Breakfast Burritos with Cayenne Pepper

Fresh tomatoes, avocado, creamy scrambled eggs, and Tillamook cheese on a corn burrito sprinkled with cayenne pepper.  What more could you ask in a breakfast burrito?

Breakfast Burritos with Cayenne Pepper
serves 3

6 eggs
1 avocado, sliced thin
1 tomato sliced or diced
6 corn tortillas
1.5 cups grated Tillamook cheese
1 tsp cayenne pepper

The Soft Scrambled Eggs:
There is a special way to make very moist scrambled eggs without the slimy uncooked taste.  The key to this technique is heating the eggs slowly and evenly while stirring continuously.  I heat a cast iron pan on medium heat.  When it is hot enough to sizzle I add a tablespoon of butter then pour in the mixed eggs.  Using a wooden spoon I stir the eggs almost continuously, making sure to get all parts of the pan.  There is an art to this: you want to have the pan temperature hot enough that you aren't standing around stirring the eggs forever.  The heat should be hot enough that the eggs are solidifying visibly each time you stir it and the wet parts touch the heat, but not so fast that you have an egg cake.  The egg should solidify as more of a mashed potato consistency.  Confused yet?  It takes some practice. Salt and pepper to your liking.

Putting the Burrito Together:
Heat corn tortillas in a little butter on medium heat in a cast iron pan adding cheese so that it will melt.  Top with scrambled eggs, chopped fresh tomatoes, avocado, and sprinkle with cayenne pepper. 

Specially scrambled eggs

Velvet Scrambled Eggs with Sheep Feta on Sprouted Bread

OK, so I eat way too many eggs.  We have 20+ hens and a lot of eggs.  We sell some eggs, feed our dogs some, give some away, sell some, and eat lots.  Some of my favorite things to do with our fresh eggs are: soft boiled, scrambled, and in quiche.  What I want to share with you today is my *favorite* scramble recipe.  It is easy to do,  but it requires that you stir the eggs constantly for about 5 minutes.  You have most likely never had eggs this delicious.  I grew up eating dry tasting scrambled eggs and hard fried eggs.  I can't stand over cooked eggs now.  Yuck!  So here is a recipe for moist scrambled eggs.  Yum!

Velvet Scrambled Eggs with Sheep Feta Served on Sprouted Bread
 serves 2 adults and two kids

6 eggs, mix thoroughly
feta to taste
olive oil
cast iron pan, preferably (heats more uniformly and retains heat well)

Preheat a cast iron pan to (on my oven it's between medium and medium-low) just below medium.  Pour 1-2 TBS of olive oil in pan, enough to cover the surface.  Once you have thoroughly scrambled the eggs in a dish add them to the preheated pan.  Make sure to have your wooden spoon in hand to stir the eggs.  Once you have added the mixed eggs to pan, stir them constantly, making sure to get to every part of the pan.  When I make these scrambled eggs I stir without stopping until they are done, that way no part of the scrambled eggs gets overcooked.

The idea is to cook the eggs slowly but consistently so that they do not harden into larger size balls.   If you do it right you will have no egg "balls" just a soft, but thoroughly cooked mush.   Remember to stir until the eggs have lost all their water or moisture.  They will still be soft and mushy, just not "watery".  In other words they will taste cooked, but not rubbery or hard in any way.

Add crumbled feta to cooked eggs, as much or as little as you desire.  The eggs will be good served on top of bread (we love using sprouted Sesame "Ezekiel" bread, but you can use any bread.  Here is another picture so you can see the consistency of the eggs.  It may take a few tries to get them just right.

Soft Eggs, pictured with sheep feta on buttered Ezekiel Sesame bread. 

How to Make a Cute Roadside Sign

Do you like my signs? I had fun painting them. Acrylic paint on wood. Then I sprayed it with a sealer. Marina (4 years old) also painted on her own big piece of wood (not pictured). It makes a fun art craft. Especially at our house where we have lots of extra pieces of wood.
Above & Below: two different sides of the sign. I put two pieces of wood together with a hinge in the middle. Then I spray painted the wood white. The next day it was ready for the paint brushes!



