Hello everyone and welcome back to Wicked Quail and Pork Homestead- the blog. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook! We are a small family farm operating on a 3rd generation property. Prior to us purchasing the property from my grandfather, it was a beef farm. However, with 4 other beef farms nearby, and my strong opinion on chasing cattle and fixing fences.. we have changed it around a bit.
We have been raising swine for 8 years, we mentor anyone looking to get into the pork and piggo industry. Recently we switched to registered Idaho Pasture Pigs. We also have poultry, turkeys, ducks, quail. I think we may start leaning more towards the birds on the business end of things.
I am happy to say we have our meat rabbits back, that's one of my favorites due to sustainability and cost. We also recently brought in dairy sheep! Yum!
We are a small family with 2 kiddos, that love all things outdoors. We hope you enjoy all we have to offer, and we'd like to say.. Welcome, friend!
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I am editing this blog on a snowy winter day here in Maine, isn't that the perfect time to be writing? I think so. We get a fair amount of snow here and a lot of very chilly days. Our spring comes late and our fall comes early, but there is something to be said about living with all 4 seasons. I think it builds our coping abilities to natural disasters and storms.
We get small hurricanes in the spring and fall, we get either a drought or too much rain in the summer, and we deal with ice storms and windy -15 degree temps all winter. I do believe this makes the average Mainer tougher than nails when it comes to survival and dealing with the weather.
This past summer we had so much rain that we now have a huge wintertime hay shortage for livestock. We were seeing rain 4-6 days per week from June-August. I'm not too fond of the rain, by the way, so this was basically my worst nightmare. Wet dog feet, wet pastures, and parasites galore in the livestock. Ugh.
Wherever you live and whatever the weather, there is always time for a good comfort dish, am I right? What's your favorite comfort dish? Is it a nice beef stew? Maybe a heavy casserole?
This cream sauce is something I threw together using blue oyster mushrooms out of our Daybreak Grower's Alliance CSA box. If you are unfamiliar, head to our Facebook page to see our video review on them! They are a local farm service here in Maine where you order what you need from their site and then pick it up from one of their drop locations.
I find I use it most in the winter when fresh produce isn't coming in from the garden, it's a great way to stay on track with eating seasonally. But why is eating seasonally important? Well, when things are grown in their natural season, they have the best taste and the most nutrients. A lot of the time you can get good deals on produce that is in season, too! I encourage people to keep an eye on their local farm sites for seasonal bulk deals for preservation purposes.
I need to get better about writing my recipes down as I make them so that I can bring more of them to you guys. I cook as I go and don't really have a method in my kitchen so I never make anything the same way twice. That's not super useful when it comes to writing a blog and sharing recipes. I feel I write my recipe instructions a little more vague than most as well, if you find this makes it difficult to follow, please leave me a comment letting me know! I am always open to learning and adjusting for my audience.
If you enjoy a creamy, slightly cheesy, flavor-layered sauce on your pasta, you'll love this one. I know many people who struggle with red sauces due to the acidity in the tomatoes. I MUCH prefer a cream sauce over your typical red sauce because I am a chicken or shrimp over ground beef person and a good cream sauce goes great with chicken and shrimp!
Ingredients-
~1 stick of butter
~4 chicken thighs
~2 cloves of garlic
~Salt and pepper to taste
~2 heaping teaspoons of Italian herbs
~Mushrooms! I used blue oysters
~Heaping 1/3 cup sour cream
~Milk (We use raw milk)
~Cheddar cheese- however much your family likes. Make it cheesy or not!
~3 tablespoons of lemon juice
~Cornstarch
Instructions-
Cut up your chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces, and mince your garlic. Cook them together on low-medium heat in the stick of butter. This will make a buttery chicken broth as your base so really be sure not to cook it on high heat and burn the butter.
Add salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to your pan with the chicken and garlic.
Once the chicken is cooked, add in your mushrooms. Cut them into your desired-sized pieces. Cook on low and stir until mushrooms are tender.
Add lemon juice and mix in, then add sour cream and milk. Stir together until everything looks nicely blended together.
Add your cheddar cheese and continue to cook on low until melted, taste test for salt and pepper additions here.
You can add in the cornstarch at any point that pleases you, I didn't know how thick the sauce would be without it so I added it at the end, making a cornstarch/water paste. You can play with the thickness to your liking.
I cooked the sauce first and let it simmer on low while the pasta cooked to blend the flavors well. Make sure to keep stirring!
That is it for this simple creamy pasta sauce. It was so simple but so delicious. I think the mushrooms really added to the flavor.
Give it a try and let me know how it is! Until next time, happy homesteading!
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