Road Recipe: Breakfast Nests

I love cooking camp breakfasts, perched over my coleman stove, hot tea in hand and fresh air in my lungs. If we're planning a day full of hiking, i'll make bagels or sausage. On less active days, i still like to cook up some eggs, especially since we were traveling with the last dozen of our ladies' eggs. A favorite camp breakfast with my family has always been eggs in nests. Similar to Foy's Eggy In a Basket, I like to use a sweet bread with the savory eggs. On this particular trip, i picked up some cranberry walnut bread from Central Market which made nice small little nests to start our 2nd day on the road.

**Eggs and toast is just as good, too - even better when you have limited space in your pan. You'll notice from my photographs that i didn't actually make nests while at the state park. This day i made toast and eggs, but i did make nests the following day - so pretend this photos are of nested eggs and bread, tee hee.

Love the new souvenir mug, don't love the newly gained 10 pounds. Grrr.

I buttered the pan and placed the torn bread into it, topped with a bit more butter. I like to wait until the bread toasts a bit before dropping in the egg, as the egg cooks very fast. Drop the eggs carefully into their nests and season with some salt and smoked paprika or herbs, flipping once the bread and egg white have binded some and can be flipped without falling apart. Cook until the amount you like, breaking the yolk after you flip if you like it more well done. Delicious with hot sauce, too!

What's your favorite camping breakfast?

Guest Recipe: Fritatta

Fritatta. The word that cannot be spelled. It's a great weeknight, last minute or planned ahead dinner. If you have chickens, you should have fritatta. With so many variations possible, it's hard to write or follow a hard and fast recipe, but thanks to Some Kinda Chef for the inspiration for last Friday's version:

• Locally caught wild Hog sausage
• Kale and broccoli greens from my garden
• 8 eggs from my hens
• Splash raw milk from Stryk Dairy
• Herbs from the garden 
• Salt, pepper, smoked paprika
• Habanero and cayenne, frozen and dried respectively from the garden
• Garlic
• Onions from the garden
• Cheese

Some Kinda Chef recommended sauteeing bacon with the onions and garlic then transferring to a pie dish, layering in the following ingredients on top. I prefer to use the same saute pan for the baking, so i did things a little differently:

1. Fry or sautee (whatever you want to call it) the sausage (or ham or bacon or whatever) with chopped onions, fresh herbs and garlic until the sausage is decently cooked and the onions are softening. 
2. Meanwhile, beat the eggs with milk, salt, pepper, paprika and any other spices you want. 
3. Top the meat and onions with chopped greens, reduce heat to mediumish and cover until the greens are wilted. 
4. Pour egg mixture over the greens.
5. Sprinkle the cheese on top and bake at 365ish for 25ish minutes, until eggs are puffy, cooked through and the cheese is browning.

I usually make a potato 'crust' at the bottom and so feared this dish wouldn't be that filling. Boy, howdy was i wrong! I got stuffed with less than half of this baby, and the hubby agreed: delicious!

Thanks to all my readers who submitted recipes to my call for recipes! I got some great ideas. Stay tuned for an extra special post tomorrow: i'm hosting a giveaway for a super duper product from Season's Gleanings, a card company that utilizes homegrown veggies to create beautiful artwork. As a tease, check out her blog then head back tomorrow to enter to win a set of cards!

This post is part of the Simple Lives Thursday blog hop!

Eggy-in-a-Basket: A Recipe for Fresh Eggs

I met Foy while in Savannah, GA for graduate school. She's always amazed me with her knowledge of plants and horticulture, and she always brought something scrumptious and homemade to our many potluck dinners. I make a recipe very similar to this, it's especially great when camping. Try it with some cinnamon raisin bread for an awesome sweet/savory combo. Enjoy this post from Foy!

Eggy-in-a-Basket:  A Recipe for Fresh Eggs 

Eggy in a basket was a staple for our two years as Peace Corps Volunteers.  Jeff and I lived without electricity in a tiny rural village up on the continental divide in Panama.  This was our kitchen:

One of our chief luxuries was the stove and oven we ran off a 10 gallon tank of propane. 

