Love It or Loathe It?

Two weeks ago we visited Nissley Vineyards and attended an open-air lawn concert with some friends.   The evening air was cool and the weather was quite delightful.

This was the first concert we went to at the vineyard, so I didn’t know what to expect. The band that was playing was called Uptown band and they sang a wide variety of music.  There truly was something for everyone’s listening enjoyment.  Groups of people gathered around tables embellished with candles and flowers…ours was lacking the flowers, however the candles were a nice accent. The evening was relaxing and a great way to spend time with good friends!

But, let’s talk about the food!  Each couple brought an item of their choice to share, and of course, there was an abundant amount of cuisine.  I decided we were going to bring tomato caprese sandwiches to share and Matt was going to make them because, well, I pretty much am a disaster in the kitchen and his cooking, well, it is magnificent.

Since I’m new to blogging, this really isn’t a picture of the sandwich he made.  It’s just one I found on Google images.  The key though, according to my chef, is crusty Italian bread, fresh tomatoes, and fresh basil.  Don’t forget the mozzarella cheese, olive oil, salt, and pepper.  All of which we had.  And they were oh so good!  A perfect summertime food!

But, we didn’t take just the sandwiches.  At first I thought there was going to be just four of us, and then I found out that there was going to be a total of twelve people.  Twelve people!  Okay, I decided that we needed to bring something else.  I hated to ask Matt to prepare something else so I decided that I would make an item to take along.  My usual standby is brownies, but I remembered my mom telling me that deviled eggs are usually a good choice because they are easy to make and there are no leftovers.

Surely I could do this! So, I googled a recipe for deviled eggs, (yep, I need a recipe for deviled eggs), and got out my trusty old automatic egg cooker.

Now my egg cooker only makes six hard-boiled eggs at a time so I made two batches.  I usually love this little egg cooker, but not this night.  That’s because I managed to burn myself from the steam that comes out of the top of the cooker.

First of all, Matt couldn’t believe that I used an egg cooker to make hard boiled eggs and second of all, he couldn’t believe I burned myself.  Really!  Not only was that a disaster, but so was getting those eggs out of the shell.  The eggs were broken and torn, and I even think some had tiny, tiny pieces of shell stuck on them.  Everyone needs a little extra roughage, right?  Oh well…what was I to do?  My deviled egg tray has slots for twenty-four deviled eggs so all those bad boys were going on there no matter what!  Well, needless to say, I was quite frustrated. I never did use that recipe because Matt ended up making the filling for the eggs.  Sadly enough, this is a typical, typical kitchen experience for me.

So…

Nissley Vineyards: Love It!

Preparing hard boiled eggs:  Loathe It!

Food for Thought:

What is your experience in the kitchen?  Do you love it or do you loathe it?