Chicken and Egg - Janice Cole [47]
Beat the eggs with the ¼ teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a large bowl for 1 minute or until frothy. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the same skillet and cook the eggs over medium heat, stirring constantly until curds have formed but the eggs are still moist. Remove from the heat and stir in the vegetables, cheese, and basil.
Spoon the egg mixture into the bread shells and bake for 5 to 8 minutes or until the bread and vegetables are hot. To serve, cut each bread shell crosswise into thirds, for a total of six pieces.
SERVES 6
One 14-ounce loaf ciabatta bread, halved horizontally
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
½ red bell pepper, seeded, deveined, and chopped
1⁄8 teaspoon kosher salt, plus ¼ teaspoon
1⁄8 freshly ground pepper, plus ¼ teaspoon
8 eggs
½ cup fresh goat cheese, crumbled
¼ cup chopped fresh basil or chives
Orange-Glazed Country Ham and Eggs
Breakfast orange juice takes on a new role when it’s cooked into a sweet, tangy sauce and drizzled over eggs perched atop fried ham and cinnamon toast. The ham and cinnamon are a natural pairing, like baked cinnamon-glazed ham. It all works together for an easy, satisfying breakfast.
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Bring the orange juice and sugar to a boil in a medium skillet over high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil for 7 to 8 minutes or until the orange juice is reduced to ¼ cup, swirling the pan or stirring occasionally to blend the mixture.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the ham for 6 to 8 minutes or until lightly browned and hot, turning occasionally. Arrange the toast on plates and place the ham slices over the toast.
Crack the eggs into individual cups. Fill a medium skillet with water and bring to a gentle boil over high heat. Remove from the heat and gently slide the eggs into the water. Cover and let sit for 3 minutes or until the whites are set but the yolks are still soft. Remove, one at a time, with a slotted spoon and drain briefly on paper towels (while still in the spoon).
To serve, place the eggs over the ham and drizzle with the orange sauce.
NOTE
The orange sauce can be made up to 1 day ahead of time. Cover and store in the refrigerator. Reheat before serving.
SERVES 4
1 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 slices Black Forest or another deli ham
4 slices cinnamon bread, toasted and buttered
4 eggs
The Latest Scoop
You want chickens. But what’s the scoop on poop? For some reason, they have an undeserved reputation for creating tons of waste. It’s always one of the arguments cited against keeping chickens. Every animal produces waste and chickens are no exception. What goes in must come out. But in my experience, chickens do not produce more waste than other animals their size.
To compare how much actual waste they produced, I conducted an unofficial experiment. I measured the amount of chicken poop produced by my three chickens against the amount of waste produced by our family’s three cats. After three days, the cats had so exceeded the chickens in the sewage department that I abandoned the experiment; it was not worth pursuing any further. Can you imagine how much waste one 50-pound dog produces when compared to one 5-pound chicken?
The ease of disposing of chicken manure is one of the benefits of keeping chickens. Nutrient-rich chicken droppings, unlike those of dogs or cats, can be added directly to the compost bin and eventually to your garden soil. Even if you’re not a gardener, there are probably gardeners in your area who will gladly haul away your chickens’ waste for their own compost piles.
EXIT THIS WAY
Just so we’re all clear, chickens have only one exit point, and it’s called the vent. Droppings and