Hard Boiled Eggs

All right, this is an easy one.  But you'd be surprised by how many ways you can mess this up.  I'm all about the "works everytime" methods as well as the "perfect" results.  Admittedly, I don't often hard boil eggs.  I have no reason why not, I just haven't.  Yet with all of the traveling we've done this past month I had some eggs and salad greens that wanted to form a more perfect union and soon!

Being that I was using eggs that weren't in their prime I had to make sure they were still safe to use.  Gratefully, the process of boiling the eggs includes the freshness test in the first step.

Step 1:

• Gently place the eggs in your empty sauce pan
• Fill the sauce pan with COLD water to an inch or two above the eggs
• Toss any eggs that float to the top. 
• Standing on the small end is fine as long as it still stays submerged. 
• As eggs age they release gas.  Too much and the egg is too old to eat safely.
• Bring water just to a boil
• Kill the heat and cover the pan for 10 minutes

Step 2:

• Fill a mixing bowl with ice water
• Remove eggs from sauce pan and submerge in ice water to stop the cooking process
• Allow to cool completely
• I found the longer I cooled the eggs, the easier they were to peel

Step 3:

• Remove Egg and spin on table.
• If egg wobbles and stops too soon, it is somehow still raw
• Since that's impossible, it's just something fun to do.
• Crack egg on large end and peel
• Use as you wish

The result is a solid white and a still creamy yellow, but solid yolk.  Too long int he cooking produces the green ring around the yolk, but a timed steep in the hot water followed by the ice water bath should prevent such a result.  I used my eggs in an awesome Salad!  See below for ingredients.
 
Ingredients:

• Baby Greens
• Romain or Red Leaf Lettuce
• Red Onion, diced
• Bacon, crisped and crumbled
• Grilled Chicken with Peppercorn rub
• Eggs, Chopped
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Gorgonzola, crumbled
• Dressing of choice

Enjoy!