Eggs Jeannette ~ Jacques Pepin's Mom's Recipe

"Les Oeufs Jeannette" Jacques Pepin shared this recipe devised by his mother many, many years ago and it remains a favorite at my house as well.
It's very tasty, budget friendly and easy to put together.
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably know we raise chickens for their eggs. You can read more about our family of feathered friends here (scroll down once you click the link.)
Our current flock includes Ameraucanas, Buff Orpingtons, Gold Lace, Rhode Island Reds, and Silver Lace.
All of them except the Ameraucanas lay various shades of brown and pinkish eggs. The Ameraucanas lay various shades of blue, as you can see below.


However, of these particular hens, one or two of them lay eggs which are more greenish than blue, so I suspect we have a few "Easter Eggers" (a breed which is not recognized by the US Poultry breeders association) but they are reliable layers and produce some of my favorite eggs.
Until the young Ameraucana  or Easter Egger hens begin laying you never know what color eggs they will produce. Contrary to some beliefs, a hen will lay only one color egg her entire laying life. (In other words, she will not lay a blue egg one day, and a green egg the next.)  Also, hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs. Egg laying is simply part of her reproductive cycle. However she does need a rooster if you want fertilized eggs, or chicks! ;)

Anyway, back to the recipe!

This clever method simply consists of hard cooked eggs, halved.  Yolks removed and mashed with a fork (or put through a sieve ~ my preferred way), seasoned with minced parsley and garlic, salt & pepper, then smoothed out with a little milk. The yolk mixture is then returned to the egg white, then the eggs are warmed, cut side down, in a little oil  (I like grape seed oil here) until they are golden brown.
A little of the egg yolk mixture from above is reserved and blended into a tasty Dijon mustard vinaigrette then drizzled over the warm eggs.  I placed them on some baby arugula and accompanied them with a few Kalamata olives. (The eggs are just as delicious served at room temperature.)
These can be served as a light lunch or dinner, or as an appetizer or first course.
If you would like a copy of the recipe, and a little background info about it, you can find it here.
And here is a link to a very short video clip showing Jacques and his daughter Claudine making the recipe at the 2011 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen.
If you try these, I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do. With grateful thanks to Mme. Jeannette Pepin and Jacques for sharing this wonderful little recipe.
Have a wonderful day everyone. Blessings!
~Mari  xo 

POSTCARD from the Garden ~ Gathering.

Our Chickens ~  we feed them, they feed us. :)
Blessings on this beautiful Sunday, friends.
xoxo ~m.


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New Peeps ~ The Next Generation!

The chicken population is growing at my house. :)


I've shared about my chickens before, back in 2010 ~ from the very beginning of the construction of the Hen House and the completed project.  


And introduced some of the chickens here and here and here.


Those hens have been good girls and steady layers ~ we've added on to the original chicken coop and pen since then so it's time to rejuvenate things a bit.


This time I chose more Buff Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, and Americaunas (the ones that lay blue or green eggs.)




It's always so much fun to watch them grow ~ I hope you enjoy these pictures of the most recent additions to the flock:

A befuddling impostor! 

 These pictures are all Buff Orpinton chicks ~ 

When fully mature the hens look like this:

Photo courtesy of Backyard Chickens

And the hens will weigh about 8 pounds, it is a very good natured breed, excellent laying hens, the hens are good nurturing mothers, and they are surely right up there among my favorites chickens.

I'll post more of the other newbies soon.

Thank you for stopping by ! Have a happy weekend Friends! 

xoxo ~m

~ A Brand New Year --- Happy 2011 to All ~

Nothing special cooking at my house today ~

just taking a little break from the kitchen after the holidays.

Instead I thought I'd share some eggs from one of our chickens, Sugar ~ our Amerucana (or "Easter Egg") hen, lays these beautifully colored eggs. The outside of the shells are light olive green, while the inside are a bright Robin's egg blue. Each Amerucana lays colored eggs ranging from light brown to various shades of blue and green, and each hen will lay the same color of egg her entire laying "career".  :)

Sugar ~  about 2 weeks old 

What a surprise it was when I cracked open her first egg and saw that beautiful blue interior.  (The egg tastes no different than any of the other chicken's eggs.)

Another close up ... I loved her markings as a young chick. :)


All of our hens began laying prolifically in mid-to- late summer, as winter approached and the days grew shorter their egg-laying tapered off a bit (as is to be expected) and will pick up again as the days grow longer, come spring. 

I don't have a picture of her full-grown (it's time to take current pictures of the hens), but here she is with her "sisters" early in summer of 2010.

We thoroughly enjoy our chickens as pets (and the bonus is, that they also provide fresh, organic food for the table.) Each hen has her own distinct personality and they are quite entertaining to observe.

 During the day we allow ours out of their pen to roam the property ~ they do a wonderful job of keeping the insect population under control.

If you have a little space in your yard and an interest in chickens (and fresh eggs~), I would highly recommend you consider raising a couple for yourself. 

