A Perfect Boiled Fresh Egg

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to solve this mystery of a perfect boiled egg from our fresh eggs. 

One of our biggest problems since we have had our chickens has been, to figure out how to get a perfect boiled egg. When Papaw would pick the eggs up every day out of the nests, he would take them into the barn, wash them and put them in cartons and put them in refrigerator. We thought putting then in them frig would preserve them and keep them fresh and it does. 

When holidays would roll around and we wanted to make deviled eggs, our eggs would never boil up and peel perfectly. When we would peel them, half of the white would go with the shell. We tried using aged eggs that sat for a few weeks in the refrigerator but that still didn’t help our fresh eggs when it came time to boil them up.

When getting the perfectly peeled boiled egg from the grocery store eggs was possible, it left me with questions. I thought age had to be the answer so, that is why we tried aging our eggs in the refrigerator. Aging them in the fridge never really seemed to be the answer either. We tried them at two weeks, at three weeks and then again at four weeks. They never, ever peeled very well. The fridge must help hold in the moisture. After spending weeks eggperimenting with our egg, it sure left me wondering, how old those supermarket eggs had to be to peel well when I boiled them up.

I always noticed when frying a fresh egg, the moisture content was very high in our fresh eggs. It is easy to see when you crack one of those beauties open on a hot skillet and see a watery substance running out past the whites, when they hit the heat. Letting the eggs sit on the counter, helps to reduce the moisture content. In reducing the moisture content, it allows the membranes to tighten when the egg is boiled. When it comes time to peel the egg, the tightened membrane sticks to the shell and releases the firm egg whites.

In doing reading and learning more about how to store eggs, I learned that refrigeration for fresh farm eggs isn’t really needed, unless you really need to store them for long periods. Back in the old days, eggs would be kept in a basket or bowl on the counter and used as needed. I decided to give keeping my eggs in a bowl on the counter a try.  I have been using eggs from the bowl on the counter as needed for the last few weeks and never have had an egg go bad yet. From what I have read, I will surly know if an egg I crack open is bad just based on the smell.

Tonight, Papaw came in from the gym and wanted some boiled eggs and tuna. I boiled up a few eggs that he brought up from the barn at the end of last week and I placed them in a bowl on the counter. Lo and behold, they boiled up perfectly and they were beautiful. 

I used a heavy bottom sauce pan to boil them up in. I put them in tap water and put them on the stove on medium heat and waited until they came to a rolling boil. I then pulled them off the heat and let them set for 7 minutes. I thought that may be too short of a time but, they turned out perfect and I do mean perfect.  So much for the old saying that, “Fresh eggs are for frying.” I know these eggs may have been a week old on my counter but the ones that come from the stores have to be many weeks old before they make it to market in the fridge to boil up and peel perfectly. 

Our success may seem small to most reading this post but for us, it is a big deal. You have no idea how many eggperiments we have done to achieve the perfect boiled egg here. In knowing what I know now, it sure makes me wonder about how old those store bought eggs really are, that will boil up and peel perfectly. Here’s to a bit of egg salad and deviled eggs come Easter!

Blessings to you all!

Ice Skating Class

Doodlebug started her ice skating class today. She loved it. There were several kids there but it certainly wasn't over crowded. What she lacks in grace, she makes up for with guts. Good thing we bought her knee pads.

We are under a winter weather advisory this evening. All I can say is, FINALLY! We have been wanting snow so badly. It isn't really suppose to snow much. If we get anything other than a light dusting, it will be a miracle. It just seems so odd this evening to hear it thundering out there too.

Hope you all have had a great week. Stay safe and warm. It is really turning cold here. Blessings!

Breakfast and a Play

This morning we started off our day with waffles for breakfast. Papaw bought Doodles and I a nifty waffle iron for Christmas. He searched everywhere for a specific one that we had mentioned wanting. On Christmas Eve, he popped into the store to pick up a few things for me and lo-and behold, there one sat. Needless to say, waffles are very popular in the mornings here now.

After breakfast, Doodles had a spelling test and did very well. She missed two words out of 24. One of the words missed, was a bonus word. She was very excited because this was her first week learning twice as many words. 

Doodlebug is very dramatic and loves performing. She loves to dance and put on plays for the family.  I decided this morning to read a play with her from this book. We read “The Fisherman and His Wife.”  It was quiet fun. We started with writing all the words from the vocabulary list on the chalkboard and going over them. Then we pulled out our markers and highlighted our parts. Since it was only she and I, we each had a few parts. It was fun to hear her change her voice to suit the characters she was reading for. Reading the play with her, was a wonderful opportunity for her to practice her use of punctuation and really express herself. Text book reading can get dull from time to time. Reading plays always seem to get her excited about reading. We may just have us a little actress here. It may be time to check into into children’s theater soon.

Basketball season will be wrapping up here in a couple of weeks. I guess it is a good thing, since Doodles’ ice skating class starts on Thursday. She has been skating a few times since Christmas. Santa brought her a pair of ice skates and she loves them. I love the fact that she doesn’t have to get adjusted to a different pair of skates each time we go. I can tell her skating is improving since having her own skates.  We did invest in a pair of knee pads for her. This past Friday, she fell and really bruised one of her knees. She has no fear when participating in a sport and she will do things that most of us would not. If she falls, she just jumps up and keeps going. I will feel much better this week that she will be wearing knee pads.

Doodlebug loves her Teaching Textbook Math 3. She ask to do extra lessons most days. She loves sipping on a bit of hot cocoa in her pj's while working on her math lessons. I am in search of the Teaching Textbook Math 4. I would love to buy a used copy of this software. If you know anyone that has it and would like to sell it, please have them to drop me an email. I am very big on buying used curriculum when I can.

We are having a good time with her school work and we've been sticking to the books the past couple of weeks. I have realized that we have to change things up a little here and there and try and do something new each day. We rotate subjects but that still isn’t as exciting as adding art and more hands on activities.

She is working on new paintings for her room. The ballerina paintings have to go. She wants to change things up a bit. A sign she is growing up much too fast for me. I will be storing her ballerina paintings away for her.

Tomorrow, after finishing up our lessons for the day, we will be looking at yeast under a microscope and making homemade pretzels using yeast. I will try and post a few photos later in the week.

The Travel Blanket…

I hope your new year is off to a good start. Our holiday was very busy but it was wonderful. I loved spending time with the family and friends. Holidays are a lot of hard work but so worth it. It is nice to be back to the regular grind though.

This morning Doodles and I started back to her home school routine. We didn’t take a lot of time off during the holidays. We had lighter days of work but, we still did some school work most days, accept the holidays. 

She has been busy learning the 50 states and to locate them on a blank map. I thought it would be fun this morning to change things up a bit with her geography lesson and make a travel blanket with her.

She pulled out her little Hello Kitty machine and did most all the sewing herself; however, I did help a bit with the pinning of the pieces and the top stitch afterwards.  We used a pre-printed fabric panel. We found the panel at Hobby Lobby. It is the perfect size for a lap blanket for a child and I love the colors and the graphics are very neat. We also just used a piece of polar fleece for the back. We didn't use any batting. I wanted to keep it a very simple project for her.

She is excited about the idea of taking it as a lap blanket on road trips and also adding the buttons on the states that she has traveled to.

Today she is up to Pennsylvania, remembering the states in alphabetical order.  She loved using her blanket to show me where all the states are.  It was a fun little project and I would have taken photos of her while she was sewing but she wouldn’t allow it, since her hair was up in curlers.

Hope you all have a very blessed 2012