Sunday, May 27, 2012

Chickens and Eggs... Yum!

This morning I decided to film Noel letting the girls out of their hen house.  Our chickens are free-range and we only lock them up at night to keep them safe from critters and varmints, AKA dogs, 'possums, and raccoons!

 
So, here is Noel setting them loose for the day.
He likes to feed them banana... Don't ask me why, but they seem to like it... a lot!
I apologize for the sound quality; I'll have to figure that one out next time.

We have 2 Dominiques - Dommie & Nickie (original, I know)

1 White Leghorn - Pearl 
(who I forgot to mention; sorry, Pearl! For such a small bird, she lays the biggest white eggs)

1 full Rhode Island Red - Henny Penny (very loud and vocal)

1 black Australorpe - Astrid

4 Americunas (they lay colored eggs - greens, blues, etc. AKA "The Old Girls")

...& then we have 3 Rescue hens (AKA "The New Girls" - they are the red with white trim birds and they have been debeaked... boo!)
 

We got them from a man who bought them to butcher... They looked so awful when we got them; I didn't know if I was going to be able to look at them!

 They seem to have recovered even though they are still kind of deformed... 

(New girl is shown in shadow to protect her identity... Poor baby!)

We get an average of between 7 to 10 eggs per day
 
 so of course I have a collection of:

 Deviled Egg Plates - some vintage and some new... 

My favorite is the triangular one...I've only seen one other in my time.

They are sitting atop the island that Noel built for me while we lived down in Pasadena...when it came time to move...he unbolted it, picked it up and 
we vamoosed!

Here is another plate of delicious deviled eggs!

My Famous recipe follows...I'm givin' it up! 

Crystal's Famous Sour Deviled Eggs

1 dozen Boiled Eggs 
Mayonnaise - I like Duke's
Yellow Mustard - Plochmann's is my fav, but really any one will do
Sliced Salad Olives - Green with pimentos

Now, this is pretty basic, but it's how I cook...
  • Cut the boiled eggs in two - put yolk in separate bowl - Place large end of egg uppermost in plate hollow - alternate so that different size eggs are next to each other.
  • With a fork, mash egg yolks
  • Add some mustard, you know how sour you like things, so add to your taste. - I like about 2-3 tsp.
  • Put in about 2-3 Tbsp of salad olives, make sure to get some pimento
  • Add 1 tsp olive juice
  • Add mayonnaise, start with two big spoons.
  • Mix, taste, add more mayo or olive juice to get filling to the consistency you like.
  • When it is there, locate a long teaspoon with a smallish bowl to use for filling the eggs on the plate
  • Fill eggs and then put one olive slice on each egg and top with a bit of pimento in the hole
  • Dust with paprika
Now, because we have a lot of rosemary growing and a really nice patch of chives, I snip off rosemary sprigs, trying to get blooms if they are in season and about 8 chive stems.
Left - Rosemary bush in the front ~ Right - Chive Patch and Rosemary off back porch
 Then look around to see what else you have growing, in this pic we have some mint and Thai basil...place the rosemary sprigs, the basil and mint, snip the chives over and you are done!

Cover with plastic wrap, first one way and then the other.  The rosemary stems keep the plastic wrap off the eggs and then...refrigerate!

You can also use anything for garnish that hasn't been sprayed with pesticide.  I've used roses, sage, sweet basil, thyme... anything that isn't poisonous...
Google it if you are unsure and if you are still unsure... don't!

Then, if you have any boiled eggs leftover you can always...


Pickle 'em!

One is pickled with hamburger dill juice and garlic
 and the other with kalamata olive juice!

Let me know if you try the deviled egg recipe and if you like it;
 and I'll let you know in about 7 days if either one of the pickled egg recipes are any good!

I love my chickens...



10 comments:

  1. Hi! your girls are lovely, I love how they can roam wild and free! I laughed when I read the Identity of the newbee was being protected, poor girl :( I love all your egg platers and your very kind to share your guarded recipe!

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  2. Linda,
    I'm really having such a good time with this blogging! I love sharing what I'm up to and how we live our lives. Thank you so much for stopping by and for your kind and encouraging words. I really like reading your blog also, its fascinating to me to meet people from around the world and make friends. Also, how do you make deviled eggs?

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    1. I love having chickens too! There's something so wonderful about it. Especially when you can let them free range--so much cleaner and happier. You guys are doing a beautiful job out there. So happy for your rescued girls--they are lucky to be with y'all!

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    2. Hey Girl! Glad to see you stop by! Yes, love them chickens and thank you, we stay busy! As far my rescues...they will eat right out of our hands...it took them weeks to leave the chicken coop but now they roam far and wide with the rest of the girls...makes me happy to see! I have a book for Grover that is so fine...wait till you see!

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    3. Crystal, the funny thing is I'm allergic to egg whites! i can eat the yoke though, I'd never even heard of deviled eggs before i read it on your blog!! Blogging is great, isn't it, great way of making friends!

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    4. You know, the yolk is my favorite part of the egg! Not that I don't enjoy the whites...but the yolk is where the flavor is... and I'm not yolkin'... Oh, very bad... couldn't help myself! And yes, bloging is great! Where else could I make bad puns worldwide?

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  3. I love your chickens, too! I want to raise them, but our houses are too close together here for the requisite 100 feet between chickies and neighbors. Boo. I inherited a beautiful old deviled egg plate from my grandmother, which I'll be filling up today. Phil is barbecuing a big hen in the new smoker.

    I may not be able to keep chickies, but I will be building a top bar bee hive this summer. There are so many wonderful herb blooms in the gardens that the bees love, we might get some interesting honey flavors!

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    Replies
    1. Hey Kathy! So happy to see you here! Too bad about the chicken restriction but your bee plan sounds awesome! Noel was just saying this morning that we should keep bees...don't know about that so I'll be very interested to hear how it works out for you...then I may get brave! So, what's your deviled egg recipe...or is it top secret, hmmm? Tell Phil "Hello" from us, okay?!

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  4. Well thank you for rescuing the beakless one's. poor babies! I was curious how they ate but you already answered that in the comments!:) I read a couple posts and had no idea there was such a thing as a chicken snake. That one is BIG!! Anyway, great blog!!

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  5. Kari,
    You are most welcome...the new girls are really the most friendly chickens we have...they have really come a long way. Thanks for your encouraging words...and I popped over to your blog and all I can say is...Way to go! You are amazing!

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PPS - If you are using Google Translate to read my blog, I can probably use it to read your comment, so comment away!