Chicken Burgers

What to do with an old, crotchety rooster? Sick of stewed chicken? Try this one-it is a beaut and even my 'have to have grain fed beef' husband liked it.


Take one crotchety old rooster, chop off his head and feet, take off most of the feathers, gut and skin him. Then take off all the meat you can with a short, sharp knife and place in a bowl. You can cook the bones and leftover meat & giblets with veggies in water for some nice stock; just remember to take out the oil gland first.

Take one pound of the meat and grind it up in a meat grinder.

Add
3 banty hen eggs
1 small onion (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 tsp poultry seasoning
salt and pepper

Mix well with your hands, divide into 4 parts and make 4 patties. I fried these up on our Forman Grill and they cooked fast and did not fall apart. Probably would do well on cast iron, but an outdoor grill they may fall apart so use foil.

I made mine with pickles, cheese, and spicy brown mustard, Dave had his with BBQ sauce and they both were great.


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I ended up canning a dozen pints of diced tomatoes and made 4 meals worth of marinara sauce for 6 bucks. Not bad, I thought. ( compared with many home canners it is a pittance, but you have to start where you are, right?)

Did three more chickens yesterday, got REALLY sick of the plucking which seems to take me forever, especially with dark feathered birds, so went on-line to check out chicken pluckers. Found the Deliberate Agrarian, http://thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com/and spend hours researching the blogosphere and bought plans to make my own Whiz Bang chicken plucker. Dave thought the design sounded like absolute bunk (he has never seen a plucker before) so I found this great video ... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2011520544379610860

And we had a convert.

Now I had no idea the community which is on-line of folks who are homesteading. The really nice thing is that they are all works in progress, they all started out where I am now, and they are all are just down to earth, conservative folks. I think I will be spending more time there than the forums I had been on, which quite frankly are upsetting and unhealthy for me. I wish we could go with a full committment to this lifestyle, but when you are married to an engineer that is not going to happen. I can do my best, however, with what we have.

We also went with Steve (BIL) and tried to play tennis in town, but it was too hot and muggy so we gave up, and went to Penn Yan swimming with the dogs. Tom loves to swim, and after a while we got Nick to go out as well. Tallulah the Bull Terrier had her life vest on and she swam and swam with Jack the mutt chasing balls. She was so happy to be in the cool water, she is not built for heat. I mainly stayed with the dogs to make sure Tallulah did not see the little girl with the big pink ball down the beach. She has a thing for big balls, and would have run over and stolen it, not endearing us to the parents any.

Today The boys and I went picking blueberries at the U-pick down the road. Got 7 lbs, put up 9 pints of jam and have some left over for muffins and general eating. I would like to pick more to freeze. It was $1.25 per pound, so about 9 bucks for the lot. More than I would have liked to pay, I seriously am thinking to just buy bushes this fall. We also stopped at the cheese shop in town, we have been here 3 years and this is the first time we stopped. I talked to the owner for a few minutes, got some samples...yummy..... and bought cheese curds and smoked Havarti (our favorite of the samples.) I wouldn't say how much it cost, it is embarrassing, but we are supporting the local economy and it was so goooood!

So I need to finish cleaning up, and find something to do this afternoon. It is looking hazy, hot and humid with maybe approaching thunderstorms so I might just stick around and work on sewing those curtains I have been working on.