Hard-Boiled Eggs Without Peeling

Yesterday I checked at LewRockwell.com and saw a link for the article: The Food Lab: The Hard Truth About Boiled Eggs.

At the end of the article is included this video and list of instructions:

Instructions:

1. Cover the eggs with water and boil on low for about 12 minutes.
   
2. Cool the eggs by placing them in cold water with one teaspoon of baking soda and ice. The baking soda raises the pH level and reduces adherence. If you choose not to use baking soda, be sure to move the eggs into cold water with plenty of ice immediately after boiling.
   
3. Crack the top of the egg and remove a small piece.
   
4. Crack the bottom (wide end) of the egg and remove a small piece.
   
5. Hold the egg in your hand and blow vigorously into the narrow end of the egg, which will expel it out the wide end.

Since it has been raining and keeping me from working outdoors, and since this was an exciting discovery, I had to give it a try.  So I started small, with only 8 eggs.  It worked wonderfully.

However, I had not noticed the list of instructions, having only viewed the video, so I thought that the baking soda was to be added to the boiling water.  This worked just as well.

Also, I used a large bowl with tap water to cool the eggs rather than wasting ice cubes.  I simply lifted the eggs from the hot water using a spoon and gently added them to the cool water.  After a brief period of cooling, I gave it a try and it worked to my delight.

A word of caution should be noted, however.  In steps 3 and 4 one should be careful not to make the openings too large as this weakens the integrity of the shell so that it shatters and peeling becomes necessary.  But if the opening on the small end of the egg is just enough to allow blowing air into the egg and the opening in the larger end is just as wide as is easily peeled away after gently cracking the shell on that end, it works beautifully.

Ploop!  Out slides the egg into the hand waiting to catch it.

Then a gentle rinse and any remaining shell fragments wash away down into the sink.



Only six eggs ... I couldn't wait and had two for brunch.

+ + +




Thursday, June 12, 2014

Today, upon my wife challenging the necessity of adding baking soda, I tried some without the baking soda.

It seems that she was right.  The process seems to work very well using plain water both for the boiling of the eggs and for cooling them.

I suspect that letting them cool only enough not to burn my lips is a good procedure, as the eggs are more pliable when still warm, and easier to expel from the shells.

So I made a total of 18 today.  Each one slid out beautifully without actually peeling them.

+ + +

Not So Strong ...

In the article posted below, Decepticon Invasion, I share my feeling disturbed by the progression of invasive technology used in deceptive ways.  Why should this disturb a man like myself?

I am helpless to defend myself and my wife from home invasion and theft by a computerized robotic calling system.  I am unable to defend against the many forms of rape that are continually being foisted upon our society by big government, big corporations, big pseudo-churches, and the like.  I am unable to protect myself and my wife from disrespectful, discourteous, and selfishly unsafe drivers on the road.  At every turn I encounter the evidence that I really am not so strong as some may think or that I may wish to be.

This is why the True Church of the pure Gospel and Sacraments is absolutely indispensable for me.  I cannot live without the holy catholic Church on earth, the communion of saints, the Church congregated by the calling of the Holy Spirit to the pure means of grace.  These pure means of grace are my only source of peace in a world where peace is a byword used by those who promote war and murder and rape in the name of winning peace.  The peace that the Lord provides is more powerful than the most terrifying enemy.  Even the power of Death itself is swallowed up by the peace of God poured out to me through the means of God’s grace.

Yes, I must confess my own weakness and helplessness.  No matter how hard I try to be strong, I fall short of even simple and easy goals.  My patience falls short.  My love is faltering.  My faith is nonexistent.  But the Lord’s patience is without limit.  His love never fails.  The Faith that He gives truly commands the mountains of my sin and failure and unfaithfulness to throw themselves into the sea of His forgiveness and mercy and grace.

If my own sin cannot attain victory over me on account of His grace poured out to me through His ordained means, what cause do I have to fear on account of the smallness of my own strength?

This is why for me and my house compromise of the pure doctrine of God’s grace in Christ is not considered to be in any way acceptable.  How can we partake of a communion/church where such compromise is tolerated and even embraced?  No, our confidence is the Lord.  His Word, declared through His Scriptures, administered through His ordained means, this is our confidence, our everlasting and unfailing hope, our very life.  When we turn from these, even momentarily we do indeed become fearful.  But when in His grace the Lord calls us back again we do truly know and abide in the peace that surpasses all understanding and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.

+ + +

Decepticon Invasion

Yesterday afternoon we received a phone call from a caller that was IDed as being from Atlanta, GA.



The caller asked for my wife by name, by her first name.

As is my custom, I asked who was calling.

The caller identified herself as Sandy, with a group name that I do not remember, and said that she was calling about the Pro-Life issue.

Her manner of speaking was unusual, not flowing with the normal flow that I expected.  Having read of robotic phone calls, I asked whether she was a real person.

She chuckled and said that she was a real person, and added that she has a slight speech impediment that might make her sound unreal, but that she was a real person.

This I knew was unreal and asked, “What is your name?”

She responded, saying, “Uh, huh,” with a pause of a second or two and then, “Sandy.”

After this the matter was confirmed and I ended the call.

I called back the number displayed on the caller ID, and the ear piercing tone sounded with the recorded announcement:  “The number you have reached is not in service.  This is a recording.”

So, now we not only have computers programmed to call us and harass us, but these robotic callers also have been programmed to respond with lies to our inquiries.  This has been occurring for some time, but now the lies are becoming more sophisticated.

I find this to be disturbing.

The phone company informed me that such is now possible using software that gives false phone numbers and ID’s.  This way the callers bypass attempts at blocking unidentified callers so that this safeguard does not protect a person from such callers.

Technology.  Uh huh.  As is often the case, what is touted as wonderful and liberating is frequently invasive and problematic.  Progress.  Technology.

I miss the simplicity of times past.  At least then the Decepticons were human and somewhat accountable.  Or at least so we thought.  More and more it is being revealed that deceivers have always hidden behind another form or a mask or a pseudo-identity.  It has been so from the very first deception by the father of lies.  I suppose it is foolish to imagine that anything under the sun has changed.

So what do we do?  Be aware and on guard for ourselves and for others.  Make the Decepticons known when it is possible.  Stand ready to help and comfort those who suffer from the deception and theft and other harm.  Proclaim the One who never lies, who is always faithful, who has provided the way through every trial and trouble even before we encounter them.  Sing the hymns of pure doctrine and everlasting hope and peace and joy.  Live in that hope and peace and joy.  Partake of the pure and unadulterated means of His grace.

It is good to know that the Lord is real, and that His voice and Word and doctrine are consonant, and that He has come as He promised and has given Himself for us, even unto the death of the cross, and has risen from the dead and ascended again to His heavenly throne and has sent His Spirit at Pentecost, all as He has promised repeatedly and consistently of old.  When He calls to us, it is always through the same means as He has ordained.  His proclamation has not changed.  His means continue unchanged.

With this before us, what does it matter if the Decepticons attempt their futile deceptive acts against us?  Ultimately what do we lose?  The kingdom is ours in Christ our Lord.  We are more than conquerors though the one having loved us.  We don’t even have to fight.  We don’t even have to strive to win.  The victory and the kingdom have been declared to be ours through the faith that also is given to us freely by the grace of God at work through His means.  What is really left but to abide in the peace of God that surpasses all understanding and to sigh the great and peaceful sigh of Amen?

+ + +