In the kitchen...

I realize that as the 'cake chick' I really haven't blogged much about baking.

Honestly, I have been uninspired. But having a flock of 16 hens who are putting out
9 to 12 eggs in a day even in the winter is reason to find some inspiration and get baking.
Along with the beautiful weather this past weekend we had nothing going on for the
first time in a long time.

I perused one of my new cook books...

I'm not bragging BUT it happens to be signed by the author...

How could I not be inspired?

So I got baking.

I have made a lot of things in my day but never biscotti.

I gave it a whirl...

Terry(did I mention that I met the author? Oh yea I guess I did) says that the dough will be very sticky.  Well she isn't kidding.  I couldn't get the dough shaped exactly how I wanted because it was so sticky.  I will lay it out slower when I make it next to control the dough a little better.

I also baked it on my stone and did not use the parchment as suggested in the recipe. I bake on my stones all the time and knew I wouldn't have a problem.  The above picture is out of the oven before slicing it and baking the slices.  I was really wishing I had shaped that dough better, but as Julia Child says, "No apologies!"

Next was to slice and put back in the oven at 300 for 20 minutes on each side. I just put them in for 35 minutes and did not flip them.  Baking on a stone really makes turning things over unnecessary.

and then Viola! This was my coffee break this morning...

Cappuccino, thanks to my Tassimo and my Pistachio Apricot Biscotti.

and a nice view from my office window.

Thanks girls for the nice eggs to bake with!

two for one...

We have a girl...

She is a fancy girl, with feathers all the way down her feet.

Her name is Glinda, yes like the good witch.  Her feathers are

so full and she looks so fancy we thought it just fit.
She is a Light Brahama.  We got her as a day old chick
from McMurray Hatchery.

She leaves us special presents...they are huge!

 She lays an egg this size every 2-3 days.  Her eggs are so much bigger than our other girls'.

and there is something else that is special about them...

Yup, they always have a double yolk!

I was worried at first that this wasn't healthy for her, but it seems that some

lines in a breed just have this genetic trait.
It makes a nice egg sandwich on a Sunday morning.

"An egg is always an adventure; the next one may be different."
~ Oscar Wilde

Chicken...it's what's for dinner.

So this was what all the hard work was for...a yummy roaster like this.

Fresh as can be and weighing at 6lbs 5oz.

We did this chicken right.

We brined it using a Taste of Home recipe.

It was good, not my favorite brine recipe to date.

Still it was so good!

I have also been asked what I think is better, free range chicken or organically feed.

It really depends on what you think.  Even though a chicken is organically feed, they still may have lived a sorry little 8 week life stuck in a cage with 5 other birds, their beak cut off so they don't peck each other.

Free range brings up an entirely different set of questions. There aren't well established standards for what is required to call a chicken a free range chicken.  From what I understand, if there is a door open to the coop they are in(keeping in mind commercial birds are kept in massive coops) they can call that bird a 'free range' chicken.  They just need to have access to the outside.  Because the commercial buildings can be so massive, many chickens don't make it outside but because they had the option, the grower can label them 'free range'.

It is a tough call and they can be really expensive.  I am the first person to admit, if I didn't raise my own chicken I would be buying Perdue from BJ's.  I have a family to feed on a budget.  I consider myself blessed that we have the land and the ability to raise a lot of our own food.  The TV show Modern Marvels did a really interesting show on the egg and it showed all of the different ways chickens are raised and housed for eggs...just some food for thought.

Thank you all for your supportive comments and questions...even from you non-meat eaters.  I am very appreciative of all of your comments and support.