One more great eggs-ample of food art! This piece was created by artist Henk Hofstra, and the Wooster Collective reported back in May about the project that's located in Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
Each egg is about 100 feet wide, and they were spread out in one of the largest squares in Leeuwarden, called Zaailand, where they'll be walked on and photographed for six months.
Diana Eid of Inventor Spot said that this art project was just made for Google Earth, which tickled me to no end. I wouldn't have thought that, but I think it's great that someone did. New and creative ways to view food and art are always welcome in my book.
Are you concerned about your kids eating their eggs? The Egg Robot is here to help.
The Egg Robot comes with the robot suit and the spoon, but you have to provide the eggs, of course. It's a newish toy that claims to make eating eggs more fun for your kids, thus they will now eat their eggs (it's really nothing more than a fancied up egg cup). That's assuming you have trouble getting your kids to eat eggs, otherwise it's just a novelty item that'd hang around and clutter up your house.
I know I didn't like eggs when I was a kid, except hard cooked eggs. There wasn't very much my mom could do to convince me otherwise, but I don't remember that being such a big concern for her. Maybe you could put other foodstuff in the robot to make your child want to eat whatever it is, something a little more important, like vegetables. Do you think this is a good idea?
The name of this recipe immediately brought to mind Chinese food, of course, and I've never thought of fried rice as a particularly breakfast-ish food. But if you think about it, a lot of fried rice has eggs and onion in it, so why not? And this one goes one step further and includes bacon.
The recipe is from Chow, but the picture is from flickr. It's a different recipe (ham instead of bacon and no soy sauce), but I couldn't find a pic of the Chow recipe, which is after the jump.
I can't, and I know it. But does that qualify me for world renown? Maybe, if I gather my gumption and enter the American Egg Board's second annual search for the Worst Cook in America.
Why the American Egg Board is hosting such a contest perplexes me a bit. I mean, for those of us who are challenged in the culinary arts, eggs are relatively forgiving fare. Even I can make scrambled eggs. I can make an omelet. I've even taught myself how to make a decent Tortilla Espanola (although it took many tries).
Have you ever stood at your stove cooking pasta sauce and you realize it's too watery, and you don't have any tomato paste, flour, or corn starch? Here's how to thicken it.
Today is National Eggs Benedict Day and man, do I wish it were a weekend so I could have some runny-yolked goodness for brunch!
Traditional Eggs Benedict is simply poached eggs on a round of Canadian bacon perched on a split English muffin, covered in a soft yellow blanket of hollandaise. But, as brunch.org (I love that "brunch" deserves its own "org!") points out, there are lots of great variations. How would you like some Country Eggs Benedict (poached eggs and sausage gravy over ham on a biscuit) or Eggs Maryland (poached eggs and hollandaise over crab cakes) or Eggs a la Commodore (poached eggs and Béchamel sauce over foie gras puree on buttered toast circles).
Kids will be kids, right? Well, in the town of Caister-on-Sea, near Great Yarmouth (about three hours from London), police have asked local grocers to help out in preventing kids from being quite so kid-like. Area residents were reporting having ketchup squirted at their cars and, while that's not a criminal act on its own, if the ketchup were to cause damage to the paint, the perpetrators would be liable.
So the police went to the grocery stores and asked them to stop selling ketchup (and eggs) to young people in bulk amounts, in order to prevent this "anti-social behavior." Apparently the action is making a difference, as without easy access to their chosen mischief media, the teens are settling back into their law-abiding behavior.
I know. Could we get over the eggs already? You already know I can't because I love hard boiled eggs, plus, I have this "thing" for salt and pepper shakers.
I realize that you are probably tired of eggs, being that it's just a few days after Easter and you've probably still got a dozen hardboiled hanging out in your fridge. However, if you can handle thinking about them just a little bit longer, then you've got to check out this book. It is one of the more beautiful cookbooks that has crossed my path in a long time and, even though I promised myself that I wouldn't buy any more cookbooks until I was actively using the 200 or so that I already have, I just wasn't able to resist buying Michel Roux's Eggs.
