Counting Eggs

Cleaning the frig out this morning left NO bread for the day.  I try not to buy bread unless it is from the bakery with no preservatives and what ever else they put in to make it stay oh so soft and misleading us fresh.  Dick would go to the Stroehmanns day old or month old bread shop for a pallet of bread for the chickens.  Here is the sad thing,  that bread would be soft with no mold for weeks on the shelf in the tack room....good grief that is not right!  The hens and rooster love bread and just about any table scraps.  The really like whipped potatoes and cooked squash.  On top of their free ranging during daylight ours they give us the most beautiful dark orange yolked eggs!  Now that winter is here and the days are much shorter the hens slow down on laying. 2-4-6 a day is their limit, way down from 12-15 during the summer.  Last week with Thanksgiving and our Hunter's Supper I broke down and bought a dozen eggs......EWWWWW.  Never again, pale yellow and the white was a runny consistency.  Hard to believe I only used them for baking and saw a huge result in the finished bake goods.  Apparently the girls heard me bitching and complaining, magically they  stepped up production and in one week I have stock piled 2 dozen eggs.  Today is make Italian bread for Richard, German Cut Out cookies to send my 3 little loves in Maryland and noodles for the ham broth.  The next best thing to my little boys making cookies with me is sending them snowman cookies.  Five precious eggs will be used today, cookies-2, bread-1 and homemade noodles-2.  I sound like a stingy ol'gal counting eggs!

Here are the finished products.  It was quite warm in the house, we have an open floor plan with 4 large windows the sun shines in all day during the winter months.  We are lucky it keeps the furnace from running but it is so hot on the days the sun shines.   If you drive by and the doors are open we are just cooling down!

Fresh from the oven, Italian Bread with sesame seeds
on top.  Good for a few days ♡

Leftover ham simmered with water, seasonings,
fresh garden carrots, potatoes and homemade noodles.

About the carrots.  George Donovan told me last summer he covered his carrots with straw and dug fresh carrots all winter.  He also said how sweet they were.  Of course we gave it a try this fall....they are amazing.  Very sweet and tender.  I had my doubts seeing how big they grew but no problem the are great.  No more canning carrots for me and that's a good thing.

Fresh dug today for Sunday dinner.

Last  the cookies, the first few are fun to decorate after that it gets a little more like work for me.  Imagining the 3 little smiles makes it all worth while.

Ready to be safely boxed and mailed tomorrow.

I am not good at deciding on what gift to buy someone but I have no problem giving a gift of food to family and friends.  Much easier than shopping ♥