Shaved Bittersweet Chocolate Ice Cream

05.09.12

I’ll admit it. Sometimes I hoard eggs instead of giving them away. I don’t know why I do it, except perhaps it is some throwback cave woman behavior to ensure that I survive.

But when the whole bottom shelf of the refrigerator is filled with dozens of eggs, I rejoin the 21st century and stop being so stingy. So this weekend I gave two dozen to friends who also took some extra seedlings off my hands and gifted me with a German Pink tomato seedling and a yellow tomatillo seedling. Then I headed up the road to drop off a couple dozen eggs to a neighbor who recently had surgery.

Let’s see…That still left me with about four dozen eggs.

Well, my son is home from college, so there went another dozen in a day. Then inspiration hit.

Ice cream!!!!

May is here, so it’s time to drag out my absolute favorite kitchen tool—the Cuisinart ice cream maker.

I’m not usually one for a lot of specialty appliances since they just take up too much room in the kitchen and create clutter. But how else are you going to make ice cream without an ice cream maker? Huh?

Okay, this one was a bit on the luxury end of the ice cream maker spectrum, but it is completely worth it. Just mix up your ice cream mix, pour it in the maker, plug it in and wait for it to do its thing. During the summer, mine lives on the kitchen counter so we can mix up a batch of ice cream or fruit ice on a whim. No ice or salt needed.

I’ll admit that eight egg yolks sounds sinful. But if you only have a single scoop of ice cream, I think it should be a wonderful scoop.

This recipe is a perfect base for any kind of ice cream. You can add strawberries, blueberries, chocolate syrup, cherries–you name it. I find that adding any extras is best done at the end of the processing so that they hold together and don’t slow down the freezing.

Ice cream season is here!

Shaved Bittersweet Chocolate Ice Cream
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Recipe type: Dessert
Author: Robin Ripley – eggsandchickens.com
This is a delicious and rich ice cream base that can be adapted in infinite ways.
Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 8 egg yolks
  • 1 2/3 cups sugar
  • 6 ounces shaved bittersweet chocolate
Instructions
  1. Combine milk and heavy cream in a large saucepan. Heat over medium heat, but do not boil. Add vanilla.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs with sugar until sugar is completely dissolved.
  3. Mix in a small amount of the heated milk and cream mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Gradually incorporate the heated milk/cream mixture, continuing to stir.
  4. Return the ice cream mixture to the saucepan. Heat, constantly stirring, until the custard thickens. Do not let it boil.
  5. Place mixture in the refrigerator until it is completely cool.
  6. Process according to ice cream maker instructions. Just before the end of freezing, add the shaved bittersweet chocolate to incorporate.

 

 

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Shirred Eggs Florentine (Or Baked Eggs with Spinach for Us Rural Folks)

04.30.12

Since I now work from a home office in the country instead of a cubicle in an ad agency my lunches no longer mean eating diner sandwiches at my desk or catered, stress-filled lunches with clients. Instead, I usually eat leftovers.

Now, I am fully aware that about 50 percent of the world’s population thinks that eating leftovers for lunch is about as exciting as eating that combination of slimy and crunchy stuff growing at the bottom of your refrigerator vegetable drawer. But for the other 49 percent—probably the 49 percent who do the cooking—leftovers are the perfect lunch. They offer all the good taste without all the work.

I am one of the 49 percenters. And it is a sad, sad day around here when lunch rolls around and there are no leftovers.

Hopping in a car and heading out to eat isn’t an option since that could easily consume a good hour getting there, wolfing it down and getting home. So many days I will make Shirred Eggs Florentine. That’s what the fancy people call them. The rest of us call them Baked Eggs with Spinach. That and a little salad makes a fine and healthy lunch that can be put together in a flash.

I always have eggs around and spinach grows in the garden about six or seven months out of the year. All the other ingredients are also always around, so this is a grand go-to meal, particularly on days when you want a hot lunch.

Of course, if you have pet chickens, your eggs are always fresh and yummy too. What can be better than that? Well, perhaps leftovers.

