Famous Food Friday - Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray

In 1947, Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray stared in "The Egg and I." The movie was based on Betty MacDonald's book of the same name. It was a wildly popular account of her life as a young bride on a chicken farm. When I say The Egg and I was a popular book, I mean that in less than a year it sold a million copies! The film rights were quickly sold and in 1947 the book became a movie with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray. 

In addition to Colbert and MacMurray, the film co-stared Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle.  Main was nominated for an Academy Award for best Supporting Actress but she lost to Celeste Holm in "Gentleman's Agreement." (It is so hard to win for comedy!) After all the publicity, practically everyone involved with the book was sued.  According to the folks down on the farm, old Mrs. MacDonald portrayed them negatively and they wanted monetary gains for being made to look foolish! And they did indeed get paid, but enough about them.

If you bounce over to Cookbook Of The Day, you know that we are especially fond of egg cookbooks and of celebrity recipes. This Famous Food Friday, we have both. As a spin-off of the wildly successful movie, The Favorite Egg Recipes of Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray was published in a booklet by the National Egg Board. (Yes, Virginia, we are willing to concede that these recipes are probably not the actual recipes of Fred and Claudette, but we are happy to overlook such notions.)

According to Colbert:

"The egg is really one of the greatest boons to womankind, ranking with the sewing machine, the electric washer, the permanent wave and the right to vote."

According to MacMurray:

"The egg, for my money, is the best friend of any man ever trapped in the kitchen."

I love eggs as much as the next person, but I am not sure I would equate them with voting rights.  What a difference seventy years makes. Well we are still eating eggs, still voting, and still drinking. Of course, today we are drinking alcohol. In 1947 such drinking, especially endorsed by the family friendly National Egg Board, was frowned upon. Here is an eggy julep for you, in the truest sense of a sweet, flavored drink, as opposed to the kind that most often feature a good shot of bourbon.

Egg and I Julep

3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups orange juice, strained
1/3 cup lemon juice, strained
Crushed ice, club soda

Blend eggs, sugar and salt. Add fruit juices. Shake or beat until sugar is dissolved. pour over finely cracked ice to fill tall glasses 1/2 full. Add club soda slowly. Stir. Serve promptly.

Feel free to add a big ol' glug of bourbon! on a personal note, I would suggest trolling Turner Broadcasting to find a showing of any one of Ma and Pa Kettle's movies and feel free to watch with a big ol' glug of bourbon!

Everyday is an Easter Egg Hunt

Eggs collected this weekend (and Monday).  Sadly we lost our oldest chicken.  Some people don't want to continue to feed chickens that are no longer laying and they are dispatched to a cooking pot.  Here, we believe that after laying such lovely eggs for us, they can mooch grain till the cows come home, or until they meet some other fate. 

Eggs Benedetto

We love pizza.

We love Eggs Benedict.

We love planned overs -- 

the deliberate act of cooking something for one meal with the express purpose of using again for another meal.

So when we decided on sausage pizza for Saturday, we knew that for Sunday brunch we would be making Eggs Benedetto.  What are Eggs Benedict of not a doughy bread item, a pork product, a sauce, and a poached egg.  Pizza fulfills three of the four.  Now just add an egg...or two.

You will never eat leftover pizza straight out of the box again!  OK maybe you will, we don't judge.

New Chicken Eggs

The new chickens are finally laying an egg or two. There is joy in

Lucindaville. And frittatas!

 

After Christmas Benedict

 

We just love the architecture of eggs Benedict.  A starch, a protein, a creamy sauce, and a fat poached egg on top, or under the sauce, as it were.   Really, aside from cake and pie, it is hard to think of food that is not greatly enhanced by a fresh poached egg!

This is a favorite planned over brunch item to throw together when Christmas or Thanksgiving leftovers abound.   It is not so much a recipe as an assemblage of stuff you already have staring at you from the fridge!

Another favorite at Doe Run Farm is the humble chicken gizzard.   We just love gizzards of any kind.  We have a great recipe for Confit de gésiers that we make on occasion.  

