A Case for Keeping Chickens

A Family Portrait...Grace, Sweet Potato, Sugar Snap and Cousins.

We have kept chickens for several years now, and I can't think of a single reason why you wouldn't want to keep chickens.  There are a lot of misconceptions about chickens, and a lot of confusion out there, so let me try to shed a little light on it, and share some of my (hard learned) knowledge in the hope that my kids' childhood trauma can be your lesson learned.  Before you fall in love with the idea of chickens, it's important you know the law in your neighborhood.  Where we live, if you are on an acre you can keep chickens.  We own exactly one acre.  If you are in an HOA you can be sure that they have rules about it.  Don't get discouraged, however.  I know plenty of city dwellers who keep chickens.  I just think it's important you know the law so you can choose whether to break it or not.  The truth is, chickens are fairly quiet (unless you have a rooster) and they do not smell bad, so unless you have an a**hole neighbor, you could try getting away with having a few chickens.  You might even sweeten your neighbors up by offering to share your fresh organic eggs, which in our area cost $4/ dozen!  The eggs are incomparable to those found at your local supermarket.  The yokes are thick and golden, and they taste fresh and delicious.  A pretty little basket of organic eggs makes a wow, yet inexpensive, hostess gift.  From here on out, let's do this FAQ style.  I'll try to answer the questions I get the most:

How many chickens should I get?    Figure it this way:  for every chicken you have you will get about one less egg per day.  For example, if you have 6 chickens you will get 5 eggs a day.  That's an average.  There are a couple of times a year when production drops dramatically because the brood is molting or it's too hot.  Also, it does depend on the breed.  Amerecuanas/ Aracaunas are not as reliable layers as some of the other breeds, but I like to keep a couple becaue the blue-green eggs are so pretty.  We keep 6 chickens, and that is enough to supply us, another family, and Sugar Snap's first grade teacher with fresh eggs.

Should I get baby chicks?  Not if you have kids.  Chicks are cute and fluffy....for a very short period of time.  They are not generally very hardy; they tend to succumb very easily to a variety of diseases/problems.  In our adorable suburban naivete we went out and bought 6 baby chicks the first time.  Overnight, we lost two who drowned in their water bowl, and soon later lost a third.  The other consideration is that you will feed a young chicken for 6 months before they start laying eggs.  Buy a good young layer hen, and start getting eggs immediately.

If I get baby chicks, when will they start laying?   6 months.

Do I need a rooster to make eggs?  I am so surprised by the chicken ignorance out there.  You do not need a rooster to get eggs.  Chickens make eggs happily without roosters.  The roosters  have a tendency to sexually harass the chickens frequently and kind of violently (I realize it's natural...that makes it no less disturbing).  You only need roosters if you want to make more chickens.

Do chickens smell bad?  Not if you do it right.  If you have a "chicken tractor", or mobile chicken house, then by moving it on a fairly frequent basis you will keep the odor down.  Our chicken house is immobile, so we will periodically pour a big bag of cedar chips (buy this at a feed store) into the coop.  You can also let your chickens roam around your yard like we do in the summer when all the garden produce is kaput.

Are your chickens pets?  No.  We no longer name our chickens.  First of all, chickens are bitches.  They are meaner than pre-teen girls.  There is a reason for the term "pecking order".  They will literally peck a weaker older chicken to death.  Also, although a chicken can live to be about 20, they just aren't as hardy as a dog or cat.  We have had a few die due to heat, and a few killed by critters.

What size coop should I have?   They don't need a whole lot of space, we have 6 hens in 8x5 pen.  There are many available to buy, some are fancier than my house.  Ours is hand built out of chicken wire, salvaged metal sheets and old political signs.  Just make sure it's secure enough to keep out critters (dogs/ possums/ racoons/ rats).

What do I feed my chickens?  We feed ours 1/2 coffee can scoop of layer pellets and kitchen scraps.  Chickens will eat almost anything except citrus peel.  We give them watermelon rinds, shrimp shells, leftover peelings, scraps of stale bread, really any kitchen leftovers except anything with chicken in it.  You can do it.  They will eat it.  But in my opinion it's just wrong.  I won't even give them beans cooked in chicken stock, although Hubby thinks it's silly.  I also won't give them eggs for fear that they will develop a taste for them.

How long do the eggs stay fresh?  If you just bought a dozen eggs at the store they were probably laid around the 4th of July.  Any eggs you get from your own hens are going to be much fresher, but they keep for months.

