Tuesday Night Fun Cooking! deviled eggs edition

May is going by in a blur. It seems like we were waiting and waiting for spring to start and somehow, we're nearly to the Memorial Day weekend, like someone hit a fast forward button on the calendar. It's a mad rush to the end of the school year with field trips galore and me and the other outdoor/garden volunteers scrambling to get all the school kids outside for planting before we run out of time. I need to stock up on Claritin and sunscreen.

Last night was another event at the school, but I am determined to continue TNFC, even if the kids just help with one thing. We needed something quick and easy: deviled eggs!

Eggs!

We boiled more eggs than we needed for dinner because Daniel and Anya both like having hard-boiled eggs packed in their lunches, and it's a nice way to vary up the protein from PBJ and cheese sticks. 

One fun thing about cooking this time of year is harvesting ingredients from the front yard. My vegetable garden is getting a really slow start, but I have a lot of herbs growing out front: thyme, oregano, lemon balm, mint, sage, onion chives, garlic chives, curly parsley and flat Italian parsley (pictured above). When it warms up a bit, perhaps next week, I'll plant as much basil as I can stuff into the space that's left. We cut some parsley and chives for the deviled eggs last night.

Peeling the eggs was no picnic, but the kids did really well with cutting them in half and scooping out the innards.

Daniel squirted mustard into the yolk mixture. He told me later he tasted some mustard and didn't like it on its own.

About to nom some deviled eggs. Mha-ha-ha-ha-Ha-ha-ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Plate of Deviled eggs, goose-goose and grapes. YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daniel wrote the captions for the last two pictures. The round stuff with peas you see there is actually couscous! It goes well with deviled eggs and cooks up pretty fast.

Deviled Eggs

• half dozen eggs
• 1 T. mayonnaise or plain yogurt
• 1 tsp. yellow mustard
• 1/2 tsp. cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 T. chopped fresh herbs such as parsley and chives
• smoked paprika for garnish

1. Heat water in a saucepan and boil the eggs for exactly 11 minutes, then plunge them into ice water to cool.
2. When the eggs are cool enough to handle, carefully peel them, slice in half longways and scoop the yolks into a bowl.
3. Mash the yolks with a fork and add mayo/yogurt, mustard, vinegar, salt and herbs.
4. Scoop the yolk mixture back into the "bowl" part of the whites and garnish with smoked paprika.

Pros: easy, fast, tasty, and used herbs from our yard, so points for homegrown ingredients!

Cons: I can't think of any! If your eggs are too fresh, they can be hard to peel and come apart rather easily, but nobody here seemed to mind if their deviled eggs weren't perfect-looking.

Next time: I should have the kids help me with the couscous, which we had along with the deviled eggs. It's very easy to prepare and can be done while the boiled eggs are cooling down. Last night we had an event at the school, so time was short and I did the couscous myself.