Kitschy Kitschy Yeah Yeah

Deviled eggs. Kinda trashy, kinda retro and kinda AWESOME.

For reals, who doesn’t love a deviled egg?

Tis’ the season for BBQing, picnicking and all that, so you gots to have a deviled egg recipe in your pocket.

Err. Well, your bag of recipe tricks, I suppose, would be a better place for a hard-boiled egg stuffed with a mayonaissy-yolky yellow-stained filling of deliciousness, right?!

There is a secret ingredient, natch. In my case, it’s horseradish. Gives it a good ole’ kick in the you know what. But your summer partay guests will be all like, “Bro, what’s in these eggs?!?” as they sashay to the buffet for seconds and thirds.

You could totally rock these out for a Mad Men finale soiree as well since Deviled Eggs were all the rage back in the day. Of course, if any of your posse actually WATCHED Mad Men, this would be a more enjoyable fete. My one bestie Sarah is a fan, as is my lil’ sis Monica who lives a bajillion miles away in Virginia and is ALWAYS an epi or two behind. (God, Monica. Get with the program!) And Aunt Lorraine watches, but she's kickin' it in Florida right now. Other than that, I gots nothin’. The Husband won’t even watch with me. Not that I’m bitter or anything. I mean, you know, I SO want to be a part of his daily TV experience each night: Flyers, Phillies, Sixers, Comcast SportsNight, MLB Network, Deadliest Catch, Hannity, Cheers reruns. I mean just shoot me now, why don’t you?

So, I’ll just be in the kitchen “deviling some eggs.” That really was a line on the only show I watch. Which is freakin’ amazingly fab, by the way. (OK. You caught me. I do zone out  to Jersey Housewives and Mob Wives late night. But when you’re ironing The Husband’s shirts (gah!!!) or picking up toy cars for the 900^th time (super gah!!!), you need something mindless on the tube.

In the spirit of all things old school, my deviled egg recipe hails from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook (natch!). You would be horrified to see my copy. It is literally being held together with a rubber band. Sounds fab, I know. But I refer to this book like all the time.

I totally add more horseradish than the recipe calls for (we groove on things spicy in my house. Yowza.) And I whip the yolk filling into a light fluffy frenzy with my handheld beaters rather than the good ole’ mash-it-with-a-fork method, as advised in the recipe. I think Betty was trippin’ with that step. Be sure to chill the eggs for a bit in the ice box aka the refrigerator. And I like to garnish mine with paprika. Love the pop of color!

Just an update on The Jersey Girl since it’s been forevs since my last post: My piano studio students rocked out at my annual Spring Piano Recital last week. So amazingly proud of them. OMG!!! My recital is such an amazing day. I know it invokes anxiety in many of my pupils, but they ALWAYS put on such a fabulous performance. It is so awe-inspiring to see the progress my musical cohorts make each year. Love them with all of my heart!!!

Meanwhile, my beautiful Evan has been walking all over the joint. Yay!! We celebrated Memorial Day and the kickoff of summer down in Stone Harbor. While I don’t have any pics of him fist-pumping, you can see him kickin’ it along the gorgeous beach. He was all go go go during our time on the sandy shore. Momma got a workout going on while relaxing (ha ha) on the beach.

I’m on hiatus from teaching right now until after Fourth of July, so I will get cracking on my blogginess. Woo-hoo!

Zesty Deviled Eggs

From Betty Crocker’s Cookbook

6 Hard-Cooked Eggs

3 Tbsp. mayonaisse

½ tsp. ground mustard

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1 to 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped

1 tsp. prepared horseradish

To hard-cook eggs:

Place eggs in a saucepan. Fill saucepan with water at least 1 inch above eggs.

Heat to boiling in saucepan; remove from heat. Cover and let stand 18 minutes. Immediately cool briefly in cold water to prevent further cooking. Tap egg to crack shell. Roll egg between hands to loosen shell, then peel. If shell is hard to peel, hold egg in cold water while peeling.

For the deviled eggs:

Peel eggs. Cut lengthwise in half. Slip out yolks and mash with fork.

Stir mayonaisse, mustard, salt and pepper, parsley and horseradish  into yolks.  (Please note: The Jersey Girl mixes the yolk mixture with hand-held beaters). Fill whites with egg yolk mixture, heaping it lightly. Cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours.