Homestead – Page 9 – Peacock Orchard

Eggtastic Tuesday- The Fluffiest Scrambled Eggs

The key to fluffy scrambled eggs is a simple one, air. The more air you can get in your eggs the fluffier they will be.

Now, I do not claim to be an expert whisker but I’ve whisked plenty of things in my life. I whisked and whisked the eggs but I can’t beat the blender for adding air.

30 seconds in the blender and the eggs are airy and light.

These are hand scrambled eggs. Now, it should be known the eggs got a bit overcooked as we were having photo problems. Thankfully our first two eggs were equally over cooked so the experiment was still good.

Eggs in the blender. Noticeably fluffier.

Once I picked which method made the airiest eggs, I then tried adding a teaspoon of water and a teaspoon of milk to see which would would assist in further fluffing.

This is eggs poured into a hot and oiled pan after being blended with water.

Eggs blended with milk.

There wasn’t a very noticeable difference between the milk blended and water blended eggs. I do not believe it affected taste either. So I suppose that’s a personal preference thing. I will say that adding water or milk to thin down the eggs did produce lighter eggs.

So get out your blender and blend some eggs.

Oh, as an added note all of the eggs were laid that day so they were all the same age.

Gleying a pond with pigs

What is “gley” exactly? According to Merriam-Webster gley means:

a sticky clay soil or soil layer formed under the surface of some waterlogged soils.

In essence I am using my pigs to seal a pond for me. Their manure and weight will tamp and coat the soil to keep the water in. It hasn’t been warm enough for them to be doing it long. We’ve had about a months worth of weather where they left the barn freely.

There was a few inches of water in the bottom of the pond that the pigs were enjoying. I wanted to fill the pond for the ducks though, and to see what the pigs would do. So a month ago I filled the pond to capacity. The pond is 14x20x3. I dug it years ago. It has a deep end and a shallow end I intended to use as a biological filter for the duck mess. It never worked out, unfortunately. The cement I had used to seal the pond cracked and it hasn’t been usable for years. We pounded out the cement when we got the pigs and now it’s their turn to work.

Or play, depends on your perspective. B.L.T. has brought a toy into the pond and he splashes around with abandon. In these pictures I’d turned a sprinkler on for them because it was SOOOO hot out, at least for Wyoming.

The pond isn’t completely sealed yet, but it has a good start. A month without intervention and it still has a fair bit of water in it. It was unexpected. I hope they are able to finish the gley soon. They are eating weight now.

Eggtastic Tuesday- Deep Fried Eggs

This sounds gross, right? Allow me to assure you it is not. What compelled me to try it? A failed empanada meal that left me with a skillet full of oil I didn’t want to waste.

You should absolutely try this if you love fried eggs. The insides are light and fluffy and the outsides are perfectly crispy. It’s the best fried egg I’ve ever had. There are a few tricks though.

If you like your eggs over easy crack them into the hot oil and let them cook 2 minutes, flip and let cook another minute.

If you like your eggs cooked hard you have to break the yolk after you crack it into the oil. Then you cook 2 minutes, flip and cook another minute.

After you remove the eggs from the oil put them on a paper towel and salt and pepper to taste. Then all you have to do is enjoy!

Over easy

Fried hard

Eggtastic Tuesday- The Best Way to Boil Farm Fresh Eggs

There are about a million articles and Pinterest pins on this. So why am I wasting my time experimenting with this? Well, none of them have ever worked for me. So I did some research and TheKitchn had a nice post about boiling eggs. So I took that and other popular pins and gave it a go. I baked eggs, boiled them starting with cold water, boiled them in hot water and boiled them with baking soda.

I should say that most posts about this subject say that fresh eggs do not peel easily. Eggs have to be aged at least two weeks to properly peel according to most. I had eggs ranging from 6 to 2 days old. I used 6 eggs in each experiment.

This is the first 6 eggs I did starting in cold water, bringing to a hard boil and then turning off the heat and letting them sit for 10 minutes.

I submerged each egg batch in ice water, cracking after a few minutes to let the water seep between the membrane and egg.

This is the baking soda control. I brought it to a boil and then added the baking soda.

Adding eggs to boiling water (hint: use a spoon to lower them gently in).

Baked eggs. I thought I was clever and put them in my cake pop tray. My cupcake pan is humongous.

The results were clearly in favor of one method for fresh eggs, baked. However, I should have sucked it up and used my huge cupcake pan. Using this pan left a burntish mark on the eggs where they touched the pan. The eggs also had an odd seepage.

I have no idea why they did this.

The yolk was just hard, not yet overcooked. You can certainly tell where they touched the pan. Clearly there is a reason cupcake pans are usually used for this.

What happened with the rest, you may ask. Well peeling was extremely difficult and so…

The pigs loved it!

Country Kitchen Remodel Update

I’ve been remodeling the kitchen since October. It’s the project that never ends. Still, I’ve moved walls and plumbing. I’ve been helped with (and figured out) electrical. We’ve painted and hammered a ton. It’s been a seven months. Here is what’s been happening:

This is the wall of cabinets that shouldn’t exist, as I was determined to rip out that wall. Now it’s a wall of awful red cabinets that need stripped and re-painted. It’s a work in progress, as you can see.

This cabinet was at an angle on the now gone wall. I moved it, ripped out the drawer. Took off the door. Put a plank backing on it and now, it’s a perfect fit for my kitchen aid and finishes off this wall nicely!

This is the other side of the awful red cabinet wall. I had knocked a massive hole in it before realizing it couldn’t be removed. So it’s all patched up. Needs sanded, textured and painted still. Always something!

Finally stained the trash drawer. I like it much better like that.

I can finally consider the pantry completely finished after building these great wooden doors and planking the side wall of it. I love how it all turned out!

The entire house has been re-arranged. Pre- wall removal this was the kids playroom. It is now the dining room. It’s been painted and decorated and I’m in love with how it turned out!

I was extremely happy to find these peacock plates at home goods

Herbs are sprouting nicely in my chicken feeder herb garden.

The hanging scale is to die for. Functional as well. I’ve been weighing animal feed in it. I love the column I found at an antique store and the peppercorn plant is doing great in it’s greenhouse.

Other things happening are because of the big household rearrange. We moved all of the main spaces in the house around.

This space in the new playroom was begging to be a learning center. Now it is! I built that lovely table and benches and I couldn’t be more happy with how this space has turned out!

Now that our living room is near the fireplace the empty, ugly space had to have something done to it. This is two tails from our peacocks and it’s marvelous!

That’s it for now. Still to do is finishing the cabinets off, removing the current island, installing new flooring and building a new island. Worlds of changes to come!

Eggtastic Tuesday- Migas

Migas is a Mexican egg dish with tortilla chips. First introduced to me by my father-in-law it has become a frequently prepared breakfast dish at our house.

I like that it’s few ingredients, lots of eggs and is quick to prepare.

Begin by cutting the tortillas into strips and frying until crispy in an oiled skillet.

I suffer from an abundance of help while cooking.

Season and beat the eggs and add to the tortillas.

I used garlic and onion powder, chili powder and paprika as well as salt and pepper.

So easy a toddler can do it!

Serve with your favorite salsa or hot sauce. Enjoy!

Migas

Ingredients:

8 eggs
6 corn tortillas, cut into strips
3 Tablespoons oil
Seasonings of your choosing
Salt and Pepper to taste
Salsa (optional garnish)

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large cast iron skillet, add the tortillas and cook until crunchy, stirring frequently. Beat the eggs with preferred seasonings and add to skillet. Cook until eggs are no longer runny. Serve with salsa or hot sauce.