What breed do you recommend?  We like Jersey Giants. They are great layers of nice brown eggs.  I like Amerecaunas/ Aracaunas because of the pretty blue green eggs, although they are don't lay as frequently.  Bantams lay tiny little eggs.  Rhode Island Reds are good.  Mys sister-in-law likes her Production Reds.  Ask at your local feed store what they can get for you.  We shop at Wabash Feed on Washington in Houston.

Do you ever eat your chickens?  I could have done it.  We had a pain in the ass rooster that I would have been happy to get rid of the old fashioned way (gumbo), but again...the kids.  One of these days  I am sure I will pluck a chicken for coq au vin, but will probably have to wait until Sugar Snap has gone to college.

So, there you go....all my chicken knowledge in a nutshell.  What are you waiting for?  Get some chickens!!!

White Trash Yum: Chocolate Bacon Cake Balls w/ recipe

Today is Hubby's birthday!  To celebrate, Sugar Snap and I made chocolate bacon cake balls.  That's right.  Chocolate.Bacon.Cake.Balls.  Cake balls and cake pops are all the rage, and are really easy (albeit messy and labor-intensive). I have found the "WOW" factor on these little treats make them worth the trouble.  I have made them many times for all sorts of occasions and in many different flavors, but for Hubby's special day we decided to combine two of his favorite things:  chocolate and bacon.  If I could have infused it with Shiner Bock beer, that's the only thing that would have made them better as far as Hubby's concerned.  Here's how we did it:
Following the directions on the box, bake one chocolate cake.  While the cake is baking, fry your bacon to crisp.  I made 32 fairly large cake balls using one cake, and used about 16 slices of bacon.  Drain the bacon on paper towels:

Allow the cake to cool.  While the cake cools, crumble the bacon, saving 32 small pretty pieces for decoration.  Set the bacon aside. Crumble the cake into small crumbs in a big bowl.  Add 3/4 of a can of chocolate frosting and 3-5 drops of liquid smoke and mix together.  Refrigerate for an hour or so to get the mix firmed up, making it easier to handle.  Once it's firm,  make 32 more or less equal balls.  Roll each ball nicely, and using your thumb, make a hole in the middle and fill with crumbled bacon, and wrap the dough ball around it, fully encasing the bacon inside:

Once all the balls are all made, chill a while and in the meantime melt in the microwave your chocolate chips.  I used about 2 1/2 bags of chocolate chips to cover all of the cake balls.  Getting the chocolate on the balls is a messy messy process.  There is no way around that.  So, put your apron on and roll up your sleeves.  I hold the ball in one hand and use a spoon to coat the bottom half, and then place it on wax paper to coat the rest.  After you completely coat the ball, top it with a bacon piece and let dry on the counter.  Do not put them in the fridge or freezer to hasten the process.  They will weep and discolor.  It's best to just let them sit.  Voila!

Chocolate Bacon Heaven!

Repurposing: A Coffee Table w/ Storage

For years we went without a coffee table.  I just couldn't find one that fit the space and that looked good with the rest of our funky decor.  I finally quit trying to find an actual table I liked, and instead stacked a few of the vintage suitcases I had sitting in the closet.  These are the old square suitcases with flat sides, which work much better than the rounded ones.  I can still find these in small town thrift stores for under $20.  If you look in the urban vintage shops you will pay a lot more.  I put a neat tray on the left side to add some interest.  I like that they stack so nicely and can double for storage.  The small one on top holds all our important documents - passports, immunization records, deed to the house, etc.  In Houston it's important to have all of that stuff together and ready in case of a hurricane evacuation (ask any Houstonian their Hurricane Rita evacuation story).  The blue one holds my scrapbooking materials.  Yes, I scrapbook.  I found some great old travel stickers at my favorite funky shop in Galveston, Hendley Market, which is on the Strand.  The have everything from unique handmade soaps to squirrel pants.  The stacked suitcases could also serve as end tables, in place of a chest at the foot of a bed, or even as a toy chest in a kids room.  Here's how mine look:

Ok, Houston:  share your Rita stories in the comments section.

