People manage stress differently: Some overeat, others dip into the liquor cabinet, I bake, which is what I did over the weekend as the deadline for my cookbook drew near and I didn’t know what to do with my nerves. I fixated on a single recipe from the desserts chapter, an Apple Carrot Bundt Cake, that despite having been tested and approved multiple times, was suddenly “all wrong.”
I threw myself into reworking the cake with the sort of obsession more appropriately directed toward cancer research or global warming. By day two and on my third makeover (or cakeover, as it was) Mr. Mom’s Kitchen edged into my lair near the KitchenAid mixer to find me wild eyed and elbow deep in batter. He suggested, not gently, that it was time to put down the pastry flour.
Eventually I did, and the cake was a success, better than the original: moist, tender, wholesome. Best of all, the process seemed to calm me enough that I was finally able to sit down and edit the book one last time. Yesterday, after several deep breaths, I pushed the “send” button on an email, book copy attached, to my editor at Chronicle Books.
The last handful of anxiety-racked days aside, writing a cookbook has been practically, nearly, wholly delightful. Between now and when the book comes out, I thought I’d pass along one teensy recipe — So Simple Deviled Eggs — that I’ve found myself making more than any other single dish in the cookbook. I figured you might like it too.
When I was a kid, deviled eggs were kind of a big deal. They came out for big summer picnics and adult birthday parties accompanied by a lot of fan fare, “oohhh, they’ve got deviled eggs.” As I grew into a teenager and learned about things like calories and carbs, I stopped eating them because they were deemed “fattening.” Funny thing is, done by my method, they are neither time consuming nor unhealthy. They are in fact, quite wholesome.
Tip: You’ll find everything you need to know about hard boiling eggs, by heading here.
So Simple Deviled Eggs
Ingredients
- 1 hard boiled egg
- 2 teaspoons mayonnaise
- Pinch salt
- Black pepper
- Dash paprika
Instructions
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Crack and peel the egg.
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Cut in half lengthwise, scoop out the cooked yolk, and put into a small bowl.
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Add the mayonnaise, salt, and a couple of turns with a pepper grinder. Mash with a fork until creamy.
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Fill the cavity of each egg half with the yolk mixture. Top with a dash of paprika.
