egg...it's what's for dinner

I've been trying to be a little more...resourceful in the kitchen lately. Mainly, my goal has been to use more of what we already have. My solution: I go internet-trolling based on the ingredients that I have on hand. I still usually have to pick up a couple of items at the store, but it's considerably less than what I would normally need.

With 4 fowl friends, we ALWAYS have eggs. I've decided that, since we have 'em, eggs are our meatless Friday go to from now on. *Tangent - anyone in the area, if you'd like some eggs, bring me a carton and I'll fill it.* Below are links to two dishes that I made this week that we really liked.

Eggs in Tomato Sauce

This one is from Smitten Kitchen (which I heart) and was surprisingly filling and I would call it comfort food (what isn't comforting about tomato sauce over yummy, crusty bread?). I have to say, eggs poached in tomato sauce didn't sound appealing at first and the pictures didn't help. BUT, it was very yummy and I'll make it again. The sauce was so simple and really the shining star of the dish.

Mushroom Quiche

I altered this recipe from Simply Recipes. I ask you, who doesn't love quiche? I did not make my own pastry, I used the not-very-good-for-you pre-made from a box. Someday I'll be that good. Along with the mushrooms I added some chopped up roasted delicata squash and some roasted garlic. I (naturally) doubled the eggs and the cheese...because I'm good like that. This was awesome. E and I ate half of the pie for dinner(!) and then had it for breakfast the next morning (and we'll likely have it for breakfast tomorrow morning too).

That's all...just thought you all might want to know what we do with all of the eggs around here. :)

***Don't forget to set your clocks BACK one hour...Fall back!***

a new way to egg

When you're finally getting 3 or 4 eggs everyday, you start to wonder if there are other ways to prepare them than boiled, fried, saladed, etc. For dinner tonight I flipped through How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and found a recipe for Shirred Eggs. When making shirred eggs, you bake the eggs either in a ramekin or on a bed (nest) of something like spinach, onions, mushrooms. This method makes for a luxuriously creamy texture something akin to having the entire egg over medium consistency. I prepared our shirred eggs on a bed of sautéed onion and spinach (a slight variation from the Bittman recipe, as I had spinach that needed to be eaten). These were a cinch to make, very hearty and can easily be made to feed 2 or 20.

Shirred Eggs with Onions and Cheese

Makes 4 to 8 servings

Time: about 1 hour

• 4 tablespoons of butter or olive oil (I used 2 tablespoons of an olive oil/butter mix)
  
• 4 cups sliced onions
  
• 1 cup plain bread crumbs (I used a little extra)
  
• 2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
• 8 eggs (I used 9, because they fit nicely...I'll let you know how the leftovers are)
  
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Place the butter or oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Two minutes later, add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are very soft and tender but not browned, about 15 minutes. (I added the spinach for the last 5 minutes of cooking.) Spread the onions over the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking pan, or other similar-sized baking dish.
3. Top with half of the bread crumbs and half of the cheese. Use the back of a spoon to make 8 little nests in the mixture and crack 1 egg into each. Top with salt, pepper, and the remaining bread crumbs and cheese.
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the eggs are just set and the whites solidified. Serve with toast.

Here we are right out of the oven

A generous meal of 2 eggs and a mess of onions smothering a piece of sprouted grain toast.

Things that happened last Sunday

Our friends, the Flynns, loaned me their egg basket! It's the perfect size to collect eggs from our chickens. Thanks Flynns!

Later we had dinner with our friends, the Ritters and Dornays. Yes, the men cooked in very fetching aprons.

very fetching aprons

unknown talents were revealed

about half a second later one of those apples bounced and rolled over to my feet

I think she's trying to be nice to him...but it looks like she's poking his eye. :)

I couldn't resist adding this one

You can get a lot done in 4 hours

Since it's been so long between posts, I figured I owed my loyal readers (and by that I mean my mom...hi mom) an update and a goodly amount of pictures.

In the time since receiving our first few eggs, we have continued to get about 1 egg per day. Not exactly the egg-production that I was hoping for, but I don't think all of our chickens are pulling their weight yet. With this meager production schedule there has developed a little difference of opinion in our house. E believes that as soon as we have enough eggs to make a meal, we should enjoy said meal. I am more of the mind that we would be better served to store-up the eggs for a few days in order to develop a little inventory. Once we have a dozen, go ahead and eat a few, it means there'll be some for baking as well. We haven't been seeing eye-to-eye on this one.

