My daughter has a few chickens at her rural property and gives me a dozen when she has extras - they have wonderfully rich very bright yokes. They are varying sized eggs, mostly medium to large. I recently retrieved some pumpkins from a friend (her Halloween decor) so my daughter can cut them open and give big chunks to the hens. They're not just good food, it's an interesting enrichment activity for the birds. (She first gave them one of the acorn squash I grew here last summer, first cutting three or four small round holes to give them a starting point. Apparently the birds started slow but once they realized what they had, four hens finished the squash in two days. (The hens may tire of pumpkin after just one of them - there are cattle that graze on the pasture at the front of her property and she will ask the nextdoor neighbor whose cattle they are if she may break any extras and leave for them. It seems all sorts of grazing animals like squash in various forms.

I'm cooking most things on my cast iron skillets these days. I always use a small 8" one, but had been using a Cuisinart GreenGourmet "non-stick" skillet and have concluded that while the surface is durable it isn't particularly non-stick. Rarely does it perform the way I wish. It's safe and will get used for things that it doesn't matter if they stick, and I'm back to olive oil on my cast iron for fried eggs, etc. Why do we want non-stick? Because of the misguided health suggestions that fats aren't healthy and things can be cooked on lab-formulated surfaces without oil. Now we have Teflon loose around the world in our water and particulates in our bodies and know that the oil is better for you.

Trying to eat healthy foods cooked in healthy ways.