It is Monday and I am off today. My cat is situated perfectly on my purse right now but he keeps falling off! He is watching me type this. I just ran down to the nice Rural King (I say that because the others I have been to do not compare to this one) and bought grit and oyster shells. I am wanting to go over to my papaw's later and make this really neat bottle dispenser from Lisa's blog Fresh Eggs Daily. I think it is really nifty and spill-proof!
Yesterday I went to my cousin's house and was there all day. We ate lots of foods! Breakfast at 10:30 then mini chocolate chip waffles later and finally salmon on the grill with scalloped potatoes and a small orange-fennel spinach salad that my aunt mixed up. So for Fanny's foot update, I brought her in the bathroom yesterday morning and dug around a little and discovered it was a scab with some hardened infection maybe I'm not really sure what it was but it didn't look like bumble foot. I put some hydrogen peroxide on it and vetericyn and wrapped it just so it doesn't get anything in there and get infected. It was a relief that it wasn't anything major. The chickens are still loving their special feed and I love it too knowing that it is really beneficial to them and also tasty!
So here is the special waffle recipe my cousin and I made yesterday. We made a double batch and just about burned the last two waffles because we got distracted! :)
This recipe is from Martha Stewart and we added vanilla and the mini chocolate chips!
Buttermilk Waffles
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips
2 cups lowfat buttermilk
1 stick melted butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
Whisk the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Whisk the wet in a large bowl. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and gently fold until all mixed together. Heat your waffle iron and add about a cupful of batter for each waffle!

wrapping feet and mixing up feed!

How could I have a semi-un related chicken post? These chickens take up so much time and my thoughts. What with Hazel's foot and making sure their water is thawed out in this cold weather, and mixing up their new feed....how can I think about anything else??
Last night when I brought Hazel in to wrap her foot again I noticed on her other foot that she had a small dark brown scab. Great! I thought she will have 2 wrapped feet now...well I examined her today when I got out of work and I soaked it a little in Epsom salt before she kicked the bowl over, soaking the counter. I picked the scab off and it was like a small chunk that came out of her foot. painless! so there was this little hole left so I put some vetericyn on it (or as the chicken blogs say, "packed it full of") and wrapped it with this super soft rolled gauze I found at CVS and some vetwrap and tape to hold it in place. Good as new! I checked the other chickens feet and discovered that Fanny's foot may have something in it. All the other chickens feet looked fine, is it really that common? I called my aunt last night and she was asking what I had in my coop or run that may be cutting their feet. I'm not exactly for sure, but I had a small concrete block in there that I set their food on so I covered that with straw because it could be that? I'm really not for sure but am on the lookout for what it could be.
Also another bit of news, I had ordered the probios probiotic powder and Thomas Lab's brewers yeast and garlic for their special feed from fresh eggs daily. I didn't expect to get these in the mail until next week but when I got home, they were on the porch! So when I finally got my chicken chores/doctoring done I mixed up the feed. I can say they already love it. I have these 2 chickens that barely eat the feed, they prefer to forage and eat treats, and they immediately were munching down! Hazel really liked it too. Lisa, from the blog really bragged on how great it was for your chickens so I am super excited I have everything to make a few big batches that will last me for awhile. I highly recommend making some for your flock!

