All posts by Munchkin

Amusing, Belize

Oh Chicken!

Hello!  This is definitely my last entry on the chicken experience…I actually had a dream (bad) last night that I was in a hotel room and there were chickens running amok after me.  Gnome says I have chicken in the brain (?medical term) and that it is best that I stop eating chicken for a while. (Or should I play number 22 in lotto??!!).

Okay, so I have pictures this time!  Gnome dug two pits; one for bread and one for chicken.

Cooking Over Coals.
Double Pit.

I made the bread with 3 parts flour and 1 part oats and placed it in a greased cast-iron pot.  We aimed for 45 minutes but at 22 minutes, I sniffed the air and smelt some burning.  We quickly opened it up and the upper crust was burnt.  Nevertheless, the bread was cooked perfectly to a hot fluffiness.  We cut the top part off and juggled pieces around to get the freshly baked bread into our mouths.  Oooh scrumptious hot bread…

Campfire Bread.

Next time, we will bake the bread for 15 minutes and Gnome says we should put raisins in it for something different.

And, we did the potatoes in the usual way; put in paper bags soaked in water and then placed under shallow coals for about 45 to 60 minutes. The skin gets hard on the outside like a shell and the coals give it a charcoal flavour.

Camp Fire Potatoes.

The chicken; this time it was a smaller 5lb chicken and our estimate of 60 minutes was a bit too much so the skin got slightly burnt.  It was still very, very tasty and dripping with juice and flavour.  The test stuffing was composed of mashed potato, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and water chestnuts.  We also added raisins since Gnome’s mother suggested that some dried fruits would go very well; this was a very nice addition.  The stuffing was a success and absorbed the flavour of the chicken very well.

Camp Fire Chicken.

We think that it should be 10 minutes cooking time per 1lb of chicken so the 5lb chicken should only need about 45 to 50 minutes next time.  We also halved unpeeled onions and placed them around the chicken…these caramelized (??burnt really to be honest with you) too much but still tasted good.  The onion was so so soft that it could be scooped out of the onion shell.

Cam Fire Onions.

Verdict: we are getting quite confident at cooking with coals…it is practice, practice, practice as per usual.  Here are some (coffee table  magazine) pictures for you to look at so that you can live vicariously through the Munchkin and Gnome Blog (Ha-Ha!!).

Firewood.
Chicken Pot.

Okay, this ends the chicken experience and I will endeavour to write on a different topic and then get funny dreams about that too…

Amusing, Belize, Food

The Gate and The Chicken.

Hello!!  Another exciting update on Munchkin and Gnome!!  Well, the gate is up and Gnome is none too pleased about it.  The gate is now becoming a continuing saga (nightmare?); last time I mentioned that the 16 foot gate was too heavy for both of us to lift so Gnome had to resort to sawing it in half.

Gnome Work.

He did that and subsequently hung each side up.  And guess what?  I heard the lament of a Gnome; it was kinda whiny and desperate and I immediately ran to his aid.

Poor Gnome!

Oh dear…with the two sides of the gate hung up, one side was too long so the gate wouldn’t close.  We have had to overlap one side over the order in order to close the gate.  You’ve got to laugh (or cry, in the case of Gnome).  By sawing it in half he forgot to account for the extra space required to hinge two sides instead of one.  So here you are; it still works…as a gate…it just doesn’t close snugly!  I did try to make Gnome feel better but he would have none of it!

Gate.

Okay, that’s just life and life is really okay.  Oh, I have to tell you about the chicken!  So, we are experimenting with cooking over coals since we would like to have Christmas turkey (camp-style)this year.  As a test run, we have been cooking chicken.  I rubbed a 8lb chicken with salt, white pepper and Italian herbs and placed it in our cast iron pot which was pre-greased on the inside.  Gnome dug a shallow hole (about 6 inches) into the ground and proceeded to start a fire.  Once he had coals he filled the pit with coals and placed the pot on top and then shoveled coal around it and on top so that it was completely encased in coals.

Dutch Oven Under Coals.

