Happy New Year 2014!

Our party tonight is 80's themed, the decorations (and people) are pretty wild lookin'! Have a fun night, more later Lord willing :)!

~ Hanunyah

Just a few pics

Man, it's been a while since I last posted! My Grandmother was here for 3 weeks, we've had a couple parties, a couple goats have been born, etc. Thanksgiving is in a week, a great excuse to party again and make tons of food that we'll probably live off of for days ;). I don't have a recipe ready to share, but pictures? Yep!

Mom and a few of my sisters, just being goofballs :)

"Blondie", one of our Mini Nubian does

"Wheeze", Nubian doe

The herd (well, part of it)

"Honeybun", one of our Alpine does

One of the Nubian babies born a little over a week ago - the buckling

The doeling

 And last but not least . . . my sweet baby!

~ Hanunyah

Lemon Basil Pineapple Banana Smoothie

And . . . it's August. Summer is coming to an end. The does are coming into heat; breeding season is in full swing, so that keeps me a little extra busy. Exiting tho, because you know what that means? In about 5 months we should be knee-deep in baby goats! Yeah, that time of year is tiring and exciting. But, we're still here in summer, and coming into fall. Rock out the end of summer with a cool, different, refreshing smoothie! 

1 cup or so of pineapple
two or three bananas
handful of fresh lemon basil
ice cubes
two or three tablespoons of honey (omit, or adjust as desired)
two cups of water

Blend in vitamix until smooth. Drink!

~ Hanunyah

Goat Pics!

I thought since I don't always have a recipe to share lately, I might as well post anyway! And what am I often busy with? GOATS! :)

BB checking out an antique chair

Red boer doe

Unruly children! Haha

The lovely Bubbles (registered Nubian doe)

~ Hanunyah

July 4th Party!

We had a great party, I hope you did! Sorry I'm late for posting. The party was hosted by some great neighbors. We were in charge of most of the desserts ;). My sisters made cupcakes, a flag cake, a grain and sugar-free cake topped with (goat) cream cheese and berries and grain and sugar-free banana bread. I made M&M cookies (CCC's made with M&M's instead of chocolate chips), some filled with fresh marshmallow, and 3 cheesecakes - blueberry (that lemon recipe adapted, omitting the zest and using ground blueberries instead of the lemon juice), vanilla, and strawberry/raspberry (again, the lemon recipe adapted, omitting the zest, using ground strawberries instead of the lemon juice and adding some chopped raspberries). I added a topping to all of the cheesecakes (cream cheese, sugar and vanilla blended up, berries also if it was a berry cheesecake) because a couple we're so pretty :).

grain and sugar-free cake topped with (goat) cream cheese and berries

~ Peace,
Hanunyah

Fresh Lemon Cheesecake

It's now officially summer as of Friday. How'd that happen? My blog is stuck in winter still!

So, whatcha think? Fresh lemon cheesecake sound good?

One of my sisters has been asking for some kind of lime pie or cheesecake. We were out of limes, but she said lemon would do ;). With lemons on the counter and homemade goat cream cheese in the fridge, I was set to get creating!

Normally when I make cheesecake I don't really follow the rules - in other words, basically just throw everything together and bake it. It turns out good that way, but it's way better if you take a some extra steps.

1. Bring your ingredients to room temperature.
2. Beat very well (I used an electric mixture) so that it's nice smooth. I beat the cream cheese first, then add the other ingredients and beat more.
3. Bake it in a water bath. This ensures slow, even cooking.
4. Do not over-bake. When it is mostly set but still jiggly in the middle, it is done.
5. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in the oven for 1 hour after it is done baking. I was unable to do this this time because there were other things in the oven, but I did leave it in the water bath so that it cooled slower.
6. Run a knife around the edge of the pan to prevent cracking.
7. Chill WELL before serving, overnight is recommended.
8. To slice, dip your knife in warm water and wipe dry before cutting each slice.

I was told by my friends and family that this was the best cheesecake I've ever made. So ya, it was a hit :).

