No, that’s not the clever name of a dish, although it could be…

A year ago we got 3 baby chicks –Kiwi, Sunny, and Olive–and made our way into the backyard chicken movement. Watching them grow up so quickly was really amazing. I can only imagine how transformative it is for my friends with newborns and toddlers to see their little ones grow up and learn each new thing; well, that’s how it was for us and our chicks. Here’s an excerpt from our chicken memoir thus far, in 5-parts:

Feb 07: The hens have been fascinating to watch. In their brooder they began to scratch around looking for bugs at about 2 weeks and at about 3 weeks they started jumping on their food and water containers trying to perch. now, at 4 weeks they are beginning to emulate giving themselves dust baths (which is funny in the glass brooder b/c they’re on top of towels) and they fluff themselves out and squat down too. Meanwhile we aren’t actually supposed to let them be in their coop for another 2-3 months and they won’t start laying for another 4-5 months.

June 07: So the chickens (Sunny, Kiwi, and Olive) turned 20 weeks old yesterday. And today we were graced with….our first egg! We were thrilled of course–and it might be why the girls were so excited this morning at 7:15. They were cooing and squawking every 15 minutes on the dot until about 8:30 or so. I just wrote it off as being annoying and went back to sleep. We’re not sure but we think that this is Kiwi’s egg since she is the most mature/aggressive (Sunny can’t even eat until Kiwi has had her fill or else she gets pecked). So Sunny and Olive will probably start laying in the next few days or so too. And then? Then we can expect almost 2 dozen eggs a week until the beginning of December and then again starting January. And now some notes on our girls. They love bread! They also love our scrap vegetables and fruit like kiwi, grapes, tomatoes, and squash. Since we’re vegetarian it’s obviously important for us to feed the girls vegetarian feed. Most feed that you find at the hardware store has ground up chicken pieces in the feed! Yuck. Luckily we found one place right outside of Baton Rouge called Dodge City Feed Store that carries veggie feed.

August 07: Unfortunately, Kiwi has left our home. It was rather upsetting and difficult to make the decision to break the 3 sisters up, but it was more important for me to wake up peacefully. You see there’s a little phenomena that I didn’t read about in any of our chicken literature, where in a group of hens, one will emerge as the hypermasculine one. When this happens, sometimes this macho-hen will try to crow. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard a hen try to crow like a rooster, but I’m here to tell you, it sounds like death in a bottle. That’s right. Every morning around daybreak, little Kiwi starts sqwaking and hacking and making awful guttural sounds that sent me running for earplugs at the closest CVS one morning around 4:30. And I’m a good-sleep gal. I fall asleep very easily and I stay asleep all night. When I wake up, it’s peaceful, slow, and beautiful. This racket was anything but; in fact, I often started getting violent, throwing pillows, books, and other objects at the door hoping beyond hope that this fiesty black and white marbled feather beast would just let me sleep for another 30 minutes! Coupled with the fact that she started to make the hormonal transformation into a he (which meant no more eggs), we decided that we would ask our local egg-lady at the farmer’s market if she would take her. She agreed, so I packed Kiwi’s things and we bid her adieu. I think Olive and Sunny are worried they’re next!

January 08: After six months of about a dozen eggs a week, they’ve halted production. It got below freezing 3 nights of the last 5 and they’ve decided to take a cue from the writer’s strike. I don’t know how long this little charade will last, but I hope it warms up soon. It’s funny, we never bought eggs before we got these hens, but now that we’re used to an egg-icious omelet in the morning, we miss it like crazy!

Mid-January 08: Ok now they’ve started molting. It’s not pretty! In fact we walked outside and thought that the slaughterhouse had come to our backyard overnight–there were feathers everywhere. They look pretty funny actually–Olive is without her tail feathers and Sunny is molting from the neck up right now! Their dignity is likely shot at this point, so I suggested to them that perhaps they should start laying eggs again…

Soon enough, the egg recipes will appear. Until then, have an egg-cellent evening!

If it’s spicy enough for me to start sweating, I’m a happy girl! Yes, I love my spice. I particularly love it when it’s in soup form–something about spicy liquid that feels cleansing. Of course many spices have anti-inflammatory properties, so this could be part of that innate feeling I get when the soup slides down my throat and lulls me into a calm.

My tortilla soup is one of those calming, but invigorating soups. And of course, it’s easy:

• Saute 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tbsp cumin, 1 onion, 1 green bell pepper, 1 red bell pepper, and 1 yellow bell pepper in olive oil.
• Add 4 or 5 diced tomatoes, with their juices
• Add 12oz of green chili peppers
• Add a can of mexicorn
• Add 1/2 a fresh jalapeño or 8-10 diced, pickled jalapeños from a jar
• Add 7 cups of veggie broth
• Add juice of 2 limes
• Add 1/4 cup of orange juice
• Simmer for 30 minutes
• Add sliced avocado, a dallop of sour cream, and/or grated cheddar cheese with a crushed tortilla chips

Enjoy it anytime you need to cleanse, calm, and invigorate. Makes great leftovers too.

