Good Idea Friday - The Hard Boiled Egg Debate

So, last year we posted about how adding a bit of baking soda to your hard boiled eggs allows them to peel more easily. The response received after that post was bigger than we imagined it would be. Apparently the way you boil (or don't boil) your eggs is highly personal and widely debated. So this year we thought we would take the time to test out various methods of hard boiling eggs and see which resulted in the easiest to peel category. We posted on our Facebook page for ideas and suggestions. Armed with 2 dozen eggs bought last Wednesday (same lot, same date, same time, variations would be at a minimum) we got to testing yesterday.

I will say right off the bat that I'm not a fan of eggs and hardboiled are probably my least favorite way to eat them. Sorry. I was unable to be the taste tester, so I had my kids and husband judge for me.

Method One - Traditional Method

Place eggs in a pan in a single layer, add enough water to cover. Turn to medium-high heat and allow to come to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat off and cover. Allow to sit covered for 12-17 minutes.* Place eggs in a cold water bath. 

REVIEW - First off, the timing on this method depends entirely on how you store your eggs. Most reviews say 12 minutes, but having used this method myself I always find them slightly undercooked. At least in my house, my kids like the yolks to be firm, no gooey bits, but not dry. Due to how you store your eggs--some countries it's more common to store eggs out, but here in the US we tend to keep our eggs in the refrigerator--it can affect the way the eggs cook. Room temperature eggs take less time than cold eggs do, so they require a few extra minutes cooking time depending on your tastes. Personally, I find 15 minutes to be the perfect time.  

So how well did they peel? Perfectly. I give it a 5 star rating. 

Method Two - Oven Baked Method

Pre-heat oven to 325° F. Place eggs in a muffin tin. Bake 20 minutes. Place eggs in cold water bath.

REVIEW - I have heard by die hard fans (as well as my all time favorite scientist/cook, Alton Brown) that it is THE WAY to make hard boiled eggs (though they aren't boiled, so .. hard baked?). Easy enough to test out. The results though left me less than impressed. I will say that my oven, due to a couple infamous oven fires, isn't the best working oven out there. That very well may have altered the results. However, they were far harder to peel, and they were over cooked. Most had a couple hard brown spots on them, and there were several that had weird brown spots on the shell where the egg inside tried to push it's way out of the shell. All ovens vary, and I've heard using a silicone tray works to prevent the burned spots, but I didn't have one to test out. 

All in all, I give it a 3 star rating. I think if you know your oven and time it better, this may work, it just wasn't as foolproof as I was hoping it would be.

Method Three - Baking Soda Method

Same as Method One, ddd in a couple tablespoons of baking soda prior to boiling. Place eggs in a cold water bath. 

REVIEW - Honestly it worked just as well as the traditional method. Since I was using week old eggs for this test, it didn't make much of a difference. Having used it on fresher eggs in the past though, it does work. 

I give it a 4 star rating on fresh eggs since it's not perfect, but it works better than just a plain boiling method on fresh eggs. 

So there you have it. There were other methods I've came across just tonight that I was unable to test out in time, pricking the bottom of eggs with a pin, baking in the oven in a muffin tin with water in the cups to prevent drying out/burned spots, boiling with a bit of vinegar instead of baking soda, boiling room temperature eggs, etc., etc.

Really though, the truth is the reason eggs stick to their shells is because of a thin membrane under the shell. So I don't doubt some of this methods will work; the pin prick, the baking soda, and the vinegar all act as ways of separating the membrane from the shell. It's one of the reasons you are suppose to put the eggs into an ice bath right after cooking, in hopes the thermal shock will aid in it as well. It's also why older eggs peel better, as they age the membrane separates from the shell.

And as always, you can find us on facebook and twitter. Please let us know what your favorite method is and let us know if we forgot to test out a certain way.

Epsom Salt to Remove Tree Stumps

"Tree Stump Removal - Get rid of tree stumps by drilling holes in the stump and filling them with 100% Epsom salt. Follow with water, and wait. Live stumps may take as long as a month to decay, and start to decompose all by themselves."

A fan sent me this and I was rather curious since I've done a Good Idea Friday in the past on how plants love epsom salt. It took me a bit but I found the source of the image. Guess what? It's for a chemical powder you add to stumps, not epsom salts. But would epsom salts work? 

I found quite a lot of websites that mention this method, but one thing stood out to me - a lot of them said ether rock salt or epsom salt. But as I address in the previous epsom salt post, epsom salt isn't like table/ rock salt. They have different chemical compositions, "salt" is a quite broad scientific term. I have no doubt that perhaps rock salt would work, but the minerals that make up epsom salt I don't see working as well. 

I walked along my lawn trying to find maybe an old stump I didn't know was there, but alas I had none to test this out on. I looked online assuming since it seems like such a popular idea that there would be people who have attempted this as well, but could only find one blog post that talked about actually using this method. Over at Lisa Earthgirl, she writes about trying this out. I asked how it was coming along but unfortunately due to a damp summer, she's going to have to try it again to see if it shows any results. Most other search results ether pulled up questionable commercial sites, or seemed to be along the lines of  "a friend of a friend tried this with success" 

So I'm not calling this a Bad Idea yet, but unproven to date. Personally I think you'd have far more success with something like rock salt which is known to kill plants. If you've tried this with conclusive results, please let us know! 

Good Idea Friday - How To Open A Bottle Of Wine With A Shoe

"Open a Bottle of Wine with Your Shoe Maybe the most useful thing anyone needs to know, ever."