In addition to the egg-eating/saving debate there was also disagreement (or discussion...tomato, tomahto) about running a light out to the coop. You see, chicken's systems are very in tune with their environment. When there is less light, it signals winter, thus the chickens go a bit dormant and egg-laying can drop significantly or even stop until the sun returns. You can, however, trick their bodies if you provide artificial light. I think it sounded like more work that E really wanted, so he was opposed to the idea.

It occured to me that our two disagreements were quite connected. You see, if E would compromise and run the light out to the coop, thus ensuring more eggs, I would compromise in my current hoarding of said eggs. So a deal was struck! For $14.00 we purchased an outlet timer with 2 on/off settings and a lightbulb socket with a plug. Now an energy-saving bulb is providing light to the chickens from 4:00 AM until 8:00 AM and again from 4:00 PM until 8:00 PM. We will, of course, adjust the timing once we start adding daylight back into the schedule...whenever that happens again.

We had beautiful weather this weekend and definitely took advantage by getting a lot done outside. We accomplished all of this between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PMIn addition to the coop-lighting we also primed the outside of the coop (and plan to paint it next week), did the monthly coop cleaning (this is more in depth than the weekly cleaning), put trim around the coop window, replaced the little barrier that keeps the shavings in the hen box, organized the shed and put all of the feed, shavings and scratch in bins, and raked up all of the leaves in the back yard. Oh, and E replaced a light fixture above our kitchen sink...but there are no photos of that. Below are some photos to document the work. Enjoy! :)

Phoebe systematically destroying my leaf piles

This really is what they do 95% of the time...scratch, peck, swallow, repeat until bedtime

I'm pretty sure these two are up to something

Nice pose from Chick (I think, could be Phoebe)

Lady Catherine's tail makes a nice contrasting backdrop for this picture of Chick

All of the ladies getting in on the leaf-scattering action

Mrs. Dashwood

Here's something you may not know, chickens LOVE to take dust baths. I understand some hamsters and chinchillas do as well. Anyway, I like to call this next series "Foul Spa."

Here are Phoebe and Lady Catherine, they roll around and flip the dirt up on their backs, very bizzare

Lady Catherine getting down and dirty

Both Phoebe and Lady Catherine spent considerable time "bathing"

The fact that Phoebe's head can be at that angle (look for the red crop under her body) is crazy, Lady Catherine and Mrs. Dashwood seem to agree as they look on

Here is a view with the egg door open, the lower opening is where we collect the eggs

Closeup of the nest box

Here's the view from the opposite side with the cleaning door open

Here is E putting some trim around the window. Such a good husband!

We primed the outside in preparation to paint it next weekend. This should help with the swelling that occurs during the wet weather

the end result of cleaning out the coop...future composted fertilizer :)

I can't help but think it looks like a nightclub...can't you hear the techno beat?

an inside view into the private nightclub

Egg, it's what's for dinner

This should have been posted on 11/02/08, just to set the record straight. :)

Since we were so excited to receive our very 2nd egg, we decided to cook it up right away. I fried it in a little EVOO and served it on a nice piece of crusty bread. Mmmm, it was worth the wait!

In the pan

Ready to eat

Eureka!

Why so long in between posts? Well, a large measure of busy, a few tablespoons of lazy and a sprinkling of depressingly little news. But...you won't believe this...I barely believe this...a chicken, one lovely chicken amongst 3 lazy others has laid her first egg! There was a black feather in the egg box, so I'm guessing that it was Mrs. Dashwood but we may never know for sure. Finally! Congratulations Mrs. Dashwood!

As you can see, it's an itty-bitty egg...but it's a start.

Unfortunately, I didn't heed the advice of many of the blogs that I read and therefore didn't staple something soft underneath the hay in the egg box. So, this first egg ended up as damaged goods and will not be consumed. :( Better luck next time.

So pretty.

my kingdom for an egg

Okay, the chicks are no longer chicks...they are definitely chickens at this point. But, not an egg has been seen outside of the kitchen.

Lady Catherine and Mrs. Dashwood will be around 18 weeks this Sunday and Phoebe and Chick will be 15 weeks on Tuesday. If we aren't at the laying stage yet, we've got to be pretty close.

Starting next week they will begin their "big girl" food. Up until now they've been eating "starter grower" feed, but next week we'll start them on "layer pellets." Layer feed has all of the nutrients that they'll need to lay yummy eggs.

Looking forward to a future fritata...or quiche...or custard...