The Boiled Egg (part 2) (Salad Nicoise Lettuce Cups)

(Disclaimer: if you have no clue what I'm writing about today, check out my post from yesterday - Part 1)

So, I started today's "eggsperament" with eggs right out of the refrigerator. I probably should have started with room temperature eggs or given them a little more time in the hot water to cook because when I started to peel the first egg after the cooling stage, I discovered it was not even a soft-boiled egg. So, I went ahead and boiled more water and gave every one of our little fellas 5 more minutes to cook and then back into the cooling stage they went.

Cooking Method: Bring pot full of water to a rolling boil. Remove from heat, add eggs and let stand for 20 minutes covered (15 minutes then and extra 5 minutes).

Cooling Methods: Same as yesterday - one of each type of egg cooled by ice-water bath, cool-water bath, or no bath. Cooling time was 10 minutes.

Results of the Peeling Process:
 - Ice-Water Bath: each one was super easy to peel, no egg white was sacraficed!
 - Cool-Water Bath: both eggs were terrible to peel, fell completely apart, salvageable.
 - No Bath /Cool on Own: peeled marvelously!


Cutting into them was great too. They weren't too soft or over-done.

Will have a few for breakfast this morning and make the salad below for lunch today. YUM!

Salad Nicoise Lettuce Cups

Ingredients:
 - 1 can white tuna, drained and shredded
 - 6 cup-shaped romaine lettuce leaves
 - 2 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled and quartered
 - 1 1/2 TBS Parmesan
 - Your favorite Caesar dressing (see below for my fave)
 - freshly ground pepper

Caesar Salad Dressing

Ingredients:
 - 6 cloves Garlic, mashed
 - 1 TBS Dijon mustard
 - 1 TBS Vinegar
 - Kosher salt and ground black pepper
 - 2 TBS Mayonnaise
 - 1/2 cup Olive Oil
 - Juice from one small lemon
 - 4 Anchovy Fillets

What to do:
Combine the garlic, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper in the food processor and blend completely. Add the mayo, lemon and anchovy fillets and blend to create a thick base. In a steady stream, add the olive oil to create the finished dressing!

The Boiled Egg (part 1) (Chicken Salad Sandwich)

We celebrated a few family birthdays this weekend with a real Texas BBQ. Grandpa smoked some ribs and chicken and I added in skewered shrimp, hamburgers and hot dogs. Along with those main dishes, we made baked beans, potato salad, macaroni and cheese and deviled eggs. It was sure to be an amazing spread....of which no one got any pictures! Geesh....

Anyway, as we are working in the kitchen on the food preparations, we started having issues peeling the boiled eggs that would be part of the potato salad and the deviled eggs. The shells were just not coming off and we were butchering each one as we went a long. After only getting 7 clean eggs out of the 18 that we boiled, it was clear that we needed to start all over. So we started the boiling process again. As we restarted, we discussed the best way to prepare boiled eggs in order to get a clean shell removal. The way that I make boiled eggs was just slightly different than the way my parents make their boiled eggs. Not a huge difference but a difference, nonetheless.

I mentioned that I had heard that the older the egg is, the better the shells are to remove. I also heard that if you give the boiled eggs an ice-bath immediately after they were finished on the stove, this would also ensure a clean peeling experience.  We discussed the different cooking methods as well. Should you start the egg off in a pot full of cool water? Should you boil the water first then drop the eggs in? Should you let them cook for 10 minutes, 12 minutes or 15 minutes? All this talking has led me to a little experiment of my own. Here goes.....

Over the next few days, I'm going to prepare boiled eggs in several different ways.  I bought a dozen eggs from the store and asked a sweet friend of mine for some super fresh eggs from her pet chickens. I've heard conflicting thoughts on how old grocery store bought eggs are. Some research I've read said that most eggs in the grocery store are about 3-5 days old, other sources say they can be up to 20-30 days. I bought this set of eggs from Kroger so let's assume they are about 10 days old. The set of fresh eggs we are using are about 4 days old when we start this experiment.

Here are my findings from today's session:

I placed 3 store-bought eggs and 3 fresh eggs in a pot of cool water and began heating the eggs and water over medium high heat until it was boiling. I then reduced the flame to a slow rolling boil for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes of cooking, I placed one of each type of egg into an ice bath to cool for 10 minutes;

one of each type went into a bowl of cool water from the tap for 10 minutes;

the last two eggs I allowed to cool for 10 minutes on their own without assistance (they didn't cool very much in that 10 minutes).

After the cooling session, I began the peeling process. I was surprised to see that there really wasn't a difference in how easy it was to peel the different types of eggs. There also really wasn't much of difference in the peeling ease based on cooling style. The only issue I had was with the two eggs that were allowed to cool on their own....they were still very hot to the touch and I did rip one up a bit (the egg from the store).

