Gyros and Tzatziki Sauce Recipe

July 22nd, 2011

Summertime on the homestead means an abundance of cucumbers, and Tzatziki Sauce is a wonderful way to use a couple of them. I usually make a double batch to eat on salads, but one of Bernie’s favorite ways to eat it is on a Gyro. My walking buddy, Mary Ann, asked for the recipe for Gyros and Tzatziki Sauce, and since I was going to type it up for her I decided to post it here, in case any of you may be interested.

The Gyro meat recipe is best if mixed and then refrigerated for at least an hour before cooking. This is an adaptation of a recipe I found online quite some time ago.

Gyro

1 pound ground lamb, or hamburger, or venison
1/2 cup finely diced onion
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 – 2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Divide it into six portions and shape oblong patties that are about
two inches wide and six or seven inches long. Put these on a plate and refrigerate them for at least an hour so that all the seasonings blend well.

Grill or fry the patties until they are well done.

The Tzatziki Sauce recipe was adapted from one given to me by my blog buddy, Becki. I like to make a double batch and use it as a dressing for salads.

Tzatziki Sauce

8 oz sour cream
8 oz yogurt
2 medium cucumbers
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs fresh lemon juice
1 – 2 tsp minced garlic
salt

Peel the cucumbers and then slice them in half length-wise. Scoop out all of the seeds. Shred the cucumber, and then squeeze the shredded cukes with your hands to remove as much liquid as possible. I usually place it in a colander for 1/2 an hour or so when I finish squeezing it, so that it can drain off any additional liquid.

Combine the sour cream, yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic in a medium sized bowl and mix well. Add the grated cucumber and mix. Salt to taste.

I make thick tortillas to use with the gyros, but you can use flat bread, pitas, or anything like that.

Place one of the patties in the middle of your bread and then add chopped lettuce and chopped tomato on top of it. Then add as much Tzatziki Sauce as you like and you are ready to enjoy a tasty Gyro.

As a side note – I often save the cucumber juice that I squeeze out of the cucumbers and put it in a small jar in the refrigerator. I use it as a toner for my face after washing in the summertime and it feels wonderfully cool and refreshing!

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Helluva Man

July 19th, 2011

My father passed away on July 7th, 2011. He took a piece of my heart with him when he left.

He was given a military funeral, with full Honors.

It would have made him proud.

And it would have made him even more proud to know he was buried in jeans and a t-shirt, with his fishing hat and favorite lure tucked in beside him.

Daddy wasn’t one for putting on airs.

He was my father, my friend, my confidant.

He was a helluva man.

And my heart aches for him.

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Sarah’s Surprise

June 20th, 2011

Sarah, one of our turkey hens, has been broody for a while. About four weeks ago ago I decided to let her set on an egg. Her sister, Tanya, sneaked another egg under Sarah that I didn’t find until a couple of days later, so I marked both eggs and let Sarah set on them.

When I opened the turkey coop this morning, all three turkeys ran immediately outside. And I could hear a very distinct chirping in Sarah’s nest. It was dark in there, but I could see two eggs. And I knew I was hearing chirping. So I ran inside, grabbed my camera, and aimed in the general direction of the eggs. And when I uploaded the picture to my computer a few minutes later, this is what I saw:

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One of the eggs had pipped! I ran back to the turkey coop and Sarah was getting back on her nest. The egg was rocking around and making a lot of noise. Sarah looked a little confused by the whole thing.

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But she settled in on top of her eggs, and I closed the coop to give her some privacy.

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A short time later I checked on her and look what I found.

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Isn’t she precious? Sarah seems to adore her.

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I hope the other egg hatches. I’ve heard such horror stories about how fragile turkey poults are. I’m really praying these will make it, and that Sarah will be a good mama. My plan is to let her care for them and hope for the best.

Under my strict supervision, of course :)

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Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign…….

June 15th, 2011

Our buddy, Dan, makes signs. Not those flimsy, metal signs that rust and look bad in no time at all.