While in Panama I learned how to bake simple bread, much like Miranda’s Onion and Herb Bread recipe.  We had neighbors who sold us eggs from their pollos de patio (patio chickens).   At least once a week, we’d make eggy-in-a-basket.  It is such a simple comfort food. 

Back in The States, we live in an apartment with no room for a bevie of backyard beauties like Miranda’s.  I found the next best thing, a country house along my way to work with a sign that reads, “Brown Eggs $2.50 a Doz.”  The yolks of these eggs sit high and pert and are a dark rich marigold color.  Fresh eggs are essential for good eggy-in-a-basket. 

I like my yolks a little runny while Jeff prefers them set but not opaque.  This is how I make eggy-in-a-basket for the two of us. 

I start with a couple thick slices of bread.  They don’t have to be homemade, but you can’t go wrong with fresh bread.

Then poke out the middles out of each slice.  You don’t want to break the ring.  That’s what’s going to keep the egg in place. 

Butter a large skillet with about a half tablespoon of butter.  I use a non-stick skillet, but I bet a cast iron skillet would be divine.  Place the bread in the skillet.  Put the centers you poked out of the bread in there too.  Then crack one egg into each bread ring. 

If you prefer your eggs over hard puncture the yolk.  Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper then cook the eggs over medium to low heat. 

Flip the eggies over once the albumin of the egg has started to turn solid white, should take one or two minutes.  Continue to let them cook for another minute or so.  I pull mine off the heat a little before Jeff’s because I like dipping the bread center into the soft yoke.  You can tell if the centers have set by prodding the middle.  If it jiggles it’s not set. 

Eggy-in-a-basket is delicious alone or make a meal out of it by adding some veggies.  We had ours with a side of Brussels sprouts pan roasted with onion and bacon.  If you want the recipe hop on over to my blog, Foy Update: Garden. Cook. Write. Repeat. 

I hope you will try eggy-in-a-basket.  They are a simple pleasure and I know you’ll like them. 

Egg Bake: Healthy and Fresh Dinner or Brunch

Our ladies are still laying like champs and i had a surplus of eggs as none have been purchased lately (some available!). I decided to try out a totally made up recipe utilizing the eggs, raw milk in the fridge, and fresh veg/herb in the garden. Here's what i came up with:

• 8 eggs
• 1/3 pint raw milk
• Salt, ground flax, hemp, pepper, dried oregano
• Drop of truffle oil
• Bunch garlic chives, diced
• Chopped tomato - i think i used about 5 porters and one Japanese Triefel - about 3 regular tomatoes
• 2 serranos, sliced
• Bunch fresh basil, chopped
• Dollup of left over gazpacho
• Small onion, diced
• Cheese would be great - but i didn't have any

I used a round pyrex - this made a very thick bake, i think it would have cooked more quickly if i'd used a dish with more flat surface area. This shape also caused the veggies to float to the top, a wider dish would have mixed things more evenly. I didn't mind though.
Spray the dish, or coat with butter or olive oil. Mix eggs and milk in a separate container- you don't have to scramble, but break up the yolks. Add dry seasonings and truffle oil to the milk/egg mixture, mix, then our into the cooking dish. Add the veggies and fresh basil - scattering them evenly. Cook until the middle is cooked through - stands up to squishing from above with no liquid escaping. There will be moisture from the veg, but no runny yolk and the 'casserole' will be puffed up some. 
I waffled the temp around from 375 to 400 and cooked for about 30 or so minutes - time will depend on the size of your cooking dish.

This served the two of us heartily: high protein, lots of great vitamins and minerals, and very low carb - unless you count the roll i gave the husband ;).  Would be great for brunch, but was awesome as dinner too. I drizzled the plates with a little homemade mayo and some homemade habanero sauce which both added some nice zest. I didn't use any cheese, and didn't really miss it. Often i feel that cheese just adds calories but that its flavor isn't overly noticeable. Cheese is good for holding the texture together, but we both agreed this was tasty without it.

