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I hope you’ll join me for a free cooking class on eggs. It is so much more than a cooking class. Come learn all about eggs, the universal symbol for Spring, Easter, Passover, and for life itself. An egg is also just about the most perfect little vessel of protein. The average egg contains about 6–7 grams of protein, so three eggs give you about 18 grams of protein. In comparison, 3 ounces of chicken is 23 grams of protein; 3.5 ounces of beef is about 23 grams of protein; and 3 ounces of tuna is about 20 grams of protein. Most of us need 25 grams of protein three times a day. In this class, I will offer many ways to cook eggs, and you’ll learn their nutritional value––and a little about chickens, too! Our chicken raising began 22 years ago when my son brought home five chickens from his science class, where the kids had hatched out a bunch of chicks. Today we have ten hens and one rooster. We have survived many of the usual scenarios possible with chicken raising. One attack involved a rooster being beaten off with a lacrosse stick (he ended up in the pot). There were many raccoons, including one caught in an eye-to-eye standoff with a red-tailed hawk not more than 12 feet from me––that still sends chills down my back. Our very own dog took revenge one holiday when we were away, and took most of the flock out. But many chickens have been brought back from the brink of death half eaten but still breathing. Although we have stories of horrific attacks, of gore and decapitations and exposed organs, there have been many more joys. There is a lot of joy in witnessing the chickens’ social structure and how they navigate that, and watching them taking dust baths, as they scratch, dig, and spread their wings out over a little hollow they carve out. We eat a lot of eggs in my family. I have come a long way from when I was a child, sitting at the breakfast table staring at the running yolk on my plate and imagining the yolk as a baby chicken. I would gag thinking about eating it. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t even do it when my mother scrambled the eggs, because I thought that poor chick was mixed up in the eggs. It was a dreadful scene that played through my head, and sometimes, if I allow it, I see it again on my plate when looking at poached eggs. But I love raising chickens, and much as I hated eggs as a child, I have now come to love so much about them. I hope these stories have not ruined your appetite for eggs, because I want to invite you to my online class next week on cooking them. Of course, I will cover the perfectly cooked egg––that’s right, the “Jammy Egg.” (My granddaughter calls me “Jammy Jam.”) Think eggs for avocado toast, or dropped in a broth, or served over greens or leftover rice, a delicious and quick protein for any dish! The Jammy Egg is––spoiler alert––a 7- minute egg. (Note that if an egg is cooked too long or at very high temperatures, the sulfur in the egg white combines with the iron in the yolk and creates ferrous sulfide, which has a green tint. So if the yolk is green, it is overcooked. Yeah, best not to eat that.) I will discuss different kinds of eggs. These days it is pretty easy to find organic, pastured eggs on most grocery shelves, and I will talk about why that is important. And the colors of eggs . . . well, you will just have to come! And if you can’t, you can still sign up and get the little book All about Eggs and a link to the recording! I hope you will join me! -Jan
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