This is a trick I found on pinterest a while back that I was really excited to try. I watched the original video posted, and it looked easy. But if it's so easy why isn't this a common party trick? So I decided to test it out myself and film the results: 

I decided to skip the idea of hitting it on a wall because A: I didn't want to damage my walls and B: I figured this is best used when away from home and without a corkscrew handy, so chances are you won't have a wall to hit. Despite hitting it on various things, my husband was unable to get the cork to even budge slightly.  However once it was opened, and recorked, we tried again with far easier success.

I've since watched a couple more videos on youtube of people trying this, and it seems those who did succeed were hitting the bottle for quite some time before it started to budge. So I'm going to go ahead and say this will work, but it would be easier all around if you opened the bottle, recorked it, and then did the tree/wall method like we showed. 

So has anyone tried this yet? What were your results? Do you have any other tricks and tips to opening a bottle without a corkscrew? 

Can You Cook Corn in Your Cooler or Ice Chest

"Cooler Corn! For when you've got a lot of people who want corn. Perfect for tailgating or BBQs."

Summer is here for a lot of us in the Northern Hemisphere, and I've gotten a lot of people asking me about cooler corn, or if you can safely cook corn on the cob in your ice chest or cooler. The idea is an interesting one; instead of heating up your house in the summer to get corn on the cob, or if you have to cook a lot for a BBQ or cook out, simply add it to a cooler, cover with boiling water and let it cook in the cooler. This idea is still highly debated among some. Does it work? Yes, it really does. But the problems that bring this into question is: can the heat leach chemicals or damage the ice chest? For the most part, yes. 

It seems the original image and idea came from a post over at the blogs on Bon Appetit. However, the original post didn't bring up any of  the concerns that make this a bad idea. (source) 

You see, most home coolers are made with PVC and other various plastics which often times contains BPA and other chemicals not made to be ingested. Coolers, when used properly, offer little risks of leaching chemicals into food since most people store their foods on ice, and often times in containers within the cooler. Once the plastic itself is heated though, the chemicals in the plastic begin to break down and leach into the water.  BPA is legal in the US for use in plastics, but due to the public concern of the possible link to serious health risks, more and more companies are no longer using it in plastic made for food use. Chances are though, your cooler isn't one of them. And there are other chemicals in plastic besides BPA to worry about. 

On top of that, certain coolers have been known to warp once exposed to high heat from the boiling water. I found a great forum post about this over at Home Brew Talks where someone was kind enough to actually send shavings of his coolers to be anylist in a lab. The results? The inside white plastic starts to melt at 212°F (100°C), which is boiling point for water. (source) 

So my conclusion? I'd honestly leave this one as a "last case scenario" idea. It does work, but you run a really good chance of ruining your cooler or have chemicals you really don't want leaching into the water. Not a single cooler manufacturer backs this suggestion, as every cooler is meant to cool items -- it's in the name of the product. However, this does beg the question - if not in your cooler, than what? I'm rather curious to see if this sort of thing would work in a stockpot with lid. Corn can cook quickly and easily,  so I imagine any large basin with lid would work. Just make sure it's food grade material and preferably not plastic. 

Jello Lip Stain

Use Jello as a lipstain! Pour the powder mix into a bowl and moisten a Q-Tip with water. Then, being very careful not to use your fingers since the red stains stay put, dip the Q-Tip into the powder and apply it directly to your lips.

This has to be one of the more stranger pins I've found on pinterest. It's not that it wouldn't work, but it more or less confuses me. The dye in jello is the same used in food coloring. It would probably be easier to carry a small bottle of red food coloring and dab that onto your lips instead of carrying around a packet of powdered jello. If you're looking for a more natural route, you could probably keep a slice of raw red beet in a zip top bag and use that instead. 

So what do you think? Anyone wanting to trade in their favorite lipstick for a packet of jello? 

DIY Nail Decals

"wrap a plastic sandwich baggie around a cd and secure. Paint hearts of varying sizes and colors making sure to use a lot of polish so it won't crack when you remove them later. Let dry for 6+ hours. Carefully remove hearts from plastic. Add to your nails using clear polish. Finish with a top coat to seal." 

Ok I will admit two things - first, I'm just as guilty as a lot of people for reopening this idea. It SOUNDS like it would work. Second, this is a bit different from my usual posts in that I don't have a lot of research or data to back this, nor is it all that bad. 

I spent 4 hours yesterday experimenting with this pin. I originally had just set out to do my nails, but as it failed time and time again I realized there was a post to be had with this. 

I started out with 2 forms to try this on - a plastic bag like the pin states, and wax paper. I figured I could try both and see which worked easier. The problem comes about when you look at how nail polish differs from other forms of paint - it's far thinner and binds differently than, say, craft or wall paint does. 

I had started out with 2 colors, done in 2 coats on wax paper. Attempting to peel it off just resulted in crinkled and torn paper. So I tried the plastic baggie. Again, no amount of picking at or scratching was getting the paint to peel off. So I added 2 more coats and let it dry and tried again. It wasn't budging. 2 more coats, letting that dry, and still nothing. I finally gave up and tried another trick that was posted on pinterest - painting your basic scotch tape with nail polish and using that as decals. At first it actually seemed to work - it was far easier to just cut the painted tape into the shapes I wanted (racing stripes, because I like my nails to look like they are going fast) but about an hour later, after being sealed with 4 top coats and a quick drying drops, the edges were starting to peel away from my nails. As I write this, the paint is actually flaking off the tape it's self, despite the top coat and all. 

Over at The Craft Patch though, she seemed to have had better luck than I did with this. Maybe the difference is thickly painted designs verses a large painted patch (I was planning on peeling it off, cutting in stripes, and laying them on my nails like that.)

So what do you think? Good idea or bad idea? Have any of my readers tried this before? Did it work better for you? Comment and let me know!