Fresh Lemon Cheesecake
Recipe created by Hanunyah Fish
gluten-free, cow dairy-free, corn-free

3 cups (24 oz) homemade goat cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
3 tablespoons GF flour (I used rice)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
rind of 2 lemons, grated
your favorite pie crust, baked

Beat the cream cheese. Add the remaining ingredients and beat well. Pour into prepared pie crust and bake for 20-30 minutes, until mostly set but jiggly in the middle. Run a knife around the edge of the pan to prevent cracking. Turn off the oven and leave to cool for 1 hour. Remove from oven to refrigerator to cool completely. Dip a knife in warm water and wipe dry before slicing.

~ Hanunyah

Linked to Gluten-Free Wednesdays by The Gluten-Free Homemaker

Homemade Cereal Time!

Happy June! The weather is getting warm here, but with a few cool and rainy days still.

Yesterday my sister and I made some cereal. We don't buy it from the store, so we thought it'd be nice to make some and stock up. She made some granola and Cinnamon Squares.

That reminded me why I like to have a blog . . . I may have lost that cinnamon cereal recipe had I not put it on here. I created it over a year ago, and even though it was very good, I just . . . forgot about it for whatever reason. So, that poor recipe is now revived ;). We used all rice flour since we're out of the buckwheat.

I also made a variation of Nicole Hunn's Mini 'Nilla Wafer Cereal from her blog, Gluten Free On A Shoestring. They are just so cute :)! I did change it around a bit - first, I doubled the recipe because I just knew I should. We were out of vanilla . . . yes, vanilla, the key flavor in the little cookies. I used about 1/2 cup cream cheese for the double batch, just to help give it a little flavor. They turned out great, and were a hit (they are all gone). They were pretty soft (not a bad thing), which I'm sure is because I added cream cheese. They weren't as uniform as Nicole's . . . I need some work there :).

Here's some cute kids to brighten your day!

Hilarious little gal! Just taking a nap on mama.

Naptime on mom is the best! LOL.

Handsome boy.

Pretty doeling.

Peace,
~ Hanunyah

Laua *Party*!

Vanilla Orange layer cake with a Hibiscus flower I drew on it (I used a stencil :) )

Saturday we had a hawaiian themed party. Several of my friends and family have birthdays in the month of May, plus it was Mother's Day weekend and so we rolled it all up into one big party! It was a really great party, we all had fun. Coconut race, singing, candle dance, banana pass, dancing, etc.

"Hairy", the coconut, was not someone to mess with! If you were caught with him when the music was randomly stopped, you'd get water, ice, banana, orange juice or whipped cream in your face! :)

As usual, there was tons of desserts. Here's just a few more pictures of the cake I made. I couldn't find any of the other desserts (my sisters made cookies, cakes, bars and fudge).

I hope you all had a good mother's day! I made some Black Gold Cookies for Grandma, she always appreciates them and I hadn't made them in awhile for some reason. 

Well, sorry this wasn't a long post . . . I am pretty tuckered out. We had a late night last night also, we had 2 does kid. That was quite eventful. Let me just say we had 6 kids out and were in bed by 2am :).

~ Hanunyah

Carrot Banana Orange Cream Shake

Ah! I at least try to post on here once a month, but there is no post on here for the month of April! But, the last time I posted it was the very day March 31, so maybe that will make up for it ;). The internet has been tweaky lately (on/off), and we even lost power a couple weeks ago because of a severe storm.

Storm April 18

Things have been going pretty well. The animals have been doing alright, but we've had some problems because the weather has been soooo up and down. So we've been busy with spring cleaning (the house and barn! well, actually, both are barns - we just live in one LOL), treating animals besides the regular care, and bottling the 20 bottle babies we have. Yep, 20. It actually doesn't seem like that many - maybe it's because either they're organized into groups or we're used to it - or both.

Bottle kids enjoying the green. Yep, they are still on the bottle . . . we spoil our kids!

