Red Dirt Farm and Studio

I fumbled around in the darkness, feeling for a flashlight.  It’s 4:30 am, the power has gone out and it is twenty degrees outside.  The dogs need to go out to the bathroom.  Peanut can no longer navigate the stairs on her own, so I clumsily balance the flashlight, the dog and me down the stairs and out the door.  Carefully, trudging down the frost-coated porch steps in my fashion forward fuzzy slippers and robe, so as not to face plant me and the dog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The power came back on by sun-up.  The house was chilly and I laid back in the recliner snuggled in an old patchwork quilt, hoping to catch some extra sleep, but that just didn’t happen.  A few hours later, I started working on this post, when of course, the power went out again.  Why?  Don’t know, it’s cold out, but sunny and not storming.  Just another one of those mysteries.

Snowball’s favorite show is Barnwood Builders – she takes a front row seat to watch.

To me – a prized piece of art-work, an oil pastel by my Mother, that she made long before I was born.  It now hangs in my front hall and brings me a lot of joy and happy memories.

We went out to vote on Tuesday, Mr. Cottage had his first and only outing since surgery.  He is technically house-bound for at least another week.  When it was my turn to present my ID, the lady said to me “You’re Red Dirt Farm lady.”  That was a surprise, to say the least.  It made me feel good.

Upon returning to the house from voting, I went down to check on things in the farm stand.  I found a note from a disgruntled customer – we were sold out of eggs – how dare we!  Sheesh – molting has been long and hard on the girls this year – molting means they don’t lay eggs.  The eggs sell as quickly as I put them out, it is such a good problem.  I have my other goodies out too – hoping they will be purchased, it’s a tough sell sometimes.

Henny Penny is a grumpy hen.  She simply doesn’t want to get along with the other girls and during her molt, it hasn’t helped her disposition at all.  NOT ONE BIT!

The first two years of her life she roosted in the big coop in the back; this past spring she decided she didn’t want to live in there anymore.  She packed her bags and moved into the smaller, older coop.  Last week, she decided she didn’t like it there either and moved her bags into the back porch coop.  She is snapping at the girls in there and trying to take over as head chicken – it isn’t going over well.  Such chicken drama, she is running out of coop options.  This morning she walked in the back door and announced to me that she was moving in.  We had a talk and I explained to her that wasn’t happening.

 

Onion Straws

I rarely fry food – maybe once a year if that often.  Recently I found I had an abundance of onions and inspired by onion straws we had on vacation recently, I decided to try my hand at making some.  For $3.00, Mr. Cottage purchased a food mandolin at a yard sale a few years back, which we had not used so this was the perfect opportunity.  It worked so well, slicing those onions paper-thin.

 

2 Large Sweet Onions Sliced super thin

2 Cups Buttermilk

2 Cups Flour

2 TBS Cornmeal

2 Cups Vegetable Oil – heated to 400 degrees F – 200 C. – I made mine in my dutch oven since I don’t have a deep fryer.

Salt, Pepper, Cayenne, Paprika to taste –  Mix with Flour and Cornmeal

Soak onion slices in buttermilk for at least an hour.

Drain onion and coat with flour mixture.

Fry onions in oil until light golden brown.  Takes a few minutes as you work in batches, not to overcrowd the oil.

Drain on paper towels – ENJOY!

We like these, they are lightly breaded and crispy good.

Thank you for stopping in.

xo Kim