Yogi’s Egg!

I know, I know you are all waiting for vacation photos.  Sorry they will come soon!

I have to tell you about our egg!  When we got the chickens back at the end of march Tyler thought we would have eggs the next day!  Even though they were this big!

So we read up on chickens and how long till they started to produce eggs.  We figured out that they would be of age around the week we came home from vacation (aka Yogi Bear park).  So since then, Tyler has been telling everyone that we would have eggs when we go back.  We keep telling him “Maybe we will start having eggs then”

Well since then we noticed we had too many rosters.  In fact, David and the kids returned 12 rosters to the guy and brought home 6 hens a few weeks back.  We kept 3 rosters, Shorty, “Gloria” and big red.  A photo of Shorty can be found here.  “Gloria” we thought was a hen, she was so bossy we called her big bertha. Then one day she started saying “cock'-a-doodle=do” so tyler changed her name to “gloria” why I don’t know?!!! lol  Big Red is for sale!  He was suppose to go to a farm but they backed out this week. Now we need to find him a home! He is so beautiful!

Here our photos from tonight!  Gloria is right here in front.  Shorty is the little guy in the middle alone. Big Red (with his deep voice) is just coming into the photo on the left!

Here is a photo of Big Red and you can see Whitey in the back. (More about whitey later!)

Two of the Hens that David and the kids brought home were these below!

They are so pretty! the rosters did not like them.  They would peck at them so badly.  They stay up in the coop, I don’t even know if they have ever come outside…we have not seen them out.  They are starting to stand with the other girls without being scared to death!

The night the new Hens arrived we noticed that the rosters were trying to, umm how do I put this on a family site?  They were trying to “Brown Chicken Brown Cow” get it!??!  Anyway we were thinking maybe our math would be right!! 

This week Tyler was still saying when he gets home we are going to have eggs!  We considered calling my in laws and have them stage an egg! Once we got home we checked the chickens.  And wouldn’t you know…

in one of the hen boxes was…

an egg!!  So Tyler has been right all along, after Yogi Bear Park we would have eggs!!  Boy did we luck out!  He is sure it was whitey that laid the egg!  Hopefully we start getting more eggs!

So to answer the age old question, what came first the chicken or the egg??  To the szarek’s it was:

A chicken, Yogi bear and then an EGG!!!

Cupcakes

Bernie and Denise are getting ready for their 2nd CSA.  They are hosting a lunch for their CSA members.  Information on their CSA can be found here: http://threegoatfarm.com/
They asked me to make cupcakes, and we all know I love to bake!  I wanted something new and different.  I decided to make 2 kinds:

Red velvet with cream cheese frosting
Hazelnut brownie bites with a cocoa buttermilk frostting

I really am looking for an adult party to make baileys Irish cream cupcakes.

The red velvet was just a box cake mix with vanilla added to it.  The frosting was a basic cream cheese frosting. 

The Hazelnut Brownies are simply, to start just mak cake like brownie batter.  I put them into the mini cupcake pans but I did not fill them too high about 75%.  The center was a cheesecake mix made from Cream Cheese, powdered sugar, an egg, some of my homemade nutella and some almond extract. 

Normally I would swirl the cheesecake into the brownie but this time I wanted it to be all in the center when you bit into it.  The frosting was buttermilk frosting with cocoa added and a few table spoons of hot choc. mix.
Both kinds made 72 mini cupcakes.

Then it came time to frost them.  ahh the temptation.


I just wanted a spoon and eat right out of the bowl.
once they were lined up I started frosting
.

I love my new cupcake decorator. Didn’t it make the nicest star design? I hope they enjoy them!

Best Mistake cupcakes

On Friday I was making cupcakes for my in-laws harvest dinner to end their first CSA season (get more info here).  They had asked for about 4 dozen cupcakes but I of course planned to make more to take with us on our weekend adventures (I am hoping to post that tomorrow).  The plan was to make Smores’,  Caramel Apple, pumpkin and applesauce…all mini-cupcakes.

My Smores, graham cracker crust with a chocolate cupcake mix.  Sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs, topped with a marshmallow frosting and grated chocolate.

I started around 730pm after a long day and intense workout by baking the the Smores.  I was surprised that my batter made over 72 and because of the graham cracker crust i could go made another 2 dozen..I opted to make hubby a mini cake in my pampered chef mini pan!  Once those were cooking I started the batter for the caramel Apple.  I was also listening to the Crunch hockey game on the internet and watching Sabres on TV.  Big Mistake! 

As I pulled the last pan out of the oven, I noticed that I still had apples on the counter.  Then it clicked….OMG I never added them to the batter. 

I had planned to add the chopped apples to batter and then dip them in caramel, sprinkle nuts on them and add a stick – just like you would have with a caramel apple.  So now I just had a yellow vanilla cupcake…hmm what's a girl to do?  I decided to go to bed. I was so tired and I just need to sleep on it. No way was I going to make another 72 cupcakes and no way did I have the time.

