The Italian Dish: The Dreaded Grocery Store Egg

Anyone who really knows me knows that I adore eggs. They're my favorite thing. I could eat eggs three times a day. I love them cooked every way - but when they are scrambled, they absolutely have to be very softly scrambled, not completely cooked until they are firm, which is the mistake most nonegghead people make. I love them softly boiled, hard boiled and over easy. But, sadly, I allow myself exactly one egg a day. That's it. (Except on vacation.) I have to keep such a craving in check. But this one egg a day is the very best egg I can buy - an organic, high quality farm fresh egg.

I have two resources for my farm eggs. The first is a foodie lady who lives down the road who raises beautiful chickens at her home. And they are beautiful. Some have black and white feathers, layed out like stripes. She picks them up and pets them. They lay beautiful eggs and when I buy them from her, I open the cartons and there is a mix of brown eggs, white eggs and different shades of blue green eggs, from her Araucana chickens. It looks like Easter. But her hens got too old and stopped laying and so I'm waiting for her new chicks to start laying. That will probably be in the spring. During this time, I have been using my backup resource, which is the family farm where I buy my meat and poultry. Their hens produce very large, brown eggs that are delicious. But they did not make any deliveries for February, because of the weather here. So I haven't been able to get any farm fresh eggs this month. That's one of the reasons it's been a long, long winter for me this year.

I have had to resort to buying the dreaded grocery store egg.

All you serious foodies out there know what I mean. There is a huge difference in the eggs at the grocery store and the fresh eggs from a farm. One is thin with a pale yellow yolk. You eat them and you wonder why you bothered. Here is the grocery store egg:

The other is a firm egg with a yolk that is a deep orange, bordering on orangish red. And it tastes sooo eggilicous. (I'll post a photo of a good egg when I'm able to get them again.) They are a joy to bake with and they make all the difference in homemade pasta. In the spring and summer when the chickens can scratch around outside and eat bugs and grass, the eggs taste even better. If you love eggs, try to find a resource in your area where you can get them. In the spring and summer, most Farmer's Markets will have vendors who sell them. That's the very best time to enjoy eggs.

And I will - one egg a day. If spring ever arrives...