    Many communities allow keeping up to 4 to 5 hens ~ (check into local ordinances.)  A hen house and pen does not have to be elaborate, and can be set up in a corner of your yard.  I had a lot of fun searching 'google' images for "chicken coops", and "hen houses" while were were in the planning stage of our hen house and pen.  You might be amazed at the varieties and styles of coops and houses available.

I am often asked if hens need a rooster to lay eggs... no, they do not need a rooster to lay eggs.  However, if you want fertilized eggs to eat, or you want to allow your hens to raise their own chicks ~ a rooster is a must.

To read more about our Chicken Keeping:

  Click HERE to see pictures of the chicks when we first brought them home last spring.

For our Hen House construction click HERE and  HERE 

~*~*~*~

There are plenty of great resources on the internet with information on how to keep your own.

One of my favorites is Backyard Chickens , and you can find many other excellent resources by doing an internet search.

Thank you for stopping by today!

Postcards from Home ~ Harvest from the Garden

Today was a gorgeous, sunny fall day where I live.  Soon we're expecting our first overnight freezing temperatures so I picked most of what is left in the vegetable garden.  Almost all of the remaining tomatoes, zucchini, string beans, basil, and flat leaf parsley.

A couple of weeks ago we harvested some of the beets.

I know a lot of people don't like beets, but I adore them. They were one of my favorite vegetables as a child, and they remain so today.  I love to pick some of the beet greens throughout the season and saute them quickly in a little olive oil with some slivers of garlic.. they are very nutritious and are delicious steamed as well.

I feel fortunate that most every herb, except the most tender, survive year-round in my climate, ready for the picking.

But still, I like to cut big bunches and dry the stems in my dehydrator. Then I remove the crispy leaves...

And store them in big air-tight canning jars.

This is oregano,  I also dried some thyme, rosemary, lavender and parsley. The flavor of the dried herbs is more intense than when used fresh from the garden.

Once the leaves are removed, I make small bundles of the dried stems ~ they add a delightful flavor and scent to grilled chicken, meats, fish and vegetables. Just add them to the mesquite or charcoal (just to the side of the hot coals) after you've begun grilling.

We also planted successive plantings of several kinds of radishes a few weeks apart for continuous harvest.

These are French Breakfast radishes, quite mild.  In loamy, sandy soil  they will grow twice as long as mine do. 

You've probably surmised from the length of these radishes that (even with plenty of soil amendments) our soil is neither loamy nor sandy.  ;)

I love the purple ones, and the white ones the best.

The very tip of the iceberg when it came to our tomato crop.

As the season progresses and we become flooded with tomatoes, I generally lose interest in photographing them... this year was no different.

The preceding two shots were from the very first of the season... when we cannot wait for them to ripen!

We've been enjoying quite a few of these Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches on homemade whole grain bread throughout the summer and early fall.

And plenty of wild blackberries from the back of the property.  

This year we didn't get many nectarines from the tree, (due to the crazy weather) but the few that ripened were sweet and juicy. 



The plum harvest was also light, but they were sweeter than any I remember.

I neglected to get photos of  any of the grapes, but I did preserve some grape leaves for making Dolmas later.

Earlier this year I also put up some more Rose Petal Jam from our roses...

And did I mention eggs?

We have five different breeds so the eggs are a variety of colors.

From the fifteen chicks we raised this Spring we now get between 9 to 12 eggs PER DAY.

And that's not bad...

Considering that THREE of the fifteen chicks turned out to be ROOSTERS. 

Here is one of them. Please meet "Trouble",  he's the king of the roost and loves nothing more than to perch on the highest places.  (As seen here, about 7-feet up, on top of his pen.)   His other favorite place to roost is on top of the 9-foot high cross members of the bean supports.  Or taking a jaunt over to the house to come spy on me as I work in the kitchen.  He's quite the character.

My next group of Postcards from home will be all about the chickens... so you can see how they have grown since Easter.

I'm always a little sad to see the summer harvest come to an end because it means winter isn't far off...

But it will give the garden a rest, and give us time to make plans for next years vegetable garden.  :)

Thank you for coming by today, friends!

xo~m.



Hen House Update

Hi friends, it's been a while since I've posted ~ and it's good to be back!

I've missed your company, and hope you are all well.

Spring and Summer are always a busy time here on our little homestead in the woods ~

the usual maintenance, caring for the pets, plus gardening to keep the forest from taking over the tamed sections of the property is nearly a full-time job. And this year especially busy with our new flock of chickens.

One of the things we have been busy with is the hen house which we designed and he, (Mr. OUaP) built. I'm heart-skippy happy with the results, one of the most fun gifts I've ever received and I want to share it with you.

With the exception of the exterior communal nest box and decorative finishing touches, it is nearly complete. Thankfully the hens will not begin laying until they are about 5 months old (late July, early August) so we have a few weeks to finish the nests.

I chose wood shingle siding for its rustic look which I think fits so well in the wooded forest.

Under Construction :

(The house is 6' x 8' -not including the exterior mounted nest box- and the pen is 15' x 16'.)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we built the house and pen on the site of the old playground area, to the side of the back of the main house. The playset consisted of swings, a slide and "fort" structure; it was massive ~ constructed from utility poles, with the heavy duty metal slide bought at auction from a local school some 20 years ago.

