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Picnic Fare: Hard Boiled Eggs
July 24, 2006

With the advent of nice hot weather and sweepingly sunny days, picnic lunches are once again a la mode (Meaning "in fashion," not ice cream on the side.) and I'm here to tell you that hard boiled eggs are the ideal picnic item. They are portable, packable, protein-rich, and perfectly satisfying. I do love me some deviled eggs, but they are harder to transport and there's the Danger Zone mayonnaise to consider, so save the deviled eggs for potlucks and keep your picnicking simple.

To boil: Fill a saucepan with water, add the eggs. Don't just drop them in like a depth charge, or they'll crack and spew crap everywhere. Instead, carefully lay them in the water, cupping your hand around the egg, until you can softly release it on the bottom of the pan. Next, bring the water to a boil over high heat. Immediately after the boil, take the pan off the heat, cover, and wait ten minutes. During those ten minutes, prepare a ice bath. Put the eggs in the ice bath and allow the eggs to fully cool.

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To store: Using a pencil, mark the top of your hard-boiled eggs with an "H" to differentiate them from your raw eggs. Ramona Quimby learned the messy way that raw eggs are very different from hard boiled.

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To crack: Put the hard boiled eggs in a large bowl and swirl the bowl around so that the eggs crash against the sides. After this sort of abuse, the eggs are quite easy to peel without taking huge chunks of white out with your fingernails. You can do this before going on your picnic or use whatever lidded container you have on hand to shake them up.

To serve: Be like Frances and avail yourself of these adorably wee salt and pepper shakers. You flick the tab up with your fingernail and subside into youthful brown bag lunches. Or, if you've put away childish things, check out what the crafty Swiss are doing when they aren't making watches and army knives.

Oh, hey! I forgot to mention that I'm recapping Top Chef and Farscape at Television Without Pity this summer.

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