The next morning after a good 6 hours of sleep (that's sleeping in for a mom!) and a cup of coffee, I had an amazing idea.  I was going to make apple pie cupcakes. 

I chopped up some apples and put them in a pan over medium heat.  I added lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar.  Once the apples were soft I added in the caramel topping and mixed together.  I cut out part of the center of each cupcake and filled it with my apple mixture.  Then I mixed up a simple powered sugar glaze and drizzled a little bit on each one.

So what do you think…look yummy (or as Rachel Ray would say Yumm-o!)?

I actually didn’t make enough apple filling.  I took my remaining vanilla cupcakes and made Vanilla Nut Glaze cupcakes:

Are you hungry yet?  I am…boy this is not helping my weigh loss attempts!  This is how I displayed my cupcakes at the dinner:

There were not too many cupcakes left!  Almost all the apple pie were gone!  I am certainly going to try these again..I may try doing this with regular sized cupcakes!  I will someday make the caramel apple ones (after all i do have the sticks).  I have some other cupcake ideas I want to make…I wonder if they will also be cupcake adventures!  Either way, remember to embrace your mistakes they could turn out to be the best thing ever.

The Weed Whacker Story..from a 3rd person!

On Friday we were leaving for camping at 8th lake, as I pulled in the driveway I noticed a weed whacker on the side of the road.  It was somewhat in our yard, and somewhat in the corn field.  It looked like David was using it but forgot to put it away.   That is very out of character for him so I worried he managed to injure himself using it or something. 

I saw him going about the pre-camping duties injury free.  When I asked him why our weed whacker was on the road, he told me it was broke and he was sick of messing with it to get it to work.  In our town it usually doesn't take long for things on the side of the road to grow legs.  So off we went on our camping trip with the Weed Whacker laying there on the side of the road.  We never looked back.

Saturday afternoon we had a full cell signal during our Tupper Lake road trip.  David checked his messages:

“David, its your father, I found your weed whacker on the side of the road I think someone was in your shed!”

David called him back to tell him the story and to congratulate his father on being the proud new owner.  Sadly his dad pointed out that  he put it back in our shed. 

We arrived home Sunday, very tired, but pushed through unpacking the camper.  Later in the afternoon Emma and I were going out to run some errands.  My car was dead as a doornail, we had to jump it with davids truck.  I am not sure why it was dead.  As i pulled out of the driveway i was setting my car radio and noticed the Goldens were working in the yard.  Jeff had weed whacked the ditch because his weed whacker was still sitting there on the lawn.

Later that evening Ang called to ask me a question.  She was wondering if we noticed who took the weed whacker off her lawn.  She preceded to tell me that Jeff had found this weed whacker in the corn field.  It was obvious that someone had lost it off their truck.  So he moved it onto their lawn where it had better visibility, as the people will most certainly be looking for it.  She was just wondering who lost it.

As she finishes her story, David said: Is she calling to see why i took my weed whacker off her lawn?   

Yep, it was our weed whacker!

So in 48 hours our weed whacker has:

• had 3 owners
• Traveled:
  • From the shed to the road twice
  • From the road to the shed twice
  • Across the street once

Its currently sitting in our garage waiting for its next adventure…

maybe i should make it its own website. As people come in contact with it they can post about it!!! 

till the next adventure readers…..

Open Season on Birthday Creativity!

This could end up being a long entry! haha. Last week we had Tyler's birthday party, it was so much fun! This years theme was Open Season the movie! Sorry i didnt post these photos sooner.


Tyler liked the bag more than the gift!
Pin the Antler on Elliot!! i love my cricut!! haha I was able to make this with no problem at all!
Cupcake tower! Notice its not on fire this year!!

After the festivities all the kids went outside (it was like 60 degrees!). they all climbed onto the gator!Instead of party hats, we made party horns! We traced the kids hands and made antlers. Stephanie had done this with the kids last year so i stole the idea!

I think Carter is too cute in his!
Okay so the economy sucks right! here is my Cheap way to throw a Martha Stewart like party. One look online for great deals! i purchased all of theme party items on ebay for about 30bucks with shipping. We made binoculars from toilet paper rolls (another Stephanie) idea.

One box of cake mix makes alot of cupcakes!! i used my pampered chef decorator thing to get the decorative piping and then sprayed them green.
For decor, i picked some pine branches and stuck them into my metal pales i use in the summer for herbs. David had found lots of antler sheds when he worked at north star so i put them on the table. Instantly a party table fit for Martha! the party item i purchased on ebay didnt really have a lot of room decorations. so i strung up balloons on string and stapled extra napkins to the string. In this photo you can see them in the background by the window an hanging off the dinning room light from streamers!

Okay we need to do a little catching up! here are some thanksgiving photos!
My little butter ball!
A lot to be thankful for!

Clinton Shoppers Stroll!
Okay i promise to upload photos and do posts in a timelier fashion this week! Tomorrow is Emma's baptism and she also played in the snow for the 1st time!