On the search

Since I broke my digital camera the other day, I'm on the search for a new camera, that's simple to use, and takes good pictures, so that I can continue to bring you all the magic of my horrible picture taking!!! There are so many different choices out there. I have it narrowed down to the cameras at Wal-Mart, 1 because I don't want to spend a lot of money, and because 2. the minute I get it home and out of the box it would be outdated already, so I see no point in spending a lot of money on something that's just going to be for taking pictures!!!

I'm so excited!!! The building permit for our bunny house has gone through, and now the building can commence. We really need the space, rabbit cages take up a lot of space, and at the moment we are maxed out on space in our current space. We have 5 hanging and 2 on the ground, plus we have a kit in with Ginger still, that we need to get in a cage of its own. (We also need to gender check that baby as well, before we end up with unexpected babies)

It was sunny today for the first time in 4 days!!! It had been raining for 4 straight days!!! I can't begin to express how happy I was to see the sun!!! But of course, that means we have a lot of cleaning up to do in the chicken house over the next couple of days. Hopefully we can get that cleaned up in just a couple of hours. Between the two of us, I'm sure we can clean up the run, and then the house in a short amount of time.

Those chicks are thriving outside!!! I can almost watch them grow on a daily basis. I need to take the rake into the grow out pen tomorrow and fluff up the bedding, and lay down some fresh dry stuff for them, to help with the warmth in there, and to help keep mud and muck from seeping through.

I've been crocheting like a crazy woman here lately. I'm making plans for new patterns for my Craftsy store, and free patterns to share with you all, my most favorite people. I don't want to say I have big plans, but I have plans. I don't try to make my plans too big, because we have a ton of stuff going on with the farm as it is!!!

Well, I believe I've rambled on enough to my lovely followers!!! I hope all is well with you all!!!
Take care, and stay safe

Crochet Towel Topper Pattern

First of all, let me apologize for the crappy pictures, I tend to take a bunch of pictures when I'm doing something along these lines, and then pick the best ones to upload so you will get to see the steps and stuff...BUT These were the only two pictures I got. I dropped my digital camera...seriously..I dropped it...just slipped right out of my fingers...so I got out the other digital camera that I haven't used in forever, and never took the batteries out of, and well, stuff came out of the batteries, and I can't figure out how to clean it off of the things that touch the batteries...and then I got out the other digital camera we have...it works..but we hate it. It's an Apex, and takes the worst pictures ever...its great if you want to take a video or something, but the picture quality is awful..in fact I couldn't get the flash to turn on, and the pictures were dark and shadowy even with all the lights on!!! So, these are the two pictures you will get to go with this basic, easy to follow pattern, for something that crocheters have been making for ever and ever, that makes a great little gift, for a friend, or just for yourself to brighten up your kitchen. Plus its great to be able to have one hanging on the stove to wipe your hands on when you've been doing dishes...or whatever. They work up so quickly, that its easy to make a dozen in a sitting depending on what you are watching on tv...lol

Alright, now, let me say about this pattern, that there is no point in counting stitches, because not all dish towels are created equal. I am constantly buying dish towels to do this with, and I realized that some are much wider than others, and some are just plain skinny. We will however count the rows, because that makes life easier.

You don't have to cut your dishtowels in half, some people do and some people don't. I was given a bag full of these that somebody had bought to put toppers on, and had already cut them in half. I do them both ways, but find it's more fun to be able to make a set of two to give to somebody, and I think they look nicer hanging on the stove when they've been cut in half. But again, that's up to you.

for this you will need, a small amount of WW yarn, an H hook, a yarn needle, and a nice big button. (I have a bad habit of buying buttons, and have a couple of jars full, different shapes and sizes, so I can't exactly tell you the size of the button per say...but if you know buttons, you will have an idea as to what size you will need.)

First, sew a row evenly across the top (or folded middle) of your dish towel. (If you have cut it in half, you will probably want to fold the top edge down and sew through to make it a little neater). You will have between 37 and 42 stitches depending on the length of the dishtowel. (Or tea towel as some people call them.)

