When You Look at an Egg, What Comes to Mind?

"Mmm, tasty."

"Egg drop contest!"

"Foams, emulsions... endless culinary possibilities."

"What happens if I don't cook it all the way?"

We want to focus this blog entry on eggs! Here are a few facts (and theories) about eggs that we find noteworthy.

Nutritional Overview of 1 Large Egg:

Calories: 75 (60 calories from the yolk, 15 calories from the white)
Calories from fat: 45 (% Daily Value)
Fat: 5 grams 8%
Cholesterol: 425 mg 70%
Protein: 6 grams 12%
Vitamin A: 8%
Vitamin B12: 25%
Folacin: 13%
Phosphorus: 11%
Iron: 5%
Riboflavin: 19%

Eggs are highly nutritious!

Safety

The main safety concern with chicken eggs is contamination by the bacteria, Salmonella (the same bacteria of concern when cooking the meat of a chicken).

The shell of an egg provides excellent protection against bacteria entering from outside of the egg. As long as the egg shell is intact, the risk of contamination is very low. To minimize the chance even further, commercial eggs are quickly washed with a sanitizing solution right after they are laid.

A study by the USDA (Risk Analysis April 2002 22(2):203-18) showed that of the 69 billion eggs produced annually only 2.3 million are likely contaminated with salmonella, equivalent to just one in every 30,000 eggs. That means that if four people each eat 2 eggs a week over the course of their entire lifetimes, one of those four people would have a single run in with a contaminated egg, and if that egg was cooked properly, no illness would occur. That's a fairly low risk. (Note that this is not the same in other countries where salmonella cases from eggs are a major concern.)

Storage and Handling at Home
The most prudent approach is to refrigerate eggs, use them within two weeks, cook them thoroughly, and to never consume raw eggs. Although eggs can be kept safely in a home fridge for 4-5 weeks, over time the whites become runnier and the yolks flatter. Thus, fresh eggs are much easier to poach and to separate (white from yolk).

Store eggs in their original container in the coldest part of your fridge. Using the molded rack in the refrigerator door exposes eggs to warm air every time the fridge is opened. The carton also protects the eggs from absorbing any strong odors from other items in the fridge. (Their shells are strong but porous. In addition to gaining odors, eggs lose moisture through their shell. Every egg has a small air pocket inside against the large end of the shell. This airspace grows over time as the egg loses water. The air pocket in a very old egg will be so large that it will cause the egg to float in water. Floating eggs should be tossed.)

Storing eggs large-end up (the way they come in the carton) keeps the yolk centered and away from the air pocket at the large end of the egg.

Just like handling raw meat, be sure to clean anything that makes contact with raw eggs (hands, utensils, surfaces) before preparing other foods, especially those that will not be cooked.

Allergies

Allergies to eggs, especially in infants, are not uncommon. Luckily, if exposure is limited, about 50% of kids with allergies to eggs will grow out of their allergy by age 6. Interestingly, allergic reactions to egg whites are more common than reactions to yolks.

Fun Fact

The difference between brown eggs and white eggs is simply the color of the hen's feathers. Hens with white feathers will lay eggs with white shells; hens with reddish-brown feathers will lay brown eggs. There are no differences in taste or nutrition between white and brown eggs.

Sources:

* Wikipedia
* The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition - UC Berkeley

Celebrate Earth Day: Make A Birdfeeder from Recyclables

Inspire the whole family to become more concerned about protecting the environment by making a bird feeder from a quart-sized milk or juice carton. Everyone will enjoy watching wildlife up-close right at home. You might want to encourage the kids to keep a diary of the birds that take visit your feeder.

This design protects the bird seed from rain and snow, which is very useful in the winter months when many bird feed platforms become snow covered and unusable.

Materials:

milk or juice carton

craft knife or scissors

wax pencil or crayon

ruler or straight edge

two small lengths of double-sided tape

two bamboo skewers or straight, small diameter twigs to use as perchs

bird seed

hole punch

heavy twine to make a hanger

Directions
1. Use the wax pencil and ruler to draw the shape of the opening on the front of the milk carton, as shown in the diagram at right. The opening looks like the outline of a house with a peaked roof. You should allow about two inches at the bottom of the carton to hold a good amount of seeds.

2. Use the craft knife to cut out the opening. Younger children will need an adult to help with this part.

3. Using the top of the peak as a center point, fold the piece of milk carton that you just removed in half along its length. Make a half inch cut from the point of the peak down the center fold. Fold up a half inch flap on either side of this cut, as shown in the diagram at right.

4. Attach a length of double-sided tape to each flap.

5. Insert this roof piece into the top of the opening and use your fingers to press the flaps against the inside of the milk carton until the double-sided tape holds securely.

6. Poke a bamboo skewer or thin straight twig through the wall of the milk carton, just below the left side of the opening. Repeat on the right side. Poke skewers all the way through and out the back wall of the carton. This keeps the perches straight and secure.

7. Use a hole punch or a skewer to punch two holes through the top line of the carton.

8. Thread twine through the two holes to make a hanger. 9. Fill the bottom of the feeder with nyger seed or a small bird seed mixture. Hang your milk carton bird feeder from a tree branch that you can reach easily when you need to add more bird seed.

