Hatton House Diaries

One day, we decided to buy a 125 year old Victorian House in Des Moines, Iowa…….

Baby Chicks! July 7, 2017

Filed under: Urban Farming — hattonhousedsm @ 1:37 pm
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Last year, we got a new batch of chicks and one of the turned out to be a rooster, then later in the summer we adopted a second rooster, so hypothetically, we could start having chicks. Raising chickens is funny, because you walk a fine line between not wanting hens to get broody and sit on your breakfast eggs, but secretly wanting a few new chicks too. A couple of our backyard chicken friends had hens become broody this year, so we were hopeful it would happen for us too.

Finally, a few weeks ago, one of our Marans sat on a few eggs and we were off to the baby chick races. We tucked a few additional eggs under her and hoped for the best. We are terrible, I mean, extremely busy chicken farmers, and we forgot to mark which day she started (don’t do that), so the last few days have been torture. Finally, last night, we checked her and there were two cracked shells. Mama hen did a great job of hiding them, but I could hear the cheeping and finally, I found them!19780520_10213570361631745_3192537266254928052_oThey were so tiny and new, I left them alone to snuggle their mama.

This morning, our favorite local photographer, @photo_nerd, came over and captured a few adorable images of the new members of our flock.

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Meet Butterscotch, born 7/6/17

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And Charcoal, born 7/6/17

 

Crustless Cheesy Egg Bake January 1, 2013

Filed under: In the Kitchen — hattonhousedsm @ 8:51 pm
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imageOur chickens are laying about 9-11 eggs per day now, so to even come close to eating them, I’m interviewing egg recipes left and right. One of my favorites was SimplyRecipes.com’s Cheesy Crustless Quiche, but after a few attempts, I’ve reached my own adaptation of hers that I like even better than the original. I substituted almond milk for the milk because it’s what we had, and I changed the cherry tomatoes for diced garden tomatoes, because the cherries we get this time of year are so sweet, it was throwing it all off. And I cut out one of the bowls, because while I ADORE SimplyRecipes.com, I swear she must own stock in Cascade or something because boy does she go through bowls and pots! So, here you go….my adaptation:

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup)
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (or a gluten free substitute!)
  • 3/4 cups almond milk (although I suppose cow’s milk would work, just maybe shorten your bake time)
  • 1 cup cottage cheese (I used lowfat)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 7 eggs (I bumped it up….she used 5 and it was yummy, but I have eggs to burn and I like it with more!)
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, softened (1/3 fat didn’t hurt the flavor or consistency)
  • 6 ounces shredded Swiss cheese
  • 3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/3 cup chopped green onions
  • 3/4 cup diced fresh tomatoes
  • 5 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled (We used turkey bacon, which I know…. Iowa blog, you’re not expecting. We don’t cook pork in our home, and I actually like the flavor of turkey bacon in this….but no judgement if you switch it back to pork. I have a don’t ask, don’t tell policy about bacon outside my home. I’m going to assume it’s turkey bacon….do NOT tell me otherwise).

Method:

1  Melt the butter in a medium saucepan on medium heat. Stir in flour; cook, stirring until bubbly. Gradually add the milk; cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens. Remove from the heat; set aside to cool, about 15-20 minutes (I used this time to do the rest of the steps).

2 Preheat oven to 350°F.  Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Slowly add the cream cheese, the cottage cheese mixture and the milk/flour sauce. Add cottage cheese, baking powder, salt and mustard. Once combined, fold in the Swiss and Parmesan cheeses.

3 Pour into a seasoned pie stone (Pampered Chef or similar) or buttered 10″ pie plate. Sprinkle the top with chopped green onions, crumbled bacon and diced tomatoes. Bake at 350°F for 50 minutes, until puffy and lightly browned. A knife inserted into the center of the quiche should come out clean. Let rest for 15 minutes, serve. We never make it through the 15 minutes, but you go ahead and try.

Hope you love it as much as we do, and if you need eggs, shoot me a message, I probably have extra $4 a dozen, $7 for 2 dozen.