Row 1, With H hook, and yarn, join with a sl st, and single crochet in first stitch, and then each st across, ch 2

Row 2. Dc Dec first 2 st together *Dc in next st, Dc Dec next 2 st together* repeat across, (NOTE: if you have an extra st left over at the end, just do a dc in that st, don't worry about there being 2 dc side by side, it will all work out in the end) Ch 1 at end of the row

Row 3. sc dec next 2 st tog and all the way across, (if there is a remaining st, just sc in that st) Ch 2

Row 4. dc dec first 2 st tog *dc in next st, dc dc next 2 st tog* rep across, ch 2

NOTE: you should have somewhere between 7 and 10 st remaining at this point, this is where we will begin working on the strap

Row 5-14 dc in each dc across, ch 2

Row 15.  Dc in each dc across, ch 1

Row 16. sc in first 2 to 3 st, ch 3, skip middle 3 stitches, and then sc in last 2-3 stitches. (just try to make it even, but you do need to skip the middle 3 stitches)

Row 17.  sc in each sc across, and 3 crochet in ch 3 chain. finish off and weave in ends.

Sew button onto row 4.

So, these are more general instructions than a pattern. I've never really followed a pattern to make these. Mostly because I'm just one of those people. This however is what I do, and I wanted so very much to share it with you all. I hope you enjoy, and I hope you can follow. If not, please feel free to email me at crochetbrandi@gmail.com I will be more than happy to answer any questions you have. If there is a pattern you would like to see, I enjoy a good crochet challenge!!!

new egg layers!!!!

So, even though you can't tell in the top photo, that egg is olive green!!! My Easter Egg chicks that we ordered through Cackle back over the summer, have started laying!!! So far two of them are laying. I'm very excited to see how many different colors I get once everybody is laying. (I know they won't lay different colors each time, but they aren't all going to lay olive green)

I was packaging up eggs the other day for an egg order, and got rather artful with my packaging. I thought it would be fun to go from light to dark, and I was quite pleased with how it looked...it was fun. Seeing as they were for one of my husbands male coworkers, I don't think they noticed how pretty they were packaged.

Our chicks are thriving by the way, they have gotten tall enough, that I was able to start filling up the big feeder that sits on a stand up off of the ground. They are wasting way less food now too. With the smaller feeders that sat down on the ground, they were wasting a lot. I think over half of it ended up on the ground.  It shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks before they are able to go in with the big chickens. I'd like to keep the roosters separate until its time to butcher, but I'm not sure how well that will work.

Spiced Sweet Potato Casserole

My husband is diabetic, as are a few of his other close relatives. Sweet potatoes are indeed a holiday staple, but unfortunately most of the time they are made with yummy gooey, crunchy marshmallows, and lots of sweet yummy brown sugar..(I swear I just gained 20 pounds thinking about that) The traditional way is one of my favorite ways to eat it, but when I ran across this recipe, I thought, you know that doesn't sound too bad, its not a cavity inducing recipe, and it wont raise the blood sugar to the point that the diabetics have to take an entire syringe full of insulin. I tested this out on my husbands family, because hey, somebody had to be the guinea pig...(ha ha ha) (If you guys are reading this, love you all)

What you will need:
Nonstick cooking spray
1 large sweet potato (about 10 oz.), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
3 tablespoons of butter melted, and divided
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/3 cup chopped pecans crushed.

What you do:
1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees., and spray your casserole dish with non stick cooking spray.
then add water to a large sauce pot until its mostly full, but not all the way, and then add the sweet potato to the pot and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Cook the potato for 20 min, then add the carrots to the pot and cook for 15 to 20 minutes longer.  Once the vegetables are tender, drain, keeping 1/4 cup of the cooking water, and add that and the veggies to a bowl.

2. With a hand mixer, mash the potato and the carrots and water together until its mostly smooth, then add 2 tbsp of the butter, and all of the seasonings, keep mixing until everything is mixed well.
Then dump it all and spread into your your casserole dish. Top with the pecans and the rest of the butter.

3. Bake the casserole covered for 15 minutes, and then bake it uncovered for 10 minutes longer until the top is lightly browned.

It sounds like more work than what it really is. My husband who generally dislikes sweet potatoes, admitted to me that he actually liked this and would eat it again!!! Now, I know he's not just saying that to be nice, because he's one of those people who has no tact, and if he doesn't like something, he's going to say so, and if he thinks a recipe is missing something, he will be the first to tell me. (That's how I got the pie crust recipe right) He actually told me he wouldn't mind it if I made this for Christmas dinner!!!

