Aged Eggs

I've been getting eggs from my chickens for over 6 months now and I recently realized that I still had a carton (or two, shh) of their eggs way back from the beginning. I opened up the carton and started laughing because they used to be so tiny! Here's a side-by-side shot of last week's eggs on the left (notice that the Aracuana is not laying) next to the first round of eggs on the right.

I decided it was probably time to get rid of the 6-month-old eggs, so I cracked them down the garbage disposal and put the shells in the compost pile. Amazingly, even though they seemed a little shrunken inside, not a single one smelled off...even after 6 months.

These'll make a nice addition to the compost heap.

Jumbo Jet Eggs

 So remember that jumbo egg one of my hens laid a while back? I suspected it was a double-yolker and...

...it sure was! I used this egg and a few others in some stuffed zucchini boats.

My mom buys homegrown eggs from a friend of her's and I got the chance to compare hers with mine:

Can you believe the size of the egg on the left (my aracauna egg is on the right). These things are HUGE! I have never seen eggs that big. Extra-large grocery store eggs don't even come close. These things were comically large...they barely even fit into a standard sized egg carton. Must be painful to lay one of those...

Three's Company

At least three of my hens have started laying! Here's yesterday's haul.

Got To Be A "Double-Yolker"

The egg on the left was laid one day before the egg on the right (by the same chicken), but is HUGE! I predict that it's a double-yolker, but we'll have to wait and see.

This chicken happens to have gone broody too, so last night I started trying to break her broodiness. I took away the plastic decoy eggs and gave the hen a "clutch" of ice cubes to sit on. Hopefully this will cool down her bottom enough to stop the broodiness. If that doesn't work, my next tactic will be to dunk her bottom side in some cold water. I don't really want to have to resort to the "tiny metal cage" tactic because it sounds uncomfortable, plus I don't have an appropriate cage. Hopefully the ice cubes will do the trick!

How I Used My First Homegrown Eggs

I've been getting an egg every single day from my one hen. After losing track of time while taking my written comprehensive exams, I came to the realization that I had collected almost a dozen eggs from her already, but hadn't used a single one!

So how did I use my first homegrown egg? To make chocolate chip cookies of course! I realize this probably wasn't the best way to showcase my first egg, but my boyfriend and I needed some cookies.

My go-to chocolate chip cookies recipe comes from this book. Yes, it's a children's cookbook. I recieved this as a gift from Mom many many years ago. I'm pretty sure she got it from saving up UPC labels back in the day when people did that. I don't know how many promotional toys and LEGO kits my brother's and I got from my Mom's "refund club".

"C" is for Chocolate Chip Cookie! Notice the smudges of this well-used recipe.

After fulfilling our thirst for cookies, I decided I would do something a little more egg-worthy...fried eggs for breakfast. 

The yolks are a fantastic neon orange color. I'm not particularly a fan of friend eggs, but these were pretty tasty. I noticed that the egg shells were really difficult to crack! I'm not sure if the shell is thicker than grocery store eggs, or if the inner membrane is fresher and stronger. I also noticed that the egg white was firm and gelatinous, unlike any watery grocery store egg I've ever cracked.

Later that day, I made my boyfriend and myself some english muffin sandwiches (egg McMuffin style) with ham, egg, swiss, cheese, and honey mustard. Yum! As you can see, even after scrambling the eggs, the whites are still mostly intact because they are so firm. Can you tell how many eggs I used?

Fourth of July Surprise

I had a second chicken start laying today and the egg was blue tinted! It's such a pretty little egg. And this time, I'm positive who laid it because it had to be the aracauna. I can also tell who's laying the eggs because if I pet each chicken, the ones that have started laying eggs squat down and sit still in some sort of blissful mating position. The non-laying chickens just try to run away!

Today I got a nice brown egg (the biggest one so far, and it was still warm) and this little blue guy. The blue egg was laid on top of the next box instead of in the next box. Hopefully Momma Chicken #1 will teach Momma Chicken #2 how it's done. Then again, considering that Chicken #1's first egg was laid outside in the grass, Chicken #2 is doing very well!

These photos don't really illustrate how blue the egg is (it just looks kind of gray), but it's very pretty pale blue.

Here's my very own red, white, and blue decoration for the holiday. Happy Fourth of July!

Eggs Rolling In!

As I mentioned earlier this week, on of my chickens started laying eggs recently. While the first egg (on Monday) had no shell, I got a perfect little brown-shelled egg on Thursday and another slightly larger egg on Friday. 

I had to hurry out and install my nest boxes (storage cubes from Target) because I wasn't expecting any eggs for another several weeks. I put a grit filled Easter egg in each box as a decoy. The Easter eggs seem to be working because I saw the chicken that I suspect is doing the laying in one of the boxes "practicing" on Tuesday. I nailed a board across the bottom of the crates to create a raised edge so the eggs and bedding don't get kicked out.

The egg on the bottom is from Thursday and the slightly larger egg on top is from Friday. 

I'm assuming my brown eggs will slowly increase in size until they are more similar to this large white grocery store egg. Thinking of that, I will probably never have to buy grocery store eggs again!

Surprise Egg!

