Remember that rosemary artisan bread I made awhile back? Well, it is so popular around here I’m finding that I make it two or three times a week right now and I’ve been adding little variations to it just to see what tastes the best.

I made it again last night except this time I added a pinch of dill and some black pepper and it came out even better than the original!

Before that, I kept the original recipe and just shredded some pepper jack on top of it before cooking it and it had this perfect cheesy crust on it when it was finished. Next time I think I’ll add cheese to the dough itself and try that out.

I’m also considering making pumpkin soup now after accidentally almost making some with my Vitamix blender the other day.

I had roasted and pureed one of my sugar pumpkins to bake with and left the blender running a bit too long and it was well on its way to being steaming hot by the time I turned the machine off. I’d nearly forgotten that Vitamix is known for the ability to make soup quickly and also shred an Iphone in record time, I think. 😄

So I had to let it cool down before I could use it and as I was waiting I was looking at pumpkin soup recipes. I have never had it so I don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like and I have no clue what a good recipe would be, but I picked three based on reviews and will narrow them down to try one later.

Who knows, it might be delicious and we’ve been missing out this whole time! I certainly still have plenty of pumpkins from the garden to use. They are very hardy and seem to be keeping their freshness just fine as long as I store them in the root cellar under the stairs.

Speaking of that, I need to get under there and fix it up better. We finished upgrading the inside of the coop so it’s better insulated now. We used some thick plastic sheeting to cover the walls and doorway with..

It still lets the airflow through which was the problem we were having last year. We kept Fred and a few of his breeder girls in the blue coop which is pretty air tight and it actually caused him to get frost bite on his comb we learned from the vet. So this year we’re keeping him in the big, airier coop and we’ve shut off the blue one entirely to the chickens. Next spring we’re going to give it to the ducks and keep Fred and the girls away from it.

We have a few ideas for next year, and hopefully we’ll get to some projects we just couldn’t do last summer because of that infernal heat! I had wanted to paint my 100 year old antique cart but that didn’t happen. Right now I’m using it for a bird feeding station because I’m too lazy to pull the other feeders down off their tall pole in the deep snow.

It’s hard to see but I put seed and other treats out for them on the trays and shelf where the flowers usually set. Now I just have to sit at the dining room window and wait for them to come so I can get some good bird pictures…