To celebrate the birds who've begun filling the city with their chatter & singing again, I thought I'd share a little copper wire nest I made. I began with a loose spiral and then started weaving/winding/twirling shorter pieces through. At first I planned to leave the ends loose—sticking out in the way that twigs often do in a bird's nest—but instead ended up 'curling' the ends a bit, which seemed to suit this looser interpretation.
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I considered featuring quail eggs in this month's recipe, but never did quite manage to develop the ideas I had in mind. Inspired by the spring theme of nests, I wondered about making mini tarts, just big enough for one barely cooked quail egg + a sprinkle of chopped green onion & aged Pecorino. We've also been eating sweet potatoes quite often lately (oven roasted with herbs or in pancake form), which led to visions of a dish composed of a bed of bitter greens, crispy 'shoestring' sweet potatoes & poached quail eggs. Eventually, the pretty little speckled eggs will need to be used up, so there will definitely be some experimenting to come...
That leaves me with offering the recipe for our 'Easter Egg Salad Sandwiches' which, as I noted in this past entry, are distinguished from regular egg salad sandwiches by timing only. I've updated the recipe slightly (below). Incidentally, the background is one side of the copper pencil holder shown in the 'still life' in my last post—I was finally able to photograph the copper items during a recent burst of sun.
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The colours on the eggs are right out of my palette!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm pleased to hear that your spring has finally sprung.
A pretty palette then! (I love them too.)
DeleteAs for spring, the birds & the trees are going through the motions, but the sun has been unusually reticent of late - which makes photo-taking a challenge... I imagine autumn in Australia feels more accogliente (welcoming) at this point!
- Lisa
love the little copper wire nest --- happy easter to you!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ronnie! It was fun to make - I always enjoy a project like this, when I have no real plan & just see what happens as I go.
DeleteI hope Easter at Sam's Creek was lovely...
- Lisa
I got so carried away with the food talk and recipes I almost forgot to comment on the nest - which I love! What a lovely Easter moment.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Fiona...the nest came out more along the lines of what I hope to ultimately do with the electron representation of 'Copper' from a couple of posts ago, i.e. more free form. It's interesting working with something other than paper!
Delete- Lisa
I do like your copper nest, and the eggs are just beautiful! Many years ago I bought a few dozen quail eggs to hardboil and serve in their shells at a picnic. To my amazement the dark patches on the eggs smeared off and I had a terrible mess. I ended up peeling all the eggs after washing off all the colour, and my brilliantly conceived picnic dish became much more ordinary.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Carol! Oh goodness, though, what an unpleasant surprise you must have had pre-picnic = how disappointing when things like that don't go as planned. (At least quail eggs are still rather special in their own right.) I must admit I haven't tried boiling quail eggs before, so thanks for the warning. I do love their speckled/flecked pattern...I actually still have the shells from last year's too!
Delete- Lisa
Hi Lisa- I'm finally having a minute to sit down and read your posts. I like to savor them (even when they don't include a recipe)! I love those little quail eggs with their natural surface design. I think it would be hard for me to crack them up. Hope this isn't too ignorant a question but how different do quail eggs taste to eggs from a domestic hen? I hadn't thought about adding greens directly to the eggs. I often like to add a bit of curry to my egg salad. Looks as if you've been having a great time with the copper wire...I've been loving your little experiments.
ReplyDeleteHi Julie, thanks!
DeleteAnd, no definitely not an ignorant question about the quail eggs...I think last year was the first time I ever tried them (at least knowingly). I've only tried them poached, and haven't noticed anything specifically different about the taste - but that could also be because I have used them more as a 'garnish'. We finally did have a concoction with 'shoestring' sweet potatoes, black beans & poached quail eggs - delicious together. My daughter wants to empty some of the shells & fill them with chocolate! I do find them to be hard to crack cleanly - they seem thinner/more delicate than hen eggs, but the shells do keep well (I think I had already mentioned that I had last year's until just recently).
-Lisa