Francophilia and Eggs

PHOTO BY foxspain

It’s not just about eggs. It’s about enjoying life and the people who fill it.



I’m kind of sad that the next EggDay isn’t to happen until January 24th, but these things can’t be helped. We just accept that is how it is.

And notice the sunninesses happening everywhere else.


Eggs are on my mind because I had a delicious treat today. Yesterday I was talking to a co-worker about my fantastic cousin in Cincinnati, Kate who raises urban chickens. They aren’t hip and happenin’ chicks with Alexander McQueen boots, but chickens raised in the city. Well the coworker, Joyce raises chickens too. She’s less urban than Kate, but she’s got eggs.


Joyce brought me eggs to work today.

A simple gift, but wholly generous. She thought of me and brought me a dozen of the most gorgeous brown eggs. I’ve eaten two already. (Perk of being a lunch lady, I have a kick ass gas range 15 feet from my office door, and industrial tools to cook with.) Being thought of is so nice.


And it doesn’t end with the eggs.


I was given perfume. I big ol’ giant box of perfume samples, each one different and tasked with sampling every one of them. This is no hardship, I assure you. Thank you Ms. Kim.

I smell particularly delightful at the moment, Cartier.


I’m also listening to music of France in the 1950’s. God love the internet and www.live365.com. I’m having a Francophile moment and flashbacks to childhood hours spent watching Gidget and Audrey Hepburn movies on rainy afternoons.


All this during my work a day week.

And if that’s not enough to be happy about I don’t know what is.

Recipe for 22 Pumpkin Pies

PHOTO BY: Dennis.Vu Using Flickr-Creative Commons Agreement

If you know anything about me, you know me and food go way back.

I'm a lunch lady.

I was a restaurant chief-ie before that.

I'm going to continue to be a lunch lady for the foreseeable future. Go me. It's the economy, stupid. Or really, it's the stupid economy. I recently got my MBA. I'm kind of sort of looking for a new job, but in the interim I'm going to continue to be the best damn lunch lady there ever was.

So I give you PUMPKIN PIE for 176 people.
Double the recipe for a crowd.

Preheat the oven 325. It's convection-we're in an institutional kitchen, or 350 if you're at home and you just have a plain old regular oven. (If you're at home there will be a two pie recipe to follow.)

22 frozen pie shells
40 eggs
3-#10 cans pumpkin
8 cups granulated sugar
7 cups brown sugar
6 T. cinnamon
3 T. ginger
1.5 T. cloves
20-12 oz. cans evaporated milk

Lay out your pie shells on parchment lined bun pans.
In a giant ass mixer mix all the rest of everything together.

Pour the mixture into the pie pans, bake for about 40 minutes. It will take closer to an hour if you're at home with that conventional oven discussed above.

Serve with all the other Thanksgiving fixin's to the happy kids who come through your lunch line. You don't know what they might not be getting at home, this might be their only pie.

Aerosol cans of whip cream are optional, you decide if they can handle the responsibility.

For Home
2 pie shells
1 28 oz can pumpkin
8 eggs
1.5 c. sugar
1.25 c. brown sugar
1 T. cinnamon
.5 T. ginger
1 tsp. cloves
3-12 oz. cans evaporated milk

I’ve made this pie at my school for the last 10 years.

I’ll continue to make so long as they’ll have me. It makes me happier than about nearly anything else I do in November.

What work related Thanksgiving traditions do you all do?

Home Made Marshmallows and All that is Good In the Universe

November Egg Day has come and gone.

This one was fantastic. I don't know just how many people came in and out through the doors but there were at least 14 new faces who hadn't made it before.

There were many delicious things to eat and interesting conversations. The people come from all over my life, old friends, co-workers, social groups, family and neighbors. I'm feeling particularly blessed.

But on to the food: Well not all the food, but the marshmallows. I've been talking about making them for months. I finally got to it. Shall I proceed?

Marshmallows are confections, soft little pieces of creamy melt in your mouth sticky candy.

1 cup water, divided

3 ¼ oz. envelopes gelatin

1 cup corn syrup

2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar


In a bowl that fits a stand mixer sprinkle the gelatin over ½ cup of water. Let sit 10 minutes while you cook the sugar.

In a pot bring to a boil the other half cup of water, corn syrup, sugar, salt. Stir to dissolve, wash down the sides of the pot with brush dipped in water or cover with a lid and let boil 2 minutes, (the steam will collect on the sides and wash down the sugar. Attach a candy thermometer. Bring to soft ball stage-240 degrees. About 10 minutes.

With the ball attachment on and the mixer on low add the sugar slowly to the gelatin, by pouring it down the side of the bowl. Turn the mixer to high. Whip 10 minutes.

It will become all white and marshmallowy looking, like fluff or ice-cream topping.

Add the vanilla and whip 30 more seconds.
Prepare a 9x13 inch pan by spraying with oil, a layer of parchment paper, then sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Pour the marshmallow into the pan. Spread with wet off set spatula or wet fingers. Top with more powder sugar. Cover and let cure 12 hours.

Turn out onto powdered sugar covered surface, cut with pizza cutter and roll in more powdered sugar so that all cut surfaces are covered. These babies are sticky and the sugar makes them manageable.

Why marshmallows?

