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Sunday, March 26, 2017

Missing eggs

Flo is a serious egg layer. She gives us a fresh egg about 6 days a week. The last egg we found of hers was over a week ago.

I came out to collect the eggs early last week and found Flo in the nesting box on top of Lucy. Dont ask me why, but chickens generally like to lay only where the other chickens have laid. Even with 6 perfectly clean and soft nesting boxes, the girls will only lay in the box on the left.

Usually Flo stands in front of the box and squawks at Lucy while she is laying so I was surprised to see her in the box on top of her. Flo is a pretty big bird so I tried to move her to the next box over but she popped right out and jumped back on top of Lucy.

Look how miserable poor Lucy was. I stayed to make sure that she was okay and not being suffocated by old Flo. Once Flo popped her egg out (narrowly missing Lucys head), she left the box leaving Lucy to lay in peace. As I said, this was over a week ago and that was the last egg weve seen of Flos. Im not sure if shes just stopped laying for some reason or if shes found a new place to lay.

Since its been warming up out here, the girls have been spending most of their time in a shade structure my husband has on the side of our house. It is soft and lush with dichondra and long grass. Its also filled with ladders, coils of wire, and tons of other stuff. I have a feeling she might be laying somewhere in there but I have no clue where. I cant find her eggs anywhere and its making me crazy.

Hopefully she just needed a break and will either start laying again or well find her hidden stash somewhere. Of our 3 chickens, were only getting eggs from Lucy right now (Effie hasnt laid since she molted in the fall). I really dont want to go buy eggs since that is one of the main reasons we have chickens. Im secretly hoping that the kids will find her eggs during our Easter egg hunt this Sunday.

ETA: We have found the missing eggs. It seems old Flo thought the compost pile was a better place to lay than the nesting boxes in the coop.

Ive got to figure out how to get her to start laying in the coop again. Those eggs will bake in a matter of minutes if she keeps it up in the summer. Silly chicken.

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Mini Pork Pies with Quails Eggs

Last month I mentioned that I tried hot water crust pastry for the first time. Quite a few of you have been wondering what I made. Well I decided to be brave and had a go at Paul Hollywoods small pork pies with quails eggs! If youve watched the Great British Bake Off, you will know that it was one of the technical challenges and has been on my to bake list for a while. I have to admit I was a little nervous and kept reading the recipe to make sure Id not missed anything. I can see why its a technical challenge - its not as simple as it looks! I followed his recipe exactly but found I had too much filling so I made another batch of the hot water crust pastry and baked 12 mini pork pies. You can of course make half the filling for 6 pork pies.

So what did I learn from this experience? I can make hot water crust pastry - yay! It was really simple and I followed the recipe exactly. However, as mentioned for this recipe I had to make 2 lots of pastry for the amount of filling stated. I might have to get a larger muffin tin or just halve the amount of filling. The part that I struggled with was sealing the lid of the pastry - I ended up using the top of a teaspoon to push it into the pie and to create a seal. You do have to work quickly with the hot water crust pastry as it dries out and hardens the longer you leave it, making it more difficult to mould. Im glad I made the batches of pastry one at a time instead of just doubling up the amounts. The other slight stumbling block was that the recipe said to make a hole in the centre of each pie - my pies were really full and there wasnt much space at all. The centre was where the quails egg was so the top of the egg got a little brown. In addiction, I could only get a small amount of gelatine mixture in but it worked and you can see it in the pie after its been chilled.

All in all it was a great learning experience and I am really pleased with the final result. J was most impressed and we still have a few left in the freezer for a rainy day. We had these pork pies with a salad on a weekend and it was perfect. I am definitely making these again particularly in the summer for picnics or packed lunches.

Im sending this to a few blog challenges this month.

AlphaBakes hosted by me this month and co hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter this month is Q for Quails eggs!

The pastry challenge hosted by Jen from Jens Food and Lisa from United Cakedom. The theme this month is picnics and thes mini pork pies are easily transportable plus you can bake them in advance.

Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. The theme this month is savoury.

Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from The Baking Explorer. The theme this month is Eurovision. These pork pies are very British and they are mini versions.

Tea Time Treats hosted by Jane from The Hedgecombers and Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme this month is Sandwiches, Wraps and Rolls. These are a sneaky entry but they definitely fit the savoury theme!

Biscuit Barrel challenge guest hosted by Alexandra from The Lass in the Apron on behalf of Laura from Id Much Rather Bake Than ... The theme this month is Party and these are definitely great for parties.