What's your favorite thing to do with a whole lot of extra eggs? Cook them on the spot, or store them for the lean months?

Recipe: Miranda-Fried Rice

Normally i would make this with brown rice to make it have actual health content - but i figure heck: it's FRIED rice after all. And i still have this white rice in the house leftover from when our doggy, Tela was sick.

Pretty simple and with lots of room for variations - this is my basic fried rice. It's not overly oily, but there is some sesame oil in it to make it feel at least a little fried. Saute the veg, add the cooked rice, add the eggs and frozen peace - stir stir stir. Voila.

• Rice, cooked. I like to muddle some kaffir lime leaves in with my rice and water
• Onions
• Garlic
• Carrot
• Hot peppers
• Green onions for garnish
• Sesame oil
• Fresh eggs
• Frozen peas
• Soy sauce

This was a whole lotta rice: hard to stir about! But it turned out pretty durn tasty, and i think my friends enjoyed it.

Beet Greens and Fresh Eggs: Breakfast Recipe

We're headed to a "crawfish boil" later today, so i felt we'd better eat a very healthy brunch to help my body cope with the wierdness.

This is what i came up with:

• saute pan's worth of chopped beet greens
• 3 diced garlic cloves
• drizzle olive oil
• 1 ice cube pesto
• 3 freshly laid eggs
• salt, pepper, oregano, chilly powder
• green onions

Pretty easy: i sauteed everything but the eggs until the greens were soft to my liking. I then made some little "nests" and dropped the eggs in, covered with a bit of cheese (optional), lidded and cooked until the whites were cooked through.

Served with homemade corn tortillas and a splash of habanero sauce.

Here's to a sunny Saturday!

Wholesome Wednesdays: The Incredible Edible Egg

Eggs have gotten both good and bad wraps in the last few decades. I tend to think of eggs as this:
Great for you in moderation when they are sourced from healthy, well managed chickens. Don't eat them in every meal, but give your body a well deserved protein boost and tap into those good fats when the mood strikes you. And of course, if you know you have cholesterol problems, maybe lay off the eggs most of the time - but certainly don't ban them from your diet altogether (see last paragraph).

The "American Egg Board" says this about eggs:

For only 70 calories each, eggs are rich in nutrients. They contain, in varying amounts, almost every essential vitamin and mineral needed by humans as well as several other beneficial food components. Egg protein is the standard by which other protein sources are measured. A large egg contains over six grams of protein. A large egg has 4.5 grams of fat, only 7% of the daily value. Only one-third (1.5) grams is saturated fat and 2 grams are mono-unsaturated fat.
The American Heart Association has amended its guidelines on eggs! There is "no longer a specific recommendation on the number of egg yolks a person may consume in a week."

Well that all sounds very nice. Why then does Calorie count. com give eggs only a C+ ? I guess the con of egg's inclusion of 75% our daily cholesterol is kind of a buzz kill. For more answers I plan on doing some research at the Egg Nutrition Center. Visit their site for yourself for scads of information.
They reiterate the eggseptional qualities of the egg:

With all the media attention on cholesterol, consumers often lose sight of the fact that eggs are a nutrient rich, affordable contributor to a healthy diet. Not only do eggs contain the highest quality source of protein available but they also contain almost every essential vitamin and mineral needed by humans. In fact, egg protein is of such high quality that it is used as the standard by which other proteins are compared. Eggs have a biological value (efficacy with which protein is used for growth) of 93.7%. Comparable values are 84.5% for milk, 76% for fish, and 74.3% for beef. Eggs really are the best protein money can buy, and it has all those other valuable vitamins and minerals too.

But what about the cholesterol?? I would rather not take all the yolks out of my eggs when cooking them, and i certainly don't plan on desisting my homemade mayo consumption. On looking in my copy of Nourishing Traditions, there is oft mention of the benefits of eggs in the diet and the much smaller negative impact they have on the blood cholesterol levels compared to impact that the consumption of red meat has.

