Tis the Season...

Divinity fudge
(recipe below)

It that time of year again when we all go so deeply in debt that we spend most (if not ALL) of our income taxes or the better part of the following year paying it off. And for what? Some trinkets and baubles and shiny new things that we don't really need anyway. What compels us to  so completely lose sight of reality when November 25th rolls around? I for one will not be jumping on the band wagon this year. Our family will be concentrating on the real meaning of Christmas and yes, of course Santa will come and leave a few things for the children but we have asked that he not be too over zealous in his gifting since  their are others in need all over the world and we don't wanna be greedy. This year we are going to break out all my grandma's recipes and and every teensy tiny crafting supply and we are going to give hand made gifts from the heart. Gifts designed just for that special person and loving, painstakingly fashioned  to show how much you really care. below is my Grandmother's Divinity recipe. It is heavenly and melts on your tongue and every time I make it, it reminds me of her and the pain she must have endured whipping that sugar syrup for 20-30 minutes at time by hand with her arthritis , but she never complained . She only made it at Christmas,then I thought this torturous and begged by June for her to make more-she always said ,"no you'll have to wait for Christmastime", and now I know why. It is labor intensive and fickle. The slightest change in humidity can ruin a whole batch and you are left with an ice cream topping at best. But each year as I savor that 1st fluffy nugget of sugary bliss I can see my Grandmother standing at the kitchen counter, testing the first few drops of lava hot syrup in a saucer of cold water to see if it had reached "hard ball" stage yet, knowing the second it did, we were almost there. I can hear her voice telling me exactly what to look for and how to swirl the syrup into the egg whites while rotating the bowl. Stand mixer? electric mixer? P-shaw! she was still using a hand held wisk or antique rotary crank hand mixer back then(making that particular recipe even more daunting) her words guide me even now and though I still get a flat batch occasionally I think she would be pretty proud of todays divinity. I know I am.

INGREDIENTS
2 2/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup1/2 cup water (minus 1 teaspoon on humid days)
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract ( I use pure madagascar vanilla)
... 2/3 cup chopped walnuts/pecans(optional)
hand mixer and whisk (on stand by)
wax paper
 tupperware (any air tight) container
DIRECTIONS
cook suagr,corn syrup, and water in 2 qt pot over low heat, stirring CONSTANTLY, UNTIL SUGAR IS DISSOLVED. continue to cook without stirring until the mixture reaches 260 degrees F on a candy thermometer or "the hard ball stage".
beat egg whites in a 1 1/2 qt bowl until stiff peaks form, continue to beat egg whites while slowly pouring hot syrup into bowl in a thin stream.add vanilla & beat until mixture hold sit's shape and becomes slightly "dull" or less glossy looking. THIS TAKES A LONG TIME-approx 6-10 minutes. Mixture may become too stiff for electric beater-continue to beat by hand,I use a fork. when mixture stands in peaks when beater is removed fold in nuts gently(optional)
drop from a buttered spoon onto waxed paper. let stand at room temp , turning ONCE until outside of candy is firm-at least 12 hours. store in air tight container.

patience,patience, PATIENCE!

