Name the Birdie!

This is our Lemon Cuckoo Pekin Bantam girl, isn’t she gorgeous!

She needs a name and I thought i’d ask my ask all my lovely townie blog followers if they would like to come up with a name for her…

Sooo… all suggestions welcome

She’s just tooo cute 🙂

Really looking forward to hearing your name ideas 🙂

Sunday Brunch…

We love doing our lunches like this… put everything on plates and then dig in and enjoy 😉

Roast Chicken, Lovely Ham, Cheddar Cheese, Slices of Smoked Cheese with ham bits inside, and some Bavarian Smoked Cheese….

Lovely fresh Crusty Bread and beautiful sweet cherry tomatoes…

The fruit Platter… Melon, Pineapple, MacIntosh Red Apple, Red grapes and Strawberries.. yum!

Dirt Baths, Spiders & Cakes.

Phew!

Its been one busy day!

I started this morning, woke up at 7am, made myself a cup of tea and some toast.

Up went the ironing board and I did 2 solid hours of ironing, mount everest no longer exists in my kitchen! its a great feeling getting it up to date.

Then, once the troops surfaced and were fed, I had a power of shredding to do, I kept all the shreddings as next thing on my agenda was cleaning out the cheeps… Grace, Gloria and Brenda, whom, I still have to introduce to you all! (i apologise).   I let them roam around the garden until their coop and run was fresh and sparkly. 

 

I let Daisy out for a wander too and she headed up to the far corner of the garden for her daily dirt bath… chicken little didnt join her, she is broody at the moment and chose to keep her butt glued inside the Eglu.

I then had a few things to store away in the greenhouse, when I opened the door, this little lady was sprawled out on her web right across the front door.. I’m not particularly fond of spiders, I dont mind taking pictures of them but dont ask me to shift one (shudders).. so the stuff that needed to go in the greenhouse had to wait until my OH came home .. he’s the big and brave spider shifter of the household 🙂

We have friends coming over to visit us tonight, so my next job was to head into the kitchen, where i made a huge big lasagne, I must remember to post my recipe on here for it.  I also made some chilli cheese potato skin thingies 

I also made this nice Pink & White topped Sponge Cake

I’m off for a shower now before our friends arrive tonight ….

Have a lovely weekend everyone 🙂

Chorizo and Chicken Casserole

Chorizo and Chicken Casserole

Chunky pieces of chicken cooked slowly in a rich tomato sauce, spiked with fiery chorizo. The hotter the better, served with buttery cheesy mash… yum.

Ingredients:

• 4 Chicken breasts, skin removed
• 500 g fresh, hot chorizo
• 2 – 3 slices smoked bacon, rind removed and finely sliced
• Half a bottle of red wine
• 2 onions, finely diced
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 250 g of small baby onions, peeled
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 1 large can of chopped tomatoes
• Pinch of thyme and oregano
• Paprika (optional)

   

Method

• Use a large, oven proof casserole (with lid)
• Fry the onions and carrot in olive oil, after a few minutes add the bacon and soften for 5 minutes
• Remove the vegetables/bacon and turn the heat up
• Add the chorizo and chicken and brown (do this in batches so that the bottom of the pan is not covered)
• You may want to drain excess oil from the chorizo
• Return the vegetables/bacon and add the wine, simmer vigorously for a few minutes
• Add the peeled baby onions, tomato puree, tomatoes and herbs
• Bring to a simmer, put the lid on and cook in a low oven for 1 hour
• Check seasoning (may not need any as the sausage will season for you). If needed add a pinch of paprika for more smoky heat.
• Serve with buttery cheesy mash.

 

We Finally Picked a Name…..

She has been introduced already, without a name… , now we know she is a girl we have decided to call our beautiful wee black Pekin Bantam GRACE..

We all agreed, because she just has this gracefullness about her and holds herself well.. Grace it was 🙂

6 Weeks Old Pekin Chicks…

Here are my cheeps… they are now 6 weeks old, and my friend has helped me to identify the sex of them.

First picture is our black pekin, this wee one really holds itself well and has such a lovely nature… and as I predicted it is a wee girl Yipeeeeee…. I can now pick a name for her 🙂

Then we have a lovely pair of partridge pekins, unfortunately they are both boys, and I am in the process of finding them a new home/s.  I’m quite sad, because they both come to the front of the coop to meet me.

Last but not least Punk Chick.. I literally had to pin this one down to get a picture, it squawked and struggled like hell, i’m amazed I managed to get this picture.. no ideal of the sex yet, but i’ll hazard a 99.9% bet that its a boy too.

 

Meet the Cheeps : Black Pekin

This is our black silkie chick d.o.b. 18.05.08

I have a feeling this one might (just might) be female, but shall still remain nameless until I know 100%.

I sat up the back garden on the swing seat with this morning with this wee one and it quite happily sat perched on my wrist… I have to admit  this one is my favourite 🙂

 

Meet the Cheeps Punk Chick (Silkie-X)

Meet Punkie our little silkie cross chick, we always said that we wouldn’t give names to any of the cheeps until we knew what sex they were….

This little one is the exception… it’s wee feathers stick out all over the place and is a mixture between a bundle of fluff and feathers 🙂

My other half is convinced its a wee boy and calls it Sid (as in Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols) because everytime he looks in on the cheeps to make sure they are all ok… punkie is chasing all the others bossing them around and squaring up to one of the partridge bantams..

I’ll post regular updates on the cheeps and take regular photographs of punkie/Sid to chart his/her progress

Chicken Little & Daisy……

Its a lovely sunny morning here, the girls are out having a scratch around the garden for bugs and stuff, so I took the opportunity to get some pictures of them both.  

Its quite difficult to get pictures of chicken little (the brown one) as she is soooo flighty,  I wonder what she said to daisy in this picture to get her to look up at me …..