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...