WT Beauty Tips

For  Christmas last year I asked hubby to get me a face lift.  He bought me Fiestaware.   Seeing as how our current budget doesn't allow for a trip to South America, I am left with less expensive options available to me.  I do exfoliate daily and use a moisturizer with vitamins A, E and C.  But it's no match for gravity (which is assaulting not just my face, but other parts of my anatomy as well - but that's a blog post for another day).  My sister passed along this recipe for a home made inexpensive face mask that can be made from ingredients you already have in your pantry.  It will leave your skin firmer and softer!

Using a spoon in a bowl, or a mortar/pestle grind up one aspirin and one vitamin C tablet.  Add a little honey.  If the honey is too thick add just a drop or two of warm water.  Smooth this sticky concoction over your face, giving it a little scrub to allow the tiny bits of the tablets to exfoliate.  Allow to sit for 10 minutes before rinsing off with lukewarm water.

It Ain't a Facelift

What To Do With All That Ephemera!

I collect vintage ephemera.  My favorite eras are 1920's through the 1950's.  I love and save boxes of: old wallpaper, sheet music, postcards, movie posters, magazines, advertising, illustrated book pages, seed packets, recipes, paper dolls, seed catalogs, menus, art, decorative papers of any kind.  I come by it easily and try to find creative ways to display it.  After all, it doesn't want to live in a box!  One of my preferences is to decoupage any available surface (see previous post).  Some large special items get framed and put on the wall.  Recently, however, a large surface became available for papering.  My friend Toni, who is a professional decorator and organizer, came over to help me turn our two bedroom house into a three bedroom house.  Quite a challenge!  We decided to use bookshelves as a divider in our large study/music room to create a cozy bedroom for hubby and me.   It worked well, but left the backs of the ugly exposed bookshelves.  Toni suggested we cover it with fabric - a good idea.  But, I thought, what about my ephemera?  I started playing around and using tiny nails covered the backs of the bookshelves with much of my paper collection.  It think it's beautiful, and it has become my favorite room to be in, and not just because I love sleeping more than anything except eating.

Before:  back of ugly crappy Ikea bookcase

After!

New in the Garden: Lemon Cucumber (w/ recipe!)

That's a cucumber on the left!

I have planted these every year for the last few years, and this is the first year they have really taken off for me.  They are cute little guys - the size, shape and color of a large lemon, but they are cucumbers!  Use them in any dish you would normally use a cucumber.  They have a good cucumber flavor, but you will want to seed them as the seeds are tough.  Also, don't let them get too big or the skin will be tough.  I don't know why they are thriving this year.  Because of the drought I did a lot of watering at the beginning of the season, so maybe they like a lot of water.  Whatever the reason, I like having them.  I take a few as a hostess gift whenever we are invited to a dinner party, and they never fail to make an impression.  There are not enough cucumber recipes in the world to use all the cukes I have on my vines right now.  I have been making cucumber water for my family.  Sugar Snap (my girly girl) loves it.  Do this:  slice seeded clean cucumbers into a pretty pitcher, fill with water and chill.  We discovered this in a chi-chi spa in California.  The cucumber imparts a subtle and refreshing flavor to the water, perfect on a hot day!

                                                My Favorite Cucumber/Dill Sauce for Fish

In a bowl, combine 1/2 c. mayonnaise and 1/2 c. sour cream,  1 finely chopped seeded, peeled cucumber, and a healthy shake of dried dill or, even better, a handful of fresh dill.  Add some cracked pepper to taste.  Serve over grilled or poached fish.  4 servings.

Kitchen Must Have: The Cast Iron Skillet

I have had mine for 20 years.  Actually, it belongs to hubby's ex - girlfriend who moved out of their tiny Denton apartment leaving everything but her clothes behind.  I came along three months later and got rid of everything but the man and the skillet.  I have been enjoying both ever since.  There are a few myths surrounding the care and maintenance of cast iron skillets.  It has been a much debated topic among home cooks and professional chefs alike.  The heavy question is:  Should I wash my cast iron skillet in the sink with dish soap?  The answer:
                                                                      YES!
 I have heard so many people say it's a no-no to wash them, you should use salt and water to scrub it instead.  That's a load of B.S. Wash it the way you wash any other dishes  - I don't ever put mine in the dishwasher, although I'll bet it would be fine.  Soap and water doesn't hurt anything and it doesn't make the pan less "seasoned".  Speaking of seasoning, I got a phone call from a friend with a brand spanking new cast iron skillet who wanted to know the best way to season it.  I don't know why "seasoning" a cast iron pan is important, but there seems to be an awful lot of people concerned about it.  Mine came seasoned, and if you buy yours at a garage sale yours will be, too.  If you have a new one and are concerned about seasoning it, here is what I have read:  coat the bottom of the pan with a little olive oil and bake the pan for 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven.  Maybe that works, I don't know.  Just use the thing.   It will soon become your favorite pan in the kitchen for it's versatility.  I love that you can move it from the stove top to the oven (providing it has an iron handle, not a wood one).  It's a great way to cook steaks - brown them nicely on each side and then finish in a very hot oven for a few minutes (we like our steaks very rare - even Sugar Snap prefers hers to still be mooing).  You get the added benefit of trace amounts of iron in your food whenever you cook in cast iron.  I love mine and use it daily.  As for the ex-girlfriend, if she showed up on my doorstep tomorrow wanting her stuff back I think I'd give her hubby before I gave her my skillet.

