Mini egg

We have a couple of chickens who seem a bit stunted. They were perhaps ones we had to help out of their shells - or maybe the rooster has some kind of genetic mutation going on (they come from unrelated mothers so assuming it would have to be the rooster).

It isn't very clear in the picture, but the one I think laid the mini egg is the black one in the middle. She is smaller than the others by quite a lot though it doesn't look like it here...

COLD snap

We are having quite a cold snap with it getting down to -6 overnight and being forecast to get as low as -9 tonight. There is snow as well so the animals are not totally thrilled.

You can see how well insulated they are by the snow sitting on their backs

Rabbit Lasagne Recipe

I didn’t exactly measure the quantities so good luck!
You need some time to cook the rabbit so you can debone it easily

1 rabbit
1onion
Handful of mushrooms (or other veg if you prefer - carrot maybe?)
250ml white wine
2 tsp flour

Lasagne sheets
White sauce and cheese to top

Cut the rabbit in to pieces (5 or 6 is traditional) and fry the pieces in oil until browned
Cook the pieces in white wine with the onion for perhaps an hour or maybe more until the meat comes of the bones reasonably easily.
Keep the cooking liquid
Debone the rabbit and shred the meat
Boil the bones up for another 30 mins or so in a bit if water (not too much as you don't want the meat mix to be too liquid
Chop the mushroom up reasonably small and fry.
Add a couple of tsp flour to the mushrooms and fry a little bit more
Add the cooking liquid and the stock from boiling the bones and stir until thickened. It shouldn't be very thick as the liquid will absorb in to the pasta anyway, but reduce a bit if too runny or add water is too thick.

Mix the meat in to the stock and season the mixture (salt and perhaps pepper)

Make it all in to a Lasagne!

I'm a horse now

Poppy is obsessed with Owen and Daisy's hay.

I think it has bits of something in it (maybe chestnuts) that she wants to eat.

I don't think she would like to be a horse as horses don't get to spend the evening and night on the sofa they have to stay outside. Brrrr.

Colds

Doug and I have both had colds for a few days now. Finally getting better, though still not feeling great.
There seem to be a lot of people ill at the moment both here and in the UK.

We had Pork Katsu curry to make ourselves feel better. We also had lemon and ginger but not with the cutry.
Normally I think Poppy doesn't have the empathy dogs are meant to as she bounces all over people when they are ill or hurt, but she has been very quiet and obliging for a few days - OMG maybe she is ill too!

Lemon meringue pie

Pie dish 30cm diameter and 5cm deep
This size fits the round pastry from our supermarket
Short crust pastry to cover the pie dish. It can be sweet or not (or puff pastry also works)
Lemon curd (or other flavour curd or apple puree) to fill the dish about 1.5 cm deep (this recipe makes the right amount)
Meringue  (4 egg whites, 200g sugar)

Blind bake the pastry while you make the meringue
To make the meringue beat the egg whites until stiff and standing in peaksa. Add the sugar and beat a little bit more until well mixed.
Put in the curd and then the meringue - spoon the meringue round the edge first and smooth it to touch the pastry, then fill in the middle

Cook for 30 mins at 180°C

Yet more skiing photos

Lots of the snow melted because it got warm and rained. But then it got colder again and snowed for a couple of days while we were up there creating a winter wonderland a new.

However the light was quite flat and it was hard to ski because everything just looked white and it was really hard to see dips and stuff, resulting in a few falls when my brain freaked out that the world had flipped upside down.

We were just about to call it a day when all of a sudden the sun came out and we were able to ski the beauuuutiful powder. Out legs our now knackered!

You will notice Doug's new jacket.