A Poultry Excuse For A Post

Soon To Have Fresh Eggs

I have been wanting chickens for ages, or fresh eggs more to the point.  The back yard is huge, plenty of room for a coop and a big run, so I began looking on eBay for a coop. I found one at a good price, bid on it and won, I know, I know, you’re not actually “winning” per say. But the coop was mine, so I paid up and waited, and waited and then finally a whole nine days later, the freight company contacted me to say that it would arrive tomorrow, as in today (you know what I mean and if you don't I'm not going to try and explain it). So I waited and waited, and even left a note on the door when I went off to physio and I waited and at 5:30pm the courier dude rocked up (now thats got to be a late day for him poor dude) and my coop was finally here, flat packed......

Now as much as I'm a tom boy and use tools for work, I still insist on calling the screw driver with the cross on top 'the angry head' screw driver because he's cross right.... and am not the best at logic, practical yes, logic... ummm I have my own ideas on why, how, when and what, often described as 'special and different' but hey we're all unique right.

Luckily I have two of the awesomest neighbours ever, Aya and Kevo, and they ducked over  (he he he - sorry thats a fowl joke - oops) with a drill and all the attachment thingys to the rescue.
So, sans instructions Kevo proceded to fix everything and now I have a chicken coop, which this morning had its first inhabitant, thank you Aya, and this afternoon had its first live inhabitants.
I bought one Isa Brown, one Rhode Island Hybrid and one Sussex who are all currently working on the pecking order and in about 6-8 weeks time I should hopefully, all going well, have fresh eggs.

Banana, Coconut and White Chocolate Muffins

The Adventure of the Muffins

Yesterday I decided to bake some muffins. I have a recipe that I have been using and figured I'd tweak it a little and see how I go. The recipe was originally for Banana Choc Chip Muffins so there was not too much tweaking involved.

There was two reasons I was baking these, the first is that I (assuming like everyone else) constantly has bananas that get a little too ripe for my tastes to eat raw, so I freeze them and plan to one day use them in cooking, well the freezer was filling up and not just with bananas so it was time I began to actually use them as planned.

The second reason I decided to make these was I have recently hurt my back, I have a bulging disc which is painful but I must keep moving or my muscles will seize, so there has been lots of baking or cooking or just plain creativity in the kitchen.

So my adventure of the Muffins thus began.

Recipe (I'll add the tweaking in italics)

Ingredients

• 60g Butter
• 2C SR Flour
• 1/2C Caster Sugar
• 1/2C Milk
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Ripe/Frozen Bananas, mashed (if frozen defrost in microwave)
• 1C Choc Bits, I used white chocolate
• 1/2tsp Vanilla Paste
• 1/2C Desiccated Coconut

Method

Preheat oven to 200 deg C. 

Line a medium muffin tray (12 sections) with paper cases. 

Melt butter in a  heat-proof in microwave. Set aside to cool.

Lightly beat milk, eggs, butter and vanilla into the mashed banana.

Sift flour into a mixing bowl. Stir in sugar and coconut. 

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.

Pour banana mix into the centre of the dry ingredients. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix until 'just' combined.

Stir in chocolate bits. 

Don't over beat the mixture or the muffins will be heavy and tough.

Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases. 

Bake for 20 minutes or until firm on top (use fine knife or skewer to pierce centre, if clean, centre is cooked). 

Leave in the tray for a couple of minutes. 

Transfer the muffins to a wire rake to cool.

Note: If you used frozen bananas be sure to microwave them until warm otherwise the butter will separate.

Hello World

Yo Yo Yo
I know you're all standing by with baited breath (or sitting) to see what awesomeness I will create, well it all starts with baby steps and this is mine!
Hiya