baking for the fowlish set


I've noticed several discussions in blogland lately about birds, and two specifically about chickens.

I thought a little cutting-edge, timely, topic- specific blogging was in order. I am all about the community, blogging friends. I do need to point out that the main ingredient in the bird bread is in fact, not bird, it is cornmeal. The bird bread is for the birds... so, ahem...here is my mother's famous bird bread-loved and raved over by the 5 or 6 parrots she kept, and cursed by my sister and I-because mom stopped cooking for us sometime in Jr. High and to come home to a house full of delicious baking smells and to have to pick out the crushed egg shells from it was just plain pathetic. But I digress, here is the recipe:

Mom's bird bread

2 cups corn meal or a box of jiffy corn bread mix
1 jar baby food- sweet potato
2 eggs and crush the egg shells and throw those in too
1 cup frozen mixed veggies
2/3 cup buttermilk (or less)

mix together all ingredients, saving the buttermilk for last. Withhold some of the buttermilk if it is too liquid. Grease glass cornbread pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Cut into squares and freeze any you will not use in a few days. Enjoy! (warn hubby or kids about the eggshells!)

it's a pretty forgiving recipe, I often change the amounts, use a different baby food and fresh veggies, and sometimes throw in some seeds and interesting rice or something.

Thursday Thirteen #9 by our guest hen

13 elements of a rock-on day, by guest-hen: Dapple

1. Farmer-man lets us out of the coop at a respectable hour. Not so late that we are hollering.

2. Farmer-man is generous with the feed bucket(and keeps Annabelle from hogging)

3. The earth is warmed by the sun, and the soil is at just the right dampness for finding lots of worms.

4. Someone opens the garage and we find lots of crickets before they hide

5. a joyful song because I laid the most beautiful egg-bet you didn't know that chickens like to sing. - When the right mood moves us.

6. lots of fresh, cool water-in a red dish, red is our favorite color

7. sun on my back, lots of soft, fine, warm dirt just right for a dust bath followed by a nap

8. cornbread made just for us, with seeds and fresh veggies inside

9. churning up the compost heap with my feet

10. snail hunts in the neighbor's calla lily patch

11. she-who-tends-the-flock bringing us yummy pasta, and making sure everyone gets her fair share.

12. preening in the cool of the evening to the backdrop of wild parrot calls

13. the crooning and clucking-like sounds she-who-tends-the flock makes over us as she checks us in for the night and locks the doors.

Thursday Thirteen is a weekly meme hosted at the TT hub, go on over and view others.

excessive molting, orchestra blues & super-less

Molting...with flair! We took our hen, Dapples, to see the expensive bird Dr. this week. The verdict-she's not sick, just molting-excessively. As in-she's nearly naked and we have feathers all over the yard. Just really bad karma for Dapples that she happened to be in a molting cycle when our weather went from crisp fall weather to 90 degrees in one day.

The Dr. said it is a hormonal thing and that we shouldn't be surprised if we end up with all 5 hens wearing much less. Fine, fine, blame it all on hormones...why not. Actually, I was really impressed with the bird Dr. He was training a veterinarian student that day and all the knowledge he was passing along regarding fowl vs. exotic birds was pretty impressive.

Found out the bird is anemic right now, making new feathers is hard work...so I came right home and made her some scrambled eggs with broccoli. It looked like a pretty good lunch. I'm also busy making them lots of beans. My childhood memories involve a lot of good home-cooking my mom did...for her parrots...seems you can always go home again, or something like that. I guess I will be calling up my mom for some good bird cuisine recipes.
Who knew???

Orchestra rehearsal today- I bravely left Meg at orchestra today while I went to meet hubby for breakfast. The last few rehearsals I stuck pretty close to her and helped her find the right measure, things like that. Last week went really well, she didn't need me at all-so I felt pretty safe about leaving her. Kind of, I always have to worry about something or carry some kind of mom guilt around. When I returned, a little early to scope out how things were going; first thing I notice as I walk in is a pile of crumpled kleenex under and around her chair. I'm thinking, oh no...what happened? Did she get singled out for playing during a rest or something?? I found out a few minutes later that she just had a really runny nose and was fine.

Library score this week: Library A - 20 books checked out, $3.00 in fines
Library B- 37 books checked out, $3.60 in fines

seems my superpowers have failed me this week. I was doing so well with the whole library thing the last few months. I am at Library B every Tues. while we go to art lessons, so I don't know what my excuse is.

must be hormones. Nothing a few Advil and some chocolate won't fix. preferably dark, bittersweet...