Naughty Chooks...

So finally for the first time in 2012, I have got myself into a good groove. 

Working hard in and out of the house, smiling more, and trying to get in a run here and there in the mornings when I can.  Yet here I sit at my computer this morning, a prisoner in my own home.  

Held captive by a little red free range hen.

"Sorry SJ, you're not going anywhere for a while..."

How is my sweet chicken imprisoning me you ask?  Well, she seems to have designated the wintry flower beds next to my door as the place to lay her egg this morning and gets a bit peeved when I try to pass.

  I have mixed feelings about this.  

One part of me wants to say, "Hey sod you lady chicken, this is my house and I will open my front door any damn time I please!".  The other part of me says, "Please carry on.  Your eggs are tasty and having it delivered to me at my front door is so kind of you."

Now as I have one eye on the computer screen and one eye on the chicken nestled in my flowers, my mind races.  Am I too permissive with my chickens? Is that even a thing?

Consulting the online communities of cool 30-ish hipsters such as myself who keep chickens in their ultra-sleek city coops (ahem, I keep mine in a barn in the middle of the country in the foothills of the Italian Dolomites, not the populated suburbs of Chicago or New York), I suddenly feel inadequate as a chicken farmer.  I do not have a fancy coop and a "run" for them.  My chicken house most certainly does NOT look like one of those that you see on Pinterest.  

Chicken Mansion...

I have two little red hens and a white one with a limp.  They are misfits.  They are dirty from rolling around in my wintry veggie garden.  They eat veggie scraps and leftover pasta.  They play-fight with my chihuahua.  I cannot relate to these city-slicker hipster chicken mammas who most likely collect their morning eggs in their purpose bought Hunter wellies. 

So thanks to my feathered friends, I have come to realise that much like everything else I have done in my life, no matter how 'normal', this too has got that certain "Steffi-Esque" twist to it.  

That, my friends IS a thing.  I know because I live it.  

So to my "free range" chicken ladies - welcome to my free range life.  No cordoned off area for you to 'feel' free.  I am free range in this small world of ours, much like you girls in our Monfumo garden.  

And you can lay your eggs anywhere you damn well please...

Buon appetito!!

xoxo sjkh

Seasonal Sweeties...

I understand I have been a bit 'wah-wah-waaahhhh' lately, so I have vowed to get myself back on my blogging track.  What a better way to get myself back in the positive swing of things than to write about - Hands Down - the most wonderful thing to have ever existed in the history of Italy.

No, not shoes.  Not handbags.  Not those silly Romans (Athough I DO, in fact, thank them every day for many super inventions like the modern legal system, running water, and those really strappy sandals).

The most wonderful Italian invention EVER???
FRITTELLE.

A little background on this funny adopted country of mine...of the several holiday seasons that we celebrate, there is a special sweet or cake to go along with each one.  For Christmas there is Panettone, a sort of spongy cake with raisins or candied fruit in it. For Easter there is a similar cake (I am sure all the Italians reading this are freaking out right now.."NO!  Its not the same, it is completely different!").  This one is called focaccia (like the flat bread but sweet) and it is just a spongy sweet cake with sugar on top.  This one is in the shape of a dove.  

There are several others which I honestly don't often take part in, but the top banana is definitely the Frittelle.  This one comes around only once a year like the others. A very special sweetie that makes his appearance after Christmas and before Carnevale.  I personally challenge myself to stuff as many of these tiny balls of sweet sin into my gob as possible in this short time.  

Frittelle are very simple to be honest, they are just small fried balls of dough, sometimes with raisins, sometimes with different essences.  Then stuffed with custard cream or zabaglione, a type of cream with a liquory taste.  I like to keep it real with the custard.  

This particular year, I have given myself the looming task to review all of the local frittelle slingers...after careful consideration - meaning that I have eaten about 600 so far and Carnevale is still 2 weeks away - the winner (and has been my preferred Frittelle pusher for 6 years...) is Cafe Centrale in Asolo.  I don't know what they put in those things to keep me coming back, but the fact that they offer only a limited amount every day and if you don't get there first thing in the morning to get the cream ones you are pretty much SOL nonetheless keeps my chunky butt parked in their seats nearly every day drinking copious amounts of coffee and ordering those sweet little puppies two at a time.  

Now, as Centrale is closed on Tuesdays, and I was going through some serious withdrawals, I decided to churn up a recipe and give these beauties a go in the Hart kitchen.  

With my helper all the way from the USA!  Flat Maci!

Now as I said they are quite easy - Boil sugar, butter and water with a little bit of salt.  Add in flour, whisking it so there are no lumps, take it off the heat and let it cool.  Add in a couple eggs after it has cooled and put it all to one side.  

Custard!!!

Flat Maci is a huge help!!

Now for the custard, whisk together sugar and egg yolks, add in a little flour and then some milk.  Cook it all over a medium heat until it all thickens up nicely. Add in FRESH vanilla bean...

Scrape out thie insides and mix it all in...toss in the pod as well while it cools...

Now, get some oil hot, and fry those little suckers!

Fry like bacon you little piggies...fry!

 Fish them out, and put them on kitchen paper to drain and cool...

Now here is the good part...Get a piping bag with a point on it, fill that bag with your custard (take out the pod obviously)...and then poke those suckers and fill them up!

Why yes, that is masking tape on my piping bag.  I am a ghetto baker.

 

Dust them with powdered sugar and eat eat eat!!

Flat Maci presents - "This Is Why You're Fat - Frittelle Edition"

xoxo sjkh