I was shocked to find a egg out in the chicken run last night. The chickens are only about 4 months old! I don't even have the nest boxes installed in their coop yet. The egg was laid sometime between 8 and 9:15 pm. As soon as I walked to the coop to shut the chickens in for the night I saw it out on the grass. One of the chickens grabbed the outer membrane and ran off with it greedily and the others started poking at the yolk. Luckily, I distracted them before any of them got a good taste...I would hate for my chickens to have a problem with egg eating right from the start.

Did I mention that the egg had no shell? It's normal for the first few eggs to come out a little funky. This egg had a neat orange rubbery membrane on the outside.

And look at the color of that yolk! So intensely orange! I can't wait to taste them, but I think I'll wait until they are a bit more well formed.

My First Quiche

I can't believe I've never made a quiche before, but it's true. With my impending eggy-abundance, I'm trying to find new egg recipes that I actually like. The challenge is that I don't particularly like eggs. I don't like them fried or scrambled, or any of the usual ways. I do like them hard-boiled, scrambled into pad thai, dropped into hot soup, or incorporated into baked good (although that doesn't really count). I guess I can add quiche to my "likes" list because this was delicious!

Crustless Quiche with Bacon, Spinach, Shrooms and Swiss

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
4 eggs
6 oz swiss cheese, shredded
6-8 oz bacon (omit, if you want your quiche vegetarian)
6 oz mixed sliced mushrooms (button, oyster, shiitake)
1 cup cooked spinach
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Fry the bacon and drain on paper towel. Chop the bacon into small pieces once cool. Drain off most of the bacon grease and saute the mushrooms in the remaining grease. When the mushrooms are almost done, add the spinach and cook until wilted. Layer the bacon, mushrooms and spinach, and swiss cheese in a nonstick pie pan. In a large bowl beat the eggs, cream, and milk together (I used an electric mixer) until well combined and custardy.  Pour egg mixture over the filling. Bake at 350 for approximately 30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean when poked in the center of the quiche. Let the quiche rest for about 5 minutes before cutting slices.

I would suggest serving this quiche with a side salad because it is very rich. It reheats really well, so don't worry if you have leftovers.

Before baking

After baking

Pad Thai

A couple years ago I learned how to make pad thai. It's really really easy, so you should give it a go. Pad thai generally includes rice noodles, peanut sauce, scrambled egg, chicken, and bean sprouts. You can add pretty much anything you like on top of this such as cilantro, lime, broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, chili, etc. Go ahead and experiment, because you're going to love it!

Ingredients:

• I'm not giving any measurements, because I never measure, and this dish really doesn't require any measuring. It's going to be good no matter what ratio of ingredients you end up with. Use your best judgment.
• Rice noodles: get the kind that are about the same width as fettucini noodles. These can be purchased at any ethnic food store and possibly at your local grocery store. 
• Eggs: pad thai is usually made with the eggs scrambled right into the rest of the ingredients, but I prefer them to be scrambled separately.
• Oil
• Chicken breast, diced
• Carrot, diced
• Bean Sprouts
• Cilantro, chopped
• Fresh lime, cut into wedges
• Bottled peanut sauce: can be found at most grocery stores in the asian food section near the teriyaki and soy sauces.
• Optional: broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, mushroom, etc.

Directions:

1. Soak your rice noodles in hot water for at least 15 minutes, until soft and flexible. Drain and set aside. 
2. Get the remaining ingredients prepped (diced, portioned out, etc) before you go on to the next step. This dish cooks very quickly, so you don't want to be stuck dicing vegetables at the last minute.
3. In a large skillet, cook the chicken in some oil. Set aside (this prevents the chicken from getting overcooked while you're cooking the rest of the dish).
4. Scramble the eggs. Set aside.
5. Stir fry the carrots and any other "harder" vegetables in your empty chicken skillet.
6. Once the carrot is nearly done, add any "softer" vegetables such as the bean sprouts, zucchini, and mushrooms.
7. Add the drained rice noodles
8. Add peanut sauce
9. Recombine the chicken and scrambled egg
10. Toss the noodles and other ingredients until everything is coated with sauce
11. Garnish with cilantro and a wedge of lime
12. Eat piping hot!

Egg Recipes

My oldest brother visited recently and we got to chatting about my impending (although not for another ~7 months) egg overload. Being quite a foodie and having taken culinary school classes, he had all kinds of suggestions for using up eggs: aioli, mayonnaise, crème brulee, merengue, etc. Surprisingly, I never made any of these things before. I'll have to start researching good egg recipes.

Aioli must be gaining in popularity, because I've eaten at a couple of restaurants lately that have both featured garlic lime aioli in their dishes. One of them even had garlic lime sriracha aioli.  From what I can tell, aioli is kind of halfway between hummus and mayonnaise.

I got a double-yolker from the grocery store this summer (this was the first one of my life).

It's kind of silly that I'm getting some chickens because I'm not particularly fond of fried eggs or scrambled eggs. However I have found a number of uses for eggs that I do enjoy. I often cook raw scrambled egg into soups such as noodle soup or tomato soup to add a little protein (plus it's delicious). I'm also a huge fan of bibimbap, which is a Korean dish of rice, hot and cold vegetables, sometimes meat, and a fried egg on top.  Eggs are always useful for baking, either for cakes, cookies, biscotti, or for brushing on top of pretzels or bread.