It's May. It's the month of M-A-Y, ok? The weather is supposed to be nice like spring, right? It was 80 degrees a couple days ago, and the next day it was like 40! One day we're sweating and the next it's freezing rain! So ya, that's what I mean by the weather has been up and down. No wonder why some of the goats have gotten pneumonia. This can't be good for us humans either :). This is Oklahoma after all.

Dogwood flowers

Even if it doesn't look like spring outside, maybe this nice fruity shake will help get you in that spring mood.

And yes, I know I'm weird. I put weird things in my shakes. At least I don't put the whole quail egg in, shell and all, like some my family does . . . I just tend not to like sand in my shake.

Presenting you with yet another of my breakfast creations . . .

Carrot Banana Cream Shake
Hanunyah Creation

3-4 quail eggs
1 frozen banana -OR- 1 banana, peeled + 3 ice cubes
1 orange, peeled
1/4-1/2 of the orange peel
1 carrot, washed or peeled, whichever you prefer
1 1/2 cups raw goat milk (or cow or non-dairy milk)

Blend up and chug! :) You may add a cup of oatmeal to this shake (before blending) if you'd like to make it more filling, but I find I do better without grains.

A few more pictures . . .

The special girls, Tiny Bit (left) and Trauma (right)

A couple of the pregnant does.

Storm April 18

Storm April 18

Storm April 18

Storm April 18. This is where we drained our pond. It appears lightning struck it. There was ash there where those dark streaks are.

Storm April 18. This is a pine tree on our property that was struck by lightning. 

Storm April 18. A Dogwood flower in the creek.

~ Hanunyah

Happy 19th Birthday to My Sweet Sister, Suriyah

Friday was my older sister, Suriyah's 19th birthday. It was a great day, ending with a party and cake :). Love you sis!

The cake: 2 layer vanilla cake with a filling of cake crumbs, cocoa powder and marshmallow fluff (homemade, recipe to come soon, Lord willing!), frosted with marshmallow fluff and dusted with cocoa powder.

~ Hanunyah

Homemade Butterfinger Candy Bars

A coule months ago or so I was working on making my own recipe for butterfingers. I made up an idea and tried it - melting sugar, adding peanut butter and baking soda. I tried it and it worked . . . mostly. They were too hard. I made them making slight variations. It wasn't perfect, and I sort of forgot about it. I did use the hard butterfinger-flavored candy in a cheesecake . . . that was very good, and I repeated that even thought the candy wasn't just right.

My little sister (who just turned 8) has been in the kitchen a lot lately. She makes donuts, almost completely by herself! Yesterday she wanted to make hard candy, but we couldn't make the one we usually make because we were out of corn syrup and cream of tartar (it would crystalize without one of those). But, I remembered that the butterfingers didn't need one of those. So, I added some sugar to a pot and told her to stir it. I stirred, and gathered the other ingredients. As a somewhat last-minute decision, I decided to add another 1/2 cup of peanut butter because I remembered that they were too hard last I made them. After pouring into the pan and washing the pot, I went to score them and ta-da! I think it worked! Once they were completely cooled, I realized it was a success. They were almost just right, but I think they needed to tad more crunchy. So, I think 1 1/3 cups peanut butter would be perfect, not 1 cup and not 1 1/2 cups.

A quick note . . . I've never got to dipping these every time I've made them ;).

Homemade Butterfinger Candy Bars
Hanunyah Creation
gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free

2 cups sugar, white or brown
1 1/3 cups peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda

In a medium-size pot over medium to medium-high heat, add the 2 cups sugar. Stirring constantly, melt the sugar with NO water, only sugar in the pot. First it becomes clumps, then the clumps melt. Stir until there are no chunks left. Even if you use white sugar, the sugar should be a dark golden color at this point. Remove from heat immediately.

Add the peanut butter, vanilla and baking soda and quickly stir to combine. Pour into the prepared pan.