 

Shirred Eggs Florentine (Or Baked Eggs with Spinach for Us Rural Folks)
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Recipe type: Entree, Breakfast, Lunch
Author: Robin Ripley – eggsandchickens.com
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • 4 cups fresh spinach
  • 2 tablespoons diced shallots
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 3/4 cup cheddar cheese
  • 2 fresh eggs
  • 2 tablespoons cream or half-and-half
  • salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat over to 350 degrees.
  2. In a frying pan heat olive oil. Add shallots and stir until they are soft.
  3. Add fresh spinach and toss until well wilted. Spread the spinach mixture into the bottom of a small, flat-bottomed oven-proof ramekin or other baking dish. Top with cheddar cheese.
  4. Crack the two fresh eggs onto the cheese and spinach mixture. Top with cream or half-and-half and season to taste.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until eggs are set but yolks are still soft.
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Chicken Talk with Fresh Eggs Daily’s Lisa S.

03.20.12

Chicken people love to talk. They especially love to talk with other chicken people–swapping stories, tips and ideas.

I recently met (virtually!) chicken person and blogger Lisa S. blogs over at Fresh Eggs Daily. She’s my guest today here at Eggs & Chickens.

Lisa grew up in rural central Massachusetts but now calls southeast Virginia home. She lives on a six-acre farm with her husband, cat, German shepherd puppy, horse, ducks and chickens.

In 2009 she launched into her chicken adventures following a high-living life in the Big Apple. She is now the custodian of 20 laying hens and five ducks in a rainbow of breeds: Rhode Island Reds, Buff, Australorps, Cuckoo Marans, Black Copper Marans, Ameraucanas, Easter Eggers, Buff Brahmas, Andalusians, Faverolles and Cochins. It is spring, so she also has nine more in the incubator: Blue Copper Marans, Olive Egger, Welsummer, Blue Ameraucana, Black Copper Marans and Light Sussex.

Here’s a little of the chicken people give-and-take.

Robin: What kind of homework did you do before taking the chicken plunge?

Lisa: I grew up across the street from my grandparents’ chicken farm. They raised chickens for meat and eggs to support their family right up through the 1970s. We also raised chickens for awhile when I was growing up so when my husband retired from the Navy and we moved out to the country (we had a horse that we wanted to be able to keep on our property instead of boarding), and a friend mentioned he raised chickens, all of a sudden it seemed like a good idea. I admit I didn’t do much ‘research,’ figuring I already had experience.

I did research coops though, since we had a barn they lived in when I was young, so I knew nothing about chicken coops. I ended up building my own, using the features I liked best out of all the coops I looked at.

Robin: What was the biggest surprise about keeping chickens?

Lisa: How different raising chickens (and chicks) is when YOU’RE the person actually in charge of them! Much different than being a kid and just holding the cute chicks, or collecting eggs (a chore my brother and I initially loved and then quickly grew tired of). I also didn’t realize how affectionate and friendly they can be. We had mean chickens as kids, although looking back they were probably broody and just didn’t want us taking their eggs! After realizing that I did have alot to learn, I think I read every book that Amazon and Barnes & Noble carry on raising chickens. Call it a crash course, at first barely staying one step ahead of our growing chicks!

Robin: One of the first questions people always ask me is, “Do you eat them?” Well?

Lisa: No, we don’t eat our chickens. That was never part of the plan and I could no sooner eat one of our ‘girls’ as I could eat our cat or our dog. They are pets/family members AND the only pets of ours that actually product something !

Robin: How many eggs do you get a day? What do you do with all those eggs?

Lisa: We are now getting between 14-20 eggs a day plus 4 duck eggs. I tried putting up flyers at the feed store and post office trying to sell our extra eggs. I started at $3.50/dozen, ended up lowering the price down to $2/dozen, still no takers…then someone suggested I blow them out and sell them on eBay, so that’s what I do. Both the colored eggs and duck eggs sell extremely well–for alot more than $2 a dozen AND we get to keep the good part! I scramble up the blownout insides and feed them back to the chickens alot of the time.

Robin: It seems every chicken keeper has great stories. What is your favorite chicken story?

