Winter fare

Isn't it funny - you can have the best intentions in the world, but winter always gets the better of you.

I promised myself this winter I would be a good girl.  But, I haven't been.  1.0kg heavier already and still a couple of months of cold weather to go sigh

And, it's all the Rosie's fault.  And my new all the bells and whistle's fridge.  Now that I have freezer space to store "snacks", I'm taking full advantage of it.

RMan and I love nibbling - especially when it's cold.  But, the "ready made snacks' available in the supermarkets are revolting, and a complete rip-off.  More pastry than filling - if you can find any filling at all...

So, I decided that I would make my own.

I boiled up an entire chicken, and when it was cooked, and cold, used the chickeny / herby / garlicky water it had been boiled in to make a gravy.

I stripped the chicken away from the skin and bones and added it to the gravy.

Then I pulled out the phyllo pastry which was in the fridge.  Slathering each sheet with a good dose of olive oil I  cut the sheets into strips.  I used only one strip - you'll see why now...

Taking one of the strips, I added a spoonful of the chicken mixture - right at the end.

The corner of phyllo pastry got pulled over the chicken...

 ... and the corner got folded again...

 ... and again...

 ...and again...

... and again...

 ...and again...

 ... and again...

 ...and again...

That last little bit of phyllo pastry got folded up
against the samosa

 ...and then folded again for the last time.  I didn't worry about the uneven triangle I had created - as long as the filling is securely enclosed and doesn't leak out during the cooking process, to my mind all those bits of phyllo pastry edges which are visible in the pic above = extra crispy crunch in the mouth :)  .

A whole plateful of homemade chicken samosas :)

What was I left with?

A whole plateful of chicken samosas.

One strip of phyllo pastry got folded 10 times - equivalent to ten layers of phyllo pastry :)

3/4 of the plateful has gone into the freezer.  The other 1/4?  As soon as we light the Rosie later this afternoon, and it gets to temperature, I'm going to have a nibble :)

(I can't wait to posts this, so I'll add a pic of the cooked samosa's when they're ready :) )

1½ hours to cook / simmer the whole chicken (which also became chicken pie and chicken à la king), 15 - 20 minutes to boil and reduce the stock and make the chicken gravy, ten minutes to strip the cooled flesh from the carcass and 20 minutes to roll the chicken and gravy mixture spoonfuls in the phyllo pastry.  Effectively, it took 30 minutes of actual work to make enough chicken samosa's to last us a month (I hope...lol)

Who needs to buy ready made nibbles, when they are so easy to make yourself?

Update:

Baked at 200°C for 20 minutes and served with a
chopped side salad and some chilli sauce.
Dunno what happened to the sauce, but they
tasted full of moist chicken - goal accomplished :)

RMan wanted to know how many I made, and how many I had left in the freezer.  He says 24 is not enough... ;)

They were, even if I say so myself, absolutely, excellently yummy, crispy, and tasty!!

Duck and dive...

Look what we woke up to this morning... :)

Thick snow covering down to the lower level of the
mountain ridges
(by the way, the bentonite we added to the
dam has definitely helped the dam to retain
water and to prevent it from drying out
completely as it did previously!)

The sun is shining now and the reconfigured solar panels are performing perfectly at our current outside temperature of 6°C with no over-voltage occuring whatsoever - the power input at the moment is 710 watts - and I'm sitting at the dining room table with my back being gently warmed by the roaring, crackling Rosie behind me.

Life is good.

But, on to today's post...

The ducks that adopted us a while go are happily waddling round the property - munching on all the available insects (and my strawberries when they are in season) - and run up to us quacking madly for their grain twice a day when we go out to feed the alpacas.

But, I noticed that when I scattered their grain on the ground in their nighttime enclosure I was also feeding what they didn't finish to all the wild birds, not to mention the field mice, who have, naturally, taken up residence nearby.  Very nearby.  Like in the straw I have given them for bedding...

I then tried feeding the ducks the grain out of a container - but ducks aren't the tidiest of creatures when it comes to filling their stomachs, and as much went into their stomachs as landed on the floor.

More wild bird and mouse food.

Also, on a couple of occasions I noticed that they gobbled the food so quickly that they almost choked.

So, Google to the rescue.

Searching for "Duck feeders" brought up this pic.

http://poultrykeeper.com/duck-keeping/
beginners-guide-to-keeping-ducks

I quite liked the concept, so I've adopted it :)  On that same site, I also found out that ducks have no tear ducts, and they have to put their entire heads under water in order to clean their eyes.  I didn't know that.

