3 Pepper Zucchini Quiche

If you know me at all then you know I LOVE to cook and bake.  Now is the time of the year that you will find me in the kitchen more than usual.  We have a bumper crop of everything from the garden.   Now that we have a good supply of eggs, that will only increase in the next few weeks, I'll have even more opportunities to be here.

My Dad turned me on to quiche when I was about 14.  His were in the form of a frozen crust and the quiche mix came frozen in a paper milk carton. Thaw, pour, bake, and serve.  They were ok but I always think I can do better. Which made me a self-taught cook.  I've made many quiches over the years and not one has been the same.  I always think of my Dad when making them and wish he could taste my creations. Especially cookies. Tonight it was a 3 Pepper Zucchini Quiche.

I started with a crust I found on Tasty Kitchen/The Pioneer Woman. It makes 3 crusts. Prepare one crust in a pie dish and freeze the other two balls of dough.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a pan saute together for about 10-12 minutes:

1 TBSP olive oil

1/2 an onion thinly sliced

1 cup total of diced peppers (any color combo, I used red, yellow and purple)

1 cup of shredded zucchini

Then add 5 pieces of pre-cooked crumbled bacon and turn the heat off.

In a bowl whisk together:

5 eggs

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup of sour cream

1/4 tsp of garlic powder

Fresh ground pepper

 A generous pinch of dried parsley

Place the veggie/bacon mixture in the bottom of the prepared pie crust and sprinkle 1 cup of shredded cheese (whatever you may have on hand - I used a combo of feta, mozzarella, and cheddar) on top of that and then pour on the egg mixture.  Place the pie dish on a pan and loosely cover the top of the quiche with foil and bake for an hour (or a bit longer til the eggs are set) at 400 degrees.  Let it cool about 10 minutes before cutting.







Homegrown vs. Store Bought

Can you spot the homegrown egg?
Which would you rather eat? 

After this batch of zucchini bread I'm officially done buying store bought eggs.

Noisy Chickens Part 2

This is the result of all the noise....

Noisy Chickens

We've got really noisy chickens this morning.  Here's hoping for lots of eggs today.  To my neighbors...I'm sorry.  At least they are quiet at night....

All the nesting boxes are full.

And Georgia and Amelia are even sharing nicely.

We have gotten a couple brown eggs and I believe they are coming from our Rhode Island Red Riley.

I am the Eggwoman...

I am the rooster...goo goo g'joob

I think its safe to say that all 3 of our Easter Eggers are now laying eggs.  We've been getting 2 every day for the past 4 days.  Amelia is now laying consistenly every morning and either Henrietta or George gives us another one in the afternoon.  In about a week all 3 will be laying consistently.  In the meantime we are waiting for the other girls to start laying.  The Buff Orpingtons aren't giving us any signals that they will be laying soon.  They only like to practice the egg song.  It can be rather annoying, but it doesn't last long and a handful of corn or oats distracts them and they quiet down.  I've read that they are slow to mature but once they start to lay they will be very good egg layers.  The Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rocks are showing signs of maturity and are squatting.  Especially when I'm out there.  They all gather around me and when I pet them they sqaut and then shake themselves when I'm done.  I've become the rooster and they are being submissive to me.  In a way it's a little creepy but I just tell them they are good girls and remind them that I want eggs.  The Reds have been more and more friendly and don't go and hide from the camera anymore.  Now it'll be a guessing game at which one will lay the first brown egg.  It will be impossible to tell what eggs are coming from what chicken but so far they have all been VERY tasty.



Riley



Penny

Everyone likes to explore the nesting boxes since we've made them more cozy with a nice blanket of straw.  With the aid of a golf ball, egg shaped rock and a plastic Easter egg they are learning to use them quite nicely.  We've only found 2 eggs outside of the boxes.

In the meantime we keep trying new treats.  They LOVE plain yogurt.  It gets messy tho so I put down the bowl and move away quickly.

Buffy taking a breather from the yogurt.

And weeds from the yard and garden make a nice green salad.



First egg!!

This beautiful little egg is from Amelia.  Scott found it in the run about 10 minutes ago.  Woo Hoo!

~The waiting is the hardest part~

Sing it with me!  Our chickens are now 21 weeks and 17 weeks old and we still have NO eggs!  I broke down today and bought eggs at the store to make this Zucchini Pie because I have far too many zucchinis, and cukes and tomatoes and peppers....the list goes on as it does always this time of year.



These will be the last store bought eggs I buy (I hope)!

I can tell we are getting closer to actually having homegrown eggs because our Easter Egger Amelia and Patty our Barred Plymouth Rock are both squatting. Which is basically a submissive pose meant for the rooster letting him know that she is "ready for action".  However, they don't need the rooster to lay eggs.  We will have unfertilized eggs and by my calculations once everyone gets going we will have about 3 dozen a week. They squat when we go to pet them on their backs.  The other chickens just seem to run away like we are bothering them.

Amelia at 21 weeks



Patty at 17 weeks



The rest in the group are getting bigger and everyone has been enjoying our nearly perfect weather.  70's during the day and 50's at night.  We've been hearing more chattering and clucking from the run and sometimes it makes me cringe that they might be disturbing the neighbors.  But I still think dogs are noisier.  They've been getting lots of scraps from the garden and enjoying dust baths and preening, especially Henrietta.  Her and our Buff Orpingtons, Buffy and Bonnie continue to be our most friendly chickens.  The Rhode Island Reds tend to go off and hide in the coop when I go out to visit.  Maybe they just don't like my camera.

Henrietta pretending to be a turkey

Bonnie and Buffy looking on from their perch

Next blog will be about the first egg!