Deviled Eggs: Labor of Love

Tonight is our annual Ladies Salad Supper at the Church and I just finished making 2 dozen deviled eggs for one of my contributions.  There will be about one hundred different dishes prepared by some of the finest cooks around and we will feast "in a ladylike fashion"!

Through the years I've tasted and tried lots of new salads.  Especially popular currently are Sparky Morgan's fresh grape/sourcream dessert and Vanessa Garvie's cornbread salad.  

I fell in love with hot chicken salad about 25 years ago when Nadola Tucker brought that one. Anything with strawberries always makes it on my plate too.

I've tried and taken some different ones myself but if I want to insure bringing home a clean plate, deviled eggs is the ticket.  I've never brought home a deviled egg, no matter how many are there.

Today as I boiled, peeled, sliced, scooped, mixed, stuffed, garnished and put the eggs in the tupperware, I thought about what a time consuming process this dish is and how people like my husband can pop those little perfections in his mouth and barely taste all the trouble! 

I know some gals who go one extra step and put the filling in a pastry bag and pipe it prettily back into the half eggs, but I've decided they don't get eaten any faster, so have never succumbed to that vanity yet!

Here's my recipe if your tastebuds are yearning for a deviled egg.

1 dozen eggs      1/2 cup Miracle Whip          1 T mustard      

1 T sugar           3 T sweet pickle relish             Sliced olives or pickles 

Cover the eggs with cold water in a big pan.  Bring to a boil.  Turn off heat and cover the eggs and let sit till slightly cooled.

Pour off water, replace with cold water, and peel eggs.  Slice in halves and scoop out yolks.  Add yolks to above mixture and food process till fairly smooth.

Stuff egg whites with about 1 T of mixture. Usually I garnish with thin strips of sweet pickles, black olives, or green olives. Some cooks like to just sprinkle paprika on top.

Refrigerate a few hours and enjoy!