Dan makes NICE signs. Out of sheet metal. Signs that will be around a good long while and look good the entire time.

And Dan knows how I feel about my chickens. So he made a few signs for me. And I LOVE them. A lot.

So I’m gonna share them with you…….

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That’s the sign you’ll see when you get to the end of our driveway. How cool is that?

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And that’s the “Warning – Attack Rooster” sign you’ll see when the gate is closed. It refers to Duke – who happens to be to the right of that sign in that picture.

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And that’s the sign on the coop door that I hope my hens will read each day and understand what the heck they are supposed to be doing inside that coop.

I love my signs.

I love Dan.

You’ll love him, too. Check out his website. If you need/want a custom sign of the highest quality, Dan is your man.

Did I mention how much I love my signs?????

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Things I Never Saw Living in Town

June 4th, 2011

A few weeks ago Dolly and I met up with our walking buddies, Mary Ann and Daisy, and took off for our daily walk.

About halfway through it I said “Oh, look. There’s a pig in the road.”

Mary Ann looked at me and said “What are you talking about?”

I said “Isn’t that a pig in the road?”

And about then, the pig heard us. It seemed to get very excited to hear human voices and started galloping towards us.

We had two VERY excited dogs, so we decided to run.

Away from it.

As fast as we could.

And it chased us. A good long way.

We were running, and panting, and discussing going over a fence to escape it when we came to a bend in the road and decided to try to out run it.

And out run it we did.

And naturally, I did not have my camera.

A couple of weeks later we were walking that same stretch of road when a pickup truck, towing a large cattle trailer came towards us. It stopped and the man inside asked if we had seen a heifer.

“No heifer” we replied. “But you wouldn’t happen to be missing a pig, would you?”

“Nope. Just a heifer. She got away a while ago and I’m looking for her.” He pointed to the pasture behind us, and we looked that way.

“There she is!” I excited exclaimed. She looked like an ant, she was so far away.

“I see her!” Mary Ann affirmed.

“Yep. That’s her. Reckon whose pasture that is?” He asked.

He and Mary Ann discussed it a while, and I didn’t chime in, as I had no clue.

He drove off and rescued her.

Or at least we thought he had.

Every day for the past several days, we’ve seen this on our walk.

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She’s usually laying down when we come up on her. But when she hears our voices she stands up to greet us.

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I think she wants to go home with Mary Ann and Daisy. Mary Ann thinks she want to go home with me and Dolly.

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She’s really a cutie. I wish we had gotten the owner’s name and number. I worry that she’s all alone. Daisy and Dolly would sure like to keep her company.

I’m pretty sure I never saw these things when we lived in town.

I wouldn’t trade living here for the world.

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Burr Comb and Cute Bees

May 22nd, 2011

We did our first hive inspections yesterday. And I quickly realized that my little chat with the girls about the proper way to pull out frames was apparently totally ignored. Totally.

This was what we found when we opened the Girl Power hive:

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And this was what we found when we opened the Flower Power hive:

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As you can see, they were both bad this week. Flower Power hive being slightly better than Girl Power.

*sigh*

We have to take some of the fault here. But before we get into that, let me share something with you…….. if there is only one thing you need to know about being a beekeeper, this is it………

Every single hive is different. And what works for one beekeeper will not necessarily work for the next beekeeper.

OK, so technically, that was two things. But, I don’t think beekeeping can be considered a technical undertaking, and both of those are really closely related, so work with me, will ya?

The beekeeper we got our bees from fed all of his bees by laying a freezer bag, filled with a light sugar water, directly on top of the frames of the brooder box. He put a one inch cut in the top of the bag and then he placed a 1 1/2 inch spacer on top of the frames, followed by the inner cover, and then the hive cover on top of it all.

This worked beautifully for him, and he had many extremely healthy hives to show for it. But for us? Not so much.