Lisa: Wow. Chickens are so funny it’s hard to pick just one but I guess one of the funniest is in one of our first batches of chicks we had a white Ameraucana chick with an attitude. When I would put my hand in the brooder to change the water or feed, all the other chicks would run to the opposite side of the brooder, but this one chick would run up and, honest to goodness, jump up and karate kick my hand! No kidding. A full one two legged kick ! We of course we named her Bruce Lee. My husband didn’t believe me until one night I got home late so he had to feed the chicks and she did the same to him. She finally grew out of it and became a wonderful friendly hen (we were worried she was a rooster honestly), but she sure was our one ‘chick with attitude.’

Robin: Do you allow your chickens to free-range in the yard?

Lisa: I don’t allow my chickens to free range. I wish I could because we have a beautiful pasture area, but I tried that for about a year and realized it wasn’t worth the risk. After two hawk attacks (fortunately the first time, my Buff was too heavy for the hawk to carry off so he carried her across the yard and then dropped her–she was fine–and the second time our dog and I were outside on the back patio and ran screaming and barking at the hawk and managed to scare it off before any major damage was done to our hen, although she did limp for quite some time afterwards) and the fact that we back up to woods and have seen both foxes and possums, as well as neighbor’s hunting dogs running free during the day, our hens are kept in a enclosed run.

Their run is a huge 1600 square feet and has trees, bushes and branch perches in it. There are sunny areas, shady areas, some grass that I replant each year, some dirt and dust bath areas. A large run is so important if you don’t free range to avoid disease, pecking and other behavior issues. I do let them out of the run many evenings about an hour before dusk and let them roam around the pasture under my watchful eye. They enjoy it, it gives them a change of scenery and I enjoy my time out there with them.

Robin: Do you have any tips for socializing chickens? Or teaching them tricks?

Lisa: I have raised all but three of our chickens from day old chicks. The other three I bought as three-month old pullets from a local breeder. I notice a distinct difference between them and those I hand raised. I encourage everyone to buy all their flock additions as chicks. Not only is there less risk of introducing diseases to your flock, by handling and interacting with the chicks, I feel you end up with MUCH friendlier, more affectionate and tame chickens.

I haven’t taught mine any tricks. I do believe that they do start to recognize their individual names if you use them enough though.

Robin: Rooster or no rooster? And why?

We don’t have a rooster. When you buy chicks there is always a chance that you will end up with a rooster or two. We have had three over the years. They stayed as long as they behaved. But as soon as that testosterone kicks in, roosters become aggressive, start crowing, start mating like crazy, tearing into the hens. The anxiety level in the run was palpable. We re-homed the roosters to a nearby farm. I am perfectly content continuing to buy new chicks when I want to add to our flock. Also, if you don’t want to end up with alot of mixed breed hens, you really need to separate the rooster with hens of the same breed, and that means more work and effort, so no, no roosters.

Robin: Why did you decide to start a blog? Who are you trying to reach with it?

Lisa: I started my Facebook page in January 2011, mainly to separate my chicken posts which were starting to dominate my personal page–and none of my ‘regular’ friends raise chickens so their interest level just wasn’t there. Well, I had no idea the interest there would be in my page which has swelled to more than 4,000 fans in just over a year. It’s been a great way to spread the enthusiasm about backyard chickens and offer advice and encouragement to a large number of people at one time. The problem with Facebook is that once something is posted, it is really hard to recall or find again days or even months later. I kept being asked the same questions, about raising chicks, broody hens, healthy treats, etc. and so I started the blog this past January, mainly as a way to categorize and organize information. The blog format is a wonderful ‘sister’ to a Facebook page since fans can search by topic, month or key word to find information and I can attach links to my blog posts instead of retyping responses to questions.

I find that my page is a bit different than others. I don’t focus solely on health issues, keeping them safe or just basic chicken care–although we do discuss all those topics. I have taken it one step further and talk about putting herbs in nesting boxes to encourage laying, reduce stress, act as natural wormers and pest deterrents. I hung curtains over my boxes (because they look cute !) but also to discourage egg eating and encourage laying. I have written blog posts about which weeds are good for chickens, and how to freeze excess eggs. I set up nesting baskets and tie pretty bows on them, and I have even posted a recipe for making bread for your chickens. I try to be unique and original–and people seem to be responding !

I guess I am trying to reach an audience who views their chickens as pets. Who name them, want to give them fun treats, build them a cute, functional coop. Just really enjoy the whole experience. After all, the more welcoming your coop and run area are, the more time you will want to spend with your chickens… and that benefits you both.

