My friend, Barb, sent me a link to The Chicken Chick’s directions for a gingerbread chicken coop.  I told her I wouldn't do anything that involved unless she came and helped me.  She called my bluff. 

​I’ve never made a gingerbread house before but I thought a chicken coop would be a simple start…silly me.

The Chicken Chick had all kinds of details, like little nest boxes complete with marzipan eggs and roosts made of pretzels sticks, a Purina feed sack behind the door, weather vane, a feeding dish made out of molded candy melts filled with grain and a marzipan chicken taking a dust bath in brown sugar.  
​http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2015/12/gingerbread-chicken-coop-instructions.html   

I found it a challenge just to roll the gingerbread dough panels out to the same thickness.  ​

Before reality set in, I did look for marzipan at the store.  Being Christmas time, the baking aisle was pretty well sold out, but I asked anyway.  The employee stocking shelves in the baking aisle, was apparently new for the Christmas season.  After I’d repeated my request twice he shook his head and said, “I don’t even know what that is.  You’d have to ask my supervisor.”  I suddenly remembered I had a miniature chicken cookie cutter and decided I really wanted gingerbread chickens, anyway. 

Unfortunately, as I was cutting out the little chickens Joel asked for help with the real chickens.  I quickly put the cookie sheet in the oven and went outside.  When I came back in I couldn’t find the cookie cutter anywhere.  I gave up and went on to other things.  I found my plastic cookie cutter when I took the pan out of the oven.  My cookie cutter now looked more like red wax lips for Halloween than a chicken.  No more gingerbread chickens.  Barb and I each had a flock of two until I found more chickens in the gingerbread scraps when I was cleaning up.

​I haven’t written much about the chickens lately.  It's not that they don't still entertain me, I just haven't had the time to write.  The first year went so well we decided to expand this past summer — 10 more chicks and one rooster.  (I thought it would be nice to make our own chicks on site and not have to buy new ones every year.)  The "chicken store" generously gave us a spare rooster in case the one we bought didn’t survive.  Both of them thrived.  I read that roosters are fine if they are raised together so we kept the two: Bob Tail and “the Other One.”  

Sadly, after about four months those cute little chicks were huge, the biggest three in the entire flock…and then they started crowing.  Not one female!  So now I had a flock that was 20% roosters.  Even as a novice farmer I realized that was not a good idea and I’m pretty sure that  the neighbors agreed every morning.  So, I talked to some fellow novice farmer friends.  Together we watched a Youtube video on butchering chickens.  I choked.  I gave them “the Other One” with the stipulation that he leave my place alive and well and that they were careful to ensure he wouldn’t suffer.  I was down to four roosters...still too many.   Back to Craigslist.  

I really like eggnog and it’s that time of year that I can justify drinking copious amounts.  I priced it in the store yesterday —  2 quarts for $4.98.  So I bought 2 quarts of milk for $1.79 instead and decided to make my own (it helps that we have a refrigerator full of eggs). 

I’ve been playing around with a couple of recipes over the years but the problem is that I can’t remember by the next year which one worked better.  So this year I combined them.  Feel free to adapt it to your personal tastes     (I always do).