More food from the homestead!

I can't say the food was just from the garden, because we processed three roosters long past their expiration date yesterday.  I have a date with the commercial processor next week, but these three needed to go ASAP, because they were being 1) really hard on the hens, and 2) making me come outside at 10PM to break up rooster vs male guinea fights.  And since I like the velociraptor/male guinea for his entertainment value, if not the ridiculous amount of noise he makes, the roo(s) had to go.  It was a lot quieter this morning with only one rooster in the coop.  I still have to take the others to the processor, because it would be an all day job to do it here and I have too much other stuff to deal with one more thing.

Anyway, I parted out the roosters, threw the thighs/legs in the crockpot with some rhubarb/orange sauce, boiled the breasts to use in Chicken Pad Thai this evening, and made stock with the remaining carcasses... which immediately went into the asparagus soup that we had for lunch today.

Earlier in the week, I harvested ten cups of arugula and made a pint jar of arugula pesto, which the DH thinks is even better than pesto made with basil.  I like it, too.  The kids have not tried it, but I am betting OD will love it, and YD will prefer tomato sauce, as usual.

I have a ridiculous amount of lettuce (mostly Jericho, which has done really well for the last two years - outperforming every other lettuce I've ever grown).  If the daily deluge stops long enough, I will cut some and we will have lots of salad this week to go with the leftover chicken, egg salad, and asparagus.   I also have to figure out what to do with the remaining sweet potatoes - I have some in jars in the windows that are growing slips to plant, but there is still a bucket full harvested last fall that we should eat soon.  I have a cold sweet potato salad recipe and a sweet potato soup recipe that can be served hot or cold... I haven't tried either yet, but I'd like to, especially if the temps really get up to 70 and stay that way this week.  Since it is pouring now, I'll believe it when I see it.

We also processed three rabbits, which was a mistake on my part - we should have processed four, because I need the extra cage for the grow-outs that need to be separated from the does.  And I need to re-breed the does, which isn't going to get done until I can stand outside without getting soaked.  I wish we'd gotten these down in the February when the coats were prime, but it was so dang cold no one wanted to be outside for that.  They will definitely be for the large crockpot due to size and age.  I've never cooked a tough rabbit and don't intend to start with these.  In fact, I might try grinding them, since I've never done that before.  I wonder if there are any good rabbit/pork sausage recipes... if anyone has them, please send me a link or a pic!