Chai Tea recipe, and Chicken Update.

Chai Recipe : Arti Sequeria

The recipe says that is yields 8 to 10 servings, but I get barley one and a half because I do mostly tea with about 1/4 cup or less of cream. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1 (1-inch) piece cinnamon stick
• 4 green cardamom pods, smashed
• 4 whole cloves
• 1/2 star anise
• 2 quarter-sized coins fresh ginger
• 2 scant teaspoon black tea leaves (recommended: Taj Mahal) or black tea of choice (I used CHina black, its what I get in bulk at my Natural Grocers) 
• 2 teaspoons honey, or more to taste
• Whole milk or half-and-half

Directions

In a medium pan, bring the water, all of the spices and the ginger to a boil over medium heat. Turn off the heat and allow it to steep for 15 minutes.

Bring the mixture back to a boil, then add the tea. Turn the heat off, and allow it to steep for 3 to 5 minutes depending on how strong you like your tea. Stir in the honey and add milk to your liking. Strain it into a bowl or pitcher and serve!

Recipe from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/chai-recipe/index.html 

Now its chicken time. My chickens were supposed to start laying eggs way back in August, but them with their stubbornness it took, well one of them about 3 months later. The Susex are still not laying, but Sasparilla (the austrolorp) is! She has laid 5 now! She started laying last week, 

The perfect summer to autumn late night snack.

I know its kinda late, (I forgot to post this a lonnng time ago) but I'm sure it tastes just as good in just the fall than in the summer-fall transition. After a long day of church going, chipotle eating, and some extreme babysitting that lasted longer than expected I felt like I needed to crawl into bed and go into a coma. After I had some food in my belly of course. When I came home it was dark, and a tad bit chilly, and I had raspberries waiting for me in the fridg.
This is what I made:
Chai tea

• Chai tea packet
• water
• honey
• goats milk (after about 3 days of sitting in the fridge the cream starts to settle on top, perfect for creamer.)

Raspberry awsomeness

• Raspberries
• Goat feta cheese (or some other sort of goat cheese)
• Honey to drissle over top
• Orange rind, you can use  basil, mint, pepper or some other spice that's in the chai, instead or with the orange rind. 

Serve in a pretty bowl with a dainty fork. 

Vegas and donkeys

Last weekend I took off Tuesday with my parents in our Camper van on a trip to Las Vegas to visit my cousins, on the way we went through Navajo and Hopi Lands and Sedona in Arizona. Be prepared, I went many a place, and had many a delicious treat. 

 Sedona, No 4 way stops, or stop lights, just a lot of crazy round abouts. 

 I thought it looked colorful so I took a picture. 

 This is a franchise that is only in Arizona, so yummy. 

 I had Tomato garlic Bisque soup, it had bits of sun dried tomato in it. Amazing! (Oh, and yes, that is real butter.)

 My mom had a squash soup and this turkey, cranberry, walnut stuffing sandwich. Quite delicious. 

The hoover dam, we didnt do the tour, just all the free stuff which was some nice dam fun. lol. W pretty much tried to put Dam into every sentence, but hay you've gots to. I love the winged statues, and have wanted to go see them forever!

 Wen we were in Las vegas we went to Nordstroms Cafe (it's tradition). Split a bowl of their tomato soup (another tradition). :)

 This was a chicken basil tomato thing, supper yummy. 

 Boston Cream Pie. I never had it before but I must say, it's like an american tiramisu kinda, really good. 

 On the way to Costco we went to Joe's Cactus, (I think is the name). Tones of Cacti and things for your garden, they are also an animal rescue place, with lots of animals. Their are usually goats, lots of dogs, and we saw a pig, so cute. 

 Not shure what this is, I was thinking it is a hot water solar panel. Looked neat so I took a pic. 

 Rescued, dog.

 Their were wield donkeys, but...Tame. They were so soft! We fed them apples. :)

That was part of my trip, well the part I documented. Hope you have a great week. :)

My new shoes.

My Five Finger, Vibrams!

They are the classic style, and I adore them. I got them Monday and have bean wearing them everyday since. My mom is a cosmetologist and stands for 8 hours just about every day, she got a pair a few weeks ago and slowly eased into them. now they are all she wares. She used to need to ware shoes with so much support, now her feet provide the support. The reason why I like them so much is because they make my back feel great, and they are just so fun to walk and run in. They are incredibly nice to ride my bike with. 

this weeks fixings.

French Bread

My first ever, Pumpkin Pie

Party favor that my cousin made for her baby girls 1st birthday. 

The mix made amazing chocolate chip cupcakes. (they reminded me of cho chip pancakes) 

Last night I made a turkey meatloaf and mash potatoes. 

Turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

   for the meatloaf (meatloaf recipe from 

• Giada De Laurentiis)
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped garlic and herb-marinated sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, minced, optional
• 2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (I used goat)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound ground turkey, preferably dark meat
•        For the mashed potatoes.
• 1 bag of redskin potatoes
• 1 stick plus 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup of half and half 
• 1/4 cup of mozzarella or other white melting cheese. (I used my homemade goat cheese)
• 1/2 of a white onion chopped into little bits. 
• 1 to 2 cloves of garlic minced 
• salt and pepper to taste.
• 
  

Directions

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, parsley, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, if using, eggs, milk, feta, salt, and pepper. Add the turkey and gently stir to combine, being careful not to overwork the meat.

Carefully pack the meat mixture into the prepared pan and bake until the internal temperature registers 165 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and slice. Put on a serving platter and serve.

While the meatloaf is cooking go ahead and prep and cook your potatoes until they are the preferred doneness for mashing. drain out the water and set aside. In a skillet melt 2 tbsp of butter and saute the onions until they are almost translucent, then add the garlic and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Mash your potatoes then add the rest of the ingredients including the onions and garlic. blend with an electric hand mixer, start on low so that you don't send scalding hot potatoes into your face. serve with meatloaf. If you would like some greens on your plate, saute an onion with some garlic in butter, add some frozen green beans, cover and let cook until the beans are done.  salt and pepper as desired. 

Truck Farm!

Ok, so yes, I know, I have not bean posting like, at all, but I blame school. To make up for this, I am going to tell you about a nice little story about a guy and his lack of land. So truck farm, is a documentary type movie about a guy, with no land, but a truck. so what dose he do? he takes said truck, and puts roof garden material on the bed, for proper drainage after he drilled hols in the bottom. and then he put garden roof soil on that, and then regular soil on that. It shows some of the adventures the truck farm went on to visit comunity gardens, and even a truck farm all the way in Denver. They also went to see some hydroponic window systems, (which are super, I so want one) and they were even able to sell their produce! The movie goes into detail (ofcourse) and has some more super stuff in it, I highly recommend you see it.
Watch a short trailer (no pun intended) here.
Happy Farming!

Nifty Etsy

I was adventuring on Etsy, here are some neat things.