Christmas Breakfast

An easy way to showcase the eggs our chickens lay is to fry them up. Runny eggs and toast are a classic, delicious breakfast but it is fun to mix it up every once in a while. A friend of mine turned me on to this eggs and polenta combination and it has been my easy-looks-hard-and-tastes-great breakfast ever since.You can make the polenta ahead of time and use it for this recipe and other dishes throughout the week.

I decided to make fried eggs and polenta for Christmas morning breakfast to offset the amount of sugar I knew we would be taking in throughout the day. This recipe even works with scrambled eggs, which I discovered thanks to my brother and sister-in-law's egg preference :-)

Fried Eggs and Polenta

Start by making a batch of polenta on the stove top. Once the polenta is cooked, pour it in a bread loaf pan and chill in the fridge until solid.

Cut the polenta into 1/2 inch slices. Heat up a non-stick pan and add a tablespoon of oil. Fry the polenta on each side until golden brown. At the same time fry up two eggs over easy. Place two pieces of polenta on a plate and top each with a fried egg. Splash about one teaspoon of soy sauce or Bragg's on top of the eggs and sprinkle with chopped green onions. Enjoy!!

The Ladies

Meet Meringue, Avalanche, and La Lun. As far as chickens go, they are the cat's pajamas. These three ladies came into my life last fall and have been entertaining me every day since. If you want to laugh more, get some chickens. You won't believe how fun it is to watch this threesome navigate each day through the yard. If I moved the coop, I am not sure they could find it. I am convinced chickens have the worst memory of any living creature. No wonder you don't see chickens in the circus, no way to train them.

When I moved into my house in Oakland and saw my backyard I had chickens on my mind. I inherited my coop and Meringue (Barred Rock) from my fabulous friend Kate when she moved down the coast to Pacific Grove. I picked up Avalanche (Colombian Wyandotte) and La Lun (Golden-Laced Wyandottte) at a farm in Walnut Creek to keep Meringue company. The first few months were rough. The ladies were busy working out their pecking order. Meringue wouldn't let the young pullets (a teenage female chicken) into the coop at first but as night fell she always gave in and took to her perch. It was awhile before she could share the perch but the newbies bonded together and stuck it out. As the young ones got bigger, La Lun challenged Meringue as head hen and eventually the three came to an understanding and Meringue moved over and let the other two roost with her at night.  They now share a cozy coop and travel around the yard, digging for bugs, side by side.