Eggs: Scrambled or Fried

As I prefer my fried eggs with the yolk unbroken and still quite runny, you can imagine how I feel about scrambled eggs: YUCK!  My husband, however, loves them so I have learned to prepare them.

Scrambled Eggs

• About 2-3 eggs per person
• Milk
• Salt and Pepper

Heat frying pan to med/med-high.  Break eggs into a bowl and whisk together yolk and whites.  Add a splash of milk and mix well.  Pour into preheated pan.  Scrape the bottom of the pan regularly with a slotted spatula (more often/vigorously if you like crumbly scrambled eggs; less often/more sedately if you prefer larger pieces).  When cooked through, salt and pepper to taste.  Some people like to top their scrambled eggs with cheese and/or ketchup.  Anything more than that is more of an omlette.  If you recently used a recipe that left you with some extra yolks or whites, you can add one or two whole eggs and have a slightly different white/yolk ratio.  You can also make leftovers from French Toast into scrambled eggs.

Fried Egg

• 1-2 eggs per person
• Margarine
• Salt and Pepper

Heat frying pan med/med-high.  Melt a small amount of margarine in the pan to prevent sticking.  Break eggs into the pan begin careful not to break the yolks.  Let cook until whites look nearly done and have a few large bubbles.  Carefully turn egg.  Be carefully of the cook time on the second side!  If you like a runny yolk, remove as soon as the whites are cooked through (<1 minute)!  If you like your yolk more solid, you have a bit more time.  Salt and pepper to taste.  I like my eggs served atop hash-browns.  The yolk gives the hash-browns a wonderful flavor.  Some people like ‘egg in a frame’ where they cut out the center of a slice of bread, put that in the pan and break the egg into the hole.  This way, the bread gets toasted while the egg cooks.

 

Egg Salad Sandwich

Ingredients:

• 4 Hard Boiled Eggs
• Mayonnaise
• Mustard
• Celery Salt
• Dill Weed
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder

Peel Eggs and Place in Bowl.  Add as small a squirt of mustard as possible and a few shakes of seasonings.  Top with a few scoops of Mayonnaise and mash together with a fork.  Add additional Mayonnaise until desired consistancy is reached.  After placing mixture on sandwich bread, I always like to top it off with Sour Cream and Onion Potato Chips to give it a little crunch, but that is up to you!

 

Deviled Eggs

Ingredients:

• Eggs
• Mayonnaise
• Mustard
• Onion Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Celery Salt
• Dill Weed
• Pepper
• Vinegar
• Milk
• Paprika

Put eggs on a slow boil for 15 minutes and let sit covered 5 minutes.  Cool eggs in cold water.  Peel eggs and slice in half longways.  Put yolks in a bowl and add a dash of each of the remaining ingredients.  Blend with a hand blender and add Mayonnaise until mixture reaches desired consistancy.  Return mixture to whites and sprinkle with Paprika.

 

Mayonnaise

Here is my mayonnaise recipe.  Unlike the many other proponents of homemade mayonnaise, I found it to be rather like regular, commercial mayonnaise.  Matt did not find it any more appetizing either.  I am still posting it, though, because I believe everyone should try making their own mayonnaise at least once…and maybe someday, you will run out of mayonnaise at a juncture when you can’t just run to the store!

Ingridients:

• 2 Egg Yolks (don’t forget to freeze the whites!)
• 1/4 t Salt
• 1 Tb Lemon Juice or White Vinegar (I tried both and there are only slight differences…do a half recipe of each to see what you prefer)
• 1 C Canola Oil (DO NOT use olive oil~it is GROSS!)

Combine the yolks, salt, and lemon juice/vinegar.  Whisk until smooth and light.  Add oil a little at a time (no more than a tablespoon) and whisk until fully blended.  I noticed that many recipes called for special oil adding tools so that you could add a continuous small stream and people warned that if you didn’t do it their special way, you would end up with an oily, lumpy mess, but it didn’t happen.  Just add the oil a little at a time and whisk thoroughly.  If it is too thick, add a little water.  If it is too thin, whisk more and add a little more oil.

 

Everyone’s Favorite Potato Salad

I have never had another kind of potato salad that I liked, probably because most had ‘crunchies,’ which I don’t like.  My husband does not like pickles.  Growing up, he also believed he did not like potato salad, although his mother assured him there were no pickles in it.  He only discovered after we had been married for two years that, not only did he like my potato salad, but his mother had been putting pickle juice in hers all those years!  I have brought this potato salad to every pot luck and BBQ I have ever attended and it has never failed that at least one person has asked for the recipe.  I tried to find the origins of potato salad and reports vary wildly; however, it appears that my recipe is a cross-breed between German and American versions.

Ingredients:

• 5 Medium Potatoes
• 5 Eggs
• 3/4 C Mayonnaise
• 1 T Mustard
• 1 t Vinegar
• 1 T Milk
• >1/2 t Onion Powder
• 1/4 t Garlic Powder
• 1/2 t Celery Salt
• <1/2 t Dill Weed
• 1/2 t Pepper
• 1/4 t Paprika

Hard boil eggs (slowly bring to a boil, turn down and simmer 15 minutes, remove from heat and let sit 5 minutes, drain and fill pan with cool water, let sit until eggs are cooled).  Peel and quarter potatoes.  Boil until soft enough to spear with a fork (about 15 minutes).  Blend liquids and spices in large bowl.  Drain potatoes and add to liquid/spice mixture.  Peels eggs.  Slice 4 eggs in three directions and add to mixture.   Stir well.  Even out surface with a spoon.  Slice the last egg in only one direction and arrange slices along the top.  Shake a small amount of paprika over the top.  Can be served still warm (YUM) but keep refrigerated.

 

Egg-citing, Egg-cellant, Egg Eggs-travaganza

There is so much more you can do with eggs that fry them or hide them in baked goods.  This week, in addition to some egg-stra special egg recipes, I have a few facts for you.  It all started with my husband (don’t these things always? j/k).  He doesn’t like mayonnaise and I found that many people who don’t like commercial mayo enjoy homemade mayo (my perfected homemade mayonnaise recipe soon to follow).  Several hours later, you find me surfing the net looking up the official name of the whites (albumen).  Here is some other interesting information about eggs (Bakers will be especially interested in the last three):

1. You absorb about 91% of the protein from a cooked egg that you consume, while you only absorb 51% if it was raw. (Wikipedia)
2. You can test an egg’s freshness by putting it in slightly salted water–fresh eggs will sink and spoiled eggs will float. (Wikipedia)
3. No matter the size of an egg (medium, large, extra large, or jumbo), the yolk size stays the same. (Joy of Baking)
4. 87 % of an egg white is water (so a jumbo egg has little increased nutritional value, just more water).  (Joy of Baking)
5. In the current Food Pyramid, one egg is equal to 1 ounce of meat.
6. When a recipe calls for just egg yolks, you can freeze the whites!  Several people suggested freezing them in ice cube trays to easily identify the number of whites.  Good for up to 4 months! (National Center for Home Food Preservation)
7. When a recipe calls for just whites, you can freeze the yolks but they get a lumpy weird texture unless you blend them with 1/4 t sugar or a dash of salt (depending on what you intend to use them for).  Be sure to label them and adjust your recipe accordingly when you go to cook, otherwise you will end up with salty pudding! (National Center for Home Food Preservation)
8. 1 yolk=1 Tb (Joy of Baking)

Egg Recipes:

• Potato Salad
• Egg Salad
• Mayonnaise
• Deviled Eggs
• Frying with Breading and Batter
• Scrambled Eggs
• Omlettes
• Fried Eggs
• Hard Boiled
• French Toast