How to: Bake Eggs

My earliest memory of hard-boiled eggs was when I was maybe 11. My mom had put some on the stove but got a phone call from a neighbor. (I'm assuming it had to do with either of my younger siblings, since we had a pretty tight-knit neighborhood full of kids. )

Mom gave me strict instructions to take the eggs off when the oven clock read a certain time if she wasn't back by then. It was supposed to be a quick trip so I sort off...forgot.

My mom, however, realized when she walked in the door and discovered the water was gone and the eggs were a-burning. I remember feeling really bad because she felt really bad.

Now, these days, you can bake your eggs! This may not be news to you, but I was informed of this just 2 days ago, which can easily be blamed on the fact that I don't have Pinterest (oh, the shame).

These were so quick and easy, and perfect for a snack throughout the week.

1. First, you want to preheat your oven to
350 degrees. Put 12 raw eggs in each hole of a muffin pan and pop into the oven when it's heated.

2. Bake for 30 minutes. Right before you take them out of the oven, prepare an ice bath. When the eggs are done, remove them from the pan using tongs and transfer to the ice bath to stop them from cooking more. Let them cool, which should take about 15 minutes. Add more ice as needed.

3. After the eggs have cooled, peel them up. I found they were pretty easy to peel using this method of baking.

4. I was warned that brown spots may appear from baking the eggs, which did happen. While this may concern you, be assured that they still taste normal.

And that's all there is to it! I made some mean deviled eggs with my first batch. What will you do?

How to make almond flour

I have experimented with a lot of gluten-free flours, and almond is my absolute favorite. It's pretty amazing what some crushed up nuts can turn into. At times, almond flour works great as a direct substitute for all-purpose flour, such as in muffin and quick bread recipes. It's high in protein, which makes it a super healthy option for vegetarian.

I first got inspired by using almond flour after discovering Elana Amsterdam's blog, Elana's Pantry. She has tons of recipes which call for only almond flour, and made me want to try them all! However, I soon discovered that could be an expensive hobby. Almond flour is some pricey business, that is no joke.

I did some research and realized how incredibly easy it is to make almond flour. Buy in bulk and blend those puppies up!

First, I want to clear up the almond flour and almond meal differentiation. Almond meal includes the brown skin from raw almonds, while almond flour is made out of blanched almonds and contain only the inside whites of the almond. I've read that almond flour is finer and generally more "flour-esque" than almond meal, but I really can't tell a difference in either the texture of the final product or the taste.Since it's more engrained in me to call almond meal, almond flour, I just roll with "flour."

I highly recommend going to your closest bulk foods department and load up on almonds to blend into a fine meal. It's cheap and easy!

So, onward:

Step 1: Introduce your almonds and your blender.




Step 2: Add one cup of whole almonds at a time to blend. If you add any more, you'll get almond butter! Which is delightful, but not our goal.

Step 3: Pulse the almonds a couple times to get them in the blade, and then switch to blend for about 15 seconds.  I shake the blender the entire time to make sure all the almonds get to the bottom to get sliced up.

Step 4: The transformation.

Step 5: Baggie it up and enjoy!