116. Classic Deviled Eggs

Date Cooked: November 1, 2009
Page: 22
Rating: A+

This is one of those recipes that I feel I am supposed to hate because they come straight out of the 70’s and 80’s. But I don’t hate them. In fact I am the one that will eat a platter of them, sneaking them when no one is looking until they are all gone. So I was looking forward to this.

I was supposed to use the recipe for foolproof Hard-boiled Eggs but I won’t ever try that again. At least not while I continue to get fresh eggs delivered. So I boiled seven eggs, peeled them, sliced them carefully in half and popped out the yolks.

In a mixing bowl I mashed the yolks with mayonnaise, whole grain mustard, cider vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce. I transferred the mixture to a ziploc bag and piped the mixture back into the egg white halves. Let’s just say that piping is not really my strong point. A little cayenne was sprinkled on top.

Rating: A+. These were tasty! I will absolutely make these things again. That’s all I have to say about them. I think I should make more tonight.

74. Classic Egg Salad

Date Cooked: March 24, 2009
Page: 122
Rating: B+

I have more eggs than we can reasonably eat so I am looking for recipes in the book that use large quantities of eggs. I figured this was a good go… and it definitely used more eggs than required.

The first part of this recipe is to make hard-boiled eggs. Now most of us probably have our own timing conventions for creating the best hard-boiled egg. Well the book has its own recipe for Foolproof Hard-Boiled eggs. For the record I am now lower in status than a fool. Seems a fool could make these eggs but not I, The Mediocre Cook! You place the eggs in water and then bring to a boil. Once boiling you remove from the heat and let sit in the water for 10 minutes. After that they get 5 minutes in an ice bath before being ready to peel.

Ok, so I am supposed to peel the shells off these eggs. The book gives a nice little illustration that shows how easy it is. The shell will slip away from the egg in a nice strip attached to the thin membrane surrounding the egg. SO I gently crack the egg all over and from the air pocket in the egg I begin peeling. A huge chunk of egg breaks away still attached to the shell. Mmmm.., maybe I was too rough, let’s proceed carefully. More egg comes away with the shell before the entire thing splits with a slightly undercooked egg white spilling out from around the creamy golden yolk. I’m frustrated at this point. I have not elevated to cursing yet because my kids are within earshot but this isn’t going well. Maybe this is just one bad egg. I move on to the next one. Well before I did that I popped the yolk in my mouth. It was perfectly cooked and delicious.

Egg number two. With the care of a surgeon I gently crack the shell all over and begin to peel. The shell carefully slips away from the egg. I pause so I don’t get too excited before proceeding. A little more… then the whole egg splits and a huge chunk comes off with the shell. The same undercooked egg white interior with a creamy golden center. That yolk saw the inside of my stomach before I tossed the rest in the compost. I figured these little buggers needed some more time in the boiling water. So I placed two eggs into boiling water (to replace the two I broke). I figured that I was going to try the original method of boiling eggs. Boil them until done. As these neared completion I added the other four back into the water. Once all were done I started the process of peeling again.

The first one peeled cleaned and I was thinking happy thoughts, like I had pulled myself back from the edge of despair. The second showed similar results and I was confident that these eggs were going to work. Until I tried to peel number 3, 4, 5 and 6, These must have been the originals. They didn’t improve one bit. They were cooked on the inside better but the shell, inner membrane and egg white formed a single inseparable bond. Into the compost they went. So I have ruined 6 eggs and need to boil 4 more. This is becoming a full-time job and the only reason I was doing all this was to make sandwiches for work the next day.

Anyway the four eggs came out nicely and I was ready to move on the supposedly hard part, mixing them together. The book says to chop the eggs and then mix them with the mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, parsley, salt, pepper, minced celery and red onion. I chopped only the egg whites since the yolks kept sticking to the knife. I then mashed the yolks into the mixture. I liked this much better.

Rating: B+. The egg salad was good. Maybe a little runny but the flavor was really good. I remember hating egg salad sandwiches growing up as I always associated them with the food trashy people would eat. I don’t mean to offend but there was this one kid in my elementary school that brought one every day and he was filthy and always wore clothes that were dirty and absolutely didn’t match. I am not one to talk fashion but even I didn’t wear dress shirts tucked into sweat pants. Anyway, kids can be mean and I always thought of him when I saw egg salad sandwiches.

41. Cheese Omelet

Date Cooked: November 20, 2008
Page: 636
Rating: B

I have always been a anytime breakfast believer. I can eat bacon and eggs at anytime of day and it is not an uncommon occurrence at my house for dinner to be a quick meal of eggs, pancakes, sausage and/or bacon. This evening was one of those times when I was too tired to really cook but still wanted something decent. So I figured let’s try an omelet.

Now an omelet is one of those technique dishes where it is not about what goes in the omelet as much as it is about the timing while cooking the omelet. I made three cheese omelets and unfortunately the picture is that of the runner-up. I thought the third time would be the charm and that by then I would have known a bit more about the timing. It wasn’t to be. So my wife got to consume the real Miss Congeniality omelet, while the picture above is of the runner-up. My kids ate the omelet that, in the equine world, wasn’t fit for the glue factory. But since my youngest still likes to play with his food as much as he eats it, he didn’t mind.

So what did I learn? Scrambled eggs are omelets that failed. Failure is easier and just as tasty.

Rating: B. The omelets weren’t bad but unless they are going to contain fancy ingredients then they are just less scrambled, scrambled eggs.

33. Fluffy Scrambled Eggs

Date Cooked: November 1st, 2008
Page: 629
Rating: B-

What Saturday morning breakfast would be complete without eggs, and since my kids are picky eaters they would have to be scrambled eggs. The book pretty much lays out cooking scrambled eggs the way I would normally do it (except it calls for more milk than I would traditionally use).

Whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper and they cook them until just before you think they are done. That is the part that took me a long time to learn… or at least put into practice. I really don’t like undercooked eggs, I’ll come short of hating them since I like runny yolks but undercooked egg whites or undercooked scrambled eggs really turn me off. So I always cook them a little longer and then they get all dried out. So I managed to stop short this time and was pleased with the results… or almost. I know why I use less milk.

Rating: B- They turned out nice but the milk resulted in a moister egg that left a lot of liquid behind in the serving bowl. They weren’t undercooked but just ‘wet’.

While this is a short post the next breakfast item was a good one. And I even tried my hand at some more baking!