Ee is for . . . yes Eggs!

Which came first?

Depends on who you ask.

How many times have we contemplated the question; Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  To be honest, I used to wonder about that.  Now a days, I wonder who’s crepey-crinkly skin is that on my arms and knees while pondering  the question, where did the time go? 

That chicken/egg question appears to never have been a serious consideration during ancient times.  Historic cultures seemed to have unscrambled that mystery with explanations and beliefs that put the question to rest.  According to my research, the early Phoenicians believed a primeval egg split open and formed the Heavens and Earth.  Egyptians taught their God Ptah created the sun and the moon from an egg.  While Native American Indians passed down their truth that the Great Spirit erupted forth from a beautiful golden egg and went on to create the universe.  There was no question their worlds, as they knew them to be, materialized from an Egg. 

I’m not exactly sure when chickens came into the picture.  There is a published article that refers to the Book of Genesis 1:21.  On the fifth day He created “every winged fowl after their kind . . . then He blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply.”  In other words it was the chicken/s that came first, complete with the DNA to reproduce.  I

don’t know. 

What I do know, is that eggs are excellent sources of protein and riboflavin.  Yes, the yolks contain all the fat but are at the core of that protein as well as iron, vitamins A and D and some phosphorus.  The colour of the yolk depends on the hen’s diet.  Was she fed alfalfa, grass, wheat or yellow corn?  The shading of the shells however depends upon the breed of the hen. 

Just a note to those of you who still carefully remove your purchased eggs from the carton and place them in the door of your refrigerator in that designated egg holder.  Eggs are odoriferous, meaning they absorb odors of other foods in close proximity, such as onions, lettuce greens, even left-overs.  It’s best to keep your eggs covered in the carton or placed in another type of egg container with a cover.  Of course this doesn’t apply to those small milk-like cartons of liquid egg products.  What about those cartons?  Are they real eggs you may wonder?  Yes, sort of.  They started out as real eggs.  Here the egg white and yolk are combined together then pasteurized, (heated up until all the bacteria is killed without cooking the eggs themselves).  These pasteurized liquid egg products keep for much longer than regular eggs, an important consideration for those who live alone and don’t eat at home every day. 

So here we are its Spring Time, flowers are burgeoning with blooms, little green leaves are emerging on the once barren trees and bushes and the bunnies are playing in my yard.  Like me many of you will be rummaging through your secured holiday boxes in search of left-over egg dyes and stickers.  I declare Ee is for Eggs.  They are versatile and multi-faceted, eggs are always in season in my book.  They can be baked, boiled, scrambled, poached  or fried.  Eggs function as leaveners in baking, clarifying agents in soups and stocks and not so well-known, except to my artist son and others like him, eggs are a main ingredient in the making of paint.  Andrew Wyeth was a big user of egg tempera paint he mixed himself. 

I have long been a fan of turning those eggs that have survived the transformation from plain white to festooned with colours and patterns.  The more than a few, that are less cracked or bled with so much dye the food would look inedible.  Those eggs that have only minimal signs of being man-child-mom handled and  are fortunate enough to be found behind couches, balancing high on drapery rods, inside shoes or outside nestled in potted plants, under large rocks or along fence rails.  Yes, I’ve taken those hearty, privileged oeufs and used them to prepare a platter or two of deviled eggs.

 I can’t lay claim to the creation of this week’s Blog recipes, but I can share my excitement of these new and inspired uses of the two dozen-or-so eggs most of us will have to use up come Easter Sunday. 

Deep fried deviled eggs and De-constructed egg salad sandwiches!  I LOVE these ideas.  I have never tasted or prepared deep fried deviled eggs but the recipes for them abound on the Internet.   Most of them have you deep frying the entire deviled egg , filling and all.  The deep fired deviled egg I finally did taste was at EAT, a cool local eatery downtown.  They only fried the white and allowed you to actually see the yummy filling inside, with all its inviting creaminess.  Then they top the eggs with teeny bits of real bacon and a flavorful red hot sauce.  While the de-constructed egg salad sandwich offers a more esthetically appealing version of my childhood favourite, which always stunk up my lunchbox.  Mine was an Alvin and the Chipmunks, lunchbox, green vinyl.   None of that sissy Barbie stuff for me.   And I can assure you, when I made prepared and tasted this sandwich there was NO stink.  At least from the sandwich, only when I was peeling the eggs.  

Because these recipes are not mine I can only encourage you to take the time to look them up.  But you must try them, they are delicious and will really wow your friends and family!!