You might see our sign along Saratoga Road. We are close to Langley, about 1/2 mile out of town. We have about 15 laying hens right now and 26 baby chicks that will be laying in the fall. Hopefully we will be able to sell eggs in the fall and winter. Our chickens are free range within a safe fenced area. I am selling the eggs for $4 a dozen.

What kind of bird layed these eggs? Here are the pictures of our Naurally Dyed Easter Eggs

The naturally dyed Easter eggs we made turned out beautiful! I love the colors and the patterns the natural dyes imprinted on the eggs. I was able to compare our dyes with the girls' grandma's store bought dyes and I have to say that the natural dyes are well worth the time, as the colors are so much more vibrant, realistic, and healthy! Here is what I used to achieve the dyes:

Speckled maroon/rich pink: 2 cups frozen blackberries, 1 1/2 cup water, 2 TBS white vinegar, cook for 30 minutes at slow rolling boil. Cool the mixture then add hardboiled eggs and leave them in the dye overnight. The blackberries in the liquid will make the speckled look. Strain the liquid for a more even colored look.

Sunshine Yellow: 3 TBS turmeric, 3 cups water, 2 TBS vinegar. Cook all ingredients for 30 minutes at slow rolling boil. Set aside until cooled and then add hard boiled eggs. Leave in dye overnight, making sure to turn eggs if liquid doesn't cover them. This will make enough to color 3-4 eggs and to have some leftover to mix with the recipe for blue (below) to make green.

Earthy Brown: 4 TBS ground coffee, 3 cups water, 2 TBS vinegar. Cook all ingredients for 30 minutes, cool, then add hard boiled eggs. Leave overnight. Use brown eggs to make the color look more natural and rich.

Baby Soft Pink: 2 beets chopped, 3 cups water, 2 TBS white vinegar. Cook for 30 minutes at low boil. Cool dye and then add hard boiled eggs, leave overnight. I used beets that were white and red striped on the inside, and I would recommend using red beets only. So I added some blackberries to the final dye before adding the eggs to make the dye stronger. These eggs are the white ones with a few pink spots on them in the photos.

Midnight Blue: 3 cups blueberries, 4 cups water, 2 TBS vinegar. Cook for 30 minutes at low boil. Cool then split the contents into two containers. One will be for blue and one for green. Add hard boiled eggs to one then add the yellow turmeric dye to the other in equal parts to make the green. The blue dye was the only dye that I did not leave the eggs in overnight. It was very strong. I left them in for 5-6 hours. Makes a dark blue with hints of purple.

Ever-Green: Blueberries and turmeric, I used some of the leftovers from the blueberries and the turmeric dyes (described above), in equal parts, to make my green. What an incredible green! See picture. Leave eggs in dye overnight.

Above: closeup, naturally dyed Easter eggs

Above: The girls get excited over the colorful eggs

Recipe for Colorful Easter Eggs, Naturally Dyed: Fun with the Kids!

A fun craft to do with the kids, a learning opportunity, and healthy eating all in one! There are many foods & spices that you can use to make natural Easter egg dye, and kids can learn about where dyes first came from.

I am going to put in the extra effort this year and make the dyes myself with the kids' help. Here is a list of some natural items straight from your kitchen that you can use to dye your eggs:

Blue: red cabbage (leaves) and/or blueberries:

Red-Pink: blackberries

Green: mix blueberries and turmeric

Beige or brown: Tea, coffee

Red: Beets, cranberries

Orange: Outer skins of onions

Light Yellow: Carrot tops, orange or lemon peels

Dark Yellow: Turmeric

Marbled Effect: Add a little vegetable oil to the dye

To make the aforementioned colors, boil the ingredients in water with 3 tablespoons of vinegar per quart. The vinegar will help the colors adhere to the eggs. using white eggs is recommended, as the colors show more clearly. Dip the eggs into the bowls of coloring until desired color is reached. Natural colors usually take longer to dye the eggs than do the ones from the store. The colors you make will look like they came right out of the field or out of an exotic bird's nest!

