Farm Fresh

I'm sharing more recipes today ... tomorrow it will be Valentines, Valentines, Valentines since that's what I've been totally focused on for what seems like an eternity.

Sunday a sweet friend at church stopped me after the block of meetings and asked if I'd be interested in some eggs ... fresh eggs from her chickens! Living in Kansas, in and around farm country, I am constantly reminded that I am a city girl. So it is no surprise that I have never had fresh eggs straight from the chicken.

Pam has 35 chickens on her property and she brought dozens of extras with her to church to pass on to friends. She was incredibly generous and gave our family 18 beautiful petite eggs in shades of a lovely soft brown and beautiful soft green. I asked Pam if there were any specific ways to prepare the eggs to really experience their farm freshness in their fullness, and she suggested fried or in egg salad. Tonight I prepared all 18 using my favorite egg salad recipe, and it was scrumptious!



Egg Salad:
2/3 cup mayonnaise, divided
4 large hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 celery rib, diced
4 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon minced sweet onion
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Garnish: whole fresh chives

Stir together 1/3 cup mayonnaise and next 7 ingredients.Use remaining mayonnaise on your bread of choice ... toasted wheat bread, or croissants are excellent options. Spinach or fresh arugula are also a great addition to your sandwich.

* * * * *
Last week I got a craving for baked apples and decided at the last minute to throw together a German Apple Pancake for dessert. I couldn't find a recipe my Mom and I made years ago, so I once again when in search of a recipe online (one might ask why I own cookbooks, if google is my best cookbook ...) and found a very good substitute for the recipe I'm still looking for. And since my adaptation has 6 eggs in it, it goes perfectly with our theme for the evening :)



German Apple Pancake
6 eggs
3/4 cup unbleached flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 pinch salt
1-1/2 cups milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup white sugar, divided
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large tart apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced

In a large bowl blend, eggs, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add vanilla, melted butter and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. Let batter stand for 30 minutes or overnight (or in my case, while you finish up dinner and get the rest of the stuff ready).

Preheat oven to 425.

Melt butter in a large heavy oven proof skillet, brushing butter up the sides of the pan. In a small bowl, combine half the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sprinkle mixture over the butter and line the pan with apple slices. Sprinkle remaining sugar over the apples. Place pan over medium-high heat until the mixture bubbles, then gently pour the batter mixture over the apples.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 and bake for 10 minutes. Slide pancake (lift, scoot, etc.) onto serving platter and cut into wedges. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

NOTE: If you have a smaller skillet - say 10 inches - than use this recipe.

And the winners are....

Oh yes I said winners, cause I can't just choose one, there are of course three choosers in this family aren't there?! And it is oh it's so tempting for you to simply be totally surprised when your packages arrive, but that really isn't fair is it? Hopefully there will be some surprises.

I put everyone's names in a bowl and let each child choose a name.

Becca pulled out Kelly's name, Emily pulled out Kristy's and Sam, Grandma Mutti's! So I'm packaging everything up and mailing them out first thing tomorrow morning so they will arrive by Valentine's Day. I'm so excited!

Today had a couple of rough spots, so I'm really glad I have some fun and exciting things to totally out weigh the tears -- nothing serious, nothing major, everyones okay, we're all just a little more experienced in this game called life (the full story in another post, I promise!).

My other bit of exciting news, call it a bonus prize of sorts, I found a delicious Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe this morning just in the nick of time! Today was Emily's turn to be "Special Person" this month and wanted to take Chocolate Chip Muffins as her snack for the whole class. Not wanting to use a mix and not finding a recipe in any of my favorite and trusted cookbooks, I turned to the internet this morning at 6am to see what I could find.

I made the first recipe I opened ... with 99 reviews and an average overall rating of 5 stars out of 5 ... I figured I was pretty safe. They are fantastic. I sent 24 with Emily to school, ate the left over three for breakfast, and just pulled a third batch out of the oven for dessert tonight. So yummy, so beautiful, so easy! Wouldn't they make a fun Valentine's Breakfast treat?

Chocolate Chip Muffins, adapted from a recipe posted on Mr Breakfast.com
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup light-brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter - melted and cooled
2 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400°F and line twelve muffin tins with your favorite papers.

In a large bowl, stir together, flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, stir together milk, eggs, butter and vanilla until blended. make a well in the center of dry ingredients; add milk mixture and stir just to combine. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into muffin cups; bake 15-17 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean. Remove muffin tin to wire rack; cool 5 minutes and remove from tins to finish cooling.

Serve warm.