Properly produced eggs are rich in just about every nutrient we have yet discovered, especially fat-soluble vitamins A an dD. Eggs also provide sulphur-containing proteins, necessarey for the integrity of cell membranes. They are an excellent source of special long-chain fatty acids called EPA and DHA, which play a vital role in the development of the nervous system in the infant and the maintenance of mental acuity in the adult.

I need all the help i can get in maintaining my mental acuity!
NT goes on to describe the superior quality and nutrient content of eggs from well managed, truly free ranged hens, with much better fatty acid profiles including the great Omega-6 (again, good brain food).

The bulk of the research i can find stresses that dietary intake of cholesterol, and the reduction of that intake, does not necessarily make a huge difference on the cholesterol in your body. Cutting out eggs isn't going to do the trick, in other words.  If you have cholesterol issues there may be many other ways of reducing your body's levels than simply reducing your dietary intake. I am no doctor, i'm just someone who likes to eat eggs and who has perfectly normal cholesterol. I personally think you would be much better off cutting out all or most of your red meat intake than cutting out eggs. They're cheaper, they're better for you and the environment (if sourced from properly managed flocks), and they're so versatile. Look at this beautiful pasta i made from freshly laid eggs and harvested herbs yesterday.

So, here's to your health! Tomorrow, recipe for egg salad= perhaps not the best recipe for weight loss, but full of the good fats, and quite satisfying.

8 Months Old and Laying Like Champs!

We're gearing up for Easter here at the homestead. The fridge is full of eggs destined for hard boiling, dying, and hunting amongst friends. The girls have been much obliging: Olive didn't even take a day off last week. The four laid 23 eggs between them, and the prior 3 weeks each brought to nest 22 beautiful eggs.

It is really feeling like Spring here: germinating corn babies, popping wildflowers, timely rain quenching the thirst of baby plants. Easter used to be my favorite holiday (you just can't beat Cadbury mini eggs in my opinion) and i'm excited to share my first Easter With Chickens with a few friends, and perhaps some brunchy cocktails.

Another first this spring is a new publication, Whole Kids Lifestyle Austin. It's a magazine and a community that promotes a holistic, eco-friendly and sustainable approach to life. They’re passionate about all things related to creating healthy communities – whether it’s the latest in educational science, the newest eco-fashion product, or an update on organic foods.  Obviously WKL fits perfectly with all of my interests and goals, and i've been lucky enough to be a contributor. I'll be writing articles with family friendly recipes, gardening/chicken raising tips, and other homesteading ideas that may or may not be in line with current blog posts here. I'm also contributing fun artwork for the kiddos to look at while their parents read the useful stuff between the jackets of the magazine.

Check out the first article i wrote for Whole Kids Lifestyle Magazine. It is a very brief primer on the raising of chicks up to 8 months old. I had to limit my words (which is hard for me to do!), so many details are left out- it's still a good basic guideline to get you started if you're interested in bringing home some Easter chicks. The online version of the magazine is up now and the print version should be in stores (like Central Market, Whole Foods, Sunset Valley Farmers Market, etc) in April.


Will you be donning your saddle shoes this Easter?

New Pasta Maker! Upcoming Product Review and *GIVEAWAY*

Yipeeeee!
I love it when i hear the UPS truck stop outside my house, especially when it's followed by the DingDong of my door bell and the plop of an unexpected package on my stoop.
This particular package contained a brand new CucinaPro Pasta Maker sent from CSNstores. Not the fanciest pasta maker on the market, but quite affordable at around $30.  This Thursday or Friday I will whip up a batch of fresh pasta and let you all know how the little machine does. We'll probably eat that batch (with the last of my frozen tomatoes from last Summer's garden). I'll be whipping up a second batch over the weekend, however, and would love to offer a pound of fresh pasta as a free giveaway to my lovely readers. More details will go up with the review post.

So don't miss out! Check back this weekend to find out if this pasta maker is a thumbs up or down, for those of you looking to make your own pasta maker purchase, and to enter for your chance to win some delicious, nutritious homemade pasta made by me with my chickies' eggs.