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Robin Ripley on Garden Guys Radio – She’s No Chicken Whisperer Though

03.09.12

I’m a little late sharing this because I was down with the flu and feeling pretty sorry for myself for a few days.

Lucky me, my husband tucked me into bed and waited on me hand and foot during my convalescence—even taking a day off from work to make sure I didn’t try to get out of bed and paint the house, chop logs or build a new shed.

Well, early in my sickness I was on the Garden Guys radio, a fabulous call-in talk radio show out of Boston hosted by the lively and entertaining duo Layanee DeMerchant and Sam Jeffries.  You know Layanee, right? She blogs at Ledge and Gardens, named by Horticulture magazine as one of the best garden blogs in 2012.

It’s fun to listen to their whole show, of course, but there is a quick link on this page directly to the interview with me talking about…wait for it…chickens!

Of course, I’m no Chicken Whisperer (aka Andy Schneider). He will be on their show this Sunday between 7 and 9 a.m. Eastern. You can listen LIVE. Call in with your questions. Go ahead and ask him your hard questions, because he knows everything.

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Wordless Wednesday (on Thursday): Rooster Modeling

02.02.12

T. Boone Chickens--Gone but not forgotten.

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Chocolate Chip Streusel Cake

01.23.12

Smells are important. Smells in the house are especially important. And you definitely want the right smells.

In the spring and summer out here in the country it’s easy to throw open the windows and invite in the fresh breeze. In early spring the heady aroma of blooming lilacs wafts in on the breeze. In the summer, it’s the green, green smell of the freshly mown grass. Early fall’s smell is the newly cut hay.  And when the leaves begin to change, the crisp air smells like nostalgia.

But winter? Unless I’m cooking something particularly odiferous–such as collards or fish–opening the windows isn’t a good idea. I can just hear the electric meter going “Cha-ching! Cha-ching!”

Instead, of bringing the good smells from outside in, I have to make the good smells inside. And nothing makes a good smell like a baking cake, right? Butter, sugar, chocolate, nuts, cinnamon. Heavenly.

Big companies have found ways to bottle up these smells into sprays and plug-in “air fresheners.” But why not perk up the aroma in your home by baking up a lovely golden cake? The by-product (cake!) is quite pleasing.

This chocolate chip streusel cake was a request from my husband. He wanted all his favorite dessert treats together in one lovely package. So here you have it. Go smell up your home!

Chocolate Chip Streusel Cake

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
3 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a bundt cake pan by buttering and lightly flouring.

In a mixer, beat together softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add one egg at a time and continue beating.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk gradually, alternating between the two. When well mixed, stir in the chocolate chips.

In a separate bowl, mix together the streusel topping ingredients.

Layer the streusel topping into the bundt cake pan, starting with 1/3 of the streusel mixture in the bottom of the pan. Add and spread half of the cake batter. Top evenly with 1/3 of the streusel topping. Add the rest of the cake batter and finally top with the final 1/3 of the streusel topping.

Bake for 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Do not over-bake.

Let cake cool on a rack for 10 minutes before inverting onto a plate to finish cooling. I like to invert the cake once more so that the streusel is on top.

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Unescorted Chickens Walking About

01.13.12

We lost our beloved rooster here at the homestead this week.

I’ve been writing about T. Boone Chickens over at my garden blog for a while now, so the recap of his short life is over there.

The hens are now without their bodyguard on their afternoons free-ranging around the yard. Edith, our silver lace Polish hen, has always looked fairly lost, so that hasn’t changed.

Dorothy, on the other hand, was sweet on T. Boone and could often be seen preening him on lazy mornings. She seems a little out of sorts.

Or maybe it’s really just me who is missing T. Boone. Yeah, that’s probably it.

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That’s One BIG Egg.

01.09.12

Sometimes I feel really sorry for my little hens. Truth be told, they will often play to my sympathies.

I’ll be outside pulling some weeds or watching the little dogs pee and there will come a frantic “Cluck, cluck, CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCK!!!” from the hen house. (I think this is a chicken curse word, if you get my drift.) Early on in my chicken parent days I would run to the coop to see if someone was injured or in trouble. More often than not I would find a hen in a nestbox clucking away.

