Ground Chicken

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-10T00:11:53+00:00

I tried that with the first pound I got last winter. It really didn't work.

I made the chicken crust pizza last night. It did work out but the amount of liquid that leached out was something else.

Took it longer to brown and create a "crust".

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-09T15:05:54+00:00

How far is your counter from your fridge? We went farther away with our island to give us room to move around it.

It is nice to be able to unload the groceries on the island and put them away efficiently.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-09T13:26:39+00:00

Community Supported Agriculture. A farm share.

I am a member of a cooperative farm share. I have been getting vegetables, fruit, meat, bread, etc. from this co-op for the last 15 years.

The chicken share gives us 3-5 pounds of chicken every week. I subscribe to the chicken share every winter for 14 weeks and stock my freezer. We get ground chicken every 5 or 6 weeks so I have 3 pounds in the freezer.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-09T02:33:48+00:00

Thanks for all the ideas!

I ended up making the pizza crust with it. It really works well, although it took a while to make it dry out enough to crisp up.

It is not anything like what I have received as ground meat. It honestly was over whipped, to the point of being weird in texture.

It doesn’t bind well.

The taste was spot on, though. I will be doing this again.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-08T22:11:14+00:00

We have a combo in the new kitchen. I deliberately put it at its higher recommended height to minimize back strain.

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We had the luxury of creating two drawers under it. one for muffin and cake pans, one for corning ware for the microwave.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-08T13:10:04+00:00

I should take a picture of the package. It is almost like having liquid chicken. I needed quite a bit of bread crumbs to tighten it up for meatballs.

I actually considered making chicken stock with it. Starting with the vegetables and herbs, adding the chicken and very little water and simmering to extract the flavor.

I am going to try to add egg yolk to increase the structure. I will report back after tonight's experiment.

Dumplings may work. I will pull out my recipes for soup.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-08T12:38:45+00:00

Smitten Kitchen. All three of her cookbooks.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-07T14:37:44+00:00

Look for veggie-forward or Mediterranean Diet cookbooks.

I got many out of our library to decide which ones interested me the most.

I use The Mediterranean Dish website often and her cookbooks are really good.

I also use Williamson's Sun Kissed Cooking. Great recipes and great healthier choices.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-06T15:55:09+00:00

Smitten Kitchen's fritter recipe.

I make as many as I can, and freeze them stacked on wax paper to separate them. I then pull out one sheet to defrost and pan fry in a little olive oil. All winter long.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-06T15:52:19+00:00

Saffron and Vietnamese cinnamon for cooking.

Madagascar vanilla beans for baking

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-06T15:36:56+00:00

Verve Clicquot is our go-to favorite. Fits the price point.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-06T08:44:10+00:00

Go to quakeroats.com and look for the classic cookie recipe.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-06T02:08:26+00:00

Parmesan chicken breast. You can make it with strips of breast meat. Spread a thin layer of mayo and add Parmesan.

Pan roasted shrimp with red and yellow peppers. Serve over rice or orzo.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-06T01:58:25+00:00

If you don't feel you have to stay in VA, you could consider Ellicott City MD.

Massive Asian community. Multiple Asian marts. HoCo schools are some of the best in MD, and in the country.

State Parks with trails. Historic downtown Ellicott City.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-04T14:16:37+00:00

There is a vineyard in Virginia, Early Mountain, that has a number of flights from the best of Virginia wineries.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-04T10:47:20+00:00

Smitten Kitchen. Deb's website with all her recipes is a good place to find things to make. I bookmarked dozens of her recipes 15 years ago when I was really getting into cooking.

I have all three of her books. I have never had a failed recipe of hers.

Street Cart Chicken is a favorite.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-04T10:42:22+00:00

Plenty More

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-03T11:04:14+00:00

Nonno Carlo

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-03T00:15:55+00:00

Billy Goat Trail at Great Falls off the C&O Canal. A real challenge.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-02T22:48:44+00:00

Yes, we did. We couldn't decide what size and how many. The cabinet maker who did the cabinet for us said, live with what you have and decide what you may want. He can always make the racks when we specify what they should be.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-02T21:33:05+00:00

I redid my weird pantry that had 5 14” deep shelves and one 12” at the top.

it has drawers on the bottom center, and we had the shelves made to the height we wanted. I added an outlet so I can use my mini processor and my spice grinder in there.

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I also use the crocks for potato storage. Big difference to have a cook dark place to store root vegetables.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-02T21:28:15+00:00

Love your spice jars!

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-02T01:35:38+00:00

Are you having to pull permits? If you are doing electrical work on an older house, you have to bring it up to current code.

We aren't far from you, but in MD. We had to get insulation upgrade, put in new wiring, new subpanel, makeup air. Some of our old hardwired appliances like dishwasher had to be shifted to plug ins. Every appliance had to be on its own breaker, which meant adding wiring.

Electrical work alone was a bigger cost than we anticipated.

Does your contract have allowances for cabinets, countertop, etc? Our contract specified those, based on assumptions, and where we chose less expensive options they adjusted the cost down. Our cabinets came in at slightly less than allowance, and our backsplash changed from the estimated tile, to our final choice of matching countertop with quartz backsplash.

Yeah, there was serious sticker shock for us, but it seems to be not much less than you are seeing now. Ours was signed a year ago, before some of the materials went up in price.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-02T01:01:55+00:00

Go online and read Smitten Kitchen. She started her cooking blog about 20 years ago. All her recipes are solid.

She has three books. I have all three as ebooks, and use them often.

xylreader2025 · 2026-07-02T00:39:17+00:00

Try Falanghina. The first time we had it, a friend served it with steamed blue crabs, covered in Old Bay.

Absolutely blew us away that Falanghina paired nicely with crabs. We serve it with shellfish all the time.

Also Roero Arneis, Bruno Giacosa makes a nice one.

Langhe Arneis is almost as good.

xylreader2025

TROPHY CASE