Over a week ago I baked a flourless chocolate torte for Passover. The torte is a rich dessert that required 8 egg yolks. I put the whites into a container to be used later for something else. For the last ten days, every time I opened the fridge, I saw those whites and said to myself, I have to do something with them. Yesterday, it was time or I was going to have to toss them, which would have been a crime.

My favorite go-to recipe for when I have extra whites is my Chocolate-Walnut Meringue Cookies. I had all of the ingredients in my pantry, including walnuts

and chocolate. (Guittard is the best-quality available at the supermarket.)

It’s an easy recipe, but I didn’t have the time to melt the chocolate or chop the nuts. So I improvised.

My husband’s family is from the South, where achingly sweet desserts abound. When he goes home he has Divinity, which are a version of meringue cookies that I’ve never taken a liking to. Divinity is super-saturated with sugar and corn syrup. But the idea of them – light sweet pillows of baked egg white – does appeal.

So, I whipped up the egg whites with the same amount of sugar that I use for my Chocolate-Walnut Meringue Cookies (1/4 cup sugar per egg white), which is about a quarter of what goes into Divinity!

Then, I gently stirred in the walnut pieces and chocolate. Using a spoon, I placed dollops on parchment paper.

I placed them in the oven at 325°F for about 30 minutes and this is what came out:

They have exactly the same ingredients and proportions as the Chocolate-Walnut Meringue Cookies, and yet the taste and texture  are entirely different. They are Modernized Divinity. Delicious.

(Note that baking time for meringues varies according to the weather. They might take twice as long to bake if it is humid out. The cookies should be dry on the outside and shatter when bitten into, but be a tad chewy in the center. For crisp all the way through, lower the oven temp by 25 degrees and bake until dry.)

The Chocolate-Walnut Meringue Cookie recipe can be found in The Farmstead Egg Guide and Cookbook.

Mother’s Day is coming up, and my The Farmstead Egg Guide and Cookbook would make a nice gift. If you have a neighborhood bookstore, please pick up a copy there. Tell the store that I sent you :)

If you’d like a signed copy, you can purchase one directly from me through my on-line store. In order to keep the cost down, I ship via media mail, which, depending on where you live, can take awhile. So, if you’re thinking of getting a copy for Mom, don’t delay and do it now. Make sure that you leave a comment telling me who to sign it to!

You can also pick up a copy through Amazon.

Even better, I can meet you in person and sign a copy then! Check my events page – I’m doing a number of local programs in the Boston area, and am traveling as far afield as western Vermont (to visit the most wonderful Northshire Bookstore.)

Or, you can come here to Little Pond Farm to take a Chicken Keeping Workshop, meet my animals, and purchase a book then. The Advanced Chicken Keeping Workshop on May 17 has only two slots left. If there’s enough interest, I can add another session – but that might not happen, so if you want to come, sign up soon! I’ve also added a basic Chicken Keeping Workshop to my schedule on Saturday morning, May 31.

If you feel like socializing with me and other chicken people, I have the perfect program planned. I’ll be at Tower Hill Botanic Garden for a book talk and signing on June 11. They have a lovely cafe, and I’ve reserved a table for 12 for dinner before the event. Let me know (via email) if you’d like to join us.

I hope to meet some of you in person, soon. And for those of you who can only visit me from a distance, I’m glad to know you through my cams and blog.

Betsy is an elderly hen. Pick her up and she is literally as light as a pile of feathers and old bones. But, she’s had seven years to figure out what’s what. She’s had seven years of being a determined little hen that goes about her business the way that she wants to. I used to take her on school visits. Unlike my other traveling hens, who settle down in my lap while the children pet them, Betsy made it clear that she would meet the students on her terms. She would stand on my forearm and gaze at each child as they reached over to touch her. Betsy has long been retired from such work, and she spends idle stretches of the day quietly basking in the sun and napping on the roost. But she still knows what’s what. In the morning, Betsy likes to stand at the top of the ramp, taking in the surroundings.

That’s her place. Betsy will not change her routine, not even for a rabbit that wants to hop back into the coop.

The conversation is brief. No drama ensues. Betsy makes it clear what’s what.

The impasse never lasts long. It is no surprise that Betsy continues to go about her day, exactly the way she wants it to go.

One of the reasons that chickens are such successful domestic farm animals is that they are easily bred for traits that we like. Color, size, temperament, type of comb, and even quantity, shape and hue of feathers, have all been manipulated by us to suit both our economic needs and also our fancies. Certainly, there is no reason for a cochin to be covered in a heavy coat of soft feathers other than because we like the looks of it.

A hen has about 8,000 feathers, and, like all birds, they vary in shape and purpose depending on where they are on the body. Some are longer and harder and are found on wings and tails. These are more prevalent and obvious on a Leghorn like Betsy, than the aforementioned cochin.

These outer feathers act to shed rain and act as a barrier to wind. That is, they do so unless we’ve bred the birds to have soft or twisted feathers in their place.

All chickens have undercoats of downy feathers. Here is a photograph of Veronica, and you can see what a splendid job these under-feathers do of keeping her bottom warm.

Feathers along the neck are often short and pointy, and are called hackle feathers.

It doesn’t matter which way the hen turns to look, these feathers keep her skin covered.

Each type of feather has a unique structure. The flight feathers have minute barbs, rather like Velcro, to keep them tight. Chickens preen to keep these feathers smooth and flat. When I do school visits, I hand out feathers for the children to rough up, and then to make right again. You don’t pet a hen like you do a dog. You never want to, as the saying goes, ruffle her feathers. Always stroke in one direction, gently.

Feathers have origins going far back to the beginnings of life on earth. Some dinosaurs had feathers. Not all dinosaurs died out. Some evolved into birds, and some of those birds became chickens. We all have layers of ancient beings inside of us. I recently heard a radio interview of the author of Your Inner Fish. I will be buying this book, if only to read further about how our hiccups are related to how tadpoles breathe.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a font of information about all things bird. The Lab has recently put up the best explanation of what feathers are, how they function, and how they evolved, on their page, All About Feathers. As an adult who likes reading about science, I found it fascinating, but, this site’s clear graphics and precise language makes it suitable for grade schoolers as well. Peruse it, then go back again and look at your own dinosaurs chickens.