Hard-boiled eggs -- cooking and peeling (even fresh ones!!)

We have chickens, laying hens -- about 10 of them.  This time of year (summertime) we have a lot of eggs!  I have posted before on this blog about egg recipes, and now I'm going to talk to you about hard-boiled eggs!

If you've had fresh-from-the-coop eggs before, you know that hard boiling them and peeling them can be kind of difficult to do in a "pretty" way -- the shells are hard to peel and don't leave a nice smooth white usually.

I won't show you a picture of my ugly boiled eggs or ugly deviled eggs or anything :)

BUT I will share my secrets with you!

First of all-- the cooking/hard-boiling of the eggs.  Instead of boiling them, I steam the eggs -- in a steamer basket in my saucepan for about 8 minutes or so.  After that, I run cold water over them until they're cool to the touch.

Then comes the peeling:  I read this method online years and years ago and it really works like magic!

Step 1:  place hard cooked egg into a pint sized canning jar

Step 2: put a little water into the jar (LITTLE -- like 1/2 tsp or so)

Step 3: Put a lid on the jar

Step 4:  Shake the jar for a few seconds (really, just a few!)

Step 5:  take the cover off -- you can see how the shell is cracked and separating!

Step 6:  Voila!  So easy and nice-looking!  Now to make the recipe... :) :) 

Hope these ideas are helpful to someone else!!