We also placed whole potatoes in brown paper bags (soaked in water) and put them under coals; we have done this before…Gnome (TM) idea which gives lovely, fluffy roasted potatoes in one hour.  After about 45 minutes, the waft of roasted chicken made us feel soooo hungry, we had to start with some potatoes first.  We finally decided to open up the pot at 90 minutes and the chicken was cooked…absolutely beautifully.  The skin was roasted and crisped to perfection and the meat was succulent and tender!  We tucked into it right away because we were starving by then and oh dear…I neglected to take a photograph.  Sorry!!  No picture but it was truly delicious and we both agreed that it was the best way to cook chicken and we swore that we would never eat chicken any other way from then on!

Anyway…since it was so good, we have decided (it didn’t take much to make this decision) to do another chicken test but this time we need to do a stuffing test.  We have decided on the following for the stuffing: mashed potato with diced carrots, shiitake mushrooms and diced water chestnuts.  Okay so this time round, I will try to to take a picture before stuffing my face.  🙂  Otherwise I run the risk of over-doing it with cartoony pictures to make up for my lack of real pictures (as I am doing right now).  🙂

After all these test runs, the Christmas turkey should be perfect!!  🙂

Amusing, Belize, Food, Plants

The Chicken Test…

Shhhh…it is quiet right now.  We went down to Punta Gorda today and it was amazingly quiet; I actually got through bank queues in record time.  Everyone is laying low before the Christmas and New Year festivities.  It is so nice just to experience this quiet…and back on the farm, none of the animals know about Christmas so it is nothing different.  So, shhhh…don’t tell the geese it’s Christmas soon…they might get rowdier and demand a Christmas party!

Anyway we are preparing for Christmas:

We are going to roast a turkey in a huge dutch oven for Christmas and we have never done it before.  So, tonight we are doing a test run with a chicken.  Gnome is going to dig a pit, fill it up with coals and then stick the dutch oven in the hole and cover it up…kinda like an underground cast iron oven. We managed to find an 8lb chicken so I think we are going to be eating chicken sandwiches until Christmas day.

Campfire.

Anyway, I also would like to show my usual pictures of plants and vegetables around the farm:

What beautiful plants: tobacco.  I just like looking at these plants; the leaves are so big and luscious.  The flowers have a unique exotic floral scent that comes out on balmy nights:

Tobacco.
Row of Tobacco.

Peanut butter fruit; when these ripen to a deep red colour, they taste just like peanut butter.  The birds always get them so you need to get up early for these ones!

Peanut Butter Fruit.

Vetiver: the roots are distilled to produce the classic vetiver essential oil.  You need lots and lots of these plants to get a 1/2 oz of oil!

Vetiver.

Can’t help it: I love looking at my vegetables!  This is serosi or bitter gourd.

Bitter Gourd.

Ooooh, another butterfly.  Aren’t they lovely…

Butterfly.

Hope the chicken cooks well….

Amusing, Belize, Construction

We Can’t Lift The Gate!

Ha-Ha!!  This is toooo funny!!  This one is Farm Job #507 and has been on the waiting list for 18 months.  The front gate fell apart due to termites and it has been such a pain (physical) for Gnome since he has to manually remove the gate every-time we need to leave the farm.  So at long last we have got to this job…Gnome did all the measuring and designing and then we ordered the hardwood.  He said:

“Aha!!  This time I am making one big gate to stretch across so I only need to hinge one side…”

The brand new gate was designed with wheels to take the weight and on paper, it seemed like a practical and well-thought out design.  Well, Gnome put the gate together and…

New Gate.

…we can’t lift it!!  It’s way too heavy.  In the picture you can see the old gate which is really quite wonky and needs replacing.

Okay, so back to the drawing board…Gnome will be sawing the gate in half and we will have two sides to the gate and yes, he will have to hinge both sides.  Oh well, we just have to have a normal gate!!

Gnome:

“…well, not actually that normal!  One side will be longer than the other!”

Ha-Ha, I just had to laugh at that.  Also, the wood has just been freshly cut and not seasoned so they are all bananas.  Whenever Gnome does a wood project, we usually joke about him lining up the bananas!  Nothing is straight and nothing fits despite obsessive Gnome measuring!

Old gate when it was working:

The Gate.