Canning Tomatoes...Success At Last!

Third time's the charm!  I did not can a puree, but small chunks of tomatoes in a tomato juice, which I boiled before pouring it into the jars.  All canning rules were followed and tomatoes came out looking great.  Especially pretty is the two basil leaves Sugar Snap placed in the bottom of each jar.  I used 25 tomatoes and got three quarts and two pints.  So, just to recap, for canning success follow these rules:
*Skin the tomatoes by dunking them for a minute in boiling water and then submerging in ice water.  Skins slide right off.
*Boil the lids (you must use new ones) and rims for 10 minutes.
*Boil the clean jars for 10 minutes
*After filling the jars with chunks of tomatoes and water or tomato juice, run a spoon or butter knife around the inside edge of the jar to remove any air bubbles.
*Submerge jars into boiling water - make sure they are fully submerged - for 45 minutes.
*Remove and let sit.  If the center of the lids pop then they did not properly seal.  I have never had this happen, but do check for it.
Happy Canning!

Sugar Snap and Sweet Potato skinning tomatoes.
They didn't love it.

Canning Tomatoes....FAIL AGAIN

Second try, still getting lots of tomatoes.  I followed all the rules.this time.  I even invested in a $6 canning kit that includes a proper jar holder (no boiling water down my arm this time), a magnetic stick to pull out the lids, a funnel, and a little tool to get rid of the air bubbles after the jars are filled.  I boiled the clean jars, boiled the lids and rims for 10 minutes.  I dunked the tomatoes in boiling water and skinned them. Then I put them in the blender because the plan was to can tomato puree.  Sweet Potato will eat tomato sauce, but she, like a lot of 11-year-olds, is finicky.  It has to be smooth,  not chunky.  No tomato chunks or onion chunks.  So, I usually start with tomato puree when I make my tomato sauce for pasta, pizza, etc.  I poured the tomato puree in to the cleaned sterilized jars, placed the lids and rims on them and submerged them into a pot of boiling water for 45 minutes.  I pulled them out with my new jar holder, and they looked good.  I let them sit for 24 hours, came back and now I'm not so sure.  The tomatoes have a lot of liquid and the liquid separated out.  I don't know.  I could be wrong, but they look like cans of botulism to me.  They aren't pretty at all, and although they may not be poisonous, they aren't something I would ever take as a hostess gift.  Will try again.

A Can of Botulism?

Lazy Composting

I have mentioned in previous posts that I am a chronic half-asser.  If there is an easier (lazier) way to do it, I will find it.  Case in point:  my composting method.  I do have a composting bin, but it is about 100 steps away from my kitchen.  Whoa.  That's far.  I religiously dumped (or rather had Sweet Potato dump) the compost in the bin for about 6 months until she and I both ran out of steam.  I never got around to using said compost.  It needed to be turned - that never happened.  It would need to be shoveled into a wheelbarrow and moved - that was never going to happen.  In the meantime the compost container on my kitchen counter was filling up.  What to do?  I discovered Lazy Composting.  Once I have filled the bin with potato peels, orange rinds, coffee grinds, banana peels, and eggshells - anything the chickens won't eat (but make sure you don't compost any meat product.  I don't even compost beans cooked in chicken stock, it will breed maggots in your garden).  I take the container and a hoe and dig a quick hole between the pepper plants or okra or wherever and completely bury the compost directly into the garden.  Mind you, I still use an organic fertilizer about once a quarter, but so far this method has worked very well for me for several years now.  It creates great dirt in my garden that worms love, it keep garbage out of the landfill, and best of all we have had some surprises come up.  Apparently I buried some watermelon rind in the eggplant bed that still had a few seeds in it.  Lo and behold, up came a volunteer watermelon!  Every day is Christmas in the garden!