After a few minutes (when it's not really hot but it's not cool) deeply score into bars - big or small depending on your preference. Cool completely, break apart and dip in melted chocolate (if they make it to that point, that is ;) ).


Sorry I don't have a picture of these to share . . . I plan on making (and dipping) them to take pictures sometime soon. Right now we're out of chocolate chips, though.

~ Hanunyah

Link Parties:
Gluten-free Wednesdays @ The Gluten-Free Homemaker

Banana Peanut Butter Avocado Pie

Weird creations! Remember the Celery 'N' Peanut Butter Cake? Well, celery and peanut butter is a good combo, but it's not usually put into cake unless someone weird like me makes a cake out of it. This pie, however is different. Banana + peanut butter is a common combo, but avocado with that? Strange.

What's one to do with so many avocados? Drink a Chocolate Banana Avocado Smoothie for breakfast, and eat a Banana Peanut Butter Avocado Pie for dessert . . . or lunch (it's healthy enough, right?).

It's actually pretty good. You wouldn't know it had avocado in it if it weren't for the strange color. Thick and creamy no-bake banana peanut butter filling poured into a simple press-in-the-pan pie crust. You want to try it yourself?

Banana Peanut Butter Avocado Pie
Hanunyah Creation
Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Corn-free

2 avocados
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 bananas
1/4 cup brown sugar
7 quail eggs or 2 chicken eggs
Press-in-the-Pan Oil Pie Crust (recipe below) or your favorite pie crust, baked and cooled

Blend all ingredients together in a Vita-Mix or blender. Pour into the baked and cooled crust. Chill for a few hears or overnight. You may also freeze the pie.

Press-in-the-Pan Oil Pie Crust
Adapted from the Pillsbury Cookbook

1 cup oat flour
3/4 cup rice flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg

Mix all ingredients together. The mixture should stick together and form a rough ball. Press into a 9" pie pan and bake at 425F for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.


~ Hanunyah

Link Parties:
Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays @ Blessed with Grace
Gluten-Free Wednesdays @ The Gluten-Free Homemaker

Chocolate Banana Avocado Smoothie

I haven't done much with avocados because they are usually expensive. Well the other day my dad got a really good deal on them and came home with about 60 avocados.

Every morning I make some kind of creation with raw quail eggs because they are really good for you and we get tons of them right now. So, this morning I threw in the blender an avocado, a ripe banana, 4 quail eggs, a few tablespoons of cocoa powder, a handful of ice cubes and about a cup of fresh raw goat milk, blending it into a thick and smooth mixture. I poured it into a jar and walked out to the barn to watch this goat kid.

A 10.5 lb buckling! Poor mama, we had to assist this one.

~ Hanunyah

Food on Friday @ Carole's Chatter

New 'N' Fresh Blog Design 2013!

Just finished the new blog design! It definitely needed a fresh look. New year, new look!

~ Hanunyah

Banana "Ice-cream" with Toasted Coconut and Almonds

 A breakfast creation of mine that my father has asked for a couple times now :). Very healthy and yummy. The nutritional quail eggs add a delightfully rich flavor to the creamy, frozen bananas combined with the flavor of toasted coconut and the crunch of almonds.


Banana "Ice-cream" with Toasted Coconut and Almonds


Hanunyah Creation
gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, sugar-free, starch-free, corn-free, soy-free

Simply blend up 4 quail eggs and 2 bananas in a high-speed blender (Vita-Mix). Place a few tablespoons of flaked coconut and a small handful of raw almonds on a plate and microwave for about 30 seconds*. Top the banana mixture with the almonds and toasted coconut.

Notes:
*You may toast the coconut in the oven instead, if desired. 

~ Hanunyah

Food on Friday @ Carole's Chatter

Happy New Year 2013!

Sorry I'm late . . . the internet has been down and we've had a bad round of sickies in this family. The internet is back up this morning, so yay! Just here to say Happy New Year to you! The party went well and we were up late . . . well, actually, early - 4am ;).

~ Hanunyah