When is an egg not just an egg? When you can feel great about where the egg came from! NestFresh Eggs come from regional networks of family-owned farms that are committed to animal welfare and stewardship of the land. This has always been one of the most important factors for me when I am deciding which brands to buy. You can look for the "Certified Humane Raised and Handled" label right on the NestFresh Eggs carton.
Because I deeply care about how hens are treated during the production of eggs, and supporting farmers that care about their animals, I was really excited to try NestFresh Eggs. An upcoming holiday party was the perfect opportunity to try some Free-range, Non-GMO NestFresh Eggs in a couple of recipes. We decided to make rolled sugar cookies and eggnog for the party! I have included the recipes we used at the end of this article if you would like to try them yourself.
Decorating holiday-shaped sugar cookies was a great party activity. We brought store-bought frosting and sprinkles for the kids to use to decorate their delicious sugar cookies.
 Our cookie decorating station for the party! |
 Frosting first, then sprinkles. |  A beautiful and delicious creation! |
My boys love baking, so they made the sugar cookies for the party themselves the day before! Cracking the eggs (and not knowing whether the eggs are going to cooperate or send egg insides flying across the room) is always their favorite part of the dough making. Of course, rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters makes it even more fun.
 Add your carefully cracked eggs. |  With this recipe, each kid got to crack two eggs! |
I have never made homemade eggnog before, so I was really excited (but also nervous!) to try it out for the party. The recipe I used involves cooking the eggnog, so no worries about sharing with friends. But, I was nervous about how it was going to turn out, since the recipe involves "tempering" the eggs so they don't cook too fast and ruin the recipe. I need not have worried. It was really easy! And guess what? It was SO DELICIOUS. Way better than any store-bought eggnog!
 Cheers to homemade eggnog! |  Yum! |
Find out more about NestFresh Eggs by visiting their website, Facebook page, Instagram or Twitter. We found NestFresh Eggs at Publix in the Birmingham area.
Here are the recipes we used for party:
The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies Recipe, Adapted from Allrecipes.com
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 eggs (Be sure to get NestFresh Eggs!)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Directions
- Use a handheld or stand mixer to cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Add eggs and vanilla, mix. Finally, add baking powder, salt and flour a little at a time and mix thoroughly. Chill dough in the refrigerator until stiff (about an hour or overnight). You may need to do this more than once as dough warms up during rolling and cutting process.
- Preheat the oven to 400F when you remove dough from the refrigerator. Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin onto a floured surface to desired thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut into shapes. Place shapes on ungreased cookie sheets with some space in between.
- Bake in the oven for about 7 minutes or until edges are browned. Cool on cookie sheet for about one minute, then remove to rack or plate to cool completely.
- Decorate with store-bought or homemade frosting or icing and holiday sprinkles
Homemade Eggnog Recipe, Adapted from tastesbetterfromscratch.com
- 6 large NestFresh egg yolks
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- optional ground cinnamon for topping
Directions
- Separate egg yolks and whisk together with sugar in medium bowl until thoroughly mixed.
- Combine milk, cream, nutmeg and salt in a saucepan and stir often over medium-high heat until mixture starts to simmer.
- Using a ladle, add a scoop of the hot milk mixture to the egg mixture, whisking quickly. Repeat several times to temper the eggs, until most of the hot milk mixture has been added to the egg mixture.
- Return all egg and milk mixture to the saucepan on the stove.
- For a few minutes, whisk mixture constantly, until slightly thickened (160 degrees F on a thermometer is where it should be).
- Remove from heat and add vanilla. Mixture will thicken as it cools.
- Now it is ready to be chilled in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- If desired, serve with a bit of cinnamon for topping.
Disclosure - Thank you to NestFresh Eggs for sponsoring this review!
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