talk about rescourceful!

I'm currently in the process of reading 4 different books. I'm not sure that's a good thing. I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed by it all and realize that if I really want to get as much out of one book as possible then I should limit my reading.

On my list right now are:

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World (this needs to be my first priority since it's also my Bible study)

The High School Handbook

The Charlotte Mason Companion

The Little House Cookbook

(which technically was a birthday gift for Timber but I didn't realize how much good info was in it when I purchased it from Amazon used books!)

I'm only 1/4 of the way through the last 3 on that list but while reading The Little House Cookbook last night, I was inspired. When I told my husband of my inspiration he said I was crazy. I'm going to let you be the judge.

Do you recognize this bird?

I'm sure that most of you do. It's a Starling, also commonly called a Blackbird. Right now and throughout the summer we'll have a lot of them here; attempting to make nests in the bucket on Gavin's bucket truck and in the eves of our house. I've read that they are very pesky birds to farmers as well. Some may say that they're overly abundant. This idea seemed like a win-win situation to me...

Blackbird Pie

(from the Little House Cookbook)

Serves 6

12 Starlings, plucked and dressed

1 medium yellow onion

2 whole cloves

2 Tb browned flour (recipe below)

Salt and pepper

Sour Milk Biscuits (recipe below)

Needed utensils: Meat cleaver or scissors, 2qt. saucepan, bowl, rolling pin, 10" milk pan (or some type of pie-ish plate for baking)

With meat cleaver or scissors, cut birds in half along the breastbone or backbone. Put birds, giblets, onion and garlic in a saucepan with 2 cups of water and simmer covered about 2 hours, or until leg can easily be pulled from bird. About half the liquid will cook away.

Preheat oven to 400. Prepare biscuit dough, just moist enough to hold together in a ball.

Put the dough on a surface and roll out, with as few strokes as possible to a 10" circle, 3/8" thick.

Remove Starlings and giblets from broth to milk pan. Discard onions and garlic. Stir browned flour into the broth and heat it to boiling for a minute or two, stirring the while. Salt and pepper slightly thickened broth and pour over the birds. Cover the pan with the biscuit crust.

Bake pie at 400 for 10 minutes, then lower heat to 350 and bake for 10 minutes more, or until crust is cooked through.

Browned Flour:

In a skillet, over medium heat, toast the flour until it resembles cocoa powder, stirring constantly to prevent burning. It will take 10-15 minutes.

Sour-milk Biscuits:

2 c white flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 to 1 c cultured buttermilk

3 Tb drippings

Preheat oven to 425. Use oven to melt dripping sin pan or baking sheet. In a bowl, mix dry ingredients well. Turn pan to coat it with fat, then pour drippings into bowl and work into flour mixture. Add buttermilk and mix quickly to make a ball of dough. Turn onto floured surface and roll dough, lightly out to 3/8" thickness. Arrange biscuits side by side in pan, inverting them to grease tops ans well as the bottoms. Bake in upper half of oven for 12-17 minutes or law raw dough on top of Blackbird pie!

Now really folks, talk about self sufficiency! We've got these birds all over our property on a daily basis. We're talkin' free meat! But alas, Gavin isn't too excited about it. Maybe I can convince him to try it? We'll see!

Disclaimer: *Before shooting any wild birds on your property, please check with you local fish and game department. Unless, of course, you're one of those "live on the edge" kind of people*