BLEUBIRD BLOG

BITS + PIECES.

bits + pieces of the country. {pardon my lack of blogging this past week. it was a doozy.}

1. horses from a neighboring farm. they followed us as we passed by.
2. watching the birds fly by and the families of deer passing through.
3. the most charming little chapel. i especially love the blue door.
4. the smell of bacon sizzling in the morning.
5. kicking rocks.
6. a summer salt water swim.
7. the most comfortable bed to lay my head.
8. a neighbor dog stopping by for an unexpected visit.
9. afternoon walks in the fields.
10. the most beautifully painted door and two very fancy sheep.
11. a magic tree house.
12. a magic farm house.
13. tiny breakfast date. no shirt required.
14. a new playmate for birdie.
15 & 16. the place that makes the incredible pie.
17. our favorite teepee.
18. pretty, shiny instruments.
19. summer time, pass time.
20. a late night swim while everyone else sleeps.
21. the village.
22. my favorite capture of the weekend. she is so beautiful. inside and out.

this place just feels like home to us.

footnote: the stylemint giveaway was extended until tomorrow. the winners will be announced then, in the original giveaway post.

BUTTER 101.

i recently purchased this book on a whim due to an interest in making my own cheese. i am happy to report that i am quite pleased with my impulsive purchase. the book is full of tips for a successful home kitchen creamery and easy homemade recipes for butter, yogurt, sour cream, creme fraiche, cheese and more. now i just need a cow.

after getting my hands on some fresh, thick, whole cream from a local farm i had the joy of flipping through the pages of dairy products and deciding just what to do with it. we decided to start simple and make homemade butter. and of course we made it a family affair so we skipped the quicker method of using a food processor or immersion blender and went straight to the mason jars...

HOMEMADE BUTTER

you will need:

1 pint of good whole cream
sea salt
mason jar/jars and sealing lids
wooden spoon or butter paddle
strainer
small bowl
large bowl

be sure that you are working with cold cream. at least 60 degrees. pour one cup (in our case a little less) into jars. screw lids of jars on tightly and shake like crazy for 20 minutes or so until you see the butterfat become a solid and separate from the butter milk. open jars and strain your butter saving the buttermilk for later use. return butter back to jar. "rinse your butter" by adding a bit of cold water and shake again. strain and repeat until water runs clear. transfer butter to a wooden board or bowl and paddle your butter spoon to remove excess liquid. mix in salt to taste. date and store butter in the refrigerator for two to three weeks.

homemade butter tastes like heaven. i think we are going to make this a regular thing in our home but leave the churning to a mixer rather than our tired arms. i am looking forward to making another batch with some fresh herbs and maybe investing in some fancy salts to make a few different variations. now what to do with that buttermilk that is sitting in our fridge? maybe some homemade buttermilk pancakes in the morning.

A DREAMY KITCHEN.

how perfect is this kitchen?! to me it's perfection. it is every bit of what a country kitchen should be and every bit my dream kitchen. aaand there's that kill your tv print that i have been lusting over for so long. one of these days i am going to bite the bullet and buy that sucker. this lovely kitchen that makes me want to scoop up my kids, run to the country and bake pies all day is from this wonderful blog. one day, one day soon, all of our country dreams will come true. positive thinking works!

ooh and the winner of the deja vu giveaway is... summer.

congratulations to you and thank you again to deja vu for your generosity! 

CHICKEN KEEPING.

i wanted to give you all an update on our chicken keeping. we are still enjoying every minute of it. all five of our hens are alive and well and seem to be extremely healthy. however, we are a little suspicious about yoko. we think that she may actually be a he. she is much bigger than the other hens and her chirp sounds a little different. if this is the case we will have to take him back to the feed store. roosters are a no no inside of the city. the kids are very understanding but they do ask that we get another hen in yoko's place of course. :)

each day we clean their cage and fill their feed jar, we also refill their water jar twice daily. they are fairly easy animals to take care of. after a lot of careful research we finally decided on the perfect coop for our girls. it will be here later this week. turns out it would have cost us just as much, if not a significant amount more to build a coop ourselves than to just purchase one. we will move them into their coop within the next couple of weeks and once they are full grown chickens we will buy them this chicken yard to give them more room to roam.

we've been living vicariously through our very favorite farming book lately and dreaming of a simple country life like i've discussed in my past "farm dreams" posts that you can see here and here. we've been going back and forth between choosing to stay here in texas and settling down outside of the city or to move back to san fransisco bay area to be closer to my family and friends. lately we are really leaning towards staying put. we want to buy some land and start building our dream, realistically this would be much more obtainable here in texas. the kids are already dreaming up our future home and drawing out farm plans which include little houses for each of our new pets... pot bellied pigs, the little goat family, bunny rabbits, guinea pigs, two horses and the alpacas. hah! we are big dreamers over here.