Let s get egg-cited

By Laura Kurella

While the recent illness of commercially-raised laying hens caused the egg market to hit ridiculous highs, I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw that organic eggs (during this time) were lower in price because those hens didn’t get sick and die.

It just goes to show that a healthy diet does indeed protect us (and even chickens) in so many ways. Providing us with stronger immune systems that enable us to defeat invading illnesses so they cannot defeat us!

I am grateful and thankful that this “clucker” of an issue has long since passed because hens are especially busy laying eggs in the springtime, making their eggs the most affordable just in time for Easter!

The tradition of serving eggs at Easter goes back a long way, and for many reasons that include both religious and mystical purposes too, but today most of us view eggs at Easter as part of some good old-fashioned, colorful, and flavorful, holiday fun!

As kids, Mom would help us color dozens of eggs, then Dad would take a pencil and write a coin amount on them and hide them all over the house for us to find.

Hiding them thoughtfully, Dad often didn’t make it easy for us to find them. As a result (more often than not), one or two of those hard-boiled Easter eggs would get missed, and then not found until its own rotting smell called it out. Ah, childhood!

As kids, we loved the hunts just as much as we did eating those eggs, but we often struggled with removing their shells.

I thought it was because I was a kid, but I discovered when I grew up that the shell issue is not age-related, and I am not alone because so many people have also expressed their same dismay when it comes to peeling those hard-boiled eggs!

Decades ago, I read that if you boiled older eggs, they would release their shells easier, but then I recently read this is not true! Neither is starting with water as cold as the eggs, or adding a splash of vinegar.

Feeling as though all the past advice I’ve gotten on boiling eggs was as trustworthy as fake news, I was just about to lose hope when a chef told me something new, “Start with a pot of boiling water and add eggs that are close to room temperature.”

Bringing a shock of a rapid rise in temperature at the beginning of the cooking process, instead of the end, is more likely to cause the membrane to detach from the shell, before the egg begins to solidify. Makes sense!

Carefully lower eggs into boiling water (or steam), cook to desired doneness (about 10 minutes for a hard-boiled), then plunge into cold water to stop the eggs from over-cooking. Peeling an egg while hot, under cold-running water, starting with the fat end first, is the easiest way to get the shell off, too!

Place a screen strainer under the egg while you peel it to catch the shells, then toss them outside for the birds to benefit from the shells, too!

Laura Kurella is an award-winning recipe developer, food columnist, and author who enjoys sharing recipes from her Great Lakes Region kitchen. She welcomes your comments at laurakurella@yahoo.com.

Cheesy-Chive Eggs

6 large hard-boiled eggs

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard

2 tablespoons cream cheese unrefined mineral sea salt and pepper, to taste

Handful fresh chives, snipped

Peel shells off cooled, hardboiled eggs and slice into halves lengthwise. Remove yolks from whites, put into a small round bowl and mash yolks with a fork into fine pieces. Add mayonnaise, mustard, and pickle relish. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir mixture until creamy. Spoon mixture into a zip-locked sandwich bag, seal bag and snip off one corner of the bag. Squeeze mixture out of the corner of the bag into white egg halves. Sprinkle tops of filled eggs with snipped chives. Chill in the refrigerator 1-2 hours or until cold before serving. Servings per recipe: 6.

Bleu Heaven Eggs

6 eggs, hard-boiled, cooled & halved

1/4 cup bleu cheese, wellcrumbled

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon parsley, minced 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce

1 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning

1 rib of celery, minced

In a medium bowl, combine the egg yolks, blue cheese, mayonnaise, parsley, hot sauce and lemon-pepper seasoning. Mix well. Spoon this mixture into the egg halves then garnish with the minced celery.

Servings per recipe: 6.

Ham ‘n’ Eggs

6 large hard-boiled eggs

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

1/2 cup minced cooked ham

1 teaspoon coarse grain mustard

2 teaspoons prepared horseradish

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice unrefined mineral sea salt, to taste

Cayenne pepper, to taste

Halve eggs crosswise. Pop out the yellow yolks and then force them through a sieve, into a bowl, or mash with a fork until smooth. Stir in the remaining ingredients and season, to taste, with salt and cayenne pepper. Fill empty egg whites with mounds of mixture and serve. Servings per recipe: 6.