Over time the structure had become compromised, and it was time to disassemble it. In the following picture, to the back of the pen, you can see the cross bar (utility pole) from which the swings were suspended to give you an idea of its' scale.

Our rural area is host to many predators who would do most anything for a chicken "dinner", so making the house and pen secure was a number one priority. All windows and openings, with the exception of the human door and the chicken door are screened with hardware cloth (19 gauge, sturdy metal 1/2" mesh screen.) The pen is also enclosed (top and sides) with the same hardware cloth.

Why not chicken wire for the enclosure?

I like the rustic and country look of chicken wire, but after doing some research I learned that is it NOT a secure method of keeping predators out ~ unless it is reinforced or used with live electrical wire/fencing.

After reading of some other's tragic experiences I learned traditional chicken wire is for keeping chicken fenced in, but not predators out.

The perimeter of the playground area was built from 10" x 10" redwood timbers and filled with pea gravel (which we left in place.)

Mr. OUaP excavated a portion of the pea gravel to build the hen house foundation and pen area, so the pea gravel became a walk way around the pen.

The perimeter of the pen foundation is made of 2"x 12" pressure treated wood and buried deeply beneath the pea gravel, but that is not deep enough to keep a determined predator from digging under. To keep critters from burrowing the pen edges hardware cloth was laid flat around the entire perimeter of the pen, and is buried beneath the pea gravel.

For the pen floor we had 2 truckloads of decomposed granite delivered which Mr. O

spread and compacted. It provides good drainage, and is easily raked clean each day.

Details of the exterior~

The doors and shutters are constructed of cedar ~ and I can't wait to see the wood shingle siding begin to age and darken for a nice contrast to the cedar.

I have a few ideas for container plantings near the the doors, and along the pen to add interest and color.

I wanted to carry out the rustic look so I chose hand forged iron hardware from Restorers (on line), with the exception of the human door. For reasons of practicality we went with these heavy duty self-closing gate hinges from Stanley, purchased locally.

I've had the rooster bell for years, and just moved it from one of the garden gates.

A peek inside:

One of the crucial factors to keep in mind when housing chickens is that they MUST have plenty of ventilation, but without drafts. We incorporated as much ventilation as possible while attempting to maintain the style of the structure.

What we thought would be a good idea for easy clean up ~a slide-out droppings board on the floor~ was not practical for a couple of reasons:

"We" ended up with substantially MORE chickens than the 5 we originally planned for (I couldn't resist adding a few more different breeds.) :D

This changed our plan as we realized we needed to free up as much floor space as possible, so we mounted a slide out droppings board a few inches beneath the roosts ~ a much better arrangement and easy to clean each day.

We're using the deep pine shaving method* on the floor of the hen house---I was skeptical at first, but it has been working out beautifully.

*(Fragrant pine shavings are layered approximately 4-inches deep, and simply fluffed up each day with a rake, then cleaned out and replaced as necessary.) Some find they only need to replace the shavings each 6 months or so ~ but I anticipate changing it out every 3 months due to the number of chickens and size of the house.

Out of view here, to each side of the human door are a hanging waterer and a hanging feeder.

Incidentally, we mounted hardware wire, attached to the rafters as a ceiling to prevent the chickens from roosting there~ chickens like to roost at the highest place they can find... which would be a nightmare when it comes the the "droppings" issue.

Still, we have one little renegade, Olive, who insists upon roosting in the sill of one of the eaves every night, so we eventually added a wider ledge up there for her.

(Her spot is the eave sill directly above the roost in the corner in the picture below.)

I have plans for livening up those walls to add some additional color ~

I'll update as things progress.

Currently this is the largest ventilation opening:

It provides a good cross draft when open, it also functions as a small awning when propped open ~ I leave it open every day, rain or shine.

(Eventually Mr. O will construct a hardware cloth screen door to fit inside the human door.)

If you know chickens, you know they are creatures of habit~

This little sweetie (a Silver Laced Wyandotte) jumps up on the sill every single morning to greet me when I open the window.

Of all the chickens she is the only one who does this, as if it is her assigned duty.

She and her Silver Laced sister are the youngest and most friendly of the flock.

And THIS is what follows when I open the chicken door/ramp:


?

A blur of chickens!

Hurrying out to get their morning treats.

There is Olive (the renegade who sleeps up high) leading the girls.

We kept the shutters simple~ one on the opposite end of the house from the human door, and one on the side, opposite the large window.

Mr. O wired the electricity~ which allows for a fan to keep the air moving on hot days, and a light to encourage them to continuing laying into the winter months, and an outlet for a heat lamp in cold weather.

So far everything has been working out very well. They have been in their new home for several weeks and I'm really pleased that the usual "aroma" (aka stinky, noxious fumes) associated with chicken coops hasn't been a problem, and the chickens seem happy and healthy.

Next time I'll share some shots of the girls, almost all grown up ~

Thank you SO much for stopping by ~ it's always a pleasure to hear from you.

Please note: If you have sent me an email in the past couple of weeks to which I have not responded ~ please bear with me, I'm getting to each one as time permits.

Thanks for your understanding.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

xoxo ~m.