So enjoy!!! (oh, and for you diabetics, this is only 10 grams of carbs)

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Yes, this is absolutely recipe night at the Miller Farm!!! It would appear that I walk around taking pictures of everything I cook wouldn't it??? But no, I only take pictures of recipes I plan on sharing with you guys, and unfortunately, they have been building up in my camera, and the stack of recipes to share with you guys has been stacking up here on the table next to the lap top.

Now, this is as tasty as it sounds, and looks (well the cooked picture looks pretty good) I took this to my husbands family for Thanksgiving for a little something different. As much as I love everything that everybody brings, sometimes its nice to shake things up a bit. These did seem to be a hit, which was awesome, and my older nephew took the 2 bundles home with him, so no leftovers to drag back home with me on that one!!!

This recipe is so simple, and when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. I love bacon, I love Fresh asparagus, how can you go wrong????

What you will need

1 bunch thin asparagus spears, trimmed to 6 inch lengths
1 to 2 tablespoons Olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
6 - 8 slices of bacon cut in half

What you do

In a large bowl, combine the asparagus, olive oil, salt and pepper, and gently mix it until the asparagus is coated well with the oil and seasonings.  Let it stand for a few minutes.
Then for each bundle, wrap 3 to 4 pieces of asparagus with a half a slice of bacon, and then lay it on a cookie sheet that is not greased, and has rims to keep the bacon grease from going all over the bottom of your oven. then bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes, until the asparagus is tender, and the bacon is crisp. This will make 4 to 6 servings.

Quick and easy Sausage and pasta bake

Sometimes, we just want to bake something quick, and easy, that's tasty. I've had my fill of turkey as you can all imagine right about now. One day a couple of months ago, I was walking through the store trying to decide just what I wanted to make for dinner, and I LOVE pasta, I'm not going to lie, I could live off of pasta if it weren't for the fact that my husband is a diabetic, and well, I love him way more than I love pasta. But this tasty dish goes something like this

Take 1 small onion and fry it up with 1 pound of loose meat sausage. While that's cooking up, dump a half of a 1 pound box of Rotini pasta (the twisty noodle) into some boiling water and cook until its done. Once your sausage and onions are cooked, dump in 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce while your noodles are draining, and then dump it all together and mix well. Once its all nice and mixed up, put it in a baking dish, and drop random chunks of your favorite cheese on top, and bake at 350 until the cheese is melted and crusty looking. That's it, and I can tell you that my husband likes this way more than spaghetti even though its almost the same thing. It does have a diff flavor though I'm thinking.

I think I like this recipe because it comes together so quickly, and during this busy holiday season, quick and tasty is a good thing!!!!

Gluten Free Pie Crust

Holiday treats are always the best!!! Every year I look forward to pumpkin pie, but what about those poor souls who love pie, but have a gluten intolerance like some of the people in my family have??? Well, as this is becoming a more and more common thing, some of the big companies are jumping on the gluten free wagon, and making it easier for people to have access to products that make baking easier (maybe not cheaper, but easier for sure) So far, the product I like best is the Pillsbury Best Gluten Free Multi purpose flour. After searching the web, and finding a recipe that gave me the basics, and then completely re writing it to suit my own purposes, and taste buds, I have a pie crust recipe that's not too bad!!! Now, this isn't one you will really be able to roll out, unless you chill it for a longer period of time than what I have on here, but I am a horrible pie crust roller outer anyways, and tend to cheat and buy pre made roll out pie crust. But they don't make that gluten free yet that I've found. When I make pie crust from scratch, it tends to be the kind that when you mix it up, you just press it out into the pie plate, which is what I did with this dough. SO!!!  Here is my recipe, and I hope you all enjoy it!!!

1 Cup Pillsbury Best Gluten Free flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter slightly softened
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons ice water

1.  In a large bowl with an electric mixer, mix flour, and salt and butter on medium speed until the mixture resembles a fine meal with no large pieces of butter remaining.

2.  Add eggs one at a time, until well mixed, and then add the 2 tablespoons of ice water, and mix until well mixed. Now the dough will be very tacky, and once you get as much of it as you can off of the mixers, put in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Dough will be firmer, and easier to handle.

3.  Press dough into pie plate and up the sides, until its evenly pressed into plate.

Bake following pie baking instructions.

I hope you enjoy, and find this to be as tasty as we did!!!