They are my go to comfort food. I will poke them with a fork and toast them over the stove and eat four in row when something is a  miss in my life. I use that as an indicator I'm troubled. What do you do when you are troubled? Do you eat? Do you exercise? Do you lay face down on your bed and throw a fit?

Do share.

Choosing Kisses

PHOTO BY: platinumblondelife

A friend asked me today if now that I’ve tuned into happiness if I am more apt at noticing other people being unhappy.


The quick answer is, “yes.”

I want to say that I equate snarky with unhappy though.

You know you get a hit when you are snarky, like look how hip or smart or witty I am but it’s at the expense of someone or something. And if you are talking to someone who sees things similarly you’re golden. Well, if you want to show them how hip and clever you are. They’ll give you props. You’ll get your hit. And it feels so good.

But at the end of the day or week or goodness, lifetime you’ve got to be feeling pretty crappy. I mean if you devote so much energy to putting things down you can’t see the good around you. You can’t probably see the good within you either.


It’s a painful cycle.


I was trying to pinpoint when I stopped, -well for the most part- I do fall into the cynicism well every once in a while and it was when I met someone who is wholly good. She pauses before she says something mean. She ponders her words and nearly apologizes after they come out. You know she deliberates over their impact and while she doesn’t always choose the higher path, she chooses.


And choosing is what makes it fantastic.

And by the way, she showed my by example, not by berating me, not that we’d expect anything less. Right?


I see it like mindlessly eating chocolate kisses or mini peanut butter cups; it’s not going to kill you to do it every now and again. But daily, it’s going to show. And even better is not eating them mindlessly but choosing to eat one or two or three and knowing full well why and what you might need to do to mitigate the negative impact.

So do you choose?

More about Change

PHOTO BY:IK's world trip

I've said I want to make change,

not like four quarters for a dollar kind of change, but real make your life better change.


And there's change brewing in these here hills. I need get all my writing, all my blogs, I do believe this is number 4 or 5, and kind of put them together in the master blog of all Juli-ness. There will be ample editing. There'd be nothing more embarrassing than to have my 9th grade diary out for the world to see and my first blog feels a little 9th grade diary-ish. But you know I'm moving forward. There’s probably a gem or two in the mess to harvest.


I'm moving forward with Actuate,
Business Strategies. And while lots of my junk on the blogs isn't business related, I feel it can give a flavor of who I am and what I might offer a client. Anyway, chances are this will be redirected to that or that will be redirected to here. It so would help if I had a neighbor or pal to help, but whatever, I'll get it done.

I'm good at getting things done.

Someone once said, everything can happen, given a long enough time line. I like to believe that's true.

I’m trying to think of headers like “advice”, “flavor”, “instructions” I’ve been preachy. Really I just want to have “hire me”. Somehow I think I need to give people a wee bit more though.


What would you want from a coach?

Someone yelling at you to drop it like a drill sergeant? Hand holding? Cheerleader? Actually how about someone who earnestly listens to what you are doing and hears you talk about where you want to be, then she gives you some guidance or clarity which maps the path? Yeah, I want to be that kind too.

Foodie Foolishness

PHOTO BY: decentjoyce

I want to write about egg-citing eggs, or egg-straordinary joy, but I'll keep that to myself.


The people were fantastic today,

the conversation joyful and the food down right delicious. There is a competitive air to some of the dishes, where one might think that's not okay for EGG DAY, but somehow it fits. Dave's puff pastry egg filled scrumptiousness vied with Mary's French toast bake and my sweet and sour lychee meatballs (finish them in the oven, then add to the sweet and sour sauce) stood up next to them for popularity. Lest you think everything is rich, while most of it is, there is always a nod to fruit and today was no exception. There were yogurt smoothies, and fruit tea drinks, and just a big ol' bowl of berries.

Some may say that we should only eat locally,

but really, in October raspberries are not local, and I rather have them than not. Is that bad? Am I spoilt? Do I add it to my carbon foot print? Perhaps the fact that I recycle is like buying a carbon off-set. I'm not completely oblivious to my personal impact on the planet, but I am not plagued with anxiety like some.

So I think EGG DAY the blog is going to transition into a foodie blog.

You know, all my blogs are something about food. My life is about food. I've decided to quit running from it and embrace my love and history with the stuff. I could start yet another blog, but frankly, all the cooking and baking and playing in the kitchen I do relates back to EGG DAY so why bother with a new one?

So my readers, both of you, here we go. I expect I'll be posting more and linking more, because that's what a girl ought to do.

If I get really adventurous, I’ll even post pictures of foodie foolishness. Wouldn't that be charming.

October 18th.

PHOTO BY: JuncTionS

I'm thinking EGG DAY in October is going to be the best one yet.

No, I don't know what I'm making,

but people I love will be there. New people I've recently met will be there, and folks traveling big distances will be there.

How fortunate am I? My world is full of people who like eggs and conversation.

If I could poach eggs (cook them, not steal them) and make them heart shaped for you I would. You know the idea was to make people happy by sharing a bit of upbeat time together, but frankly I'm the one who is happier. I'm down right tickled.

Again, what a lucky duck am I.

Please come if you can.

To save you the trouble of reading more than one post, bring a coffee mug that you can either leave with me for upcoming events, or take home with you. I'm trying to be environmentally friendly and nixing disposable serving wear where ever possible.

Aside from that bring something to edible to share and your sunny disposition. The coffee will be hot and the atmosphere friendly.