Devilish Eggs

The Devil is in the eggs.  It sure is.  Love ’em.  I can never eat just one.  I googled recipes for deviled eggs… there are thousands!  But among them, it seems that they all have similar basics:  eggs (obviously), mayonnaise/ salad dressing, mustard or vinegar of some sort, salt and pepper.  From there the variations are endless!  Most seem to come from old family recipes and are distinctive in their own right.  Ever try the pre-made deviled eggs from the grocery store?  Not quite the same as Aunt Marie’s, right?  Personally, I find store bought deviled eggs to be pretty tasteless and otherwise boring.  A complete injustice to how absolutely delicious a good deviled egg can be.  Unless their homemade, they’re not worth bringing to your next potluck or barbecue, Just Saying…

So eggs… they are tricky to photograph.  It would seem that there is not much to them.  Clean lines, uniform color, singular shape. Some would say uninteresting, or as the French would say – ennuyeux, ho-hum, nothing to write about. I beg to differ.  Light from the front, back, sides?  It’s not that easy with a white egg.  It can blend in and show a lack depth.  Not as easy of an assignment as I initially thought.  Since I like using natural light, it’s taken me a few tries to find which light and setting I like best.  It helps to see the inspiration of others around the ‘net to get some ideas!

Backlit to show off it's simple shape

And beyond the white, I love seeing eggs of differing colors.  What a delight to go to your local farmers market and see the variation in hues from white to blue, green and various shades of brown.  My hubby tells me that it’s what the farmers feed the chickens that cause some of the color variations and that the size changes depending upon the chicken laying the egg.  Also too, I noticed that depending on the eggs, sometimes the yolk colors vary in intensity too.  Pretty cool.

Tick-tock... 25 minutes and the time's up!

None the less, once cracked or peeled (in the case of hard boiled eggs), the insides taste the same.  It’s up to you how you want to doctor up your favorite deviled egg recipe!  In our house, we like it with a little tobasco, pickle juice and some red pepper flakes.  I’d be curious to try out some other add-ins for our next potluck!

I Like’m Sloppy

Sloppy joes that is…

Sloppy joes topped with coleslaw

SuMMer, BarBecues, bEaCh, SanD, LaZy days, FAMILY.

All images that come to my mind when craving sloppy joes. Growing up I never knew this messy goodness could be so good. Born and raised in the US by newly immigrated Filipinos, I only knew the makings of sloppy joes via a can of Manwhich™ and a pound of ground beef! And truthfully, I still like that rendition… I would actually eat it with steamed white rice, because as everyone knows… everything is good with rice… 😉   But ohhhh!! the joy of a homemade, simmering hot batch of meaty heartiness that generations have made and perfected over the years… Now that’s tasty!

After summer vacations of careful observation and repeated requests for the recipe, I finally have it committed to memory. To some it probably isn’t as good as when grandma makes it, but it IS pretty darn good… Enough so, that my husband and kids gobble it all down!

Really? Has it been this long?

Desert Flower

I know, I know… I promised myself that I’d write each week.  Little did I know when I was starting up this blog that we’d be moving 1800 miles across the country from Ohio to Arizona.  It happened like this:  My husband received an offer that was too good to pass up, we sold our house inside of 30 days, and moved our family of 6 across the country twice – once driving out the first car with our pet parrot, Peanut, to meet the moving truck; and the second time was to pick up the second car and meet our extended family for a beach vacation on the serene shores of North Carolina.  And yes, after a week on the beach we drove back from the shores of the Atlantic all the way across Texas.  And did I mention, we were tugging a boat too?  Stressful?  Yes, at times… Interesting?  For sure… and absolutely filled with family memories to last a lifetime!  For sure our children will remember time we moved from a home with green grass, rain and snow to the desert landscape filled with a multitude of cacti, 100 degree dry heat and little to no rain.  Life is an adventure!  In the next few weeks I’ll be getting my act together to share my new food adventures and experiences out here in the wild West.  If it’s anything like the strange bugs and lizards I’ve discovered out here, I’ll have much to write about!  🙂  Oh and by the way, thank you dear friends who have asked about my blog.  I didn’t give it up, just took a break for a little while!

Sedona, AZ