The girls really liked that 1 1/2 inch above the frames. So much so that they built burr comb to expand the hive.

We really want the girls to expand the hive. Only not like that. We were kind of hoping they would draw out the frames within the brood box. Then we would add another box on top and they could move up and start drawing out those frames.

Apparently, what we had here was a failure to communicate. And….. too much space at the top of the frames.

So, the first thing we did in both hives was locate the queen. Thankfully, in both hives, the queen was where she should be – in the brood box, healthily and happily laying eggs.

Then we shook all of the bees off of the hive cover into the brood box.

Then we removed all of the burr comb on the inside of the hive cover.

We removed the 1 1/2 inch spacer and placed the inner cover over the top of the frames.

We put their sugar water on top of the inner cover, added the 1 1/2 inch spacer, and then closed the hives with the hive cover.

Then I had yet *another* chat with the girls and explained what was expected of them. They argued with me for a few minutes, but finally bobbed their heads in agreement.

Then I kissed them and Bernie and I came to the house to grill some steaks and enjoy a beautiful Saturday evening.

We looked in on them today. No burr comb. They still act a little miffed at us for foiling their original plan, but all in all, I think they understand what needs to be done and will diligently work on it.

And it’s really hard to stay mad at them when they are so danged cute!

PS – All that burr comb? Well, it won’t be wasted. I’d much rather the bees use it within the hives, bbut it will be added to my existing collection and eventually be rendered into bees wax that will make lip balm, candles, and a variety of things.

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Honey Bees – I’ve Sure Missed Them

May 17th, 2011

The day finally arrived…… we picked up our bees! And even though it started as a cloudy and rainy day, the sun was shining brightly when we arrived in Stanley to get them.

Paul Kinser is a wonderful man to deal with, and the nucs he started for us were healthy and bustling with activity. Bernie and I purchased two nucs from him, and Si and Mary Ann purchased three.

As he loaded each frame into our hive boxes, we inspected them and looked for the queen.

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I get a little excited during the queen searches, so I elbowed my way right up to the closest spot. I can’t help it. There’s just something so satisfying in being the first to spot the queen. And, even though I only managed to “win” the first queen location round, it didn’t stop me from crowding everyone out for the next four either. Dangit.

Look at this pretty little queen:

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*sigh* Doesn’t she make you want to just kiss her wings right slap off of her?

And look at what some of those silly girls did while drawing out this frame – see that big blob of comb poking up there?

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Paul said they did that in one day – he had just checked them the day before. Those girls keep pretty busy. I like that. But we may need to have a little chat about how to properly draw out frames…….

This is the last nuc. It’s one of Si’s. Look at that beautiful frame loaded with brood and bees.

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Bernie and I strapped our boxes closed for the trip home.

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Si strapped his.

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Paul put screen in the opening, and we loaded our boxes for the trip over the mountain, to the girls’ new home.

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It was dark when we got home, so we left them in the jeep for the night. The next morning, just at daybreak, we put the bee boxes in the apiary, and Bernie removed the screens.

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It was early, cloudy, and chilly, but a couple of girls came out on the porch to see what the heck was going on.

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My heart smiles every time I see those little bees. I’ve sure missed hearing them buzz about. It feels right having bees on the homestead again.

I hope they like their new home. I hope they like us. And I hope we can do right by them.

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May Apples and Hay Rack

May 6th, 2011

Look at all these pretty May Apples.

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I didn’t know much about May Apples but my walking partner, Mary Ann, informed me that they are extremely poisonous. I did a little research on them, and poisonous is apparently THE word for May Apples.

The roots are poisonous. Apparently, American Indians used the roots medicinally, but every thing I read on the subject came with a strong warning to ONLY try using the roots if you are a trained herbalist.

The leaves are poisonous.

The stem is poisonous.

Even the pretty flowers hiding underneath are poisonous.

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But that pretty flower? It will become the fruit of this plant – the “apple”.

