Egg Dyeing?

So since I have several dozen chickens I tend to have a grip of eggs on hand at any point.  Rather than do productive things with my Sunday, I spent a chunk of my afternoon dying eggs for no good reason.  I don't think I had dyed eggs in years and years, but it was extremely easy and sort of fun.  Probably would be more interesting if you had small children though.

Things you need:

• Eggs (hardboil them first)
• Hot Water
• White Vinegar
• Food Coloring
• Coffee Cups
• Spoons
• Tape or Vinyl
• Exacto Knife
• Paper Towels
• Crayons

First off, hardboil your eggs to make them easier to work with.  I generally put about 8 cups of water in a stock pot and add 12 - 18 eggs at once.  Turn the heat to high, and after about 15 minutes your eggs should be ready.  In the meantime boil water in a teapot to make your dye.  Collect a number of coffee mugs (one for each color you plan to tackle) and put one teaspoon of vinegar in each.  Add one cup of hot water and then anywhere from 2-20 drops of food coloring depending on how intense you want your colors to be.  

Once the eggs are boiled and you have decided on your colors you can cut decals out of tape or vinyl to apply to your eggs to achieve desired patterns, or color gradation.  You can also use crayons to draw on your eggs to keep the dye from latching on to certain areas.  Once the eggs are sufficiently decorated drop them in your dye and stir it egg around a few times.  Within a few seconds you will notice the colors start to sink in.  Keep the eggs in the dye however long you like to achieve your desired hue.  Once you are content you can remove the eggs from the dye, and dry off with a paper towel.  Remove any tape or vinyl you applied and re-dye in the same or other hues to get color variations if you like.  

#WAMerlot Twitter Tasting

Last night I participated in a great event at Otis Kenyon Wine.  Muriel coordinated a fabulous evening to tie in with the global tasting of Washington State Merlots, one of the wines that made the Walla Walla Valley famous in the mid-90's.  While merlot fell out of fashion in the 2000's what with that silly Sideways movie, it is certainly pushing its way to the forefront once again.

There were about 30 Washington merlots present at the tasting I attended from over 20 wineries.  They were mostly Walla Walla wineries, but we did have a couple of wines from other areas of Washington tossed into the mix.  If you have not participated in a varietal tasting of this nature before I would strongly suggest you do.  It was amazing to see how different and unique all of the merlots were even within the same vintage or from the same vineyards.

While there were many standouts present last night, two wines in particular made a huge impression on me. The first was the 2006 Seven Hills WWV Merlot from Otis Kenyon.  This wine was specfreakintacular!  The mouth was huge and rich, ripe with chocolate, lilac and violets.  The other wine I was very partial to was the 2007 Seven Hills Estate Merlot from L'Ecole No. 41.  This wine was spicey and sweet and full of dark cherries and earth.  Very beautiful mouth feel.  In the end my favorite of the evening was the Otis Kenyon, but both of these wines deserve some serious attention!

To learn more about last night, check out my Twitter account to follow the action.  You can also check out the notes and Vlog from the Wild Walla Walla Wine Woman from last night and see some great pictures by Matthew Zimmerman.  Thanks to everyone who participated in the event last night, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I!

Are you participating in the #WAMerlot Twitter Tasting this Thursday?

Have you heard about the WAMerlot Twitter Tasting hosted by Drinknectar.com? Have a great WAMerlot you would love to taste and tweet about?

Well, bring your favorite Washington Merlot to the Otis Kenyon Wine tasting room in Walla Walla this Thursday evening so we can all get together to Taste & Tweet! This will be a fun way for all of Walla Walla to come together and let the twittersphere know we make some world class wines!

I will provide everything needed for a not-so-virtual tasting, including some Merlot inspired snacks, just bring yourselves, your Merlot and a device on which to tweet.

If you haven't already, you can register for the event here:http://drinknectar.com/2010/02/23/wamerlottwittertasting/

Great Syrah from Russell Creek Winery

Last night I checked out a Russell Creek Syrah I picked up at YPOWW last week and was totally blown away with the quality, especially given the price!  The 2007 CV Winemakers Select Syrah was one of the yummiest wines I have had in a few weeks.  It was clear that the wine was oaked, but it was a warm, delicious oak that wasn't the least bit offensive or overpowering as they can be more often than one would like.  The tannins of the wine were subtle and refined and the wine was ripe with caramel, dark berries and spice.  On the back end the wine finished with warm tobbacco and a hint of vanilla.  The biggest downfall - a rather disturbing label!  I would highly suggest you pick up a few bottles of this wine before it sells out!

www.russellcreek-winery.com

Great Blog about the local wine business and the thick-sculled morons who blame it for everything!

