Desserts: Chia Seed Pudding with Mangos

My family "needs" dessert...almost every night. A habit that I started and has kind of stuck. I try to stick to baking something about 3 days a week(that may or may not carry over to another day), but I try not to have to fix something every night. Lately, I've been slacking and dessert has been happening a lot less but it seems to be sneaking in a bit more. The other day I picked up some mangos for a really great price without a plan for them...but it's mango and I love mango(so do the kids). I can't seem to peel them fast enough. So I had these mangos and wanted something different, not ice cream, and not baked. Google threw this little gem at me and I had to try it. Chia Seed Pudding and mangos. The recipe calls for Coconut Milk, Chia Seeds, Maple Syrup, and Mango cut into chunks. Very easy, very cool, very weird, I thought it would be a big hit. I loved it, Matt loved it, Nathan loved it, Noah liked it okay and that's pretty much the end of it. Jacob, Evelyn, and Ben just didn't like it. Nathan, Matt and I got extra dessert after picking the mango out for the younger ones. I think the chia seeds are kind of fun, not everyone likes the texture.

Chia Pudding with Mangos

1 can of coconut milk

1 1/2 cups of whipping cream

2-3 Tablespoons of Maple Syrup

3-4 Tablespoons Chia Seeds

Chopped Mango(or other fruit, or no fruit)

Whip whipping cream until thick but not to whip cream consistency seeds will create thickness. Add the coconut milk and maple syrup and mix together. Add the chia seeds and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Let it refrigerate for a couple of hours to overnight(best thickness). layer the pudding and the fruit in a glass. You can serve it immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Whipping Cream can be taken out and all coconut milk can be used if a vegetarian/vegan option is wanted.

Weird Hairy Fruit

Weird Hairy Fruit

Every now and then we will buy something we've never tried before in the grocery store to experiment with it. I don't usually think to write about it until way after we are finished playing. This time I thought about it beforehand. So, while at Kroger earlier intending to pick up a couple of Mangos and Margarita Mix, these weird hairy little fruits were just begging me to take them home. They were practically jumping up and down in their little box saying try me, don't I look like a fun experiment? I grabbed a handful of them and decided they were coming home with me because they looked interesting fun and cute, like little sea urchins.


I looked them up when I got home and found out they are called Rambutans and are supposed to be kind of grape-like, similar to a Lychee fruit(which I've never had either, but have heard of it before). After opening them up and peeling them off of their seeds we tried them and found them interesting to say the least. The texture of it is very similar to a peeled grape with a firmer bite. The flavor was very mild, but different from a grape. Each one(we had six of them) had a slightly different flavor, but mostly they were sweet with a slight tartness, but there was also a vanilla flavor to them. The seed inside the fruit looked very much like an almond and although I was very curious to try it, I decided not to because what I read said that it must be cooked/roasted first or it isn't safe to eat. I didn't feel like roasting six almond size nuts, and the kids wanted to try to plant them. We will try, but it is a tropical tree so I don't hold much of it surviving North Mississippi winter temperatures.

I really enjoyed them and would probably love to have them again in a larger quantity to try and put it into a dessert of some sort. It is recommended that they not be cooked because the subtle flavor can be lost. They are a little more work than a grape and probably would be time consuming depending on what is done with them, but depending on their use I could see them being an enjoyable addition to a dessert.

Farm and Garden: Bees

Today we opened up the nucs and transferred them to the full size hives. I think it went really slow, because I actually felt a little more timid than I thought I would be. I was really concerned about accidently mashing bees with the frames and having chaos ensue.

We opened up the more aggressive of the two hives, and although they got a little rowdy, flew around and bumped into us a bit, they really didn't try to attack. It took them a while to settle down and go inside, but it really wasn't bad. This hive was so busy and hectic that I couldn't find the queen and one of the frames had some bumpy comb on it that reminded me of queen cells that I have seen on other frames in other people's hives. Luckily it is just misshapen comb and not the threat of swarming.

The second hive is a bit smaller and slower than the first hive, but there was lots of brood in many different stages of development and I was able to locate the queen in this hive because they were not nearly as crazy as the first group.

I'm not sure which I enjoyed better. The crazy busy rocking hive, or the one that is moving along at a steady pace that is calmer. I guess time will tell.