Folk Art meets Learned Home Economist

[jesse_the_k]

MyGuy learned homemaking from a pro — his mother. She ended up running the home economics division at Blackhawk Technical College (now called Human Services and Education). Oh so fortunately for me, MyGuy was responsible for cooking dinner for all six of the family once a week, as well as doing laundry and mending and also helping his dad build their house.

MyGuy ensures we know which eggs are hardboiled by personalizing them.

Two eggs with Sharpie faces, left stubborn, right angry

Same eggs rotated to the other side show their Sharpied titles, left is "hard case," right is "hard head"

How do you keep your eggs sorted?

Comments

[inametaphor]

You know, I just have them in different containers in the fridge, but clearly I'm missing an opportunity.

[pauraque]

Same!

[jesse_the_k]

I was so delighted and amazed when the first time he did this. Sometimes it's faces, sometimes it's random symbols -- always the best a Sharpie can deliver.

[grayduck]

lol, we do the same thing! I draw emoji faces on the tops of the hard-boiled ones. Otherwise there would be a 100% chance of egg mix-up disaster.

[jesse_the_k]

Hooray!

[isis]

Aw, that's cute!

(my raw eggs are in their cartons, my boiled eggs are in a container)

[jesse_the_k]

Well, that makes sense.

[sanguinity]

I draw little hearts in crayon on their apexes. Because I boil them for grrlpup, because I love her.

Lucky @grrlpup

[jesse_the_k]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[quoththeravyn]

My mother's fridge had built-in egg racks. She had taped a "boiled" sign to one of them. However, this particular holiday when us kids were visiting, there were no boiled eggs.

She heard somewhere that refrigerating batteries helped lengthen their lifetimes.

Cue the arriving college kids, one after another... "Mmmmm, boiled batteries."

[runpunkrun]

Hee!

[jesse_the_k]

I love how every family develops its own particular symbol system.

[magnetic_pole]

Hee! We have a much less interesting way of differentiating between them. Perhaps we can be more creative. :) M.

[jesse_the_k]

Eggshells make a lovely canvas. I have a pal who finds the delicate layering of color and wax that is Ukrainian Pysanky soothing. Me, I'll stick to a pencil.

[magnetic_pole]

I love these! I remembering getting a Romanian egg (it looks like it's a Slavic tradition?) for my partner when I was backpacking there with firends in the 1990s--and then we all carried our eggs around like tiny boxes of explosives for weeks. Ah, the twenty-something years.

We still have a gorgeous small ceramic plate I got her, but the egg, though it made it back to the US, is long gone. :) M.

[sasha_feather]

This is adorable. :D

[jesse_the_k]

Not many people understand that inside the sober-looking dairy-fed farm boy interior, MyGuy is a surrealist at heart.

[wendelah1]

No sorting required. I only hardboil eggs if I want to eat one, which is rare.

[jesse_the_k]

Just in time home engineering!

[tarasacon]

*snort* (that’s how I laugh)
this is great! :)

[tarasacon]

I love tiny daily things that bring cheer. (Speaking of which, I need to replace my yellow duck soap dispenser. I’m hoping I can find a froggie this time.)

[jesse_the_k]

Indeed -- it's the adult version of loving parental notes in one's lunch box.

Which my parents did not supply. However, they did give me this odd sculpture:

Edward Gorey—like ceramic beast with long nose, bumpy body, and forged iron tail



Its long tail holds on to my rings when I'm in the kitchen.