Great entry Catie!

http://wildwallawallawinewoman.blogspot.com/2010/03/walla-walla-wineries-its-all-your-fault.html

Chicks

So today I picked up a few chicks to add to the flock.  There are a few weekly egg buyers now so I want to make sure that as some of the original chickens from three years ago begin to age I have some great layers to pick up the slack.  I bought chicks at both Bordertown Feed Supply just across the Oregon border and then picked up a couple later in the day at Northwest Farm Supply on a whim.  I'll most likely add two or three more to the mix this weekend as it looks like PGG is getting some interesting breeds that I would like to add to the flock.

The new chicks are the follow breeds:

• (2) Silver Laced Wyandottes
• (1) Gold Sex Link
• (1) Black Sex Link
• (1) Cuckoo Maran (they lay chocolate colored eggs, super pretty)
• (1) Sicilian Buttercup

Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Panna Cotta - Killer Dessert!

Last week while reading the NY Times I ran across this deceptively simple dessert and decided to try it out this weekend.


The recipe, a milk chocolate hazelnut panna cotta, was from Karen DeMasco’s cookbook, “The Craft of Baking.”  Set with gelatin instead of egg yolks, panna cottas are lighter than most puddings. And the milk chocolate doesn’t yield as intense a flavor as extra-bittersweet.

But even so, I was curious to try it, mostly because I crave panna cottas of every stripe and had never had a chocolate one. And the inclusion of Nutella, which I’ve loved since my very first finger-full as a child, seemed like a stroke of genius.


I made the recipe and was rewarded with a nutty, light, gently flavored pudding that was so easy to eat I nearly devoured it all in one sitting.

When it was all gone, I immediately wanted to make it again and invited some friends over for dinner as an excuse.

Recipe:


1 1/8 teaspoon powdered gelatin
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup Nutella
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup chopped, toasted hazelnuts, for serving.

1. In a medium bowl, whisk gelatin with 3 tablespoons cold water. Place chopped chocolate in another medium bowl. In a large bowl, combine Nutella and salt.
2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring cream to a boil. Pour half the cream over gelatin mixture and whisk gently to combine; stir in vanilla. Pour remaining cream over chopped chocolate; whisk until smooth. Combine two mixtures; whisk well.
3. Pour one-third of the gelatin-chocolate mixture over Nutella; beat using an electric mixer on low speed until a smooth paste forms. Pour in remaining mixture and milk; beat until fully combined.
4. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into six ramekins. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator until set, about six hours or overnight. Serve sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts, if desired.
Yield: 6 servings.

2010 Tomato Selections

I spent the bulk of this past weekend cleaning up the yard, amending garden beds and continuing to plant seeds.  The spinach, kale and radishes planted three or four weeks ago in the yard are getting huge, and last weeks flats of seeds have started to sprout in the greenhouse.  The strawberries I planted last year have taken over past of the yard, which was unexpected.  So if anyone wants strawberries let me know.  I have far too many plants.

Yesterday I successfully planted six flats of tomatoes, eggplants, greens, peppers and brassicas.

After weeks of debate I ended up with a colorful and hopefully delicious mix of tomatoes for 2010.

• Juan Flamme (small, sweet orange fruits)
• Big Rainbow (large golden tomato with red stripes)
• Black Krim (large Russian heirloom tomato, dark purple fruit with green shoulders and salty finish)
• Cherokee Purple (medium sized pinkish-purple fruit and smokey-sweet flavor)
• Super Sweet 100 (extremely sweet red cherry tomatoes)
• Abe Lincoln (medium sized round red fruit)
• Green Zebra (medium sized green and yellow striped fruit)
• Prudens Purple (dark pink skinned tomato with potato leaves)
• Aunt Ruby's German Green (large beefsteak tomato with light green flesh accented with pink blush undertones)
• German Johnson (huge meaty fruits with pink skin and yellow shoulders)
• Black Plum (dark red-purple fruits with sweet flavor and great shape)