Pickled Eggs

These are the people in my neighborhood.

Stand still chickens!  We'll get better pictures of them next time, I promise.  Perhaps a poultry pageant of sorts.

Those are actually just a few of the chickens in my neighborhood.  I have the unique opportunity to be "in the city" not so far from downtown, but also directly in the middle of two great neighbor friends with six chicken each.  That means, I have fresh eggs!  Sometimes lots of them if we're chicken sitting. 

 So let's use eggs.  Pickled eggs, just to be different.

Just a quick note:  I love eggs and finding creative ways to use them.  But I do not like hard-boiled eggs, deviled eggs, or anything similar.  This recipe is a favorite of the other 2/3 of the household, though.  We can't all stop because of what I don't eat, right?  Right.

Here's what you need:
Hard boiled eggs, as many as you want to make.  We usually do right at a dozen.
Pickle juice
Maybe a large jar if you're doing a big batch that won't fit in your existing pickle jar.

That's all!


Boiling fresh eggs is a little different.  Boil the water first, then carefully lower your (very well washed) fresh eggs into the water.  Make sure the water is covering the eggs.  Once they're covered and boiling, set a timer for 15 minutes.
 

Prep a bowl of ice, so when your egg timer (Oh wait! Now I get why it's called an egg timer.) goes off, you're ready to go.  Strain your eggs into a colander then put them on ice.  Top off with cold water, and chill.

You can literally go chill while your eggs cool off.  Homey took this opportunity to hop in her pj's...you can totally continue with your evening routine with cooking projects like this.  Why not get your pj's on?

We did this little family activity one evening after dinner, so a lot of these pictures are not the best quality. And eggs and pickle juice aren't very photogenic either, I've decided.  I do, however, include the above picture as an example of how all of us (minus Emilie the cat) manage to squeeze into the same square foot whenever anyone is trying to do something in this tiny kitchen of ours.  All I can do is shake my head, sigh, and resign myself to appreciating that we're all here enjoying time all together.  ALL here, all together. 


 Anyway, once the eggs are cool, just tap them on the edge of the sink and peel away!

To take regular ol' hard boiled eggs to a new level, just pull out those jars of pickle juice that you've saved.  I have more reasons than just pickled eggs to save those, so just hang on to pickle juice going forward, won't you?   For now, just put those eggs in the juice.  Little Homey hands and arms make this an easy task. The eggs need to sit in the fridge for about a week to properly pickle.  But I guarantee if you like any form of hard boiled eggs, you'll like this variation.

The insanity doesn't have to stop there, though. Tracy got us started pickling eggs when she served up some perfectly precious pink "peviled eggs".  She pickles hers in beet juice!  I don't eat those either!  But given the way everyone but me gobbles them down, I'm betting they're good.  Go get wild, and pickle an egg.