Source:

All Free Crafts

Inspirational Gardens: Edible Landscaping

We love eating fresh and healthy and what better way to do that than to eat locally grown? How about as local as your backyard or even your living room? We love the idea of edible landscaping, planting fruit and vegetable trees and plants in any space where a purely decorative plant would typically be used. Here are a few favorites we've come across:

Living Apple Tree Fence
Kendall Jackson Winery in Sonoma County, CA has a fabulous English garden. Among the highlights is a remarkable fence composed of several dozen living apple trees. The trees were trained/trellised/manipulated so that their trunks grew perfectly straight up and their branches straight out (parellell to the ground) while in a single plane. Now, after at least a decade, this living, breathing fence is a bold and clever statement, amazingly and intriguingly functional, and makes for incredibly easy harvesting. (The apples grow in a tidy row along the straightened branches). What a conversation piece. And talk about sustainable!

(photo from University of Missouri: find directions on how to construct your own apple tree fence on their site: http://extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=G6024)

Another memorable part of their garden was the wine sensory-themed gardens. Here, the aromas commonly found in specific wines are grouped together for an interactive wine tasting + garden tour experience. Gardens can be beautiful, and tasty!

(from Kendall Jackson's website: www.kj.com)

Four Cherry Trees in One

A professor of mine in college had a cherry tree in his backyard from the Pomology department (study of fruit trees). This was no ordinary cherry tree; it produced four completely different types of cherries all on one tree. The types of cherries were selected so that one made fruit early in the season, another made fruit late in the season, another type made cherries that were great for making pies and jam, etc. Instead of have an overabundance of one kind of cherry packed into 2 weeks time, his tree yielded various kinds of cherries spread over the course of more than 2 months!

How did the students create this special tree? They used a hundred-year old technique called grafting where a branch of one tree or vine is attached to (and becomes part of) another species of tree or vine. Think of it as an organ donation for plants. Like organ donation in humans, the donor and recipient must have a similar genetic make up for the procedure to be successful; grafting a branch from one cherry tree with another cherry tree would have a higher success rate than grafting a branch of a cherry tree onto a banana tree.

If you have room in your backyard for a single tree, why not plant one that makes not one but many varieties of fruit for you and your family to eat?

The White House Organic Garden

The White House Organic Garden is a prime example of edible landscaping that we love. What hasn't already been said about the fantastic example the First Lady is setting for families across the country.

(photo from the The Baltimore Sun)

Snacks for the Road

Date Nut Chew

Here is a dessert that comes together in just minutes and is wholesome, nutritionally balanced, and kid-friendly to boot!

Dates provide natural sweetness along with potassium, iron, magnesium, niacin, Vitamin B6 and dietary fiber. Walnuts contribute protein, omega-3 fatty acids, manganese, and copper.

Make this dessert ahead, as little as 1 hour, or several days in advance. Because our Date Nut Chew contains milk, please be sure to store it in the fridge. It's the perfect reci-pea to send along with your child on his/her next play-date.

• 6 graham crackers, (whole sheet) crumbled into 1/4 - 1/2 in pieces
• 12 dates, pitted, chopped (or cut using scissors) into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped finely
• 3 Tbls milk, more if needed (cow's, soy, almond...)

Combine all ingredients except the milk in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add milk, one tablespoon at a time, and stir well after each addition. When mixture starts to come together, test it by squeezing a small amount in the palm of your hand. It should barely hold together. If it crumbles, add more milk.

When the mixture holds together, pour it out onto a long piece of plastic wrap and roll it into a tight log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the plastic wrap tightly around it and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour. Slice into 1/2 inch rounds and enjoy!

Fortify Your Child's Diet with Heart-Healthy Wheat Germ

Looking for an easy way to add vitamins, minerals, protein and heart-healthy fats to you child's diet and your own? Look no further; wheat germ is the hot ticket.

Although the germ makes up only 2.5% of whole grain wheat, the germ contains a great majority of the vitamins and nutrients present in wheat. Whole wheat flour retains the germ (and all of its excellent nutritional value) while white flour loses its germ in the refinement process. Many of the benefits that whole wheat offers over refined wheat comes from wheat germ. Refined white flour must be 'enriched' legally in an attempt to replace what is lost when wheat germ is removed (like B vitamins and iron), but it is not a complete replacement. The following lists the numerous benefits that wheat germ offers:

Wheat germ is a good source of:

B Vitamins: Folate, Niacin, Thiamin & Vitamin B6 (for metabolic health)
Calcium (for healthy bones & teeth, muscles and blood clotting)
Fiber (for digestive health and prevention of heart disease, cancer and diabetes)

Iron (for healthy muscles and blood function)
Magnesium (for healthy nerves, bones, muscles and heart)
Manganese (for energy production)
Omega-3 Fatty Acids (for healthy cholesterol, brain function, and satiety)
Phosphorous (for energy production)

Potassium (for healthy nerves, muscles, heart and kidneys)
Protein (for healthy muscles and organs)
Selenium (for a healthy immune system and the prevention of cancer)
Vitamin E (for prevention of heart disease and cancer and for healthy skin)
Zinc (for a healthy immune system and cell growth and repair)

Add to any breakfast:

Try sprinkling a tablespoon of wheat germ over breakfast cereal or oatmeal, or stirring a couple tablespoons into a batch of any pancake or waffle batter. Growing up, my mom used to replace 1/3-1/2 cup of flour with wheat germ in her homemade waffle recipe which lent a delicious nutty flavor and crunchy texture that the whole family enjoyed. Now, whenever I bake, I consider making a similar replacement in recipes like banana bread or muffins of any kind.

Store in the fridge:

All those healthy unsaturated fats in wheat germ are delicate and, unfortunately, go rancid (spoil) quickly, especially when exposed to warm temperatures and light, so be sure to store your wheat germ in the fridge or freezer.

Share your favorite ways / success stories of incorporating wheat germ into your household's meals with us!

Sources:

* On Food and Cooking - Harold McGee

* The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition - UC Berkeley
* http://www.wheatgermbenefits.com