 Gizzards and spices bathed in olive oil for several hours, cooled and tucked into a crock in the back of the refrigerator for fanciful salads or in our case, a fanciful sauce.  If you don't have confit, don't worry, use your leftover giblet gravy.  If you have been incredibility productive, use that  turkey à la king you made!  Now that you have assembled your leftovers, the dish is really quite simply.

After Christmas Benedict

leftover dressing, warmed
egg, poached
Confit de gésiers  (or the leftover giblet gravy or turkey à la king)
a splash of heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the dressing from the pan with a round biscuit cutter.

Roughly chop the confit and sauté.  To finish the sauce, add a splash of cream about a tablespoon.  ( If using the gravy just heat through and add the cream, the turkey à la king has cream so just heat.)

Now poach your egg. 

Place the poached egg on the round of dressing and cover with your sauce.  Top off with a sprig of sage.

This is a tasty use leftovers.

What's Wrong With The Picture?

It seems that unbeknownst to me, one of the chickens has been sneaking in through the cat door and laying eggs in the cat napping chair.  I found out last week when I noticed the eggs.  Yesterday, when I was heading to the laundry room, I found Kitty Carlisle napping with an egg.  You will notice, as I took the picture, the claws started to come out.  I wasn't sure whether she had decided to hatch the egg or eat it later.  Either way, she did not me to have it.

New Chicken -- First Egg

As you know, we got a flock of new little chickens. The first of the flock laid her first egg. As you can see, young chickens lay small eggs to start out before they get the hang of laying nice large eggs for our cooking pleasure. The small eggs are usually yolk-less.


Trick decided to be the official egg sorter.

New Chickens

Spring has arrived and so have our new chickens. While they are supposed to be true free range birds, the new chickens, for the most part, are staying in a rather confined space. It will take them a week or two to get comfortable, but soon they will be out and about.


A small group did venture out but soon tried vigilantly to get into the greenhouse.


Teddy explained if he couldn't get in, neither could they and they dispersed quickly.



In addition to chickens, we have added a new item to our collection of chicken books. This is actually a two volume set produced for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair entitled Eggs. Book I features all that was new and innovative in chicken rearing. It featured many of the new technologies including a slew of young women in lab smocks and zippy chapeaux who sorted, candled and cracked eggs.




It would seem that one of the newest innovations in egg production was actually transportation. Eggs were cracked into large vats and frozen for later use at bakeries. It was all the rage.


For a less frozen idea, check out Book II: The Best of Food Eggs and Poultry at Cookbook Of The Day.

If you want good eggs...

...you need good chickens.

The news has been filled with the recent recall of a half a billion eggs. That's BILLION. In large factory farmed plants, chicken are crammed in tiny cells, they never see the light of day, they never move, they eat inferior food and that's just the beginning.

At Doe Run Farm, our chickens roam the farm on sunny and not so so sunny days. They have their choice of lovely grubs and worms they scavenge as well as a balanced diet filled with fruits, vegetables and whole grain.

They family and feline friends who love them. In return...

...we get their lovely eggs.

In England, cookbook author and writer Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall started Chicken Out, a campaign to encourage free range farming of chickens. In the U.S. the USDA requires that in order to be "free range" outdoor access must be made available for "an undetermined period each day." In other words, the farmer can open a little door for a few minutes a day and call his eggs "free range." Seriously, felons in super-max prisons get more time outside than "Free range" chickens.



Please, ask questions about your food. Nearly 8 eggs in 10 are produced by 4 companies. While that egg carton in the grocery store may have a different name, chances are all those eggs came from the same basket.

Please, buy your eggs from a farmer, not a factory farm.

Guarding Our Egg Inventory

Teddy, having been raised by the chickens, is very protective of the eggs. He watches over them.

Counts them.

And can often be found napping with them.

And, when he is not available, Kitty Carlisle often takes over the watch,
though we have yet to have an egg thief venture into our kitchen.

Eggs

I love my eggs...

and the chickens who lay them. Here are Queen Latifha and Sister in their laying boxes.



I also love old poultry books like this one explaining how to make a glorious living selling your eggs for 4 cents a dozen. Well, here in the US, it might have been closer to 6 cents a dozen. Or you can buy them today for $4 a dozen.