Simplicity

Most of us Americans live busy hectic lives with lots of complicated tasks facing us daily. I’m in the middle of refinancing my mortgage and let me tell you that is complicated. On any given day the lender might call me up to ask for a document filed log ago in some faraway place in my home. We all have these challenges living our complex lifestyles, but why take that into the kitchen? Case in point is summer foods that offer the best in simplicity due to the heat.

Not many of us want to be in the kitchen any longer than it takes to put together a meal, but that doesn’t mean it has to be junk food. Take the humble egg. There has been a lot of talk about it being healthy or unhealthy. It is however a great item for fast eating whether it’s a quick omelet, scrambled eggs, or egg salad. I don’t eat eggs often as I pretty much agree with the book “The China Study”that they are high in cholesterol, and not the most healthy food for us, but about once a year I fall prey to the siren song of comfort foods of my childhood.

I get those warm and fuzzy memories of mom serving us up egg salad sandwiches and potato chips for a perfect lunch, and want one soon. Yesterday I planned ahead and boiled up six eggs and whipped up a quick egg salad for today’s lunch. It was close to my mom’s way of making them that includes chopped dill pickles, chopped celery, mayo, salt and pepper. I added to that some pickled jalapenos for a bit of a kick, and Spike seasoning salt. Instead of serving it on white bread I used my home made whole wheat bread and garnished it with fresh basil and cherry tomatoes from my garden. The result was a trip down foodie memory lane that tasted great and brought back wonderful memories of a simpler time. So please join me in welcoming the humble egg salad sandwich to you home for lunch soon and enjoy a great lunch food for these hot summer days.

Egg Salad

6 large eggs hard boiled

1/3 cup celery chopped fine

1/3 cup dill pickles chopped fine

1/4 cup mayonnaise or low fat yogurt

1 teaspoon Spike seasoning salt, or just salt and pepper

4 cherry tomatoes for each sandwich garnish

1 bunch fresh basil sliced or whole leaf

sliced pickled jalapenos, optional

Chop eggs and set aside. Mix celery, pickles, Spike, and mayo together and add to eggs until blended.

Serve open or closed face on the bread of your choice.

Serves 4

Note: I use a pastry cutter for chopping the eggs instead of a knife.