We currently have a little ‘situation’ here at Happy Acres, and I thought I would appeal to my readers for help. To put it bluntly, we are up to our ears in eggs! Mind you, that is a good problem to have. Let me explain a bit.
an abundance of eggs (click on any to enlarge)
We get two dozen eggs every month from our CSA. These are truly free range eggs, laid by hens who get out daily onto the farm to forage for bugs and greens. They taste great, and we love them. And we usually have no trouble eating that amount of eggs per month. But last month a friend gave us a dozen eggs she got from someone who has chickens. And then we got an extra dozen in our CSA pickup. So that’s how we wound up with four dozen eggs in our refrigerator.
I know they will keep for a couple of months, so we have a little time to use them all. So far we have made frittatas, and hard boiled them for salads. My wife used some to make a pumpkin pie this week from some of our homegrown pumpkin. Mmm, I love her pumpkin pie!
asparagus and tomato frittata
This week I made some fried brown rice using several of the eggs. And my wife is dusting off her favorite quiche recipe for next week. I can see some French toast in our future too. We found a recipe for quinoa patties that sounds interesting, but we’re looking for more ideas.
fried rice with eggs and asparagus
For us, eggs are a great source of inexpensive local protein. And now that we are blessed with an abundance of great eggs, we are looking to broaden our horizons a bit and try some new things.
So, what do you all do with the incredible, edible egg? I’d love to have some more ideas!
We raise our own eggs…so DAILY we get over a dozen eggs. I freeze eggs for the lean winter months. Brioche is baked every week…lots of eggs for that. I make beignets on Sundays (my grandkids call them Grandma Doughnuts), they take 8 eggs and I make a double recipe. We have flan, macaroni or potato salad, pickled eggs (really pretty in a crab louie)…and the list goes on.
Ooh, brioche sounds good. As does flan…though I’ve never made it. Thanks for the ideas.
I really wish I had this problem! If you have too many right now you can break them into a container, scramble a bit with a fork and freeze for later so when you’re running low you can just scoop it out and use it. And use crushed shells to amend your plants. Don’t freeze them in shels though. 🙂
I crush all the shells and put them in the compost pile. That way they get distributed all over the garden. With the CSA, we always get two dozen eggs a month, so we rarely are without eggs.
I had a delicious dessert for passover. Basically the “crust” was a hardened meringue shell and the inside was lemon curd and it was topped with fresh fruit. I thought it was a brilliant use of the whites and the yolks together, but separate. And how about eggs Benedict (a version with spring spinach would be delicious)? Between the sauce and the poached eggs it uses a lot up. Though you will have egg whites left over. You can make an angel food cake with them and top them with the first strawberries of the season. And how about egg drop soup? Can you tell I love eggs?
Oh and I forgot. My MIL makes some delicious popovers.
That dessert sounds yummy Daphne! I was thinking about making lemon curd, since I have some Meyer lemons to use up also. The meringue shell would be a great way to use some of the whites. It has been a long time since I made an angel food cake from scratch, though I love them.
As for eggs Benedict, I am thinking spinach or asparagus would be great, and I have both right now. Thanks for the ideas!
great post dave! we are up to our ears in duck eggs…we have 8 hens and 3 boys. yesterday i experimented with drying some making powdred ones. today i’m going to attempt roasting them and then pickling. we make a lot of quiche this time of year!
Dave,
Go for the lemon curd, I’m sure it will be wonderful. We really enjoyed ours when we made lime curd in December. We are getting an average of 20 eggs a week so we eat eggs for breakfast, make quiche regularly.
To use up a lot at once, I make a batch of ice cream (6 egg yolks) and then use the whites for macaroons. I also like this challah recipe which uses 5 eggs. You can also make hollandaise sauce for your fresh asparagus.
Tortilla (or chip omlette as a friend calls it). Meringues. Custard. Nicoise salad. Mayonaise. Quiche. Nice problem to have.
The above ideas are all great. The meringue Daphne mentioned is a pavlova — an excellent dessert. I have a recipe with blueberries and lemon curd here: http://yankeepantry.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/brown-sugar-pavlova-with-meyer-lemon-curd-and-maine-wild-blueberries/
A regular breakfast for us is Huevos Rancheros, or a fried egg sandwhich on an english muffin. Those breakfasts keep you going through a long day of gardening.
We love quiche, and eat a lot of it. To keep it less caloric, I skip the crust, just making it in a buttered pie plate. I use a simple ratio of 1 cup cream, 2 cups milk, and 8 eggs (the traditional recipe calls for 6 but I like my quiche a bit eggier). Add whatever else you like — favorites are goat cheese, sun dried tomato and arugula, and cheddar and Swiss Chard.
Pound cake is a wonderful treat, I have lots of recipes on Yankee Pantry. And of course Hollandaise (YUM!) and homemade mayonnaise!
Enjoy!
We have hens and they produce a steady stream of eggs for our use – here’s some of the ways we use them regularly:
* Both of us have eggs for breakfast about 2 or 3 times per week.
* I hardboil a dozen eggs and keep them in the fridge to be used for slicing up on top of green salads, eating whole as a low calories/high protein snack, and used to make egg salad for sandwiches.
*Periodically I make a batch of devilled eggs that also goes in the fridge for snacking on.
*Potato salad (lots of hardboiled eggs in my potato salad recipe)
*Quiche
*Omelettes – this is often a “I am too tired to make much of anything” dinner that uses whatever is on hand and fresh in the garden.
*French Toast
*Baked Strata (many different variations but the common element is layers of items that usually include some layers of bread that are ultimately covered in an egg/milk mixture so it seems down and through it and is then baked – creating a lovely layered casserole).
egg noodles! i’ve made these twice in the last week. we have the same egg ‘problem’. since i make a double batch of egg noodles each time it uses six eggs. it’s also such a wonderfully frugal meal.
Bread pudding with whiskey sauce, custard pie (yum!), zabaione with fresh fruit (heavenly!)
Enjoy!
As someone with around 8 dozen eggs in the fridge currently, I feel your (albeit wonderful) pain! Our hens started ramping up production, and we are definitely falling behind in keeping up.
Back in winter, we were making egg-nog like it was going out of style. Definitely a yummy way to use them up. We (myself, the fiance, and even the dogs) eat eggs almost every day for breakfast, and I try to use them in dinner somehow, too – stirfrys with scrambled or over easy eggs, hardboiled eggs in salads, etc.
My favorite egg desserts are making an egg-yolk sponge cake, and then using the egg whites to make an angel food cake. Yum!
Like you said, though, farm-fresh eggs keep for much longer than those bought in the store, so you have at least a few months to use them up!
Thanks to all of you with your great ideas. The sweets certainly appeal to my ‘sweet tooth’. We have quiche, egg noodles and lemon curd on the menu so far. And we had French toast for breakfast one morning.
Homemade ice cream! Sometimes I make coffee ice cream for Ed, coffee is not my thing. Cinnamon ice cream is yummy too!
ps. my bluebirds fledged Friday, the 20th and I also had a Red-headed woodpecker in my yard. They are scarce, usually found at Hovey Lake. Friday was a great bird day!
Try making mayonnaise.
Jason (formerly of Eattheyard)
I enjoy cooking Italian entrees because of the rich flavors you can develop, but instead of the typical creamy Alfredo sauce, I prefer using eggs to make a hearty carbonara sauce over whole wheat pasta. I skip the bacon or pancetta, but make a little sauce with stock, onions, garlic and spices which I finish the spaghetti in. Below is a good recipe I’ve used, but with the addition of the sauce I make for the pasta.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/spaghetti-alla-carbonara-recipe/index.html
Enjoy, Ron