Monday, August 9, 2010

hey...stuff happens...

so today . . . we may discover the answer to that burning question, "how long is too long to boil an egg?"

rollie eats a lot of boiled eggs. usually he boils his own, 18 at a time. he has it down to a science--boil water in the biggest saucepan we have, gently lower 18 eggs into the boiling water, boil for 12 minutes exactly, remove from heat and douse with cold water, and refrigerate. this results in perfectly boiled eggs with lovely bright yellow centers. i know there are other methods, but this is the way he does it, and it works! every. single. time.

last night i went into the kitchen for a handful of nuts (which is my healthy substitute for chips. although i am not sure how healthy it is when i eat 12 handfuls a day...) and i noticed the egg box was on the counter. this tells me that we are out of boiled eggs, and rollie is planning to boil some in the morning. which is a perfectly good plan.

except...

... i suddenly decided to be susie homemaker and boil his eggs for him! yes, i love him that much! just think, i think to myself, how surprised and happy he will be when he gets up for breakfast and the eggs are already boiled. i got out the big saucepan, filled it with water, and put it on to boil. i even took the eggs out of the refrigerator so they would warm up a little to avoid unnecessary cracking! (see, i know how to cook!) i gently lowered the eggs into the boiling water and started to set the timer.

but there was a problem--two actually. first of all, i kind of forgot about the water boiling, so by the time i put the eggs in, the water level was just a little bit low. i decided it was ok--only a few egg tops were poking out of the water, and i thought i would just flip them over halfway through the cooking time and they would be fine.

the second problem was the cooking time. i didn't want to set the timer, because rollie was sleeping and i wanted the eggs to be a surprise. so i just looked at my watch, took note of the time, and headed back to my computer and my blog.

later i went into the kitchen for more nuts (no, it isn't an addiction! they are just nuts!!) and saw the pan on the stove... uh oh... i looked at my watch. it had been 40 minutes since i put the eggs in the water! forty minutes!!! i grabbed the pan and put it in the sink, thinking that maybe if i ran enough cold water over the eggs they would be fine. really. surely they would be fine. i mean, once an egg is hard-boiled you can't burn it, can you??

you see, this is why i don't cook. cooking requires a certain amount of attention to the task. cooking requires me to stay in the kitchen. if i walk out of the kitchen, i totally forget that i am cooking. i am the poster child for "out of sight, out of mind," especially when it comes to certain tasks...

the eggs are still cooling in the sink. now i just have to decide whether to crack one open myself to assess the damage, or leave them for rollie to discover.

i did, after all, want to surprise him...

6 comments:

Wendy said...

I simply can not believe what I just read! oiy!

Jewelielyn said...

hahaha! oh wendy...i pictured your eyes rolling even as i was writing this. i knew you would have to comment! :)

Unknown said...

hahahahaha! ohhh and the result? They turn out ok? I got to the part where you said you were just going to boil the eggs for him and I died...I could just imagine what was coming and I thought: Now you've been married to him how long? And you messed with an exact routine he has? hahaha You kill me!! I love you. I laughed so hard I had to read this out loud to mom and Becca. :)

Jewelielyn said...

first of all, rollie was very happy to find hard boiled eggs for his breakfast. so then i told him what happened, and he said, "well, they were a little dry and the yolk was a little gray around the edge..." but he was still happy--poor man.

i'm glad it made you laugh :)

mom said...

Surely there will be a sequel to this. I can't believe the eggs arent' like rubber.....

Unknown said...

I'm with you! Usually if you leave them in the pot very long at all the shell starts cracking and the egg starts busting out...not that I know this from experience. :)