I understand, especially in summer, that the submerged food could start fermenting in the water, so I am making sure that I feed them only as much as they wolf down at one sitting right from the start ;)  After all, their raison d'etre at Foothills Organic is to also to eat as many insects as they can find...

Duck food in a bowl of water

I gave them their first meal in the bowl (a re-purposed plastic ice cream tub) full of water and hung around to see if they would get the gist.

No problem.  They ducked their heads straight into the water and had a field day.

Yum, yum
Isn't there one last speck...

Because the food isn't dry anymore, they're not choking on it either.  In fact, the one just wouldn't stop and spent an extra 5 minutes making sure that there wasn't one last scrap that he could find...

The wild birds are only managing to scrounge the few seeds that float on top of the water, and the field mice - well, there's nothing for them, so they'll just have to relocate back to the fields.

You gotta love it when a plan comes together :)

Danger over

Our little two plate Univa caravan stove, with grill and small oven, which we took out of the caravan and placed in the farmhouse kitchen, has taken a fair amount of punishment in the last 2 years.

The burner grid was being eroded by the extreme heat.  In some places it was almost burnt through.  And I couldn't find spares anywhere online.  I mean, the caravan is from the early '80's - and is Univa still in existence?  I couldn't find them...

A close up of the wear and tear on the pot grid

But, we depend on that little stove all year round - to heat the water for our morning tea / coffee and to make our toast.  The oven we've never used - apparently is chews LP gas like water going down a plug hole.

And, as we had measured, and built the kitchen cupboard / counter when the house was being built (the cupboards have brick side walls) we couldn't exactly knock down the walls in order to accomodate a new larger stove.  Most of the new gas stoves have electric ovens - who needs one of those in their lives?  No thank you.  LOL

And tossing out a perfectly usable little stove is very rarely an option as far as I am concerned.  A little bit of TLC is all it will take and the stove will be as good as new.

Thoroughly buckled and twisted - the grid was
dangerous and pots sloped towards the sides...

I asked a couple of local businesses if they would be prepared to make me a new burner / pot grid, but their price was completely over the top!

Then RMan suggested why not ask RSon - he is in the stainless steel business now, and if anyone could make it he could.

On one of his visits, he took the measurements.

Just like a new stove top :)

And last weekend, when he came to install the solar panels for us, he brought the new burner grid with him.

Perfectly level and just like new

No more pots sliding sideways off the cooking area.  No more fried eggs lurching almost out of the frying pan.

Everything is level again.

It's the simple things in life that can bring such joy :)

Once again - thanks RSon :)

Alpacas at play?

RMan is in heaven.  He has finally found someone or something that is permanently in play mode.

First, last year he was concerned that the alpacas may be bored.  The alpacas???

They don't look bored to me, but they did to
RMan

Kris spotted the foreign object in a flash

So, connecting a rope to a football, he placed that in the alpaca paddock.

Should I get closer...?

Sitting outside the paddock, he slowly began to pull the ball towards him.

RMan has the patience of a saint

Kris, naturally, had to see what this was that was slowly moving in the paddock.  It was white, but it didn't look like a duck.

A leap here, and a leap there - what is this
thing that keeps moving...?

He couldn't resist - he had to follow.

The same happened with Minky.  RMan figured that he needed some companionship.

RMan getting a good sniffing over by Minky

Minky is not as timid as the two adults.  He always comes to greet you when you enter the paddock.  And that greeting entails a good, but oh, so very gentle, sniff of the face and neck.

Mike gets the sniff over now

Mike was entranced the first time Minky gave him the once over.

But, make no mistake, Minky is very strong willed.  If you get up too quickly, before he has completed his daily "inspection", he then tries to nip your posterior if you turn your back on him.  Very gently though :)

The joy of being alive...

He does seem to miss the companionship of other cria.  So he has a game...

... so aptly demonstated by this little cria.

... round and round the paddock on this own:)

...or with whoever is willing.

Ah, a human has come to play - Minky sprints
down the paddock after RMan

 And, RMan is always willing to come out to play LOL

Oh - there's another one...

Then, last weekend Mike stayed over with us.  And, naturally, he had to join in on the game.

... slow coaches.

Minky was in alpaca cria heaven.

Minky is not even breathing deeply after
all that exercise

Boys will be boys!

What a treat this little cria is - what pleasure and joy he brings to our lives.

And don't think I didn't see you hiding behind
the camera Dani

It's the simple things in life that give one pleasure.

I would hate to have so many animals that they are just livestock, and I / we don't get to know them as we have Minky.  What a loss that would be - to our lives, and theirs.