Okay, sometimes it’s probably uncomfortable. Sometimes I think they just want to be recognized for their achievement.

In IdaMae’s case though, I think she was in pain.  She pushed out the record-breaking largest egg here at the homestead. Our previous record for large egg was 96 grams. IdaMae’s egg weighed in at a whopping 107 grams!

Egg trio

To put her accomplishment into perspective, I have photographed her 107 gram egg between two other hen eggs. The brown egg on the left weighs 57 grams, which is what the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and your local grocery store would call a LARGE egg. The egg on the right is from Edith, one of my Polish hens. It weighs in at 47 grams, classified as MEDIUM by the USDA.  They call anything 71 grams and above JUMBO eggs. I think IdaMae’s egg, at 107 grams, deserves a whole new USDA category. I think “HUMONGOUS” would be good. My husband thinks “DINOSAUR” is better.

double egg yolk

Each of my little black hens push out about an egg a day. They usually fall in the LARGE category and have only one yolk. But when an egg gets this size I can almost guarantee it will have two yolks. Yes, one egg and two yolks, like IdaMae’s above. This will happen when a hen’s cycle gets a little off. There’s nothing wrong with the hen or with the egg. It just happens.

I wish I could report that IdaMae took off the next couple of days from work. But no, she has a strong work ethic and was right back at it the next day. Good job, IdaMae.

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Posted in About Eggs | 4 Comments »

Sour Cream Pound Cake: Eat it Plain or Dress it Up

07.06.11

Some days you like it simple. Some days you want to make a fuss.

You know what I mean. There are days I can spend hours and hours in the kitchen dressing up little cupcakes to look like rabbits. There are other days I can hardly bring myself to throw together a tuna fish sandwich for lunch. Well, I think we need to have some foods that can go either way–from simple to elegant. One of my favorites is this Sour Cream Pound Cake.

The beauty of this cake–aside from the fact that it uses six whole eggs–is that it is moist and wonderful to eat with your fingers right from a paper towel standing at the sink at 3 in the morning. (Not that I’ve ever done that.) It is equally delicious served on Grandma’s china with fruit or perhaps as the base of a nice strawberry shortcake. It’s like the little black dress of cakes.

Sour Cream Pound Cake

1/2 pound unsalted butter
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
3 cups flour
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt

Prepare a large tube pan with butter and flour.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a large stand mixer combine butter and sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, again mixing in well. Add vanilla and lemon extracts.

In a small bowl combine the flour, soda and salt.

Gradually add the flour mixture and sour cream or Greek yogurt, alternating.

Add the batter to the tube pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely before carefully inverting onto a plate.

This cake also freezes well. Wrap carefully in air tight plastic before freezing.

 

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Fancy Feathered Fowl

07.06.11

The mower repair guy was here to pick up the mower a while back and was standing by the coop admiring the chickens.

“Do you cut their hair like that?”

Buff Polish Hens

He was talking about my Polish hens. I am not making this up.

Aside from the fact that I have enough work on my hands without carving out hours to treat the chickens to a trim and blow dry, you would think a grown man would know chickens don’t have hair. They have feathers.

Still, his admiration of their fancy topknot is fairly typical of visitors here, although his comments gave me a much-needed chuckle.

People usually associate chickens with the generic white or brown hen with a simple red comb. But the Polish hens look as if they are wearing an Easter bonnet. Their feather patterns are usually quite distinctive. All-in-all they add an elegant presence to the coop. For a fancy fowl, they are also fairly productive, laying three or four white/beige eggs a week. I have read that Polish hens don’t tend to get broody, but must disclose that the only hen I’ve ever had go broody was a silver laced Polish hen named Edith.

Polish chickens are not without their drawbacks though. Because the long feathers in their topknot can get into their eyes and obscure their vision, they can be a bit panicky. Some people say that Polish chickens shouldn’t be mixed with other chicken breeds because they can be the victims of aggression. I haven’t found that to be the case here, but I also have a small flock of fewer than 10 hens.

If you do want to experiment with fancy fowl, Polish hens can be a good choice. Make sure you have a place where they can be protected from the rain since their topknot can get muddy and cause eye infections and other problems.

 

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