We just had some kind of mushroom

Mixt Salads recipe #2: Noodle Last night, I was going to make Heaven (chanterelles and duck eggs) but Isabel was so aghast I pu…

Dutiful dinner report

Friday night Stir dinner: Chicken soup with caraway gnocchi . You brown chicken, onion, carrot, celery, and various herbs, add …

Alton Brown cookies

I don't know anything about Alton Brown, except that his English muffins let me down and his granola is the most stupidly de…

Now is the moment for this kind of crazy

Supposedly a small tub or kiddie pool is enough. Supposedly Indian Runner ducks are quiet and lay lots of eggs. (We also got one …

Menagerie photos and my take on Pioneer Woman

That's Emily, an excellent mouser and delicate beauty. She's almost ten.    Owen is holding Cindy and Linda, or Linda an…

Out of the blue

Yesterday, we found a blue egg. Today, we found another. The Ameraucana hen isn't a dud after all! They're too pretty to …

She needs a haircut

I poured a glass of wine, pulled out my wallet, and Owen and I ordered some chicks the other night. What with shipping, you pay a…

Numb is the new normal

I never appreciated the variety and loveliness of eggs until our hens started to lay. I keep waiting for a green egg. One young A…

We need a bunker

This is a terrible story.  As longtime readers may recall, we used to let our chickens range freely through our fenced yard. But…

Up in the air

I've been in New York for some meetings, which always requires a big mental readjustment. I used to find NYC agitating and ov…

Again I am wrong about something

This is the tiny frizzle hen that inspired me to buy Owen a frizzle hen last fall. Owen's black frizzle was ugly, miserable,…

Hanging up the hatchet

The handsome and burly bird on the right? Our third rooster. The "science" of sexing newborn chicks could use some new …

This soup is good food

I bought dried fava beans a few weeks ago to make Moro 's fava bean, potato, and cucumber soup , but last night could not fi…

Maybe you really do have to pay to play

Yesterday's New York Times  food section pre-empts regular programming. You have to read this  article about Alabama layer…

An almost horror story

Two nights ago, Owen and I could not find Rhoda, one of our favorite chicks. She's perky, smart, and rust-colored.  We search…

Not home yet, just looks like it

On/in Kauai now, which is less about shave ice and more about taro smoothies. Haven't had one yet. Will today.  Because there…

Some odds and ends

This is the best dish I've made from Gourmet Today , and it is the one for which I had the lowest expectations. Sun-dried tom…

The turkey has landed

A few days ago I saw a Craiglist ad for a $10 tom turkey in Petaluma, which is about a half hour from where we live. I answered t…

We all have to have our nice hobbies

Here's Jonathan Safran Foer on urban homesteading  , specifically, the value of keeping backyard chickens: "Is it a solu…

All my eggs in one basket

Once they get started, they don't kid around, these hens. Of our seven surviving chickens, five are laying and we collect exa…