Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Comfort foods

When I was a little girl, I was sick a lot up until age 9 when my tonsils were removed. Apparently they really were nothing more than giant germ catchers because my health improved dramatically once they were gone. But prior to that, I caught everything there was to catch and as I recall it, never went a month without missing some school.

Our family had the normal go-to foods like ginger ale or applesauce for when we got sick. My mother also fixed soft-boiled eggs on crackers. Basically you boil eggs for about 90 seconds and then crack open the shells and put the eggs over crumbled-up saltines. They were easy to eat because the eggs softened up the crackers so they didn’t hurt my throat. I know they sound vile but they weren’t, and I still make them even now when I’ve been ill.

I’m not ready to eat anything—the gut issues make that very clear—but once I am, I’ll fix some soft-boiled eggs on crackers. Until then, it’s hot water for me.

Edited to add: My mother is right, the cooking time is three and a half to four minutes. I do like them runnier so I go on the shorter side.

1 comment:

Judith said...

When I make soft-boiled eggs, I put them in boiling water for nearly four minutes. 90 seconds would leave them pretty raw - but maybe you prefer them that way. Get well.