It’s Easter and there are eggs, eggs, everywhere eggs

I love you, egg. From the sexy display of your eggs Benedict dripping with hollandaise sauce to your rustic eggs poached in tomato sauce with green peas and served with crusty bread (the way my Italian grandmother did it on Fridays during Lent) from the newly trendy Korean bibimbap served in a blazing hot stoneware bowl to Egghead, the fictional villain played by Vincent Price (Batman’s nemesis), there’s nothing I don’t love about you. 

Even you, stinky egg salad, shamed and shunned by many, hold a place in my heart. Eggs are, after all, a symbol of life, resurrection, nature.

I asked Uncle Google who the person was who took something from a chicken’s bottom, cracked it open, scrambled it with milk, cooked it, put it on toast and ate it.  The answer was cloudy. Some Romans from long ago. Maybe the Chinese in 1400 B.C. No one really knows. And I don’t care. Even this saga of edible history vagueness doesn’t deter me.  Here I am, still in love with eggs.

At the risk of mixing metaphors, eggs are a nutritional hot potato. My heart shatters whenever the Egg/Cholesterol War heats up. Egg meanies from the medical community say eggs are the cause of heart attacks, strokes and high cholesterol. Registered Dietitian Megan Faletra, MS, RDN, MPH refutes this notion. 

“In the past it was believed that dietary cholesterol directly contributed to total cholesterol but recent research has proven this is not the case. Eggs are an excellent source of fat and protein and are high in many essential vitamins and minerals.” She continues, “they are also high in choline, which is a nutrient especially important to pregnant women. Fully cooked eggs can be consumed as part of a healthy diet.”

Easter is almost here and it’s the eggs’ moment in the sun. In Christianity, the egg symbolizes the Resurrection of Christ. The hard shell is the Christ’s tomb, the cracking open of the egg is the Resurrection. But eggs are all over. Egyptians, Greeks and Jews all share egg symbolism. In Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime the egg was a symbol of light. 

But now about All. Those. Easter Eggs. You know the ones — the beautifully dyed ones; the muddy brown ones that were dipped in every color; the ones that were lovingly sprinkled with the last of Great-grandma Gloria’s non-renewable gold dust; the ones wrapped in silk ties and boiled. What do we do with them? 

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USDA) a hard-boiled egg will last in a refrigerator, peeled or unpeeled, for up to a week. That gives us seven days to eat the seasonal/religious symbols we so lovingly decorated. How do I love thee, hard-boiled egg? Seven days, seven ways.

• Tea eggs: A Chinese savory snack. The shell of a hard-boiled egg is cracked and soaked in tea and spices for up to 24 hours. The result is a very cool-looking, marbled egg packed with flavor.

• Deviled eggs: The summer-time classic never gets old. Serve traditional-style with mayonnaise, spice it up with curry or mix in some avocado.

•Pickled eggs: I have a marinade I use on everything from mushrooms to well, yes, eggs. I slice the eggs in half, platter them on a bed of bibb lettuce and drizzle with the marinade. I’m a food hero with little effort.

• Scotch eggs: Give yourself time to make these, but they’re not as hard as they look. Friends will be impressed and will name you Brunch Queen.

•Cobb salad: Not all that long ago I was in the food business, i.e. all three of my boys were in their teens. Cobb salad gets high marks. Hint: bacon is the secret to getting them to eat all the other stuff.

• Breakfast burrito: Who says the eggs have to be scrambled? Chop them up and add your favorite cheese. Toss in jalapenos and peppers. Throw them on the George Forman grill to kick it up a notch.

• Egg salad sandwich: No way would I leave this one off the list. I add chopped up dill pickles to mine. Don’t judge me. But I can’t endure the humiliation of eating egg salad in public. People gag and hold their noses. It’s home alone for this one.

The humble, hard-boiled egg? It’s like money in the bank.