t exactly work out that way due to scheduling issues but we were able to see it this weekend. My boyfriend isn’t really into comics but for some reason, loves Wolverine. We weren’t really motivated to get anything done on Sunday, so we bundled ourselves up and escaped out of the house for an afternoon matinee. Sunday matinees are typically when we see a movie, it seems. What is nice is that the theater is never as crowded as it is during the evening.

Anyway, back to “Logan”.

Synopsis (from IMDB):

In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X somewhere on the Mexican border. However, Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are upended when a young mutant arrives, pursued by dark forces.

Sounds ominous, right? I thought that overall, this film had a completely different tone than any of the other X-Men movies. It was more serious. Yes, there were action scenes galore but this film seemed more real than any of the others. It really humanized the characters that we’ve grown to love over the years. Though I hated seeing how the once great superheros have aged, it was an interesting premise. So often in superhero movies, we only see them at their peak. The main plot point may be that they lose their powers at some point, but they will always gain them back and be stronger than ever. We never see them really vulnerable.

Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart nailed their roles as Logan/Wolverine and Professor Charles Xavier, yet again, for what is to be their last time in these roles, supposedly. Stephen Merchant did a great job as Caliban and helped to lend this whole sort of dystopian vibe to the film with his style. Dafne Keen stole the film though as “Laura” aka X-23, the ferocious little girl who embodies so many of the traits of Wolverine. I think that she has a great future ahead of her and I’d love for her to take over the iconic role.

The actor playing Donald Pierce bugged me as I watched the film, but not in a bad way. I knew he was familiar from somewhere but just couldn’t quite place it. Then I googled him. Boyd Holbrook. He played William ‘Cap’ Hatfield in the Hatfields & McCoys TV mini-series. Robb and I LOVED that series. We actually watched a movie on Netflix the other day with Bill Paxton called “Frailty” that was pretty interesting and I was able to recall instantly that he was Randolph McCoy (among his numerous other awesome roles).

What drove me a bit crazy about the movie is what happened in the mutant/X-Men world in the years leading up to “Logan”. I’m dying to know more about the ‘Westchester Incident’ and what actually happened to the rest of the X-Men. I’m hoping that maybe they’ll refer to it more in depth in an upcoming X-Men movie. *Fingers crossed*

I thought that the ending of “Logan” was the perfect way to finish the film and all in all, I loved the film. I highly recommend seeing it in the theaters. Robb and I rarely make the time to go see a movie in theaters so when we do, we try to pick something that we are pretty sure we will enjoy. Some movies just warrant seeing them on the big screen versus waiting for redbox and vice versa!

A Pi Day Recipe: Berry Crumb Pie

It’s Pi day! Get it? March 14 – 3.14? No? Hmm.

Moving on. Pie is one of my boyfriend’s favorite desserts so what better way to celebrate Pi day than to bake him a pie? Regardless of what he might say, I am not good at making pies and often wonder why his favorite dessert couldn’t be something like brownies – a dish that I can knock out of the park.

But being that I love him, this is the 3rd pie that I’ve made for 2017. The first was a lovely berry pie with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries. The second was a lemon meringue pie (using fresh meyer lemons) that nearly kicked my butt.

That lemon meringue pie was a mess. My meringue fell, twice, because I got distracted when I dumped out half of my pie as I tried to readjust it in the oven (note to self: always place your pie on top of a baking sheet). I threw a hissy fit, threatened to the pie in the trash, but still continued to cook it. I never tried the pie but Robb said it was delicious.

I went simple with this pie. I have a freezer full of frozen fruit that I need to start utilizing so I decided to make him another berry pie (which I think is his favorite kind of pie) with a crumb topping. I ended up going with a mixture of red currents, strawberries, and blueberries.

Berry Crumb Pie

• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie shell

Filling

• 4 cups of thawed berries (drain off some of the juice)
• ¾ cup sugar (I used Florida Crystals Organic Pure Cane Sugar)
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Pinch of salt

Topping

• ⅔ cup packed brown sugar
• ¾ cup rolled oats
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 6 tablespoon butter, cut into 1/4″ cubes

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine your fruit with granulated sugar, flour, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Pour into pie shell.
2. Combine brown sugar, rolled oats, all-purpose flour, cinnamon, and butter until crumbly Spread the topping evenly over the pie filling.
3. Place on foil-lined baking sheet in lower third of oven. Bake until fruit bubbles and crust browns, approximately 1 hour. If topping begins to brown too quickly, tent with foil. Let cool.

Did you celebrate Pi day?

Henny & Roo March Box Reveal

I had a big mail day this week – 5 packages and a magazine! One of the smaller packages (a little envelope that you can’t see) held a surprise for my mom and my boyfriend, so I really don’t count that as one of MY packages. 🙂 But one of the items I was most excited to receive was my March Henny & Roo box.

With my old flock of chickens, I purchased monthly Henny and Roo boxes on a regular basis (example). Henny and Roo is a line of subscription boxes that are geared towards chickens and chicken owners. One of my favorite boxes in the past included a coupon for LIVE mealworms. That was a treat that my old girls loved.

Feeling bad that I haven’t spoiled my new flock, I ordered a March box.

Here’s what my box contained:

• Two Hen Painting Greeting Cards [Tammy Phelps | The Colour of Water] – These are super cute and I can’t wait to use them.
• Chicken Keeper’s Keychain [thesilverchicken.etsy.com] – This is definitely going on my key ring!
• Coupon for free bag of Dumor’s Organic Poultry Feed at Tractor Supply Co.
• Package of Chubby Mealworms
• DooKashi for Poultry
• Countryside Magazine
• Henny & Roo Rosemary Coop Spray – It’s funny, one of the posts that I have been contemplating recently was on a spray for the coop. This rosemary coop spray smells so good and helps to keep the coop fresh and repel insects.
• Candling Flashlight – For checking on chicks developing in the eggs
• Nesting Box Liner – which is utilized as the packaging material. I love that I can reuse it.

These girls have never experienced the wonder of what is mealworms and they quickly became obsessed with these delicious little morsels. Happy chickens equal delicious eggs in my mind and I enjoy spoiling them every now and then.