This post is semi-un chicken related. That was a weird sentence! I did get little Hazel put outside Monday night. Her foot has healed very well. The top is just a tiny scab now and the bottom you can see is a straight line kind of looks like it closed up like that. She tore her bandage off in the carrier so I just let her go free in the run. She started to talk when I set her next to the coop. I had to clean it out first. She shook when she got inside and walked all around, happy to be home. She acts like a normal chicken again! I still think she's cold in this weather, being a Silkie.
Onto the unchicken related talkings....
I received my typewriter ribbon in the mail today and thought I had successfully installed it but now I think I'll have to get it looked at. It seems to want to come off the thing in the middle. I am very technical with names here. Anyway, I'm excited to finally have it to type my recipe book.
Which led me to thinking about some recipes to include. I had completely forgotten about a hot fudge sauce that I made a couple years ago. It is thick like Dairy Queen's but not as fake goopy tasting. When I made it I stored it in an empty Bonne Maman jar. I love those little jars with the red + white gingham tops. It made me think that it would be great to have a few of those full of chocolate sauce when guests are at your house and serve it with local vanilla ice cream (wherever you can find that) Or make your own!! I'm all about cute-sy and party accessories + things. Even a buttermilk ice cream which I've never had before sounds really delicious. Maybe a sorta-tart sorta-sweet frozen yogurt with the rich hot fudge sauce! You can also spike it with rum which is really good on top of ice cream. I must really want ice cream because I keep talking about it. Dad and I were supposed to eat at Zaharako's yesterday but they were closed for maintenance. I would have definitely got a sundae there! 
Here is the Hot Fudge Sauce recipe, they call it sticky fudge sauce, it thickens up as it sits
6 T heavy cream
1/3 c sugar
1/4 c cocoa powder (the best you can find!)
1/4 c light corn syrup
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 T butter
1 t vanilla
Bring cream, sugar, cocoa powder and corn syrup to a simmer. Stir until sugar dissolves. Add chocolate and butter and stir until they melt. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Makes about 1 cup. *Add in a few tablespoons of rum*

We had nice weather today on this Sunday. Dave and I took a hike and ate subway. We visited mom & dad and I bought rhubarb olive oil and mom and I shared a bottle of portobello garlic olive oil. Dave and I just had some roasted potatoes and asparagus with it drizzled over it. Mmmm. I then went to my aunts (the one with the chickens) and made the orange coop cleaner from the fresh eggs daily blog (yes my favorite site!) Taylor made tuna helper with broccoli and it was very tasty. 
Hazels foot is looking really good too. 

Getting things done...

Got a bunch of things for the chickens today at rural king. I needed supplies for the 'Breakfast of Champions' layer feed on the Fresh Eggs Daily blog. I still haven't found probiotic powder or Thomas labs brewers yeast and garlic powder, which I'll probably have to order. I also got things to make her orange coop cleaner this weekend. You let it sit for a month and then you can use it, so I figure it will be just about springtime by the time it's ready. Hazel, the white Silkie is still in the dog carrier recovering from her bumble foot which I will post about later. She is doing really well, but has had 2 accidents when I get her out of the carrier to redo her bandage. Wow the smell is whoooeeee! It drove Dave out of the bedroom the other night.
The temperatures are warming up around here and the snow is melting. Its now a nice muddy mess, but at least the chickens have their waterer back in their coop and no more frozen water each hour.
I'm really anxious for the day when my chickens can have a nice fenced in backyard to free range during the day or at least when I get home in the early evenings. Happy chickens=tasty eggs!
I am also working on my chicken binder with different sections and a whole lot of notes. I have quite a few handwritten notes that I wrote last year when I first got my chicks. I'm excited about it, I love organization!

My favorite quiche

I really love quiche quite a bit more now since I have fresh chicken eggs! This quiche recipe I adapted from Jenna Woginrich's recipe.
Spinach, Cheddar, Chicken and Onion Quiche
olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/4 cup water
3 cups fresh spinach
3 eggs
1 cup milk
salt + pepper
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 chicken breast, cooked, cubed and cooled
1 piecrust spread in a pie pan
Heat oven to 350F. Heat olive oil and sauté onion until caramelized. Set aside. Pour water in skillet and add spinach to wilt. Drain it and squeeze excess water out. Chop. Beat eggs, milk and seasoning in a bowl. Add in onion, spinach, cheese and chicken. Stir and spread into crust. Bake 45-50 minutes.

Hi everyone, my name is Ally and this is my first ever chicken blog. To start off, I will introduce you to all my chickens! I have 8 chickens. I have 2 Buff Orpingtons (one of which is a rooster), a Black Australorp, a Welsummer, a White Silkie, a Sebright bantam, a Rhode Island Red and a Mille Fleur bantam hen. The silkie and sebright are technically my mother-in-laws chickens but I raised them all and take care of them so I feel like they are mine too. The Rhode Island Red and Mille Fleur came to my house in a pair when their owner abandoned them. The others, I raised from chick and got them on April 5, 2013. Yes, they all have names too! Fanny, Francis, Maude, Mabel, Hazel, Dixie, Wendy and Peaches, respectively. They are a ton of fun and so sweet.
Well there is my introductory post. More to come later!