Wonderling

Too many eggs!

Through the workings of fate I have acquired two more chickens. This brings my flock to 5. Which means, of course, I will be expanding the coop once it stops snowing here. Along with the loud and sometimes scary implementation of the new "pecking order" came two more eggs a day. I thought this would be no problem since everyone wants fresh eggs right?? Unfortunately 2 dozen eggs a week is a lot more than I can even give away right now (not to mention my shortage of egg cartons). 

So what's an urban farmer to do? Make frittatas!

picture via Dani Spies

It's amazing how wonderful eggs and 'stuff' can be (stuff meaning whatever I have in my fridge and pantry, which lately isn't much). Dani uses quinoa in the above frittata and I am kicking myself for not adding any to the frittata I just put in the oven. Some recipes even use cooked spaghetti. 

So here's the basic recipe:

4-6 eggs (depends on the size of your pan/appetite)

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup grated cheese (whatever kind you like, parmesean is my favorite so far)

1/2 cup diced veggies (again, whatever you have/want)

one cooked and diced potato (optional)

1 tbsp italian seasoning mix

dash of salt

enough olive oil to coat the bottom and sides of your pan

pre-heat oven to 325. whip eggs and milk. Add the rest of the ingredients (unless you're using potatoes, you will want to pan fry them in the olive oil separately). pour mixture into pan. you will need to 'pull back' the sides of the frittata occasionally to allow the uncooked bits to drizzle down to the bottom and get cooked. Once frittata is solid enough flip out onto plate and slide upside down back into the pan, just long enough to cook the top part that will still be a bit mushy. Place frittata in a greased baking dish, sprinkle a little more cheese on the top and bake for about 20 mins. 

It seems a lot more complicated than it is. The whole process only took me about 35 mins, most of that time was the 20 mins in the oven. 

My baby lays a BLUE egg!

After taking the wrong route home yesterday (think horrible hills...HORRIBLE hills) I was happy to hear some high-pitched sqwaking from the coop. I knew it meant one thing: a hen had laid her first egg. I was super surpised to see that it was the youngest one, Pinto. Here's her lovely, lovely blue egg

Egg Carton Lamp

This lamp is made from about 80 egg-carton-cups! I love the deep purple color, but I'm not sure I could spare that many cartons since I constantly have eggs to put them in......I'm thinking that there's something else I could recycle to make a lamp this pretty, I'm just not sure exactly what it would be yet! [via CRAFT]

My first Dozen!

So lovely. 

Moonbooting

Someone up there does not want me to ride my bike. Wednesday morning my foot was kind of sore, but not even really noticable...just like, "oh...my foot is a little sore" and then I didn't think about it again. So I rode to work and back. That night, after sitting on the couch knitting for about an hour, I got up to feed the kitties and it was like, "oh man, what's up with my foot??" but I figured it was some stupid I'm-getting-older-cramp kind of thing and it would be gone in the morning. Nope. It was even worse. I was certainly not going to ride my bike to work, but I also didn't want to take the bus and have to walk a long distance on the side of my foot (the only way I could walk without intense pain). 

I decided to call the advice RN because what would they do for a foot? I figured she would tell me to wait it out and put some ice on it, but she said I should err on the side of caution and come in since walking was really painful. The Dr. was perplexed. My foot was obviously swollen and something was wrong, but I didn't DO anything to it (that I can think of). He ordered xrays just to be sure it wasn't some tiny little fracture, but in the mean time he wanted me to stay home and do the whole RICE thing (rest ice compression elevation). He also wanted me to wear "a boot". 

So here I am with my "boot" on. No fracture, just a supposed ligament/tendon issue. It's been suggested that I get another boot for my right foot so I can just tell people it's a fashion statement.

Here's the oh-so-fashionable boot....and a freshly laid egg is in there too!

MY FIRST EGG!!!

Yesterday I was leaving the house for band practice and, like I always do, I walked by the chicken coop and said a little, "hey chickies!" to the chickens. Then something caught my eye....in the dark corner of the coop there was a tiny brown egg!! I dropped my bag and ran into the coop to confirm that there was, in fact, an egg. In my excitement I didn't think to take a picture of it sitting there in all it's glory, but it was lovely. 

Supposedly chickens will lay every day, so I'm hoping for another surprise this afternoon when I get home from work!