You can leave eggs in the dye overnight if they are refrigerated (I recommend doing this for deeper hues). Checkout Amy Gates' website for pictures of beautiful home dyed eggs and for more information on colors and methods: http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com/2009/04/04/how-to-dye-easter-eggs-naturally-a-tutorial/

Spinach-Feta and Italian Sausage Quiche with a Quinoa Crust (wheat-gluten free)

Quiche has a lot of things going for it this time of the year. I love to cook with ingredients that are in season and both eggs and spinach are becoming more available. They are becoming more available if you have your own chickens as they begin to lay more eggs as the days get longer. And this is the time of year you can plant spinach here in the northwest. Spinach likes the cool and wet qualities of spring. Although it is maybe a little early to plant the spinach, it just snowed today. It was only a half inch, if that, but it covered up spring so fast! By afternoon it was--poof--gone! Or should I say, drip, it was gone.

Also included in this recipe is my very favorite quinoa crust recipe, which I created during a frustrated rage at the disgusting wheat and gluten free all-purpose flour by Bob's Red Mill. Bob's has this flavor that is just gross, like bad garbanzo beans, and I love garbanzo beans. So here is a great alternative: Quinoa Flakes and butter.

Quiche Ingredients:
3 cups chopped fresh spinach
1 # Italian Sausage (ground)
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups quinoa flakes
1/2 cup butter
1 cup grated carrot
approximately 1 to 1 1/2 cup feta (I like the sheep feta)
several slices of yellow cheese
olive oil for cooking

Quinoa Flake Crust: makes 1 pie shell

1 1/2 cups quinoa flakes (2 cups for larger pie dish): Quinoa is a dry cereal flake form of quinoa, which is normally round and small. The flakes are just that-- flakes, very thin and powdery. If you live on Whidbey Island you can get them at Payless in the "health food isle" by the cereal and the chocolate/energy bars. I think they also have them at the Star Store. Be prepared, one box (about 3 1/2 +/- cups, or two pie shells) is about $7.

1/2 cup of butter, chopped into small squares

Put chopped butter and quinoa flakes in a blender and blend until it forms a wad of dough. Press into a regular sized pie dish. You can add a little more quinoa flakes for a thicker crust. I press the crust so it is thin but it covers the whole dish. Start from the middle and press toward the sides.Now place sliced yellow cheese around the edges of the crust and fill the whole bottom of the crust with feta, as shown in picture below. Place in preheated 375F oven for 5-10 minutes. You want to melt the cheese to form a moisture barrier. Make sure to not overcook the shell. Lightly browned quinoa shell is okay, but no more than that.

Melted yellow cheese and feta (above)

Now it is time to prepare the sausage. Cook on stove top with olive oil breaking into small-ish pieces as it cooks. cook until done and set aside.

Now for the "Insides" of the Quiche! Mix 4 eggs and 1 1/2 cups of milk until blended.

Above: Egg and Milk mixture (about to be blended, by hand)

Mix the blended egg/milk mixture with sausage and 3 cups chopped spinach. Pour into quinoa pie shell and place grated carrot on top for a nice color contrast. Place in a 350F oven for 30-40 minutes. Check periodically to see if egg mixture is firm. The middle is the last part of the pie to finish cooking, and you can touch it with our finger to see if it is firm. if it is you are done!

Quiche pie with spinach, eggs, milk and sausage, uncooked

carrots on top, uncooked

Spinach Scramble Sandwich with Jack Cheese

We have 30 laying chickens so we make lots of scrambles. Especially this time of year when the eggs are coming abundantly. Here is a recipe that I cooked this morning with spinach from my garden and eggs from my chickens. Makes enough food for 2-3 people. This can be a breakfast or lunch meal.

6 eggs
1/4 cup grated jack cheese
1 cup cut small fresh spinach
salt and pepper to taste
2-4 piece of toast, depending on how many people are eating and butter to taste (we like the sprouted Ezekiel bread)

Scamble eggs in a dish or cup, preheat pan to med-low. Add 1-2 TBS olive oil. Pour scrambled eggs in and cover for 1-2 minutes. Add cut spinach, salt, pepper and stir until cooked to your desired softness. I like the eggs moist, but done. Add cheese on top, cover until cheese is melted.

Toast bread until lightly browned on both sides, butter and scoop eggs on top. Enjoy with a cup of hot tea.

