Now that you have the secret to perfectly peeled hard-boiled eggs you can make egg salad. That’s right, I said egg salad. And yes, it is quite the mundane thing to feature, I know. But, it is a perfect example of an ordinary, everyday preparation that people love, one of  those creamy, comforting foods that you crave on softly toasted bread or a good cracker, but don’t exactly know how to make. You may be scoffing, but I can’t tell you how many young students I have, a lot of them newly married, that surprise me with requests for the most basic tutorials: scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, standard roast chicken, a medium-rare steak, cooking broccoli.

I like to keep a container of egg salad in the fridge most of the time.  It’s a great quick-reach protein for a snack. Having it  on hand means I’ll reach for it instead of something not-so-healthy when I’m starving.  It means my daughter can make her own lunch.  You don’t need any special tools to make it, but having one of these handy-dandy slicers makes it easier and more uniform than trying to rough chop the eggs. I slice them once with the egg placed horizontally…

…then lift the sliced egg, holding it together gently. Open up the slicer, turn the egg 45 degrees, place it back on and cut again. See.

Put all the chopped eggs in a bowl. Add your favorite mayo, (I like Spectrum Organic…no preservatives or other mystery ingredients…and it has a nice acid/sweet balance) roughly 3/4 teaspoon (more or less according to taste) per egg. Add some Dijon mustard, roughly 1/4 teaspoon per egg, salt, and pepper. Variations on this can include curry powder, chopped green olives, capers, cayenne, minced chives, green onions, dill, parsley or celery. Mix it all up.

There is nothing like fresh egg salad sandwich on warmly toasted bread with a little shredded lettuce, maybe a thin slice of good tomato. I love it too on these crispy, peppery gluten-free crackers from Mary’s Gone Crackers, that I am happy to say can be found in most big chain grocery stores. No one is paying me to say this. I just have gone crackers for these crackers in all flavors. (And they have pretty delicious GF cookies too.)