We Call it Schnitzel

In my childhood home, we would have called this fried pork. In Paul’s house, it was pork cutlets. In our home now, its schnitzel.

Yesterday morning when I pulled out a bag of pork chops for dinner, I was just thinking of dinner. I didn’t realize what this simple dinner would do for my “Mom” rating. Each one of my kids, after they heard what was for dinner, began singing my praises.

One of them even went so far as to give me a hug.

Its amazing what simple ingredients can do when combined.

Pork Schnitzel

• Pork chops
• Panko
• Eggs
• Salt and Pepper
• Oil
• Lemon

Remove all the bones from the porkchops, cutting as close to the bone as possible. One at a time, cover each pork chop with plastic and pound it until its pretty thin…maybe 1/4″ or so. I usually have one of my kids do this. They like having permission to beat on things.

Lightly season porkchops with salt and pepper.

Mix Panko (For 6 chops, I used about 1 1/2 cups) in a pie plate with salt and pepper – I measure by taste here…once the panko tastes suitably seasoned, I stop.

With a fork, mix 2-3 eggs and a couple tablespoons of water in a 2nd pie plate.

Heat oil in a large flat-bottomed pan until its hot enough that a when you drop in a few pieces of panko they begin sizzling immediately.

When oil is hot, dip each pork chop in the egg mixture, then in panko and gently place in the hot oil.

Cook until golden brown on each side, maybe 3 minutes for each side.

Squeeze a bit of fresh lemon juice over each cutlet and serve. I usually make a quick mushroom gravy to go over the schnitzel.

And if you don’t know what to call them, just call them delicious.

The Golden Egg that was laid by the Goose

Last year we attempted to raise ducks and geese as meat birds. The raising of them went very well. The plucking of them…not so much. We decided to stick with chickens and turkeys.

So all winter we have had a gaggle of geese and a raft of ducks roaming the farm. Well, at least we did until a couple of weeks ago when we were visited by a band of coyotes and were left with one goose and three ducks.

Other than the fact that they poop everywhere, they’ve been kinda fun to have around.

But most fun of all is the pretty white gifts they leave for us every morning in the driveway. Every day we pick up two duck eggs and one goose egg. Yesterday, Ryan saw the eggs in the fridge and got a hankerin’ for deviled eggs. Why this child who has no concept of time thought that it would be a good idea for him to boil a bunch of eggs without any adult input, is beyond me. But he did. With no timer. Never looking at a clock.

When I got home, I asked how long they had been cooking. “About 10 minute” he said. So I set the timer for 5 more minutes and hoped for the best.

And got the worst. His 10 minutes appear to have equated to 2 real-time minutes. They were barely soft boiled. Fine for eating, bad for deviling.

Lucky for us, however, he had used the last few eggs from a carton of store eggs I got before the birds started leaving us white ovals of deliciousness. So not a huge loss there.

But the whole episode left Paul with a hankering for deviled eggs. So tonight, I made deviled eggs.

From goose eggs.

And they were golden.

Things to do…

Remind me to each my son (who shall remain nameless) how to hold a camera straight when I send him out to take a picture.

How Did I End Up Married to a Chicken Farmer?

When Paul brought up the idea of being a chicken farmer, I must admit that I didn’t take him too seriously at first. After all … who really becomes a chicken farmer? We were suburbanites!

But then we moved up here to my parent’s place and the next thing I know, we’ve got chickens.

And I’m married to a chicken farmer.

We’re now going into our third year raising chickens, and turkeys, and hogs and laying hens.

The picture above is our new  brood buildings – the baby chicks’ home for the first weeks of their lives. What you don’t see is the brood boxes inside. Genius contraptions with heat lamps that are connected to thermostats so ensure the chicks stay just the right level of toasty warm.

Right now we have the chicks that will start laying eggs for us sometime this summer.

And we’ve got orders placed to get 1,000 broiler chicks in over the course of the summer.

I am so often amazed at the directions life takes. And how wonderful those directions usually turn out to be.

If you’re interested in our chickens, eggs or (later this year) pork; or even just curious about our farm, be sure to visit our website:

Pastured Sensations

Chicken of the Week – Chicken Thighs with Mexican Flavors

As I’ve mentioned before, in our home we don’t say burned, we say caramelized. So when you look at this out-of-focus photo, please remember that looks aren’t everything. And it didn’t taste burned. It just looked like it was.

A few weeks ago, I brought home a copy of Mark Bittman’s Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times cookbook and marked about a dozen recipes to try, including this one. I had most of the ingredients on hand except for the lime and the orange which went on my grocery list.

Then life got the better of me and three weeks later, I got an email from the library saying the book was overdue. So I thawed out a package of chicken thighs, bought a new lime and orange (the ones I already had were well past their prime), made this recipe and returned the book to the library.

I will say that the recipe was worth the wait. I only marinated it for about 1/2 hour and I really think it should go at least a couple hours to better infuse the flavors. It was very easy to prepare and the next time I cook it, I’ll make sure its a nice evening so I can grill it.

Chicken Thighs with Mexican Flavors

from: Mark Bittman’s Quick and Easy Recipes from The New York Times

Preheat a grill or broiler to moderately hot and put the rack at least 4 inches from the heat source. Combine the garlic, onion, oregano, cumin, cayenne, cloves, salt, pepper and oil in a blender or food processor and blend until fairly smooth. Add the juices, taste and adjust the seasoning.

Smear the mixture all over the chicken. Marinate at least 30 minutes. For bone-in thighs, cook a total of 20-25 minutes (or until done) turning chicken over halfway through the cooking time.