It's been a while (Mom)

So it has been a while since I put a post in.  I haven't been reading as much lately, but I do go in spurts. Always have.  I haven't been very successful at cooking lately either.  I have needed a new stove for some time now.  Chris, as great a repairman as he is, just couldn't fix the old one this time.  The oven controls just stopped working.  Chris looked at it (suffering from back pain on a Sunday) which I do appreciate, and tried to fix it.  They just don't make the parts for it any more it was so old. We determined that after almost 22 years we really should get a new one.  So began the quest.  Chris was more earnest at it than I was.  After all, I had an excuse not to cook.  Not that I don't enjoy it, I just like a break once in a while.   So he shopped a while, determined where the best deal would be and where we could get the best warranty.  We ended up a Lowe's because they were offering 18 months interest free and they had the best warranty available.   I got a black Frigidaire gas range, with 5 burners (yes, FIVE) and a 5.0 cu.ft. oven.  The top is closed so no yuckies underneath.  It is electronic ignition so no  pilots to go out.  It is self cleaning so no having to clean the oven the old fashioned way.  There is a window and a light  for the oven and it is BEAUTIFUL.  It was delivered yesterday and Chris hooked it up last night. I almost hated to use it but I did this morning to fry an egg for breakfast.  It is great!

"Egg"cellent Egg Trick (Steph)

Have you ever made a hard-cooked egg and when you go to peel it half of the egg falls apart?  Have you ever wondered, "why can't the shell just come off clean?  Why do my hard-cooked eggs always turn out so ugly?"  Well, I have wondered those "egg"xact same words (I'll throw as many egg puns as I can in this post, I promise) and while I have wondered it, I haven't actively searched to find an answer, mostly because things "egg"xit  (see) my brain as quickly as I can think them. So my answer came a little un"egg"spectedly. (didn't see that one coming did you?)

One day while watching (but not understanding) the Japanese channel, there was a "how-do-they-make-it?" type show on and it was about a place where they made lots of hard-boiled eggs that they packaged and sold to stores or something like that.  Kevin's mom was translating while we watched and they had a couple of tips on how to have a perfect hard-cooked egg. But first, lets take a look at the basic structure of a chicken egg.

Fairly simple and probably not anything you didn't know before.  Apparently the key to hard-cooked eggs that peel easily is to separate the membrane from the white while cooking. Makes sense.  One way this show suggested was to use older eggs when boiling.  Over time, the membrane inside the egg breaks down naturally and therefore will peel easier when cooked.  But how do you tell when your eggs are old enough without being too old? Yeah, my thoughts "egg"xactly.  It's hard to know.  A second way to separate the membrane from the white is to crack the "bottom" (or as the illustration shows, the "top") of the egg where the air sack is located before boiling the eggs.  The air sack allows the shell to be broken without egg oozing out, but the membrane allows the water to travel through it. The membrane then separates from the cooked white, making for slick egg peeling.

Naturally, I had to try this method out for myself.  I have used the "shell cracking" method on a couple of different occasions and it has worked beautifully for me.  So, the next time you've got a hankerin' for a smoothly peeled, hard-cooked egg give it a try.