Chickens on the Farm and the Eagle

We have about 30 chickens and we sell approximately 5 dozen eggs a week. I say we have 'about' 30 chickens because we also have a very friendly eagle in the neighborhood who swoops down to pick up dinner occasionally. Our chickens have free run of about 1/4 acre. This time of the year the chickens are the most productive egg layers. As the days become shorter the chickens lay fewer and fewer eggs, in a natural ebb and flow.
Our chickens are free to roam and eat anything within their large enclosure. We also feed them our food scraps, yard & garden debris, and chicken layer pellets.
We also have a rooster who protects the flock. We went up to the barn to feed the chickens and noticed the rooster was missing all of his beautiful tail feathers! This legs were scratched up and he looked like he had put up a real fight. We believe the eagle or perhaps a smaller falcon tried to pick him up and he got away.
We have Rhode Island Reds, Golden Comets, Black Australop, Ameraucanas, Buff Orpington, Barred Plymouth Rock, & Light Brahma. Here are some pictures of our chickens.

Garden Fresh Quiche with Tuna: Using Spinach and Chard from the Garden (with a wheat & gluten free crust)

We are getting a lot of eggs from our chickens this time of the year. They lay the most eggs during the lightest time of the year. Our garden is also beginning to offer us some beautiful bounty. I planted later than usual this year, as it has been rainy and cold and I have been busy enjoying my little Stella, who is now 4 months old. So here is a recipe that you can enjoy using in season ingredients. It's lots of fun to get the ingredients from your own garden and your own chickens or you can get them at the farmers market. This recipe is for one quiche pie and serves from 2 to 4 people, depending on the portion size. I like to make two pies and have leftovers.

Quiche filling:
2 cups chard, chop small
2 cups spinach, chop small
1/2 cup or 3 carrots chopped small
1 can of tuna
2 TBS mayo
1/2 pound sheep feta, or other high quality feta

Egg Mixture:
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk (I used almond milk and it was great!)

Pie Crust:
1/3 stick cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cup flour, I use quinoa flakes, a quick cooking cereal, it is wheat and gluten free
pinch of salt
Up to 3 TBS water

Mix butter and quinoa flakes in a blender and then add salt and water as needed. Press crust into a buttered 9-inch pan. I slowly work the crust from the center of the pi dish to the sides and then up the sides.

Stir Fry the carrots, chard, spinach. Herat a pan on medium. Begin with some oliveoil and then add carrots, chopped small. Cook for 5 minutes then add chard and spinach. Cover and turn temperature to low. Cook for 2-4 minutes, just enought o soften the chard and spinach.
Set aside.

Put the Two Together: Preheat oven to 375F
Now you have the crust ready and the ingredients set aside and cut to the right size. Crumble the feta on the crust. Cheese is the first ingredient to go on the pie. It helps make a moisture barrier. Spread the feta evenly over the crust. Put the crust with feta in the preheated 375F oven for 5 minutes to melt cheese and harden the crust a little.










Remove from the oven and place the stir fried carrots, chard and spinach over the feta / cheese. Reserve a small handful of greens to put on the pie right before you place it in the oven.









Mix one can of tuna with 2 TBS mayo. Spread the tuna over the stir fry ingredients on the quiche.










Mix 4 eggs with 1 1/2 cups milk. Pour the egg & milk mixture in the quiche (on top of the greens and tuna. Sprinkle the top of the quiche with the leftover greens to make it look pretty.










Now put it in the preheated oven on 375F. Cook for 35-45 minutes or until the middle and sides of the quiche are firm, not watery. Here's the final product:

Sunday Morning Egg & Kale Scramble

Easy, easy, easy!

You need: eggs, tender kale, and optional feta and pine nuts

For a family of four mix 6 eggs thoroughly. Dice fresh, young kale greens, put to the side. Heat a pan on medium with olive oil . Add kale and scrambled eggs at the same time, cover and turn heat down a notch or two. Give them a couple minutes and then stir frequenly to prevent the eggs from hardening too quickly. You want soft moist eggs and the kale should also be soft.

The eggs are great with a pinch of feta and some pine nuts. Both are completely optional. Enjoy with a cup of nettle-green tea (see recipes).