Saturday, April 15, 2006

The Best Egg I've Ever Eaten

I was just a month or two past my 12th birthday and my family was right in the middle of moving to a new home.
Dad was in the Navy, so we were used to uprooting every two years or so, though that didn't make it any easier. My mom did most of the packing and cleaning. My brother and I usually goofed off, and dad continued to work, until we all piled into the car for the road trip to the next place.
But this time I had the worst cold. I had huge, painful, puffy tonsils and one of those fevers that makes you dream incredibly weird, tortured stuff. I can still remember: I had to climb up the little whorls I'd created in the blanket from fitful tossing, as if I were the size of an ant and the wrinkles in the cloth were Alpine. Those kinds of pressured dreams stay with you.
This was my parents' bed, by the way. Mom knew how crappy I was feeling and let me sleep there. (Or maybe it was because the movers had already taken my bed away.)
Finally, mom had to rouse me from my sweaty nap, because the movers were ready to claim the big bed.
I lurched into the kitchen, where the Navy-supplied table and chairs were still in place, not going anywhere.
There were exactly three things of use left in the kitchen, other than those chairs and table: An egg. An aluminum pie pan. And a huge, obscene knob of butter.
Mom melted the butter in the pan on the stovetop, cracked in the egg, and cooked it to perfect tenderness, sunny-side up, with utter motherly love.
I can't remember if I used a plastic fork or what to eat it with, right out of that aluminum pan, but it was the best egg I've ever eaten.
My mom painted this picture of the egg, by the way.

Other Incredible, Edible Eggs:
Chopped warm hard-boiled eggs stirred into buttered English peas.
Eggs baked inside hollowed-out potatoes.
Sexy eggs on asparagus toast.
Salade Niçoise.
Super-eggy potato salad.
"Ooh-la-la, j'ai cassé un oeuf" omelette.

9 comments:

Sam said...

the best egg you've ever eaten makes for the best mad eater post I've ever read.

Sam said...

(which of course is no mean feat seeing as they are all so good!)

Catherine said...

great post and I love the egg painting (and the recipes)

Anonymous said...

You and your mother should be so incredibly moved by producing this combination of your words and her art.

Sam is right. This is a jewel.

And I don't even prefer soft eggs.

Buona Pasqua!

Greg said...

Great egg photo.Supose there is a great egg for easter? You know like the great pumkin for halloween.

Ilva said...

I just wanted to ask you to post some more of your mother's paintings and here it is! They are lovely!

Passionate Eater said...

Happy Easter Cookiecrumb! Thanks for sharing your wonderful egg story, I love eggs too, and I love them even more when I hear family stories like that one.

Dagny said...

I love your mom's painting. It was also cool hearing the story behind it.

Tea said...

This is so sweet. And I love the painting by your mother. What a treasure--the artwork and the memory!