Belina's Double Yolker, our first egg anomaly

 

Two for the price of one 

(check out how little the two yolks are compared to a normal one yolk egg)

Belina's Egg, a Poem

Miss Belina, 

the last to lay, 

likes to nestle in the hay.

Her eggs are pink,

small and wee,

she lays them all

so daintily.

But one was large,

largest of her few,

who'd have knew

that it was TWO!

wow, i am NOT  a poet. Needless to say i was suprised at how big this egg was compared to her last, and even more surprised to find two yolks inside!


Have you ever found strange things in your hens' eggs?

Recipes as promised: Butter, cream cheese, Mayo, Meringue, Lox, Kim Chee.

What a wonderful weekend I had! 

Saturday was depressingly spent shopping at a zillion different places to get a bunch of stuff we needed. Luckily i started off the day with some yoga/tai chi to even my sanity for the rest of the day.
Sunday, however was spent making making making stuff stuff stuff.
On our list of to dos on Saturday was stop by our local milk host and  pick up two gallons of raw milk= one for me, one for a friend. I tried some new things with the milk this week and skipped making the herby cheese i'd planned, that will be back on the menu in two weeks.
And what better way to start a productive sunday but a delicious brunch of turkey bacon and freshly laid eggs.

Without further adieu (this is quite a long post with several recipes, so if you bookmark it for one of the recipes you might want to rename the post in your bookmarks bar):

Homemade Butter
Is so easy to make. I must reiterate one last time that i'm using RAW milk, and so some of my recipes may not work for that homogenized/pasteurized ultra white wierdness in the stores. Though i think butter does work like this.

Separate the cream from the milk. Raw milk, or 'cream line' milk separates itself after about 24 hours. I pick my milk up on the day after its been delivered to our host, so it's already separated. Irritatingly the milk comes in narrow mouthed milk jugs so i can't properly "skim." I am the scrimcoacher, though and am not deterred. I use my new baster to suck the cream off the top. I end up with a little milk mixed in, but not much. You can also just start with cream that's separated for you - raw milk cream will make a much yellower butter.

Pour the cream into a jar and either start shaking now or let the cream sit out overnight to sour a bit. I did that as i prefer a tangier butter. It's best if there's about 40% cream to size of jar. I had a bit too much cream per the jar size, but it still worked - just a little more difficult.

SHAKE. Shake rigourously. Shake this way and that. Watch the cream turned to 'whipped cream.' Shake in agony for half an hour or so waiting for that butter to break. Jump with joy when it's finally happened! When the butter separates itself from teh buttermilk, pour off that milk into another jar for later use. Pour water over the butter and shake some more and pour it off again. Repeat until the water runs mostly clear. Put your butterball into a bowl and 'cream it' by pressing  a spoon down and popping the little air bubbles that hold more secret water and buttermilk. This will make your butter last longer. I add salt at this stage as i like salty butter and we don't use butter very often (salt will help it store longer).

Ta da!  This morning's delicious toast with homemade butter:

Cream Cheese and Whey
This isn't really a recipe, more just a tip. This exact technique is only applicable to raw milk.

Put milk in a clean jar. Put jar on counter, well covered. Ta da. That's it. Leave the jar out until the curds and whey separate. Pour the curds out into a cheese cloth over another jar and drain out all the whey. Hang until no more whey is dripping out. Use the whey for all sorts of lacto fermenting things or feeding your chickens or self. It is said that drinking a tablespoon of whey a day helps to balance the digestive system. I think it's kinda tasty, almost sweet. I have plans for this cream cheese, if it works. Homemade bagels, lox and cream cheese - plus some capers for the caper loving husband. Can't wait!

Homemade Lox (Gravlox aka Marinated Salmon)
This recipe was actually taken from Nourishing Traditions so i won't give out specific specifics, but should give enough of a jist.

