How to Hard Boil an Egg

The age old question of what came first the chicken or the egg will not be answered here today. I can tell you that chickens came before man! Man has been using eggs from some form of fowl since the time of the Egyptians. Most of the world eats the eggs of domesticated chickens, but did you know that there are close to 200 breeds of chicken worldwide. Each year in the US the 280 million laying hens lay around 250 to 300 eggs a year! That’s a lot of work.

It was brought to my attention recently that hard boiling eggs is something a lot of people struggle with! How to hard boil eggs is one of the most searched cooking topics on the internet! So let’s look at boiling an egg. I probably do it a little different than other people. My grandmother taught me a trick that helps me get the perfect hard-boiled egg each time without much effort. Eggs are a great source of protein and make a great breakfast to start your day with. They are self-contained and just a touch of salt and pepper (or in my case my favorite steak seasoning) and you are good to go! “One egg has 13 essential nutrients in varying amounts – including high-quality protein, choline, folate, iron and zinc – for 70 calories. Eggs also play a role in weight management, muscle strength, healthy pregnancy, brain function, eye health and more”!

How to Hard Boil an Egg:

Things you will need:

· A small sauce pan deep enough to hold your eggs and enough water to cover them

· Eggs

· Pinch of salt

· Lid for the sauce pan

· Timer

· Slotted spoon

· Bowl of cold or ice water

First place your egg or eggs into the sauce pan and cover with water. Put your sauce pan with eggs and water over high heat on your stove. Allow the water and eggs to come to a full rolling boil. (That means the water is fully bubbling and literally appears to be rolling.) Allow the eggs to boil this way for one full minute. Cover with your sauce pan lid. Turn off the stove and remove from heat. Allow the egg or eggs to sit in the water, with the lid on, for at least five minutes. I usually go and get ready for work or my day during this time. When you are ready to peel your eggs spoon them out of the water with your slotted spoon and dunk them into the cold water. Allow the egg to soak in the cold water until it feels cool to the touch. Then you just crack or peel your egg and you are good to go. Easy breakfast fast! Eggs are great to add to salads for a quick and healthy lunch or dinner.

I make a spinach salad with fresh baby spinach leaves, chopped hard boiled eggs, chopped turkey bacon (or real bacon if I feel like it) and a great vinaigrette.  Be creative and enjoy!

Source: http://www.incredibleegg.org/health-and-nutrition

When it works it works: Pear Tart and Ambrosia Bread

Sometimes great recipes just happen. There are times when you are throwing things together in your kitchen and magic just happens. Food miracles… I have these miracles sometimes. Other times, even Queens cannot make fabulous happen. Today was one of those days. I am forever experimenting in the kitchen; trying to find some new flavor that makes people ask for more.

Tonight I decided despite suffering from a horrible cold that I would make roasted Cornish game hens. (I am not a glutton for punishment, cooking just makes me happy… and I think I was kind of out of my head.)  I have had game hens in the past, but never cooked them myself. I decided I would prepare them like I prepare my roasted chicken. After all they are just mini chickens, developed in the 50’s to provide a single serving of white meat poultry. When done correctly these little hens can be very impressive; my roasted chicken always gets rave reviews so I thought why not start there. (Ordinarily it takes me several attempts to get a recipe just right, unless it is one of those magical nights….) This evening’s adventure in cooking was not even a good start. I think I will blame the cold medicine… Yeah… It was the cold medicine that caused me to lose my mind.

I decided I would use fresh herbs, which are usually stronger in flavor than my typical dried herbs. So I opted not to add much to the outside of the chicken other than some salt and olive oil.  For some reason I picked up the Thyme instead of the Tarragon. Tarragon goes very well with poultry; Thyme not so much. My thought process was to make a lemony, garlic herb infused hen. Instead I got something that resembled two tiny rubber chickens with lemons and what appeared to be dead weeds shoved in a very rude place. My images of aromatically infused herb flavoring fell on its tookis. They just did not brown up like I would have liked. The lemon flavor was nice but that’s the only flavor you could taste. Overall very moist and juicy, kind of bland and lemony; next time I attempt these little chickadees; I will go a different route.

I noticed we had some very ripe bananas sitting in the fruit basket and I thought I would try to make banana bread. I remembered that my mother hates, no loathes, warm banana so I thought I would try and make it different and therefore more appealing to everyone. For special occasions my family makes a fruit salad called “Ambrosia” that is a mix of pineapple, banana, orange, coconut, and marshmallows. I say to myself, “Self, I am going to make “ambrosia bread”. What results is not a complete disaster like the chicken. However, the bread seems to be missing something. I am not sure what, yet, maybe just a pat of butter or a caramel sauce. Try the recipe and see what you think, please send suggestions as I continue to play with this one.

Ambrosia Bread

Ingredients:

2 eggs

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup butter melted

1 ½ cup mashed RIPE bananas (about 3-4 mid-size bananas)

1 cup chopped pecans

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese (room temperature)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup flaked coconut

½ teaspoon orange extract

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350° and lightly grease 13x9 baking dish

Mix together mash banana and pineapple together in mixing bowl. Add flour, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, eggs, salt, and orange flavor. Mix until well blended. Add melted butter and cream cheese, mix until well blended again. Fold in pecans and marshmallows. Pour mix into 13x9 dish, it will be full! Place on baking sheet (in case you have any spills).

Bake in preheated oven for 1 ½ hours, or until toothpick stuck in center comes out clean; keep an eye on it as it browns up, you may want to lightly cover with foil to prevent heavy browning.

 

My success for the evening was the simple pear tart I made. It needs no introduction because it was perfect! I whipped up some whipping cream and served a slice of this tart with a dollop of the cream on top. My family said it more than made up for my rubber looking lemon flavored chickens.

Pear Tart

Ingredients

1 Prepared Pastry Pie Crust (look for it in the refrigerator section)

3-4 Pears, peeled, cored, and sliced

3 tablespoons butter

3-4 tablespoons sugar

Sugar to sprinkle

Preheat oven to 400°

Unroll prepared pie crust and lay over lightly greased tart pan, or if like me no tart pan was available a 9 inch cake pan will work as a substitute. Press dough into greased tart pan with the overlap hanging over the edges. Lay the pears into the tart pan; I stand mine up because I think it is pretty to look at. Fold overhang of pie crust in on top of pears, around the edge. Melt butter in a sauce pan and mix in sugar. When sugar dissolves brush butter and sugar mix over the pears and over crust. Sprinkle with sugar and place in oven. Bake for about 45 minutes. Keep an eye on the tart so that it does not brown too much on one side. Rotate to prevent this from happening. Let stand for about 20 minutes to cool. ENJOY!

Please try these recipes and leave any suggestions, or comments. Make sure to vote for me with the Picket Fence Blogs button! Are you subscribed and following?