Last weekend we were invited to a pig roast out at a campground that some friends were staying at locally. Actually, it was 5 families camping together-and they were all contributing various side dishes to go along with the pork.
I wasn’t certain what I should contribute to the feast-I didn’t know exactly what everyone else was preparing, yet I didn’t want to duplicate a dish that would already be there. And with 5 families I knew there would be tons of food. So I decided at the 9th hour to make deviled eggs. I figured it was unlikely that someone would bother boiling up eggs and preparing and storing the finished product in the small confines of a camper.
Of course I only had about 5 eggs left in the house (bad, bad planning). I was in a frugal quandary. Should I pop down to the local grocery store where everything was more expensive, or drive half and hour away to where I knew they would only cost $.99? Considering that gas is over $3.08 here, I decided that by the time I paid for the gas to drive to the Aldi’s or Save a Lot, I would have negated my savings. So I bought two dozen farm fresh local eggs at a local shop for $1.39 a dozen.
I was a little short on time at this point, so I started boiling about 18 of them (all that would fit in my big pot). I also got out my biggest mixing bowl and filled it with ice and cold water from the tap. Once the first batch of eggs was done I dipped them out with a slotted spoon and dropped them in the ice water, then placed the rest of the raw eggs in the already boiling water to cook.
So far, so good. My idea and method was working well. The eggs cooled off quickly and I was able to peel them right away-saving the shells for the compost heap of course. Once I had them all peeled the rest of the eggs were done cooking and were dumped in the ice water one at a time.
While the new batch cooled, I cut the eggs in half (the short way to use my special egg carrier tip) and plopped the yolks into yet another bowl. When that was done the eggs in the ice water were cool. I repeated the peeling, cutting and plopping.
Then I started doctoring up the egg yolks. I don’t use a particularly recipe, I just start glopping in mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, seasoned salt, pepper, chives (from the garden), and whatever else takes my fancy. I tasted the result and they seemed, well, bland. So I decided to add a bit more salt and some garlic powder.
I mixed it together and then sacrificed a zippered baggie to make a nice “icing bag” style squeezer. I simply filled it up with all the yolk mixture, squeezed out the air, sealed and then cut off one of the corners. Then I very prettily and professionally filled up all the eggs. To make them look pretty I did the classic sprinkling of paprika on top.
Then I decided to taste one.
Pttthhhttt! It was WAY TO SALTY.
As in not recoverable. I was so upset. It was about 15 minutes before we had to leave the house, I had spent the last 45 minutes making the things, and now I had 48 deviled eggs that no one could eat. I even had the kiddos and Yankee Bill try one to see if maybe I was being too harsh.
Nope. There was no way I could serve these to anyone.
ARRRGGGHHHH!!!
I had no idea what else to bring that I could whip together in about 10 minutes. Frantically searching through my pantry (thank goodness for pantries!) I realized that I had the ingredients for 3 bean salad. One can of chick peas, one can of green beans, one can of kidney beans, a good dose of Italian dressing and I was ready to call it a side dish. Technically it should have had black olives and marinated for a couple of hours-but I was desperate. To be honest, no one was going to write home about it, but at least I wasn’t showing up empty handed.
And I even was able to salvage some of the eggs the next day. I simply squeezed the yolks out 75% of the eggs, the threw them all in a large mixing bowl and mashed it together to make egg salad. The egg whites balanced out the 25% of overly salted yolks and made a quite palatable (if rather expensive) egg salad for sandwiches.
I did finally figure out what happened. I grabbed the garlic SALT instead of the garlic powder, and it was just enough extra salt to push it over the top. (I like garlic a lot and had added a very healthy dose).
Sigh.
Other Deviled Egg Related Posts:
Perfect for Any Potluck
Works for Me Wednesday: Deviled Eggs
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Sounds just like the kind of mistake I would make! A while back, in a hurry, I used cilantro instead of parsley… talk about a strange tasting dish!!
Our foster kids get tons of eggs thru WIC (more than really healthful IMHO)- and we always end up being the “deviled egg bringers” at potlucks and picnics this time of year.
Better luck next time…
I made some bread pudding (leftover hamburger buns I snatched from a recent PCS party) and almost sprinkled CUMIN over the top instead of ground nutmeg!!
They look amazingly similar in the bottle. The only thing that alerted me to the mix up is that the cumin didn’t have a shaker top on it and I had just used the nutmeg and remembered the shaker top. Cumin bread pudding would have been very strange. luckily I caught my error before pouring it all over… and the bread pudding was a hit.
sorry to hear about your d.eggs, but glad you were able to salvage into egg salad – yum!!!
I was going to suggest turning it into egg salad. Did you see my curried egg salad recipe? I hate that frustrated/rushed cooking feeling. I don’t cook well under pressure, either.
I know you didn’t have time before you had to leave, but if you empty the yokes into a bowl, then take out about a fourth and add that much unseasoned, well-mashed potatoes, you could have salvaged the deviled eggs.
Pat-Great tip! I’ll have to remember that if it ever happens again. I suppose instant would have worked as well…