                                                 Hello again, it's been awhile and wow! do I have catching up to do.  the last month has been all about "hurry up & wait", also known as "3 steps forward, 2 steps back" and "robbing Peter to pay Paul". Many good things have happened & a few important lessons have been learned as well, often with a price,but valuable knowledge gained thru suffering is no less valuable-right?  so we managed to hatch our first chick successfully and he is now 3 weeks old and getting his big boy feathers. i say "HE" but honestly we have been able to sex the chick so t's all guesswork at this point. The chick is a bantam cross 1/2 red frizzle, 1/2 blue cocchin, it has fluffy soft feathers that looked slightly permed and his color fades from a golden hue on is back to cream and finally white at the tips of his wings. Each feather of his back and wings is banded and speckled with a blue/black, so that it seems someone flecked a paintbrush at him.He has a deformed foot but manages to hobble along rather well and has been named PIP.Once we lost the remaining 3 dozen eggs, I tweaked the incubator and modified it and we are successfully incubating 10 more. They have been candled to verify live chicks in the eggs and should begin hatching by Wednesday. heres what you need for a cheap, working incubator in your home:
light bulb fixture from and old lamp w/ cord
40 watt lightbulb
 a small to medium styrofoam cooler (cheapo-$2 coolers from drugstore)
a dimmer switch ($2 at walmart, home depot)
a Hergrometer(a device looks like a thermometer but also measure HUMIDITY) you can find these at tractor supply stores, feed stores etc..
sharp knife (for cutting cooler)
glass from a cheap dollar store picture frame
hotglue gun or white elmers glue or wood glue
old newspaper (to line it)
on both ends of the cooler you will need to cut out a small window-approx 4" wide by 3-4 inches tall) place it fairly high up the side so emerging chicks can't ;flop" out.*save these pieces you may need top lug holes occasionally to alter humidity. Also poke 4 holes about 1 inch in diameter in each end for addt'l ventilation. This will give you a limited amount of air flow but it makes all the difference in the developing embryo.

finished incubator"loaded" w/ eggs

next place the glass panel on front of cooler and trace outline with pencil. remove glass, draw a second outline 1 inch inside of 1st outline. this will give you a little lip to glue glass to for viewing window. next you need to use the light bulb socket to trace another hole directly in the center of the lid of the cooler. this is where you will push the socket thru to warm the eggs. shake out all debris from cutting and glue glass pane to front of cooler over cut out. allow to lay flat and dry for at least and hour. check to make sure it is good and dry before you flip it back on it's side. once dry, tape your hergrometer on the back in the center of the cooler where you can easily view it from the "window" you just made. push the light socket thru the top hole and tape securely in place by placing tape on cord-NOT socket.. flip lid and screw in 40 watt bulb. You're almost ready. plug in dimmer switch and attach cord to light socket. test dimmer switch. light should come on and off and switch smoothly between various light gauges. you are ready to assemble and take it for a test drive -so to speak. place a small dish of water, a coffee mug ,a tuna can(cleaned of course) in one corner of the incubator, close lid and raise light inside using dimmer. check temperature frequently until it reaches a sustained temp. your incubator should stay around 98 degrees F-103 degrees F and have a humidity of about 50-55. the larger you water surface the higher your humidity will be. give it a full 24 hrs of testing to get the temp/humidity just right before putting FERTILE EGGS in your incubator. during this test stage I recommend you read everything you can find online or at the library about caring for incubator eggs. there is a lot to know if you plan to successfully hatch baby chicks and ducks instead of creating rotten exploding eggs. NO, the eggs from the grocer are not fertile. You will need to do some research in our area to locate such eggs by ordering online or from a local farmer. draw a circle around the fat end of the egg w/ a marker, this will be the UP side or air sac the chick will need to get it's first vital gulp of air before being born-too much humidity and it will drowned in this pocket from condensation forming a "puddle" there before hatching.write the date on your eggs and any other identifying marks you made need for breed etc. Place eggs in incubator, replace lid and ta-da! You are "growing chickens". turn them every day at least 3 x, it helps to put an X on one side and an O on the other before incubating so you can keep track of which side has been turned. Not turning the egg can result in the chick STICKING to the inner membrane and possibly dying or being deformed because of it. After day 18- stop touching them. I know its hard but ya gotta let 'em rest and finish developing.

pip just hatched(see his shell pieces in the fore ground?)
he still can't stand well and is really wobbly.

Starting on day 21 they should begin hatchinganywhere from day 21-day 23/24 they will begin to "pip" or peck at their shell. you can hear this from across the room sometimes. it can take several minutes to several hours even a day or 2 for 1 single chick to hatch. DON'T HELP THEM! this is all part of natural selection-only the strongest will survive. Take our Pip for example. we weren't even home when he hatched and felt awful that he had a club foot.but, none of the other eggs hatched and 3 weeks later he is going strong! However all his sibling did not survive -just pip. he wanted to badly enough to make it out, dry off and start eating! LOL..

Pip, age 2 weeks already on FB!

Enjoy your incubators!