In addition to being a downright lovely book, it is also accessible and useful. It touches on every aspect of the egg, from chemistry and safety, to how to best storage your eggs and ways in which you can get the best flavor out of them. It starts with the basics of hardboiled eggs (although I'm guessing you probably already have that covered) and proceeded to walk you through some of the most glorious frittatas, omelets, mousses, custards and baked egg delights. If you often have people over for brunch, this book will help you think about using eggs in new and creative ways. I can't wait to try out some of its recipes.
Heidi over at 101 Cookbooks has thoughtfully rounded up some of her favorite egg recipes, just in case you have any left over from Easter weekend dying projects. Recipes include: a potato onion frittata with cilantro chile sauce; curried egg salad with yogurt, curry powder, pecans, and chopped apples; baked eggs with cherry tomatoes, garlic and olive oil; and poached eggs with chard over rice.
One of my favorite egg dishes is strata, a casserole of egg, chunks of slightly stale bread, cheese, and any vegetables you like (I favor artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers). Here's a recipe for an easy spinach and cheese strata, which will take up nine of your leftover eggs. Any egg favorites of your own?
Cybele over at Candy Blog just had an all-egg week, eating and rating candy Easter eggs for your benefit. Read her opinions on Melster Marshmallow Eggs, Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, Wonka Golden Creme Eggs and more, with a 1-10 rating and a chart of prices and calories per ounce. There are also a few posts on high-end chocolate bunnies and a diatribe against "mockolate" - the nasty fake chocolate so commonly used in cheap holiday candy.
Sample obsessive detail: Peeps that come inside the special chocolate eggs are softer than the Peeps from the box, Cybele says, probably because the shell seals in the moisture. Personally, I like the firmer feel of stale Peeps, sometimes even puncturing the cellophane and leaving the box in the pantry for a few days until it reaches the desired texture. But when it comes to Easter candy, I'll take a Cadbury Creme Egg, cracked open and eaten with a spoon.
Want to see how far American cuisine has come in the past 40 years? Check out the Mid-Century Supper Club on Flickr, where members lovingly recreate heinous 50s and 60s dishes like hot dogs suspended in aspic and olive-studded sandwich loaf. Dishes are served in retro crockery; some are even posed in front of their inspirations, photos from vintage cookbooks and 1962 issues of Good Housekeeping.
I am particularly fond of the higher-concept items, such as the "Three Men in a Boat" - baked potato boats with button mushroom sailors and American cheese sails - or the banana "airplane" - a banana with chocolate wafer wings, flying through whipped cream clouds. Time to tie on an apron and bust out the Jello.
Though invented sometime in the late 19th century, Eggs Benedict is still, in my opinion, the ne plus ultra of brunch foods. But a lot of people (including myself) are put off by making hollandaise and poaching eggs. Well this twist on the classic brunch dish, from Bon Appétit, does away with the hollandaise, replacing it with a gorgeous but unintimidating chive oil. Prosciutto takes the place of Canadian bacon and asparagus adds a springy touch. Serve over traditional English muffins, or skip them in place of something else. We had these for brunch at my parents' this morning (thanks, Dad!), over cornmeal biscuits.
Egg-poaching tips: adding a little vinegar to the cooking water helps the egg white to solidify faster, cutting down on feathering. Make sure the water is simmering, not boiling, when you put the eggs in - vigorous bubbling will break the whites. And use the freshest eggs you can; they spread less.
There's something about this photo of a salad that calls out to me. The bright yellow of the broken egg yolk, contrasted against the neatly cut bits of bacon and the tangle of greens. Topped with a dusting of black pepper, nothing would make me happier than if someone would put this down in front of me and hand me a fork. There's even a blog post about it here.
If you've made a gorgeous salad lately, you should head on over to the Slashfood Flickr group and share your creation. Maybe it will even end up featured in this space!