Egg Recipes

As the days grow longer, the hens produce more eggs, and pretty soon your refrigerator is overflowing with wonderful, organic cackleberries. In fact, you have given them to the neighbors, to the pastor, and to the mailman, and have no clue what to do next.

Well, one of the hard things about learning to live on the homestead, I think, is learning to flex with the seasons. Fewer eggs in the dark, cold days of December and so many in April that you don't know what to do!

Learning to cook with eggs, and lots of them, is what you need to do. Eggs from your own healthy, free range, organically fed chickens are a healthy and inexpensive meal.

I find alot of great egg recipes in the vintage cookbooks that I collect. People who lived on farms in the early part of the nineteenth century knew how to make the most of what they had, and what they had this time of year was alot of eggs!

When eggs fell out of favor we all got pushed to cut down, and eat the plastic fake egg substitute, but there is just nothing like the real thing.

Enjoy your abundance- it is part of the good life you have chosen.

This is a delicious way to use up eggs, and makes a great springtime supper,when asparagus is at it's best. Served with lemon poppy seed muffins, a spring salad, and a rhubarb crisp for dessert, it is a meal fit for royalty. Best of all it used the items that are naturally plentiful and at their peak in the early spring.

12 hard cooked eggs, slice 11 lengthwise into wedges, and leave the other one for garnish.

1/2 c mushrooms

1 tbs organic, unsalted butter

1/2 tsp salt

pepper to taste

1 lb fresh asparagus, steamed just until tender

1/2 c chopped green onions with tops

1 cup white sauce

Saute onions, and mushrooms in butter. Add asparagus, white sauce, and 11 of the eggs. Mix well, and turn into a greased baking dish. Garnish the top with the remaining egg, chopped. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Serves 6.

White Sauce

2 tbs unsalted butter

2 tbs flour

1 c milk, cream, or half and half

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Melt butter and blend into flour. Add milk gradually, stirring constantly. Cook over low heat, stirring, until sauce is smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.

Florentine always means spinach. Fresh spring spinach, that was growing in the garden only hours before being served, is very different from the spinach that is transported thousands of miles and left to wilt on the grocers shelves. This is another early spring treat.

Serve it with a crusty french bread, buttered baby carrots, and a lemon layer cake for dessert.

6 cups *spinach, lightly steamed, (measure after cooking)

12 eggs

salt to taste

pepper to taste

1/2 lb of cheddar

2 c white sauce

2 cups buttered crumbs (great way to use leftover bread)

Grate cheese and melt into white sauce to make a cheese sauce.

Put warm spinach in a greased 13x 9 casserole.

make indentations in the spinach and break one egg in each depression. Season with salt and pepper. Pour cheese sauce over all. Sprinkle with crumbs and bake at 350 until brown, about 25 minutes

Serves 6

* You can also use swiss chard in place of spinach.

Omelets are so easy to make, and they make a great lunch, dinner or breakfast. Serve them with croissants, or french bread, a salad and a light dessert.

Basic Omelet

Per person:

2 eggs

1 tsp water

pinch salt

break eggs into a bowl, add water, and mix until yolks and whites are blended.

Melt 1 tbs of butter in an omelet pan and pour eggs in to heated pan allowing them to form a thin layer. As the bottom cooks lift it up and let the uncooked egg run underneath. When top is set add filling ingredients, fold over, and slip out onto a plate.

Fillings:

• Mushrooms and onions sauteed. Add Parmesan cheese if you wish
• Saute 1 1/2 c white dandelion tips in butter with some chives
• Left-over meats

• Cheese
• Spinach and crisp bacon
• Chopped tomato, onion, ham, green pepper, and cheese
• Just about anything

I don't know who the farmer was but his breakfast is a favorite around here anytime of the day!

This is great with biscuits for breakfast, or add a salad, and a dried apple pie for dessert.

12 eggs

1/4 c half and half

1/4 lbs pork sausage, ground

1/2 c chopped onion

1/2 c chopped green pepper

1 c cooked, cold diced potatoes

Whisk eggs and half and half together, set aside.

Cook the sausage until done. Remove from pan. Pour out all but about 2 tablespoonfuls of the drippings. Saute the onion, pepper, and potato in the drippings until potato is browned and onion and pepper are cooked. Add sausage back into pan and pour in egg mixture. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until eggs are scrambled.

Serves 6

Old Fashioned Poundcake

• 2 c organic, unsalted butter
• 1 lb sifted cake flour (about 4 1/2 c)
• 10 eggs, separated
• 1 lb sugar (2 cups)
• 2 tsp vanilla

Cream butter with sugar until fluffy and no longer gritty. Set aside.

Beat egg yolks until thick and lemon colored. Add to creamed mixture. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Fold in flour and beat well. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans and bake at 325 for 1 1/4 hours.

Dream Cake

• 10 eggs, separated
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• pinch salt
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1 c sugar
• 3/4 c cake flour

Beat egg whites until frothy. Add cream of tartar and beat to stiff peaks. Set aside.

Beat yolks and salt until thick and lemon colored. Add lemon and vanilla, beat in sugar gradually, beating until the yolks hold a soft peak.

Fold egg whites and flour into egg yolk mixture. Pour into an ungreased tube pan and bake 350 for 40 minutes. Invert pan and allow to cool.