When we have the gate up it will be a cause for celebration.  Some more Harvey’s Bristol Cream, methinks!

Amusing, Belize, Pets

Star Trek Duckie!

We have a new little duckie to look after and this one has been raised on Star Trek: The Original series (as-well as the usual food, water, greens and Munchkin & Gnome love).  This is funny:  Duckie whistles to the Star Trek tune and when we switch off the sound, she sends out distress calls!  I am experimenting to see if certain TV programs affect the intellect and temperament of ducklings.  After telling Gnome that we might have an extremely bright Star Trek duckie, Gnome said,

“Munchkin…maybe you should get out a bit more.”

He has mentioned this already when I was going on about rehabilitating a bullied goose!  This is just our silly banter.

Anyway, here are some fun pictures:

This was Day 1; she was a bit spaddled but otherwise able to stand.  This is a picture of her really trying to stand upright with lots of concentration. Good Duckie!

New Duckie.

This is Cape Duckie; it is getting a bit colder so we gave her a little cape to run around in.  Also, Gnome is crocheting bits and bobs right now.

Another Duckie Picture

Yoga Duckie:

Duckie.

Duckie has been with us for 7 days now and is ready to go out; actually we are ready…they start pooping constantly and the fish tank (which is the temporary home) has to be wiped and cleaned every few hours.  Time to go to the Guinea Pig creche for more schooling…

Amusing, Belize

Christmas Has Come Early!

Just a quickie! Look what treats we got today! Anyone in the UK will be saying, “What’s the big deal!”  Well, the big deal is that we are in Belize and these things are hard to come by.  Well, we had to have a little bit of everything to try out just before Christmas…just a smidgen…Ha-Ha!!  Anyway, a big Thank-you to Joyce and Graham from British Belize Foods.

By the way, what happened to the coffee creams in Quality Street? They were always the ones left at the bottom of the tin.  I like the red and orange ones and Gnome likes the purple ones.  If you grew up with Quality Street, you will know what we are talking about!

Christmas Goodies.
Belize, Blog, Philosophy

Why Munchkin and Gnome?

Nobody (dares?) asks us but I think that it would be good to tell you why we use personae to portray ourselves.  Firstly, we think that it is funny and we think it is fun to make fun of ourselves.  Also, it is innovative because our writing is all original (our thoughts and personal experiences) and not a re-hash of some other website or some other person/expert/consultant/master of whatsits.  It is our attempt at humour in order offset the extremely (we think) dystopic nature of news, television and media.  Munchkin and Gnome want to to keep the magic of living whilst still keeping a firm ground on reality…that’s why we dig our own dirt, grow our own food and write silly stories about our animals.

Amusing, Belize

Goosie Bump Done Gone!!

So. did the bump go first or after?  Our Chiney Goose (Chiney White) had an enormous bump (knob) at the top of the beak, which is characteristic of a Chinese goose, and  the bump is slowly shrinking…

The former “second in command” goosie has been ostracised by the rest of the group and he has been forced to swim in circles on the pond all by his lonesome self.  What happened??

So, the big question is:

Bump Done Gone Goosie.

“Did the bump go first which led to the bullying…or did the bullying come first leading to poor self-esteem and then the loss of the bump.”

Gnome’s response:

“Munchkin, maybe you should get out a bit more…”

Okay, so Gnome isn’t interested in goosie psychology (nor goosie psychotherapy or rehabilitation) so let’s move swiftly onto our usual farm pictures.

Here is a picture of our first sorrel (roselle) flower which means that we will have a Christmas harvest.  This is a picture for Joanna (you know who you are!!).

Sorrel Flower.
Fresh Sorrel.

This is a wild plant…it looks like a Christmas decoration, don’t you think?

Ooooh and an owl butterfly that wondered into our house.  Aren’t they pretty…

Owl Butterfly.

Have a great Saturday!!

Amusing, Belize, Food, Plants

Winter Time in Belize!!