The Volunteer Watermelon

Gulf Coast Gardening 101

You have to do raised beds.  I can't tell you how many people I have met who have tried to start gardens by using the existing dirt.  They dig it up and turn it and try to amend it with humus, peat, cat litter, you name it.  While I'm sure someone somewhere has managed to grow something in this gumbo clay, I don't know why anyone would want to go to so much trouble!  Raised beds are so much easier.  Figure out how much space you need for your garden and scrounge up enough cinder blocks to create your bed.  I have nine 4ftx8ft beds. plus one 10 ft. round bed for my melon patch.   Do not use treated lumber for this.  Treated lumber leaches arsenic and you would have to line it with plastic (I know this because I made this mistake).  Make sure the grass where your bed will be is mowed.  Completely cover with 8 sheets of newspaper (not the glossy colored kind).  Fill your cinder block bed with about 6 inches of great dirt - I originally bought a truck load that was delivered to my house for about $150 and was plenty to make all of my beds and then some.  Use a potting soil and compost mix or a good humus.  I would stay away from mushroom compost.  It loses its minerals very quickly.  Plant seeds or plants.  Don't overcrowd your plants - this is the biggest mistake most new gardeners make.  Give them plenty of space and support.  If it's a vine like cucumber or gourds, make sure to supply it with something to climb on.  The key to great tomatoes is support.  Provide them with a good tall solid cage and they will reward you with fantastic yield.  I suggest neem oil to deal with most pests - it's organic.  As for watering use a drip system or place your hose on the ground near each plant and let it run.  It's best to water early in the morning or in the evening when the air is cooler.  If you spray water your plants at 2 o'clock in the afternoon you will effectively boil them.  I have 8x4 ft. beds and I let the hose run for 20 minutes in each bed every other day.   Once your plants are in the ground and watered, please mulch them.  This keeps down the weeds and helps hold the moisture in, and, in my case, keeps the neighborhood cats from thinking my garden beds are litter boxes.  I use old hay for mulch.  It works great and is super cheap - one bale will cover a lot of garden and costs less than $10 at any feed & supply.  Keep in mind that our better season for planting and growing is October through the winter.  That is when we can grow tomatoes, lettuces, greens, beets, radishes, pumpkins, onions, broccoli, cauliflower and more.  Save yourself a lot of headaches by learning what we can grow when.  We are on a different schedule from the rest of the country.  We should be harvesting our summer tomatoes about the time Michigan is planting theirs.  Most of our summer veggies - okra, squash, tomatoes, etc. should be in the ground the first week of March.  For reading, I would like to suggest the Houston area organic gardening bible: Year Round Vegetables, Fruit and Flowers for Metro Houston by Bob Randall, Ph.D.  It is packed with great information, but honestly I read everything ever written about Gulf Coast gardening and didn't start to get good at it until I volunteered in a community garden with a Master Gardener.  The learning curve on organic gardening is steep, but if you are like me every season brings just enough success to keep you coming back for more.  Remember that there is help out there.  Urban Harvest is a great resource for information and things going on including plant and tree sales.  Visit them at www.urbanharvest.org   Donna Faye at Sweet Organic Solutions on I35 in Pearland is very friendly and very helpful.  So is Buchanan's on 11th in the Heights.  I prefer to buy my plants from these and other local sources because they sell varieties that do well in our climate.  The big box stores will sell you what they sell at every other shop in the country, and I don't care who you are table grapes and raspberries are not going to grow for you if you live south of I10.  Good luck and good growing!

Sweet Potato and a friend harvesting eggplant.