We make pasta a lot in this house. I mean, a LOT. It’s quick, it’s healthy, it’s filling, and it’s versatile, which is why I guess we never get sick of it. Each month I’ll post 3 new pasta combinations for you to enjoy. Play around with the kind of pasta that you buy. If you always get angel hair, try penne. If you’re used to spaghetti, try fusilli or gnocchi. And remember, macaroni isn’t married to cheese!

All of my pastas start with sauteed onion and olive oil (SO & OO) unless otherwise noted.

Pasta #1 Zucchini and Rosemary
SO & OO
Add 2 zucchini, cut into thick strips
Crush fresh rosemary and add it to the saute with salt and (liberal amounts of) pepper
Squeeze juice of one lemon
*recommended with angel hair*

Pasta #2 Sundried Tomato, Artichokes, & Capers
SO & OO
Slice sundried tomatoes in half and add to saute, browning
Splash in some red wine and a tbsp of butter and flour, stirring to thicken
Add jar of artichokes and 1/4 cup of capers, stirring until warm
*recommended with penne*

Pasta #3 Butternut Squash, Tomatoes, and Chives
SO & OO
Cube 1 cup of butternut squash and add to pan, sauteeing till brown and cooked, about 20 minutes
Add diced tomatoes, stirring salt and pepper into the mix
Chop 1/4 bunch of chives and throw into the mix, stirring and letting saute for another 5 minutes
*recommended with gnocchi*

Our weather has been wacky. Yours probably has been too. Our basil and tomatoes plants in the frontyard produced all Fall and “Winter” until just a few weeks ago. Thus, we have had some tomatoes lying around the counter begging to be used for something. As I’m a frequent sufferer of allergies and sinus headaches, I am also lucky enough to be extra susceptible to change-of-weather stuffiness. One thing that always helps my sinuses is the change of season tomato soup. It’s simple, delicious, and followed with 2 full glasses of water, it’s sure to knock that sinus headache away for awhile!

Change of Season Tomato Soup

4-5 tomatoes
1/2 cup of water
3 1/2 cups of tomato juice (I like the spicy kind)
1 videlia onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup of soy/oat/whatever milk
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper

Saute the onion, garlic, butter, and olive oil until translucent. Add 4-5 tomatoes, diced, letting them brown with the onions. Add water and juice and let come to a boil. Reduce to simmer for 10 minutes, then add milk, cayenne, and black pepper. Let simmer for another 5-7 minutes before serving with a large glass of water with lemon.

Enjoy!

I love mushrooms. I mean, *love* them. When Andy and I were on our honeymoon in Sonoma Valley, we had a meal that I’ll never forget (though I’ve forgotten the name of the restaurant of course). It was very small, and very elegant, and I seem to remember it being inside of what used to be a train. Or maybe there was a train photograph or train was in the name of the restaurant…anyway this place was divine. It was April (very rainy) and mushrooms were truly in abundance. Mushrooms like I’d never seen before–small, large, gnarled, button-shaped, chewy, delicate–delicious. I got a wild mushroom quinoa ragout that was to die for. It literally melted on my tongue, I remember, like velvet. And I think this is when I really started to take white wines seriously too. My dear Uncle Chris never understood how people could just write off white wine–as if the whole genre was worthless. Like I said, I was just beginning to see what he meant at this meal when a gorgeous chardonnay was served with this ragout. Did I say velvet? Mmm.

Anyway, I’m not recreating this ragout, but I did come close to perfecting that velvet taste recently when I made a Risotto Smothered Mushroom Dinner. The key to great risotto is to use 4 parts liquid to 1 part rice and to add it one part at a time.

Part One:
4 portabellos mushrooms
drizzle with balsamic and olive oil
coat with salt and pepper
fold into aluminum foil and place in oven at 425 for 25-30 minutes

Part Two
1 1/5 cups of arborio rice
3 cups veggie broth
1 1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup white wine
5-8 button mushrooms
1 videlia onion

Saute the onion in olive oil until translucent, then add the diced mushrooms sauteeing until browned. Add rice and wine and saute, stirring constantly. Add water and stir until it gets absorbed or starts sticking. Do the same with 1/2 of the broth. Repeat with the other 1/2 of the broth. You’ll want to hurry along with this but don’t. Really only add 1 1/2 cups of liquid at a time and wait for it to be absorbed into the rice. I like to add a can of peas at this point too just because I think creamy rice and peas go together like…creamy rice and peas!

Take the portabello mushrooms out of the oven and place on plates. Spoon the risotto onto the mushroom caps. At this point some people might like to add a little lemon zest and grated parmigiano cheese. If you have green beans or asparagus in season where you are, it is really nice to steam some up and place on top of the rice in crisscross fashion.

Now open some chardonnay (pinot grigio is too wimpy for this) and let this meal melt away like velvet on your tongue.