Snow White and the Seven Eggs

A few days after I arrived we had our first snowfall of the year.  We run two fires, one for the living room and one in the kitchen for heat and cooking. We let them burn all night and then stoke them up in the morning so that the house is always warm.  The dogs insist that they are house dogs, barging into the kitchen to lounge and toast their paws by the fire. The chickens stay in their warm pen and gossip all day (probably about the weather).  And some of us concede to finally wear thermal underwear, it is definitely winter.

 

Having the fires on all day means that there is valuable cooking energy being wasted up the chimney and into the kitchen. To make the most of it, dog food bubbles away, stewing gelatinous feasts and prompting three pairs of wet noses to nudge: “Is it ready yet?”.  We suspect that some of our chickens lay on the field, but the snow and the cold keeps them close to home and our daily egg count has gone up.

 

I have never been much of a cook, but I practice and I am getting better.  I am learning not to cut corners and with my new found patience am trying different things.  Prompted first with the hot oven going to waste, and second by the rows of pale and dark brown eggs advancing up the fridge door, there was only one thing for it; I googled.

 

Desserts with Eggs. Desserts with 10+ eggs. Lots of eggs.

 

I settled on lemon meringue pie, which is suitably impressive to trot out at a dinner party, should I ever have one.  Seven eggs in Mary Berry's recipe. Our eggs are quite small so I used ten.  The lemon curd filling by Mary Berry was beautiful; creamy, zesty and delicious.  But my meringue went a bit soggy as I didn't add enough sugar.  We converted it into lemon curd and custard tart and three lucky pups got my rather omelette-y meringue.

 

Never mind, there were still plenty of eggs and yesterday I made my second attempt. With the egg white demanding: “More sugar! More! MORE!”  I whisked them into snow white peaks until my arm ached.  Success! Crispy meringue. I also made banana muffins which seem to have all disappeared for breakfast.

 

It is a crisp winter day and the sun is melting the very last pockets of snow.  I am going downstairs  to light the kitchen fire.  We got six eggs yesterday and I am sick of meringue...Any ideas?

 

GT

civ civ civ civ !!

Four chicks!  Pinky has successfully produced four beautiful civ civs in four colours: white, off-white, pink & grey-ish black.  Today they are 6 days old and have been out of the flower pot for a walk.

And another hen (maybe) is sitting on some more eggs: Darky decided she wanted to sit on eggs last week and she is adamant - attacking & pecking anyone who dares to steal her clutch... So each day we duly removed the eggs she had claimed, and each day she obstinately refused to come out of the loft and just sat there in the heat, brooding.  So on Saturday we decided to allow her four eggs - but to keep her separate I made a nest for her and her eggs in a large flower pot.  She ate all the food, drank the water, then took a flying leap, jumped out and called for Cocky to come and rescue her - which he did; she ran off after the other hens and I took the eggs & put them in the fridge. (scrambled eggs for lunch that day).
Sunday we had the same procedure, and I ended up chasing a delinquent hen, so today she's securely shut up inside the flower pot with fresh hay, feed, water, and some eggs and a roof she can't escape through.
All this means that there's not an egg to be had in the house - this morning's muffins had to be made with yoghurt to stick them together, no eggs left!
Cost per egg (CPE) also remains high, no longer reducing by the day, and our eggs are (thus far) at least 3 times more expensive than buying eggs from the shop. But so-oo delicious.
CT