Canning Tomatoes...FAIL

Well not really a fail, but I will admit to not completely committing to this project 100% .  I did wind up with 10 pints of tomato puree in the freezer, but I didn't have all of the right equipment which resulted in a huge mess (ruined a white t-shirt.  Note to self:  don't can tomatoes wearing white).   I also wound up pouring boiling water down my arm because I was using tongs instead of a proper jar lifter.  I have never attempted canning before mainly because I am a chronic half-asser and canning is something that must be done right or your family will come down with a nasty case of botulism and it will be all your fault.  Actually, Sugar Snap keeps a healthy distance between herself and any tomato or tomato product so she would be fine, but the rest of us would be hospitalized.  I had 15 good sized tomatoes red and ready so I followed the instructions more or less.  I did boil the jars and lids first but I didn't use new lids like you are supposed to, I reused everything.    Next time I will invest in some quart size jars.  Here's what you do:

Bring three stockpots full of water to a boil.  Also have a large bowl of ice water at the ready.  In the first pot submerge your tomatoes for a few minutes, extract and put into the ice water.  This will allow the skins to slide right off.  At this point you can cut tomatoes in chunks or do what I did, put them in the blender to make crushed tomatoes.  Put just a half of a teaspoon of lemon juice in with the tomatoes so they keep their color.  In the next pot boil the lids and rims for the jars.  You can reuse rims, but you must use new lids unless you want to freeze the tomatoes until they are ready to use.  Boil those for 10 minutes.  In another pot boil the jars.  I did all of that, poured the tomato puree into the jars and then set them in the deep freezer.  I plan to try this again the right way - using new lids and boiling the jars after they are full - and I will wear an apron.  I'll let you know how that goes.

My Perfect Muffin (lol!) w/ recipe

I am a tightwad.  Bigtime.  I make every meal from scratch because it allows  more nutrition for less money.  I have also found that using a boxed muffin mix takes the same amount of time as making them from scratch.  This recipe is very versatile - use what you have in your pantry to create fantastic healthy muffins your whole family will love.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a bowl put two cups of flour.  This can be white or whole wheat or a mixture of both.  Add 1 Tbsp baking powder, 1/2 c. sugar  and 1/4 tsp. salt and mix together.  To this add 2 eggs, 1/4 c. vegetable oil and 1 c. milk or other liquid.  Now, here's where it gets fun!  You can substitute the 1 c. of liquid for a wet addition (such as juice or canned pumpkin puree) and also add 1 c. of dry addition (nuts/chocolate chips/ dried fruit/ or a combination of them) plus some flavoring (cinnamon, herbs, vanilla).  Here are some of our favorites:

Lemon balm muffins - add a handful of finely chopped lemon balm and a tsp or more of lemon flavoring (I make my own using grated lemon peel soaked in vodka for several weeks).

Banana chocolate chip muffins - Use a mashed up mushy banana, add 1 c. chocolate chips, and a tsp. of vanilla.

Chocolate zucchini muffins - Instead of 1 c. of milk use 1 c. grated zucchini, and 1/2 c. milk and 1/4 c. cocoa powder and a tsp. of vanilla (you can add some chocolate chips if you really want to spoil the kids).

Best Blueberry muffins - I make these for company or as a hostess gift - Use 1 c. fresh washed blueberries, 1 tsp. lemon flavoring.  Top with a streusel topping before baking - mix together 2 Tbsp flour, 2 Tbsp melted butter and 1/4 c. brown sugar and a good few shakes of cinnamon.

Orange Almond muffins - use orange juice instead of milk, melted cooled butter instead of oil,  brown sugar instead of white and the grated chopped rind of one orange (use only the orange zest, not the pith or it will be bitter) add 1. c. toasted chopped almonds.

You get the idea, the possibilities are endless and delicious.  Spray some vegetable spray into 12 muffin tins or use the fancy muffin papers and fill the muffin cups almost to the top.  Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 and bake for an additional 8 minutes.  Makes 12.  Yum!