So that concludes today's session - tomorrow I will boil the water first and let the eggs set for 10 minutes in the hot water covered.

Now that I have six eggs to eat, how should I prepare them.......
 - I ate two boiled eggs for my breakfast this morning
 - I will make a few deviled eggs for The Boy for dinner (he and I are the only ones who like them)
 - I will make chicken salad for sandwiches. I've added the recipe below. Enjoy!!

Chicken Salad Sandwiches (makes about 4 servings)

Ingredients:
2-10 ounce cans of chicken breast, drained & shredded
2 boiled eggs, chopped
1 TBS almonds, chopped
1 tsp yellow mustard
1 1/2 TBS mayonnaise
1-8 ounce can chopped pineapple, drained
salt and pepper to taste
favorite type of lettuce
toasted bread

Ice Cream Cake

I love a good birthday cake, who doesn't. I'm not much of a cake eater but for the last 13 or so years I've ordered cakes that would be the centerpiece of the party. I think most everyone does these days and with all the boutique-like cake creators out there, there are so many new options and designs. The fancier they are, the higher priced they are.

This year, The Boy asked for an Ice Cream Cake for his 13th birthday. So, being the good mom that I am, I promptly went out to the local ice cream shop that typically has 31 flavors of the yummy stuff and ordered it for him. When we got it home, lit the candles, and cut into it, we were less than impressed. We were so disappointed that I'm not sure anyone ate any of it and we eventually threw it away without hesitation. Usually, the uneaten portion of our birthday cakes hang around a few days while we continue to enjoy it. Nope, not this one, it met it's doom fast....thank goodness the next day was trash pick up day.

I felt terrible that my boy did not get a good cake on his very special birthday so here's what I did. Thanks to one of my mom-friends for this suggestion....why hadn't I thought of it. When I told her about our sad cake situation, she said, "Why don't you just make one yourself. They're really easy." Eureka!! How original! So, she gave me a few suggestions and here's what I came up with.

Ingredients:
 - 1/2 quart chocolate ice cream
 - 1/2 quart vanilla ice cream
 - 1 large container of cool whip topping
 - hot fudge
 - caramel
 - 1 full bag of Oreo cookies (minus 1) (half the bag should be crumbled)
 - favorite sprinkles

What to do:
 - First I let the chocolate ice cream sit out a little to get soft, then I spread the full container into a 9" springform pan. I compressed it as much as I could so that it would be nice and firm. If the ice cream started to melt a little too much, I just popped it all in the freezer for a quick 5 minute frost.
 - Once the chocolate was in the pan, I drizzled both the caramel and hot fudge over it followed by sprinkling the crumbled Oreos on top. I pressed the Oreos into the ice cream so that they would be buried in the goodness. Then returned it to the freezer for 30 minutes to set.
 - About 15 minutes before the chocolate layer had finished setting, I took the vanilla out to soften, then piled it on top of the chocolate layer, pressing firmly.
 - Once the vanilla layer was done, I took the remaining cookies and placed them around the top like you would a pepperoni pizza. This is not what I would recommend, by the way. It may look pretty but cutting into it later was not so easy....but this is what I did for this cake.
 - Return the entire cake to the freezer for 30 more minutes.
 - I then removed the cake from the freezer and turned it over onto another pan. I quickly covered the pan with a warm towel to melt the ice cream just a bit so that I could remove the pan. This happens quickly so be ready. Then I turned the cake back right-side up onto the serving pan and hurried it back into the freezer where it would freeze for a few more hours.
 - After a few hours, we took it out, so proud of how it looked at this point, and iced the top and sides with the cool whip topping and the sprinkles. Then back into the freezer it went until serving time.

Note: My recommendation is to make this the day before your party. The ice cream really needs time to set or it melts very quickly while you are cutting it. We served it about 5 hours later and it created quite the mess. But the next day it was amazing!

Here's our pictures! The Boy was so happy and I was so proud of myself!! And I didn't spend a fortune or have to order it three weeks in advance! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

this is the chocolate layer topped with the fudge and caramel, before the crumble cookies were added

crumbled cookies added, re-freeze for 30 minutes and add the vanilla layer

the 2nd half of the Oreos (minus 1) ready for the topping

vanilla layer, Oreo layer, re-freeze for 30 minutes, start the whip topping icing, then re-freeze for 8-10 hours

we added sprinkles, candles, a birthday boy and a big wish
did you know that "happy birthday" is 13 candles? worked out great for his big 13th celebration

the finished product - a complete success in our honest opinions!