I am always looking to try something new. I love making something I would otherwise buy at the store. I love reinventing a recipe to suit my needs. I love showing my kids where foods come from and having them participate in the process.
This spring we began our chicken adventure. I have wanted to raise chickens most of my adult life and finally after years of pestering my poor husband he gave in. He is very talented in building things. I asked for a little chicken "shack"of sorts. Nothing special just a shelter and fencing around the run to protect them from the bald eagles that fly over our house nearly every day. He built a chicken palace. The run is completely enclosed with bird netting and our girls are safe.
At first Joe was not in love with the chickens. He did not spend a lot of time out there with them and took the "yeah they're cute but someday they will be dinner so don't fall in love with them" attitude. One of our chickens was attacked by the others, hen pecked. In the attack she lost most of the skin on her head and neck. I was sad. I totally cried. Joe was angry with the other birds for hurting one of their own kind. I told him maybe we should put her out of her misery. I really didn't know what the right thing to do was. Joe insisted we give her a chance to recover. I was scared for her for a long time. We had to separate her from the others. I kept her in a make shift home under our apple tree. She seemed as if she wouldn't make it but I could tell she liked her home under the tree. She got well enough that she wanted to be near the others so I moved her home next to the run and she was happier. Recently we have been letting her roam the yard when we are out there and giving supervised time with a couple of the others at a time. Her head has healed almost entirely, she just needs to grow back her feathers. Soon she will need to go back in the coop with the others. Winter is just around the corner and she could potentially freeze. Joe goes out and sits with her and the rest of the chickens almost every day. They have become his peaceful time. He thanked me for pressing the issue because he has grown to love our urban farm.
Our girls give us 8 eggs most days! With an abundance of eggs we have been blessed to be able to share with friends. Providing for my family and sharing with those in need has always been my goal. When you have so many eggs you can be creative with what you use them for. I have never been much of a mayonnaise person. I find the smell repulsive and have even gagged at the taste. I have heard from people about how home made mayo is so delicious. I thought "yeah sure if you like that nasty stuff." I was thumbing through a recipe book that was given to me by a friend and in the very back was a recipe for mayo. It was a few simple (and cheap) ingredients. I figured I would give it a try since my hubby is a big mayo fan.
I checked out several recipes to compare ingredients and set out to make it. As always I change recipes so that they suit my needs. The results were delicious! Here is my final recipe:
Basic Mayo Ingredients:
1 whole egg
2 Tbsp lemon juice (you can use 1 tbsp. vinegar if you prefer)
1tsp mustard (the original said powder, I used regular mustard)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup of cooking oil
Using a blender, I preferred my bullet type blender for this : Combine all ingredients (reserving 1/2 cup of oil) into the blender cup and turn on medium speed until ingredients are creamy looking. Add 1/4 cup of the remaining oil, blend for 30 seconds then add the remaining amount and blend until thick. That is it!
*variations: you can add herbs or spices or a sliver of onion to your mayo while blending and customize it to your tastes. Also, I noticed that they are selling sriracha flavored mayo in the store, go ahead and add sriracha to plain mayo and see what you think. You may just go head over heels.
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