Hello!!  It’s winter time in Belize so temperatures are about 20 Celsius (that’s 68 Fahrenheit for Northern Americans and oldish British people…oh dear, was that politically incorrect of me to say that).  Anyway, it’s woolly hat and jumper time, that’s what I am trying to get at.   It is the last day of November and I am scared of December…I feel that it is going to whizz by…and another year is gone again.  Gnome’s comment:

“How can you get scared of a month…I can understand if it’s a big hairy dog or something…but there are no claws and gnashing teeth…”

Yes he’s right and I can’t do anything about it except maybe try to have some fun and magic (Ha-Ha!!).  Okay, more plant pictures:

This is great way to use up discarded paper and cardboard; I tear them into strips and bits and put them in between the vegetable plants.  This stops the weeds from coming up (believe me…this is a brilliant idea because it saves me from weeding everyday) and the cardboard is great mulch.  We have rocket and kale on the Munchkin menu right now:

Rocket and Kale.

This here is a very interesting fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, otherwise known as Miracle fruit.   This fruit is amazing and great for party tricks…you give somebody a miracle fruit to eat and then you give them a sour lime; the lime will actually taste really sweet.  This is because this fruit contains a natural chemical called miraculin which binds to the tongue’s taste buds causing sour things to taste sweet; the effect lasts between 15 to 30 minutes.  It can probably be used as a natural sweetener for diabetics or people who want to cut down their sugar consumption.  Apparently, this fruit originated from West Africa where they traditionally use this fruit to sweeten palm wine.  This would be an interesting additive for one of Gnome’s fermented beverages.

Miracle Fruit.

We both like bitter gourd or serosi as they call it here.  It appears to grow very well in buckets.  We’ve managed to grow a third generation fruit (by natural selection)  that is 2feet (60cm) in length.  Normal fruits average about a foot in length.  We are trying to grow the longest bitter gourd in the world…maybe get into the Guinness Book of World Records..Ha-Ha!!

Bitter Gourd Trellis.

Oh and this one is very interesting…this is the toothache plant.  When you bite into the flower, you get a tingling sensation in the mouth followed by a numbing sensation.  Good for toothaches hence the name.  According to Wiki, the leaves can be eaten in salads; I might try experimenting with the flowers and leaves to use as flavouring for sauces and relishes.

Toothache Plant.

These flowers are supposed to attract fireflies at night.  I questioned the validity of the statement and said to Gnome: “I haven’t seen fireflies, have you?”

Gnome:

“We haven’t seen the fireflies at night because  that’s when we close up the house and run off to bed!!”

Toothache Plant Flowers.

Have a lovely Thursday and let’s all have a magical December…

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Food

Hard Work!

 

The work is never done and there isn’t enough time in the day.  There isn’t enough time to write blog posts either!  Okay, so what’s happening…well, I will start off with my usual joviality.  Since we have been so busy on the farm, I haven’t kept up with harvesting fruits and so the place is teeming with blackbirds and jays.  They’ve been stealing all the starfruit and peach palm.  They are not leaving a single one for us:

Munchkin: “This is daylight robbery.  The blackbirds are robbing us blind!”

Gnome:

“Sing a song of sixpence
A pocket full of rye.
FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS,
BAKED IN A PIE!”
Oh yes, we were willing to eat iguana curry because we were losing our vegetable garden to them.  Well, now we have declared war again…this time, it is the blackbirds!
Bird.

The cat does his job…now and then…catching birds (I mean)…but not consistently enough…

Cat eating Bird.
Okay, so we are painting the veranda and putting railings up.  Also, there has been so much erosion, from rains, around the house that the ground is getting washed away!  Gnome has come up with a great plan to make partially raised beds, about 1/2 foot in height, and filling them up with our usual sawdust and seaweed.  Since water pools in these areas around the house, we have decided to grow peppermint and taro (or any other aquatic plants that we can think of) in these beds so that they can soak up all the water.  That sounds lovely…imagine the aroma of beds of mint around the house!

Fresh Mint.
 Next on the list, is fixing up the gate because it is falling over.  The list is endless!  Anyway, we still try to add a nice touch to things so today we are going to go shopping in Punta Gorda (this is a rare event for Munchkin and Gnome…the shopping, I mean) and buy some Christmas lights for our new veranda.
Have a lovely weekend!!