Hot muffins 

Decoupage - A Fancy French Word for Glueing Pictures

I will decoupage damn near anything.  Several years ago we were given a family dining room set.  Lovely except for the fact that it was perpetually sticky from a previous owner's overzealous use of linseed oil.  Rather than stripping, sanding and resealing the thing (WAY a lot of work).  I decoupaged it.  "Food" was the theme and I used pages from old cookbooks and vintage food ads.  One of my favorite sources for old advertising - which I love and use often - is Reminisce magazine.  It's a fun magazine written by readers who send in memories from the 1920's through the 1960's.  There are lots of old photos and there is a whole page in every issue that is just old ads.  I have used pages of my favorite seed catalog, Shumways, to decoupage the entire inside of my kitchen pantry.  Almost any smooth surface can be decoupaged.  I have done walls, tea trays, TV trays, step stools, the outside of our refrigerator/entertainment center (see previous post).  It is done so easily and cheaply, mainly with things you already have.  So here's how to do it:  clip pictures from a book or magazine.  The paper should be thin and not say, cardstock.  Have at the ready a big bowl of water, a paintbrush, and a bottle of good old Elmer's glue (pour into a bowl).  Clean the surface to be decoupaged with a clean wet cloth and dry.  Have a good idea of where you want the pictures placed.  You may want to lay them out so you know exactly where you want them.  One at a time, soak the pictures in the water until they relax.  This may be hard to do because it's scary.  You think it might ruin the pictures you have so carefully selected and clipped.  It won't mess them up.  Trust me.  The first few times I tried this I didn't soak them or didn't soak them adequately, and my project didn't turn out.  Soak the pictures for a minute or so to really get them relaxed.  Then, gently pull them from the water, and place them on the surface.  Smooth it down with your wet fingers so you don't have any bubbles underneath.  Go over it with a coat of glue with your paintbrush.  Continue until all pictures are placed and glued.  Let it dry for a day or two.  To really seal your work, go over it with a coat of clear gloss polyurethane (available at any hardware store) and a foam brush (foam brushes are cheap and won't leave brush bristles behind).  If you are coating something that will be used daily, like my dining table, go over it several times in several days with the polyurethane, and don't be too disappointed if you eventually get some rips or bubbles.  You can always touch up later.  Have fun and share your pics!

The finished table

An Introduction to RePurposing (or....White Trash Decorating)

My absolute favorite thing to do in decorating is re-purposing things - using old things out of their original context to create a new and unexpected effect.  I have old suitcases stacked up for a coffee table, I use vintage aprons as curtains in the dining room, we had a friend of ours who is a welder make our kitchen cabinet handles out of spoons, and I have everything from old beer bottles to a bowling ball as garden art.  The best comments I get about my home are for the things I have re-purposed.  Case in point:  our entertainment center.  It is made from an old (1940's or 50's) Coldspot refrigerator.  I purchased it here locally, drained it of the liquid and took the coils off the back.  My brother in law brought a saw over to cut out the back so our TV would fit into it. It took considerable effort to get it home (it's HEAVY) and ready.   Also, it seemed a shame to kill a working fridge, but it has been worth it.  DVDs and videos are kept inside the "crisper" drawers, and jars of little collectibles (sea shells, rocks, buttons) are in the shelves.  I love to tell about the time we hired a plumber to come work on the toilet.  He was your typical good ol' boy.  He came in, did the work, then came out into the living area to write up his receipt before he saw the entertainment center.  "You put a TV in a refrigerator," he said, with no emotion whatsoever.  "Yes sir, we did," I said.  He sat silent for a moment, looking at the television.  Finally he said, again without emotion:  "I'm gonna tell my wife about that."  I'll never know if he liked it or didn't, but it got a response! I love to see how I can reuse things in a whimsical way, so old items become new again.  It saves money, recycles, and allows me to use my creativity all at the same time.  What have you re-purposed?

Our Coldspot entertainment center.

The Art of Hanging Laundry

A year ago in September Hubby was working in Dallas and coming home on the weekends.  During that time, my dryer pooped out.   "Screw it!" I thought, "I don't need no stinking dryer."  I had been meaning to start hanging my laundry, and decided to take the opportunity to give it a try.  To this day I still have not replaced the dryer.   (How WT is that, to have broken major appliances sitting around?)  I have had to make some adjustments, but it has not been at all difficult - and we generate a lot of laundry. My six-year-old Sugar Snap has two to three wardrobe changes a day (look out Cher!), and Hubby changes out of his bidness clothes into more comfy almost every day.  We also do not use paper towels or paper napkins, we use cloth, so those have to be laundered.  Whereas I used to do several gigantic loads of laundry each week on one day (I very cleverly called it Laundry Day), now I do laundry every day that it isn't raining.  When I wake up I sort one load and put it in the washing machine and try to get it hung up by 10am to ensure that it gets dry.  My understanding is that in some parts of the world it is possible to get two consecutive loads dry in a day, but down here on the Gulf Coast where the humidity is 90+% that would be a challenge.  Sweet Potato (my 11 year old) brings the laundry inside at the end of the afternoon at around 5pm.  The only drawback I have experienced is that I like fluffy towels and line-dried towels come out crispy crunchy.  When we took a little mini vacation at a rent house in Galveston last year Sweet Potato crawled under the staircase and refused to leave.  It took some time to figure out why she was so hesitant, and she finally confessed "I don't want to leave the fluffy towels!"  No amount of fabric softener will help, so it might be worth having a dryer just for the sake of a luxurious bath.  Hanging the laundry has become  one of the chores I most enjoy.  The freshness of the clean laundry is unrivaled by any of the perfumey fabric softeners.  I always take a step back after I am done hanging and take a good look because I love the way the clothes look hanging on the line.  It's a little bit different every time.  It's art.