• 2-3 pounds salmon. I got Atlantic farm raised because the wild caught (which was cheaper!?) looked nasty and old. Next time i hope to get wild caught, and SOMEday we'll live in salmon country again and catch our own.
• Mixture of half and half Rapadura (post describing this sweetener coming soon) and sea salt plus cracked green pepper.
• 4 T whey
• 2 sprigs snipped fresh dill plus some garlic chives and parsley

Wash the salmon and pat dry. I was supposed to 'scale it but leave the skin on' but didn't know how to do that, so i'll have to avoid scales when serving. I'm fine with that. Pull out the little bones with a needle nose plyers (that i washed first, don't worry). Cut the salmon in two evenly sized filets. Rub the flesh with the seasoning and sprinkle whey about followed by the dill and herbs. Lay the filets face to face and wrap well with plastic wrap then foil. I awoke to salmon drippings invading the fridge, so i'd suggest putting the packet into a ziplock as well. Place salmon packet between two cookie sheets and a weight or brick. Flip every 12 or so hours for 3-6 days. I'll update when i open this up and see how it went. Let's hope well, as we're talking $18 of salmon - which is still way cheaper than buying ready made lox at about $12 a pound.

Homemade Mayo:
See my previous post for the full recipe here.  This time i used a blend of safflower and olive oil. Last time i used all olive oil, some of which had roasted garlic. This version tastes much lighter, less nutty, more tangy. I think next time i'll try more olive oil again. I can't wait to make my own mustard from homegrown mustard plants and have this recipe be completely homemade.

I bought smaller jars - perfect fit for the amount of mayo!

Meringue Cookies/Candy

This recipe failed but still tastes great. I'll spare you the after picture - ha. I plan on trying this every time i make mayo until i perfect it!

After making the mayo I was left with an egg white and half a lemon. This just seems too obviously something yummy waiting to happen. I whipped up the egg white with my immersion blender and whisk attachment (not a one trick pony, Foy!) with the lemon and a bit of sugar. It never quite made a hard peak, but the soft peak was good enough. I dolloped them onto parchment paper and attempted to bake them by turning the toaster oven to 400 then turning off when i put them in. I don't think that was enough heat, so i tried to heat them up again and burst them. They deflated and singed a bit, but still a tasty treat. Next time i'll try 100 degrees for many hours instead.

Kim Chee (Korean Sauerkraut)

This is the third time I've made Kim Chee. You can read my first attempt here. This time i added some purple cabbage for color and texture. We'll see how i like it.

Kim chee is easy to do and personalizable depending on your taste preferences. I learned after my first batch that i wanted more spice, so for me lots of hot peppers and a little ginger are essential.

The basic ingredients are:

• 1 head napa (chinese) cabbage
• bunch green onions
• hot peppers to taste - fresh or dried
• garlic
• about a cup of shredded carrots
• a few radishes
• ginger
• 4 T whey
• 1 T sea salt

This time around i used 2 fresh red jalapenos and 2 habaneros, plus a little dried cayenne. The purple cabbage is making everything very purple indeed.
To make my life easier i used my cheese grater to shred as many of the ingredients that would shred. 7 cloves ginger, three radishes, the carrots and soem of the cabbage. The rest got chopped up finely and the whole lot, with the salt and whey, got bashed to bits with my new meat pounder. I started in a bowl, broke it, and moved on to a large, flat casserole. Worked well.
I used one big jar this time, verses the two pints I used the last 2 times. You MUST leave 1 inch of room at the top and make sure there is liquid covering all the veg (the liquid is released by the pounding and then the squishing-into-jar). I didn't have enough room at the top and found some had leaked out by morning. I simply removed some of the veg to another small jar.
It is very fun to watch, and hear, the fermenting process. When the jar stops bubbling, in about 3-7 days I'll transfer to the fridge in pints.

Phew! I think I'll save dinner's mac & cheese recipe for a little later as this post has grown to mammoth proportions.
I do hope to be making kim chee consistently enough to offer small jars for sale occasionally. And i can't wait to try out my lox and cream cheese when they're ready!

Have you tried a new recipe recently? Did you fail, succeed, or are you waiting to find out?