by Blogger of the month Jerusalem Jackson Greer

A great thing about keeping chickens is all the fresh eggs. A challenging thing about keeping chickens is all the fresh eggs. See, day after day, new eggs keep showing up. Whether you need them to or not. And if you are not proactive, they will take over your refrigerator. That is when the yoke hits the pan so to speak, and you have to decide: What are we going to do with all these eggs?

One of the ways our family gets out of the house in a timely fashion in the mornings is through a balanced division of labor: the kids feed the animals and the adults feed the kids. This means that during the work week Sweet Man makes the school lunches and I make the breakfasts. It seemed a natural progression then that I should be the one to find a way to use the majority of our eggs. However there is a slight glitch: I don’t move so fast before my second cup of coffee, which I don’t have until I get to my desk at work, so whipping up a hot breakfast every morning, over the stovetop, just isn’t going to happen, no matter how much earlier I back up my alarm. But still, there are all these eggs. So I rummaged around Pinterest, did some thinking and came up with a few easy egg-centric recipes that I can prepare ahead of time, or in the mornings-but quickly and while I am still half asleep.

One of our favorites are these Easy French-Toast Cups. I think the boys like them primarily because they can add syrup or honey to them and who doesn’t like that? I like them because I can make a couple of batches on Sunday afternoon and we can reheat them easily for breakfast several times during the week. If I do get up early enough to throw these together, I can pop them in the oven and then myself in the shower at the same time, knowing that by the time I am clean, they will be done!

Ingredient’s (makes 12 regular muffin sized cups. My boys eat 2-3 each so if I want this to last more than 2 days I will make a double batch.)

¼ Cup Milk

2 pc of bread

2 tsp Vanilla

2 tsp Cinnamon

5 Eggs

1/2 tsp Salt

Non-Stick Spray

Pre-cooked sausage or bacon crumbles

(You might not think of sausage or bacon being a part of French Toast, but because my boys are always dipping their breakfast meats into the syrup anyway, I went ahead and threw some in for extra fortification and flavor.) 

Directions

Mix together the eggs, milk, vanilla, salt and cinnamon

Whisk briskly with fork or whisk and then set aside.

Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray ( I use olive oil) and fill each with three to four pieces of torn bread- almost any sort will do. I use sandwich bread most days.

Next, cover the bread with the egg mixture, not quite filling up each cup.  Finally, drop a few crumbles of sausage or bacon on top of each.

Bake in a 350 degree oven until the eggs pouf up and the cups no longer jiggle like Jello. In my oven this is about 10 minutes, or as long as it takes me to get in and out of the shower.

Serve hot (or warmed up!) with butter and your favorite syrup or honey.

Now it’s your turn. Do you have an easy egg-centric breakfast recipe I can add to my repertoire

Jerusalem Jackson Greer is a crafter, writer, former pastor,
blogger, nest-fluffer, speaker and farm-gal wannabe. She
lives with her husband and two sons in a 1940s cottage in
Central Arkansas with an ever-changing rotation of pets,
including a hen house full of heritage chickens and an English Sheep Dog mutt. As a family, they are attempting to live a slower
version of modern life. She blogs about all of this 
and more at jerusalem.greer.com

Written by Debbie Arnold of Dining With Debbie

Bear with me on this one.

Originally, I intended to offer up some really deep thoughts on the symbolism of The Twelve Days of Christmas. I could do that. Yes, I could. But I changed my mind.

Sandy Hook Elementary happened. The Twelve Days of Christmas just didn’t seem all that important.

Then I wrote this long epistle on school safety and why teachers should NOT, in my very strong opinion, be permitted to carry concealed weapons in the classroom. But it was too soon and too sad. I changed my mind. Again.

I took a walk down to the pond just to clear my head and these fellows showed up. My smile returned, and I knew that I just had to tell you their story.

They are a strange pair. They are what they shouldn’t be. They are fast friends.Two Musketeers. Buddies. Mallard drakes who are totally loyal and bonded to one another.

Sometime last September these two appeared on the pond behind our house. They were there among a dozen or so others – mallards, wood ducks, gadwalls, not sure but a bunch nonetheless. We were excited to see them even though we knew that their stay was only temporary. They would be moving on to feeding grounds in other places. Their brief stay was a gift that we would enjoy while it lasted.

One by one the hens and drakes left with the Canada or snow geese migrating on to the rice fields beyond our pond. Except for these two. They stayed. They shouldn’t have, but they did.

I decided to take a chance with some cracked corn. To my total astonishment, they ate from my hand. These wild creatures took a chance on me. They gave me a precious gift and admitted me into their fellowship.

As the days and weeks passed, I continued to feed them intermittently. We were so often away from home. They didn’t give up on me though. It was if they knew I would return. They expected me to return. But they were not dependent upon me.Only each other.

And still they stayed.

For some time we thought that maybe they couldn’t fly. Or, at least, we thought that the larger one couldn’t. It was obvious that he had been injured. One wing just isn’t right. His right chest wall just doesn’t seem full. Yet, he is the dominant one. The leader. The smaller one fell in line and followed without hesitation.

By now they had names. Frick and Frack. The larger one we called Frack because he was fractured. Handicapped. Frick is his unlikely companion. He’s the healthy one who could easily abandon his sidekick. But he doesn’t.

But they can fly. We’ve seen them. Why, then, are they staying? These two mallard drakes which, by all reason, should not be paired the way they are and should have been long gone.

I think sometimes in life we are given really valuable gifts in small measures. We don’t always recognize or appreciate them at the time they are given.

These two wild creatures have reminded me of the value of loyalty and friendship. And even love.

Of course, I can’t say that they love one another. But I choose to believe that they do.

I also choose to think that I can become the kind of friend that these two odd fellows have shown me that I need to be. A friend who knows appearances aren’t a measure of a person’s value. A friend who can be trusted to be there whatever the circumstances might be. A friend who will lead. And yet, a friend who can follow. A friend who knows that loyalty is golden.

Some might say that I have tamed my duck friends. I think not. I think it is I who has been tamed.

Because you are my friends and because this is one awesome lemon cake, I’ll share.

The Best Meyer Lemon Cake

Serves 8 – 10

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, plus 8 Tablespoons melted
1/2 cup whole blanched almonds
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/3 cups plus 2 Tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk at room temperature
2 Tablespoons lemon extract
zest and juice of 2 Meyer lemons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 8 1/2” x 4 1/2 “ x 2 3/4” loaf pan, a Bundt or tube pan with 1 Tablespoon of butter. Lightly flour (I always use Wondra.). Tap out excess. Set aside.

Grind the almonds in a food processor until very fire; set aside. Do not overgrind or you will end up with almond butter.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Put the remaining butter in a large mixing bowl; add 1 cup of the sugar. Mix on low speed until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just long enough to incorporate. Add the flour mixture and milk in alternating batches; mix well scraping sides as you do.

Add the lemon extract. Fold in the ground almonds and lemon zest.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 60-65 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pan on a cooling rack.

Combine the remaining sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Do not boil.

Brush the glaze over the hot cake. The excess will be absorbed as the cake cools. Once the cake has absorbed all of the lemon mixture, turn it out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

Once it is completely cool, wrap in plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours before serving.

If you don’t have Meyer lemons readily available, use regular lemons. I also add an extra 2 Tablespoons of regular lemon juice to the batter because we like ours with more tartness.

Adapted from Saveur.com