Sugar Snap playing in the laundry line.

The Perfect Summer Lunch (w/ recipe)

It starts with a glorious summer vine ripened tomato out of your garden. The supermarket varieties will not do.  Those imposters have been raised to look lovely and travel well.  They are the blonde bimbos of the vegetable world - all fluff and no substance.  Pick the reddest ripest real tomato you can find.  Next, bake a loaf of whole wheat bread.  It doesn't take that long, and most of the time spent is on rising and baking so you can do other things.  Mine is in the oven as I'm typing.  Here's my recipe:
Dissolve 3 Tbsp yeast with 1/4 c. honey in 3 c. warm water (as warm as you like your bath).  When it smells yeasty and looks bubbly add 2 c. whole wheat flour and 2 c. white flour and 3 tsp. salt.  Start mixing.  Depending on your humidity level you will have to add more flour (I sometimes add as much as 2 more cups).  When the dough gets stiff enough to handle, start kneading, keep adding flour as it gets sticky.  You want it slightly tacky but not sticking to your hands or the bread board.  Knead 5 minutes, cover and let rise in a warm area until it has doubled in size.  Knead again 5 - 10 minutes.  The more you knead it the better it will be.  Divide into two loaf pans sprayed with oil and let rise again.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour.  Cool before slicing.

Once the bread is sliced, slice the tomatoes generously and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Spread the bread with a good mayonnaise, and that is it.  A good old fashioned tomato sandwich that you can only enjoy once a year when the tomatoes are ripe.  I enjoy this with a glass of cheap Chardonnay but Hubby has his with Shiner Bock.  Either way, it's a little bit of sunshine in your mouth.

How to: Making a Used Tire Planter in 3 Easy Steps

Step 1:  Find some used tires.  I find mine on the side of the road.

Step 2:  Plan on using one can of spray paint per tire.

.

Step 3:  Fill tire with plenty of good dirt, plant, and enjoy!

Hosting a Garden Party the WT way

the centerpieces

WT party guests

In May on the Gulf Coast, our gardens are glorious! By July the heat will have baked everything but the okra, and only the most dedicated gardeners get out to weed and water. To celebrate the spring and before it gets too hot I wanted to host an outdoor party. The theme (and I always have a theme!): White Trash Garden Party! All of our guests were invited to dress the part - and since most of our friends are honest- to- God White Trash, that was no problem. The WT theme is the easiest theme ever for a party. Don't feel like sweeping? Don't! I used all of the paper plates and plastic cups from previous parties so we had an assortment from Halloween to Christmas to various princesses. We served cheap beer and rum punch in a fishbowl (rum, orange liquer and lemonade) and cans of soda for the kids. To eat I put out hot dogs, homemade pimento cheese sandwiches (using my own recipe which is made from white Vermont cheddar, pimentos, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and mayo on white bread smeared with butter. I may be White Trash, but I'm a White Trash foodie). Also, hot pink coleslaw (coleslaw with a good few shakes of Louisiana hot sauce), a pineapple Jello mold, spray cheese on Ritz crackers, and Moon Pies. I invited guests to bring their favorite WT snacks and people brought watermelon, pork rinds, marshmallows on a stick, and pigs in a blanket, among other things.  My favorite, however, was Maggie's bacon wrapped tater tots. You read that right. Bacon. Wrapped. Tater. Tots. For decor I put cut flowers in beer bottles and tin cans on the table, as well as coffee cans with holes cut around the middle with a candle placed inside. We also strung up colored Christmas lights. For effect we had on some old Elvis movies on the TV on mute so we had the visual but not the sound because we had music on - Western swing and Rockabilly. I hung up laundry on the laundry line, and we let one of the chickens out to wander around the yard while the party was happening. We filled up the inflatable pool with water and let the kids get in and splash around. We started at 5 in the evening and wrapped up at 2:30 in the morning. A very good party, indeed.review

A dog, a baby, and a Cheeto...I think we all know how this is going to end.