Oh, and that fruit? It’s poisonous. Well, for a good long while it’s poisonous. From all accounts, when it is extremely ripe, almost to the point of looking rotted, the flesh of that apple is no longer poisonous. The skin and the seeds are, but the flesh is not.

Every description I’ve read of the taste of that flesh said it tastes “tropical”. Many described the taste as a cross between a pineapple, mango, and passion fruit.

How wonderfully delicious does that sound??? Some people even make jam out of the fruit.

I am completely obsessed with tasting a ripened May Apple. Bernie is not at all tempted to taste this fruit, and he’s not at all happy that I would like to. In fact, he’s pretty much insisting that I not taste it.

What do you think? Would you taste it?

Maybe you could think about it a couple of minutes while I tell you about the new hay rack Bernie made me for the goats…….

When we first got goats I struggled with how to make a hay rack for them. Everyone I talked to told me not to over think it, and just use some fencing. So that’s what I did. And it worked pretty well. Except……..

The goats climbed up on it, pulled hay out of the top of it, and flattened the front. Not only did they waste hay like crazy, they smooshed it to the point of being almost useless.

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This annoyed me no end. So, I came up with some requirements, and Bernie built a new hay rack.

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And now it annoys the goats no end that they can’t yank hay out of the top to waste, or smoosh the front of it any more. They can’t even climb on it.

And I could not be happier.

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Funny Farm

April 26th, 2011

These are some of the chickens’ nest boxes:

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I just don’t have the heart to tell Tanya.

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She’s laid her eggs here every day for the past few weeks.

Sarah and some of the chickens think Tanya is silly to lay in chicken nest boxes.

They lay theirs in the goat barn.

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And there is a chicken or two that thinks all of them are crazy. They lay their eggs in the turkey coop.

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This all makes sense, right?

As much sense as Jake dancing around Bernie while he’s target shooting, right?

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Heaven help me. I think I live on a Funny Farm.

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Canning Shad With Daddy and Christian

April 23rd, 2011

When my parents came to visit last year, Daddy brought several shad with him that he had caught in Georgia. This year he brought more shad with him, and I actually remembered to take pictures of the process.

Naturally, scaling the shad is the first step. My great-nephew, Christian, does a great job at scaling fish.

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Daddy filleted all of the shad for us.

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He has always done an awesome job of filleting fish. You can almost see through the very little bit that he leaves behind.

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Here he is cutting up the meat of the fish that we’ll be canning.

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I really did help with all of this – those are my hands scaling that fish in the left of that picture.

The roe in some of them was huge!

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We ended up with two nice pots of shad.

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And that made 20 pints. We added 1/2 teaspoon salt to each jar. There is no need to add any liquid.

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Shad has a lot of bones, and even after filleting them, there are still several bones left in much of the meat. But, after processing in the pressure canner for two hours on 15 pounds of pressure, the bones dissolve, leaving you with delicious and very nutritious fish.

We use our canned shad as a substitute for tuna when we want tuna fish sandwiches. We also substitute it for salmon in salmon patties. It’s good stuff, and really nice to have on our pantry shelf.

Don’t worry if you don’t have access to shad. Canning fish is not limited to shad and the steps are the same. If we were canning a boneless fish, we would have processed it with 10 pounds of pressure instead of 15, but really that’s about the only difference.

The adults relaxed on the deck after we finished.

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And Christian climbed a maple tree in the front yard.

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Canning shad was fun. Watching Christian was more fun though!

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And, even though it’s a little out of place here, I wanted to include some pictures of the last bee brood box I decorated with buttons that Mary Ann donated.

Here’s the front entrance – don’t you just love those buttons?

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Here’s one of the sides:

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Here’s the other side:

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And here’s the rear:

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The only thing we’re missing now are the bees – and we’re getting a little concerned. It’s getting well into this nectar flow now. I hope we’ll get our bees soon and they will be able to make up for lost time. Please keep your fingers crossed for us.

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